"Dude, Where's My Car?" - April 22, 2022

[katnahat]

You can use the Across Lite version
viewtopic.php?t=671
Solve with Puzzazz, then hide the keyboard and take your screenshot.

Thanks, Barbara!

[Conrad]

The creators are as much a part of this community as everyone else, even if they don't post often.

To deride a creator incorrectly & ignorantly for creating a fantastic puzzle is beneath this community, Bre'r Fox.

It reminds me of when someone leaves a 1-star restaurant review on Yelp because their fork was dirty.

I'm tempted to respond: it's not the fork.

Wherever you go, there you are.

[SusieG]

I’d like to think I may have found the right car if I had spent more time on it, but I’m not sure. I saw the hidden postal codes, but was thrown off by the extra letters. Maybe I would have recognized the car make initial, maybe not. I think it’s a clever design anyway. I went off on several tangents when I saw USA, NY and AR, etc. and lost my mojo in the process. I was really hoping for RIVIERA - American make but European model.

[Barney]

I was pleasantly surprised to not only see my name in the grid (I'm not related to the deli owners, but I've eaten many pastrami sandwiches there) but then to see it as part of the meta mechanism.

Been there in person once, and mail-ordered to the west coast twice. Food quality and customer service are unbeatable. The packaging is a work of art and genius.

[FrankieHeck]

This sucker was Hail Mary proof. I still can’t believe the years were irrelevant.

I submitted TOWN CAR, a perfectly cromulent Hail Mary.

This is my favorite wrong answer!

I struggled with this all weekend and accept my first wsj failure in a very long time. If I'd thought of this answer, it would have been my Hail Mary.

[shalmanezer]

If I manage to solve the meta, that doesn't make it fair. And if I can't crack the code, that doesn't make it unfair. It's simply that some weeks my brain works just so, and I piece together everything. And other weeks, my brain misses a clue or three, and I don't solve it.

When the day comes that zero people figure out the meta, then we can complain it wasn't fair. This isn't that day.

[MarkWoychick]

The puzzle was tough but fair, and I wish I could have got it on my own.

While HYMN was likely not the first step on any solver’s path to cracking the meta, it was findable once you knew the mechanism pattern.

My guess is that this particular answer was the most difficult to construct. What alternatives were there? I haven’t done an exhaustive search, but I couldn’t find anything better. You needed a seven-letter US town/city, preferably from the west, that is also a car model. The closest I could find was the Buick Rainier, and Rainier is a town in both WA and OR - that would yield WABY or ORBY or some combination thereof. Orby is a defunct TV provider (says Google), but using Rainier would have been confusing because the car is named for Mt. Rainier, and the towns are in two states. There is also the Chrysler Sebring, which doesn’t really fit the other theme answers and would give us CFLY or some combination thereof.

So no complaints from me - Hyundai Santa Fe, NM—>HYMN seems like the best choice, and DOCK and KATZ reinforce the idea of having to rearrange the letters to get the solution.

Happy solving this week, everyone!

[Dplass]

This sucker was Hail Mary proof. I still can’t believe the years were irrelevant.

I submitted TOWN CAR, a perfectly cromulent Hail Mary.

This is my favorite wrong answer!

I struggled with this all weekend and accept my first wsj failure in a very long time. If I'd thought of this answer, it would have been my Hail Mary.

"This is my favorite wrong answer!" Maybe because it's the ONE TRUE CORRECT ANSWER*

*in David fantasy land

[OliviaL]

For those traveling or who can’t print, you can use the mark up feature in the photos app on iPhone to solve. Just take a screenshot of the completed grid and crop it. Then click the mark up tool in the top right corner and you can use the marker and the highlighter to solve. Plus there’s an eraser so no need to start over. You can also use the notes app to type out words, etc. and then flip back and forth between the two apps. I solve every week using this method since we are on the road and it works great!

Do you use an iPhone? Mine only gives me the option to download the pdf. I am unable to see or fill in the grid on WSJ.com. Any suggestions?

Yes, I use iPhone and visit this webpage on Safari: https://www.wsj.com/news/puzzle . It lets me solve on mobile. Wasn’t aware that didn’t work for everyone!

[C=64]

I humbly submit that the signal-to-noise ratio in this puzzle was too low for my liking, and that a couple of folks who are defending the puzzle's construction are responding with more vehemence and/or condescension than necessary.

[Bill Bovard]

The answer is EDSEL

“Where’s My Car?” indicates that the key lies in the cars’ locations in the grid. Highlight those locations, and the solution becomes obvious.
.
Car puzzle 500.jpg

Yes, in crosswords a musical group is usually ABBA and a car is usually EDSEL.

[Joe Ross]

I humbly submit that the signal-to-noise ratio in this puzzle was too low for my liking, and that a couple of folks who are defending the puzzle's construction are responding with more vehemence and/or condescension than necessary.

That's fair. I accept that I am taking it too far.

[Joe Ross]

After all, We could space the the letters of the meta in position of the Fibonnaci numbers and that'd yield an unambiguous result and it wouldn't break any "rules" about the letters don't need to be "where the solver expects them". But unless we hinted that the solver should think about the Fibonnaci numbers it is unreasonable to expect the solver to look for them.

No rancor meant, here. This is fun:

"I Spy" - November 19, 2021

WSJ online form

PDF

Solution PDF

[whimsy]

Aaargh! So close yet so far! I had the postal codes and I had the car makes …. But I never considered them together!! Even suspected the grid words “coca”, “coda”, “Haza”, “want” etc were involved because of postal codes but just couldn’t see how! And didn’t see a “NM” in a word so was thrown off by chasing that rabbit!
Bravo for those who figured it out!

Same for me.
Which in my mind goes along perfectly with my inability to hop and chew gum at the same time --

[Tom Shea]

I am among those that thought the answer would be Delorean before I started the grid.

When I finished the grid I was certain that the answer was Lincoln Continental. Another city west of the Mississippi and the Continental was at one point discontinued and then restarted recently as a model (past and present).

On an beach and a pleasant one, but it's not the correct one.

[Joepickett]

Early on, I knew it was 7 letters so I thought Jeep Compass.
Only because my neighbor had one . Not a car of note however.

The Zoom call set me straight.

[mikeB]

I have read several interesting comments about difficulty – pro, con and sideways. I sometimes think of these weekly contests, not as individual tests, but as a slow-motion test with multiple questions. Thus, six months of WSJ puzzle contests can be likened to a test with 25 questions. Like those entrance exams in days of yore, this 25-question test might be aimed at differentiating skill levels, by including questions with a range of difficulties. An expert might get 23 or 24 right. A newcomer might get far fewer (as in my case). Ideally, the constructors would appeal to the entire cohort: Don’t discourage the newcomer; don’t underchallenge the expert; foster the development of everyone’s skill level over time; yet recognize that newcomers arrive all the time, so be sure not to forget those less difficult puzzles. It’s a very interesting moving target for the puzzle constructor/editor team, and the comments and statistics I’ve seen here seem to suggest they’re getting it right. Hats off to them. Meanwhile, I don’t exit the exam thinking Question 14 was too easy; I reflect on how I might have approached Questions 3 and 8 differently in order to avoid drawing a blank. But that’s just me.

[ship4u]

It seems to me that feelings of discontent and frustration are common when we are involved in any challenge, and especially in meta solutions. The question is, is it beneficial to the community to express them? Some people like to complain that a meta is "too easy" when I am struggling. That can be discouraging.

One of the things that I greatly admire about this group, as a whole, is that complaints and negative remarks are rare. I think the overall positive attitude and comraderie are what makes this group special.

[MatthewL]

When the day comes that zero people figure out the meta, then we can complain it wasn't fair. This isn't that day.

When I read this line, all I could think of was this:

https://youtu.be/EXGUNvIFTQw

[woozy]

After all, We could space the the letters of the meta in position of the Fibonnaci numbers and that'd yield an unambiguous result and it wouldn't break any "rules" about the letters don't need to be "where the solver expects them". But unless we hinted that the solver should think about the Fibonnaci numbers it is unreasonable to expect the solver to look for them.

No rancor meant, here. This is fun:

"I Spy" - November 19, 2021

WSJ online form

PDF

Solution PDF

Yes, that was indeed a tough one. And I had a wee bit of trouble with it and it had a bit of ambiguity (there are many other things those colors) but it was imo okay, as the "noise ratio" in that one was significantly low.