"Buzz Cut" - May 13, 2022

[John77]

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.

Thanks for the pic.

Stayed up with camera ready, watching the Stars-Flames game. Total phase started here about 11:32 PM EST, about 15 minutes after solid overcast had obscured the entire sky. Maybe next time.

[Ben B]

I was focused on trying to wedge in some “U”s as substitute for the many “B”s as I thought it was significant that there were no “U”s in the grid yet the title words both had a U. So I chased a lot of bunnies until my son found the right path. I don’t think I would have made a solo solve. Great puzzle to introduce to new people about metas.

[pjc]

I was focused on trying to wedge in some “U”s as substitute for the many “B”s as I thought it was significant that there were no “U”s in the grid yet the title words both had a U. So I chased a lot of bunnies until my son found the right path. I don’t think I would have made a solo solve. Great puzzle to introduce to new people about metas.

That's exactly where I was - "U"s in the title; no "U"s in the grid. Never caught the 'b(ee) in a flower' hint - seems so obvious!

[jrdad]

I think Mike cleverly placed the swarm of B's in the upper puzzle to represent the bees waiting to land on a flower.

[kfahey714]

Sometimes I finish a grid and go "well, I see nothing" and look for about 10 minutes and if nothing pops out at all I just give up. I am glad that was my strategy this week. I might have noticed IRIS and ROSE but even if I knew I was looking for flowers I'd never have seen Heather or Aster. Not much of a botanist!

[Bonnibel]

Wow I just thought the answer was BEES!! I cut the 4 Bs from the themed answer flowers... I saw those flowers right away - no problem - but NEVER thought they spelled the answer.

...because I cut the buzzy bees!

I have been schooled! I should have known better.

Have a great week everyone.... finally over Covid and Covid relapse/rebound. Hoping to "bee" buzzing about town this week.

[ship4u]

Inked20220513-WSJCC-Buzz Cut JR_LI.jpg

an earworm for the week

I got to see HAIR in Los Angeles in 1968 when I went to visit my uncle and aunt. They were much more permissive than my parents.

[Commodore]

Oddly, just last week I walked into my favorite men's barbershop here in a rural mountain town, and did something I'd always wanted to.
"Gimme a FLATTOP."
All the older guys put down their papers, and looked up. Stories of high-school antics from long ago emerged. An audience watched and approved as longtime barber MaryAnn played to her crowd. She sold me a can of "Barber-Grade" CREMO paste to hold it in place. Gotta say I'm lovin' it, and despite Mrs. C's eyebrow contortions, she approved too.

[DannyWalter]

Elegant, and just the right level of difficulty for me. 4 letters, 4 long answers, and POLLINATION screaming at me from the middle. Bees, Buzz, Cut, cut out the B and look! The bee is in the flower. Could you find a better example of following the directions?

I just have to say that I found this puzzle to be the bee's knees. Well, ok I didn't have to say it, but I did.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

My earworm as I was trying to find more in the puzzle:

Except of course, I was singing, "Betting on a bee in the heather" to myself.

[femullen]

Some of my work colleagues formed a book club. I like to read, so I joined. First title, Recursion, by Blake Crouch.

In this vignette, two characters, Barry and Gwen, are texting one another.

Barry: What are you up to?

Gwen: Drinking at Isaac's.


This is certainly fiction: I've never seen these people, and I drink at Isaac's every week.

[mheberlingx100]

Liked the flower references. Seems appropriate for spring.

[HunterX]

My kids and I had a good laugh when we solved this. The reason was that when we started, and daughter, who displays the puzzle grid and clues on the zoom, said, "The title is 'Buzz Cut' and the answer is a 4-letter word," son yelled out "Hair!" immediately. I said, "That's WAY too obvious. But if you're right, I'll have a good laugh."

And I did. While my son bragged, "I'm just a meta genius!"

[Barney]

My kids and I had a good laugh when we solved this. The reason was that when we started, and daughter, who displays the puzzle grid and clues on the zoom, said, "The title is 'Buzz Cut' and the answer is a 4-letter word," son yelled out "Hair!" immediately. I said, "That's WAY too obvious. But if you're right, I'll have a good laugh."

And I did. While my son bragged, "I'm just a meta genius!"

I was going to send in “crew” off the top

Till I decided that glue was a better analogy with being stuck

Too many bees, dammit, too many bees.

[ship4u]

My kids and I had a good laugh when we solved this. The reason was that when we started, and daughter, who displays the puzzle grid and clues on the zoom, said, "The title is 'Buzz Cut' and the answer is a 4-letter word," son yelled out "Hair!" immediately. I said, "That's WAY too obvious. But if you're right, I'll have a good laugh."

And I did. While my son bragged, "I'm just a meta genius!"

My wife, Cynthia, wrote down "CREW."

[ship4u]

I was going to send in “crew” off the top

Till I decided that glue was a better analogy with being stuck

Too many bees, dammit, too many bees.

Yes!

[mikeB]

Looking back, I realize I was delayed by an anti-rabbit-hole and almost gave up because of it.

Early on, I noticed I could remove a B and get ROSE. That was my anti-rabbit-hole – I proceeded to ignore it and look for signs of the mechanism. Such as: There are some 3-letter entries (BET, TEE, SEE) that can make “BEE” with one letter substitution. Or maybe synonyms are in play: a HOG is a meat producer [22D]. And SHEER becomes STEER (another meat producer) with a letter substitution. Likewise BOAST becomes ROAST (good -humored teasing, 26D). Look for more of those connections . . .

A faint voice in my head kept urging me to go back and look at ROSE with a B in it. My thought: Don’t waste time chasing rabbits. Think outside the box. Look at the clues for patterns. Speaking of which: four two-word clues have directional adverbs as the 2nd word (back, in, out, up) – surely those offer grid related directional hints. Scrutinize the grid with those in mind . . . Uh huh.

That voice kept taking me back to ROSE, but I never took it seriously: Forget about it. It’ll never work: what do I do with HEAT and DAST? And EXLIBRIS is an obvious dead end. Meanwhile, there must be something in those 3-letter words. Wait a minute! Five clues that start with a B have 3-letter entries. That can’t be a coincidence . . . Uh huh.

Finally, that voice said something I could agree with: “It’s hopeless, time to give up.”

Later, stuck at the mercy of a software update “progress” bar, I glanced at the puzzle placed ignominiously on a pile of papers. That was when I noticed that each of four long entries has a single B in it. Wait a minute, it’s not HEAT, it’s HEATHER (head slap). And so it went on the fast track to the beach. If only I hadn’t wasted so much time ignoring the bright neon sign (ROSE) pointing straight at the core of the mechanism.

This week’s lessons learned the hard way:

1. A rabbit hole is a rabbit hole only until it leads to the solution.
2.Thinking outside the box is great, except when the mechanism happens to be INSIDE the box.
3. Pay attention to that faint voice in your head, except when it tells you it’s time to give up.

[boharr]

^ Yes. A lesson well earned. When you hear that faint voice in your head, listen. Just happened again to me yesterday on a different puzzle.

[ReB]

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.

That...and also BEE was part of the clue for 38A, which is an almost certain rule-out. So I didn't bite.

Still it was a very close call until I looked more closely at the clue to 38A, which clearly was a theme word but not one of the four "B" theme, and decided to take it literally, and so looked more seriously for flower names around the theme-word Bs. All of a sudden I spotted ROS(B)E for 61A, and it was a fast swim to the beach thereafter.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is HAIR. Suggested by the central answer POLLINATION, you can find four B’s (“bees”) inside flowers in the other four long Across answers: HEATHER in THE BATHER, ASTER in DABSTERS, IRIS in EX LIBRIS and ROSE in GROSBEAKS. The first letters of the flowers spell the contest answer.

Always pay attention to the central answer! Words worth remembering in these contests. We had a robust turnout of 1405 entries, with an above-average 87% correct. Lots of guesses for BEES (36) and HIVE (23) and then a bunch of other incorrect answers including CREW (7), CHOP (3), and lots more.

Congrats to this week's winner: Elna Hopkins of Bellevue, Neb.!