XWord Muggles Forum

Tom Shea wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:24 pm Sent an answer in, but no confidence in it. Based on comments here, that means it is likely an incorrect answer.

Or maybe right answer but wrong/incomplete reason. Think positive!

This week's meta was quick and easy. Too quick and easy based on some comments. It's confirmed by two simple, straightforward aspects of the puzzle. It was easier than last week's.

Did I land on a distant shore?

Tom Shea wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:24 pm Sent an answer in, but no confidence in it. Based on comments here, that means it is likely an incorrect answer.

Look at it this way, how many different verbs can there possibly be that are used in cooking meat. My cooking specialist (wife) listed only nine. Pretty good odds

Our final count is 7 on the ship and 86 on the shore. a3jay, Kris, Susan G and Tom S just made it.

Good luck to all in winning the coveted WSJ mug

See you next week for a MG special

Ug, what took me so long? Done and done.

No luck this week. Probably overthinking things again

Marion and I just made it.......busy weekend and off/on looking at it. Came tougher but the AHA moment did come.

Luck to all........

Submitted an answer, but I’m pretty sure I’m still out to sea.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 9:04 pm

Tom Shea wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:24 pm Sent an answer in, but no confidence in it. Based on comments here, that means it is likely an incorrect answer.

Look at it this way, how many different verbs can there possibly be that are used in cooking meat. My cooking specialist (wife) listed only nine. Pretty good odds

I came up with a dozen offhand plus several others that refer to preparation rather than actual cooking cooking (e.g., marinate), not to mention ones like "undersalt" or "overcook to the point of it being inedible." (Maybe I should have used a spoiler alert for that one.)

SOO mad at myself. I found the four meats on the LEAN and wondered and wondered how I could tease out letters. Never thought to see where they crossed the terms that described them. Tried to make some term out of the shape of the outlined words (T =) but still nothing. Then of course IMMEDIATELY after the contest was officially over I saw the light. What even makes me madder is that I was going to guess SEAR because with four clues I knew it had to be a four letter word and that is a common cooking term I use and see.

Oh, well, half a sixpence is better than half a farthing....

Now that the answer is out, I can post the rabbit hole I got stuck in for way too long before I saw the light. I think most of use found the four meat yielding animals (Deer, Pig, Cow and Calf). Many of us took the next step of moving to the type of meat from each (Venison, Pork, Beef and Veal). Then I noticed the 44D answer Argus. That is one letter off Angus, a type of beef. Then I noticed the 37A answer Elf. That is one letter off Elk, a type of venison. Finally, I noticed the 10A answer Cob. This is one letter off a type of veal (Bob). With three of the four done this way I spent way too long looking for a type of pork hiding in a similar fashion. It took a lot for me to see beyond this. I had initially thought that “lean” might pertain to an angled word, but that Argus answer got me all in on that path to the solution, which thankfully I finally gave up on when I saw “pork” reading down on a diagonal.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2019 12:32 am <snip> Finally, I noticed the 10A answer Cob. This is one letter off a type of veal (Bob).

FWIW, Bob Veale was a pitcher for the Pirates mostly in the 60s, lifetime ERA 3.07.

You can also get SEAR if instead of using the letters where the food crosses the animal, you just use the third letter of the food reading down the diagonal.

n o S i n e v
v e A l
b e E f
p o R k

There’s also a STEW rabbit hole (hassenpfeffer?). If you continue the diagonal foods one more letter, you get, in order, S E W. The T is missing because BEEF ends at the edge of the grid. Where is the T? If you circle or highlight the diagonal food names, you see that NOSINEV and VEAL form the missing T.

I knew that this couldn’t be the correct method. But it also occurred to me that a puzzle constructor might incorporate this gimmick — the outline of keywords in the grid to form letters or shapes that yield the meta. Or has it already been used?

Last week I thought (wrongly) that my goose was cooked when I saw we were doing Shakespeare. This week I jumped whole hog into the “leaning” meaning of the title. Just as I was asking “where’s the beef?”- there it was on the diagonal crossing the cow path. Then it wasn’t long before I was leaving Isaac and the surf for the turf on the beach. Very very clever. And I was glad not to have to get myself into a stew over this one.

Before getting to shore, I noticed MAVEN and SAVES, which have a similar pattern to LEAN MEAT (different first and last letters with the same middle). Spent waaaay to long pursuing that. Then went back to SVEN and BEE and could not find other words that were portions of PORK and VEAL. That's when I noticed the leaning BEEF and the rest fell into place.

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:07 am You can also get SEAR if instead of using the letters where the food crosses the animal, you just use the third letter of the food reading down the diagonal.

n o S i n e v
v e A l
b e E f
p o R k

There’s also a STEW rabbit hole (hassenpfeffer?). If you continue the diagonal foods one more letter, you get, in order, S E W. The T is missing because BEEF ends at the edge of the grid. Where is the T? If you circle or highlight the diagonal food names, you see that NOSINEV and VEAL form the missing T.

I knew that this couldn’t be the correct method. But it also occurred to me that a puzzle constructor might incorporate this gimmick — the outline of keywords in the grid to form letters or shapes that yield the meta. Or has it already been used?

Bird, I was briefly in the STEW rabbit hole, too.

Stuck on the grille shape of the diagonals (ala Bird). Sent in "turn", since the secondary clues were turned. Kinda knew it would be wrong, and I was right (about being wrong)!

I'll blame missing the crossing letters on my poor penmanship. For that, I'll blame the nuns that rapped my knuckles too much.

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Sun Jun 16, 2019 11:37 pm
.... "overcook to the point of it being inedible." (Maybe I should have used a spoiler alert for that one.)

In our house we call that BURN which goes better with the idea that there were 4 obvious clue words.

I happened to notice that Mike posted this under the Monday WSJ puzzle. I didn't see it on here so thought I would repost it:

Good morning. We are on the road today and will post results tomorrow. (Sneak preview, 1099 responses!)

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2019 7:07 am You can also get SEAR if instead of using the letters where the food crosses the animal, you just use the third letter of the food reading down the diagonal.

n o S i n e v
v e A l
b e E f
p o R k

There’s also a STEW rabbit hole (hassenpfeffer?). If you continue the diagonal foods one more letter, you get, in order, S E W. The T is missing because BEEF ends at the edge of the grid. Where is the T? If you circle or highlight the diagonal food names, you see that NOSINEV and VEAL form the missing T.

I knew that this couldn’t be the correct method. But it also occurred to me that a puzzle constructor might incorporate this gimmick — the outline of keywords in the grid to form letters or shapes that yield the meta. Or has it already been used?

In the 7-23-18 puzzle, a Z was formed, and in the 7-2-18 puzzle, an arrow was formed that pointed to the answer. I think I remember a Christmas tree being formed one time.......