"Buzz Cut" - May 13, 2022

[Cbaudhuin]

I’ve never seen so many B’s in a grid or in the clues.

[Cbaudhuin]

Removing a few didn’t hurt a thing.

[Bob cruise director]

Inked20220513-WSJCC-Buzz Cut JR_LI.jpg

an earworm for the week

[Mister Squawk]

Did any one else spend lot of time working on the four BEs?

SOBER
SABER
BET
GROSBEAK

What unlocked the puzzle for me was noticing that cutting the B from SOBER gives you for letters that ANAGRAM to ROSE.

Any other victims chase down SNIP and BRIS?

[Colin]

Very neat, obvious and totally invisible to me! Nice one Mike. Got too fixated on: the Y shape made of Bs top right WITH ABABA phonetically reading “A barber” (for BUZZ CUT) and ABBA making a comeback; talking of comebacks, the four palindromes kept me amused for way too long; then Bs followed by double letters; and other stupid Bunny Burrows! Why I paid little or no attention to the obvious place to start (four long clues each with a darned B in them!) is beyond me. That stupid award is mine… all mine!

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I got the mechanism pretty early on; I even circled 'bee' in the 38A clue when I was filling in the grid. What almost got me was that RENO was one letter off from ROSE and EATER was one letter off from ASTER (each when anagrammed). I started down that route, looking for matches for HEATHER and IRIS before I realized that there wasn't a step #2!

[vandono]

Did any one else spend lot of time working on the four BEs?

SOBER
SABER
BET
GROSBEAK

What unlocked the puzzle for me was noticing that cutting the B from SOBER gives you for letters that ANAGRAM to ROSE.

IMG_20220515_233755_01.jpg

Any other victims chase down SNIP and BRIS?

I was too busy trying to make something out of the four BEEs (3 of them diagonal).

[Cindy N]

Just a quibble that in the first two words, after you removed the "B" from the flower, there was only one letter left (well, if you made your asters plural). The third entry was two words, but using the second word in its entirety, same thing. Then you got to grosbeak. Just a matter of consistency. Like I said...a quibble.

This isn't a quibble - but it is a grosbeak.

[Cbaudhuin]

I chased down all those rabbit trails too. What brought me back to the right answers— the right Bs— was POLLINATION.
Front and center.

[joequavis]

This one took me most of the weekend. I kept looking at the letters surrounding the B's and then thought about pollination itself... Bees bringing pollen into the flower, so maybe the B's brought a different letter with them into the themers. Didn't see the right mechanism until it was almost too late.

Now to channel my inner escape artist...Gimme that mug!

[Flying_Burrito]

Four letter meta, four B's in the long answers across; pollination was obviously the main clue. Saw Iris and Rose pretty quickly; i was thrown off for a sec by A(N)THER from TheBather since it is a key flower pollination part, but could not replicate that mechanism and stayed w/ the flower name themes. Aster was next and solved the remaining h from the buzz cut clue (did not bother to look for Heather)

[JaneGummy]

I used the four BEE coming out of the B in the theme answers, the first had an H next to it, the second had a A, fourth had an R, the fact that the third didn't have an obvious I should have let me know the mechanism was wrong but by then I had HAIR which worked with the title so I forced the I. I was so happy to have a solo solve, oh well, Live and learn

[higgysue]

Our final count is 9 on the ship and 174 on the shore

Good luck to all winning the mug

And get the clouds to part so I can get some photographs of the lunar eclipse

Here is my pic of the lunar eclipse. I hope you got to see it. I also saw starlink last night.

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count is 9 on the ship and 174 on the shore

Good luck to all winning the mug

And get the clouds to part so I can get some photographs of the lunar eclipse

Here is my pic of the lunar eclipse. I hope you got to see it. I also saw starlink last night.

@higgysue It was not even close. I went out a couple of times but there was much too much cloud cover.

Nice picture

[JJD]

I knew it didn’t feel 100%…
Well, maybe I’ll win the Red Herring Award?

ABABA - ABA = Ba
SOBER - SOB = Er
ABATTOIR - BAT = Attoir
BETRAY - BET = Ray
1st letter of those remainders = BEAR, which is a pollinating mammal, as is the bat.

[femullen]

Always my second favorite part of the weekly meta: reading the post mortems. I'll add my own near-death experience...

First thing, I correctly determined to remove the letters B (buzz cut). Well now, in 17A, if you also remove the second H, you have theartre (or, rather, its American equivalent). So, first letter: H. Which, of course, was correct, but not for that reason.

Now insert a busy weekend and a fixation on THEATER, and you have the makings of a big swing and a miss. The Smarter Half of Equipe Canuck repeatedly emphasized POLINATION, which, after far more additional head-scratching than one should expect, finally clicked. Although I had to confirm with her: is HEATHER even a flower? I thought it was an herb.

No botanist, me.

[whimsy]

Very neat, obvious and totally invisible to me! Nice one Mike. Got too fixated on: the Y shape made of Bs top right WITH ABABA phonetically reading “A barber” (for BUZZ CUT)

Could've sworn you were a Brit and not a Bostonian....

[Barney]

Damn.

Also, so so so so so so so many Bs.

Diabolical. I drowned.

[jenirvin]

Inked20220513-WSJCC-Buzz Cut JR_LI.jpg

an earworm for the week

It's been in my ear since the solve, for sure!

[John77]

I’ve never seen so many B’s in a grid or in the clues.

Yup.
I was getting ready to submit "BEES" as an answer, but couldn't figure out how CUT (from BUZZ CUT) had anything to do with that. So I kept looking.