XWord Muggles Forum

Woo hoo!! I won the mug! I never thought it would happen. The email says I was selected randomly from over 500 entries.

Makes up for my dismal failure so far to solve the MGWCC week 4.

This was obviously a challenging one! Many rabbit holes. We had 511 entries, only 54% correct. A big showing for James Madison (I guess because he's the 4th president?) with 47 votes. Another 25 for Jefferson (also in the spirit of the 4th?). 14 for Eisenhower, who was sitting in plain view at 57 across, and 12 for John McCain, I'm guessing because he was sort of lurking inside 17 across. (JAMAICA INN). And 9 for Uncle Sam and many many more.

Happy 4th to all, and congrats to this week's winner (cheering in the post above me): Leslie Simon of Pittsford, NY!

Leslie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:37 pm Woo hoo!! I won the mug! I never thought it would happen. The email says I was selected randomly from over 500 entries.

Makes up for my dismal failure so far to solve the MGWCC week 4.

Congratulations - great to have a muggle win

Remembering more of high school than I do of the past week, I conjured "caul" from the opening of "David Copperfield" ... but that, and a nickel, still didn't get me any closer to the meta.

Took me awhile to tame this meta. I zeroed in on the clue to find a 15 letter name using each row early on. Then I visited every rabbit hole already mentioned plus others that only a mother could love. My favorite was Reggie ( Reginald) Jackson as a famous baseball cleanup hitter who is 4th in the batting order. Er...no. I spent most of the weekend trying to make Jefferson work before tackling the correct method. Actually had tried counting in 4 of the 15 spaces in each row, but all the blanks thus encountered put a stop to that. Doh! The Fstop had me stopping at each “f” for a long visit. Truly I had thought of FS Key when I first noticed the key at the bottom. I didn’t go there because I was sure it had to be Jefferson, with the J, the Fs, and ending son. I am not bothered by using only a part of the grid for the meta- Mike makes the rules- we follow them if we see the light.

For those of us who misapplied the hint to find "each of 15 in this grid" in the clue for row (59D) (by not looking for the fourth letters) and who then tried to find 15 other items in the grid (like certain letters), here's another variant, provoked by the unusual entry CAUL and the presence of the homophone rho in 29D. The grid is heavy with words that have common homophones.
Deer (dear)
Tier (tear)
Drei (dry)
Shoe (shoo)
Tea (tee)
Must (mussed)
Caul (call)
Tri (try)
Dos (dues)
Sine (sign)
Ewes (use)
Son (sun)
Donut (doughnut)

As this number approached 15, it seemed too much of a coincidence to stop. But then to reach 15, you must convince yourself to count two - and only two - of the following::
Rho/Row and/or possibly (roe)
Hart (Heart) and/or Crane (crain)
Eisenhower (Eisenhauer)
Michel (Michelle)

Tried it anyway (even though the "don't over think it" advice should have sunken in earlier) but there was no good way to come up with a consistent way to extract a useful letter from somewhere in each pair. Should have tried one more Keep It Simple-S approach! Congrats to all who solved it.

Leslie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:37 pm Woo hoo!! I won the mug! I never thought it would happen. The email says I was selected randomly from over 500 entries.

Makes up for my dismal failure so far to solve the MGWCC week 4.

Congrats! I was beginning to wonder if we somehow had no mug winners on this board. Well, we have at least one!

Congrats Leslie!

This week we had about a 1 in 7 chance of someone who posted here winning the mug. I don't know how many lurkers we have, but I'd guess at least half of the correct answers come from people who visit.

Hoo-boy!

Even after seeing the correct answer revealed, it still took me quite a while to figure out how to get there.

I still have a bit of a learning curve, I guess.

Geoduck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:57 am Hoo-boy!

Even after seeing the correct answer revealed, it still took me quite a while to figure out how to get there.

I still have a bit of a learning curve, I guess.

Hang in there. The more you learn, the better you get and the more fun these things are.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:05 am

Geoduck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:57 am Hoo-boy!

Even after seeing the correct answer revealed, it still took me quite a while to figure out how to get there.

I still have a bit of a learning curve, I guess.

Hang in there. The more you learn, the better you get and the more fun these things are.

Bob, I hope that's not a picture you took yourself. Those bears have big appetites.

Inca wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:46 pm

Inca wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 12:29 pm Strangest word in the puzzle for me was 41A. I've never heard nor seen that word before. And even though it is said that I should now be seeing it pop up all over now, I highly doubt it.

No, I didn't come across CAUL today. BUT, I really am not too familiar with E. M. Forster and never read any of his works. Obviously I know he wrote Passage to India, but I never read it. His name doesn't pop up too often in my life. And today, in what I think is a complete fluke(I'm pretty sure it's not Mike who puts out this daily puzzle), he (E. M. Forster) was the author of a quote used in a daily cryptogram that I do.

OMG! I can't believe what just happened. I was playing a boggle-type game and I won the round. Guess what word I found that no one else did? CAUL !!!!!

Inca wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 7:43 pm

Inca wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:46 pm

Inca wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 12:29 pm Strangest word in the puzzle for me was 41A. I've never heard nor seen that word before. And even though it is said that I should now be seeing it pop up all over now, I highly doubt it.

No, I didn't come across CAUL today. BUT, I really am not too familiar with E. M. Forster and never read any of his works. Obviously I know he wrote Passage to India, but I never read it. His name doesn't pop up too often in my life. And today, in what I think is a complete fluke(I'm pretty sure it's not Mike who puts out this daily puzzle), he (E. M. Forster) was the author of a quote used in a daily cryptogram that I do.

OMG! I can't believe what just happened. I was playing a boggle-type game and I won the round. Guess what word I found that no one else did? CAUL !!!!!

Schadenfreude is my first experience with Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon! (Law & Order: Criminal Intent, I think and elsewhere...) I am enjoying hearing of your experiences with it!

I lost my mojo. No idea on MMMM today.

Ps. And once again, I was totally surprised to see it in my mailbox! (Even though I know it is always the first Tuesday of the month).

BethA wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 8:00 pm I lost my mojo. No idea on MMMM today.

Ps. And once again, I was totally surprised to see it in my mailbox! (Even though I know it is always the first Tuesday of the month).

I was surprised to not see it in my mailbox because I did remember and was looking for it. Turns out my email service decided it was spam. ???

I'm hoping MGWCC was the end of my losing streak, but so far no luck with MMMM.

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 8:49 pm

BethA wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 8:00 pm I lost my mojo. No idea on MMMM today.

Ps. And once again, I was totally surprised to see it in my mailbox! (Even though I know it is always the first Tuesday of the month).

I was surprised to not see it in my mailbox because I did remember and was looking for it. Turns out my email service decided it was spam. ???

I'm hoping MGWCC was the end of my losing streak, but so far no luck with MMMM.

I keep thinking my WSJ mug notification is going to my spam folder. But no!!

I often think of the MMMM the day before, then am still surprised. This time was different!

billkatz wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2019 1:30 am

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2019 10:48 pm An hour ago, I arrived in New England (in the Berkshires) too late for the lightning show, on way along moving daughter from MI to Boston. My original unsatisfactory choice from Friday withered over the miles. My second choice has come to the fore, with much better credentials. We'll gno in an hour & a half..

I'll not list myself as ashore, rather as still clinging to last week's bough in the briny. I did toast all of you muggles with a double Glenfiddich about this time, last night. Hoping all are well.

Say "Hi" to my old stomping grounds - I grew up in Pittsfield

The Berkshires say "Hi!" back, Bill. PIttsfield misses you, in particular.

'Not Close' is how I'll describe this weekend's personal Crossword Contest effort.

Moving was a success and precious time spent. I'll miss her on the 4th. She's my Yankee Doodle joy.

Regina Pizza and Night Shift Brewery were welcome discoveries. I recommend It'll Knock Your Rye Out rye porter at the later.

Happy 4th!

4 across and 45 down were a big hint for me, that, until I got the construction, I thought might be a red herring. Then inspiration struck and the whole answer was revealed. Happy Fourth of July to one and all!

Well I got the Fourth man clue and looked for the 4th letter in the "clue" words which I took to be the longer across answers. Of course that did not yield a name and as my frustration grew (which had a reciprocal effect on logic) I decided I would go with one of two answers that related to the Fourth (with 4th of July looming). So it was either John Philip Sousa (who plays all the patriotic songs) or Francis Scott Key (who wrote the most patriotic song), but "wait" I said, false logic entering my mind, "there are only four long answers so the answer must be 4 letters?" Then a grasp of little known or used facts came into play. Using something I learned in a crossword (Who was the fourth man to walk on the moon?) and knowing that BEAN was a four letter word I jumped at it, disregarding the fact that no other plausible thing linked it to the grid or answers in any way (I refer back to the reciprocal arrangement between frustration and logic). I mean even if I had not chosen BEAN I had only a 50:50 chance of success, but hey either were a better answer given the impending holiday.

So, as always, kudos to the puzzle makers and to the puzzle solvers who saw the obvious and quite easy (well when you see the clues and how it worked you do a DOH), alas once more I am not in that club. Another week like this and I'll need to do a liver enzyme panel....

Tom Shea wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 6:20 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 11:05 am

Geoduck wrote: ↑Tue Jul 02, 2019 10:57 am Hoo-boy!

Even after seeing the correct answer revealed, it still took me quite a while to figure out how to get there.

I still have a bit of a learning curve, I guess.

Hang in there. The more you learn, the better you get and the more fun these things are.

Bob, I hope that's not a picture you took yourself. Those bears have big appetites.

I took that in my back yard. The black bear had taken down the feeder and I happened to see him when I have my camera in hand. I went out on our patio and was about 30 feet from the bear when I took a bunch of pictures. Black bears are not inclined to attach but my wife came to the door and was freaking out. The bear just wanted me to go away so he could eat. Best guess was that the bear weighed about 300 pounds.