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Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:09 pm
by Streroto
BarbaraK wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2019 6:48 pm
Streroto wrote: ↑Sat Aug 31, 2019 5:58 pm
Another, Isaac! I am so deep down a rabbit hole I am sure is right but can’t make work...
I wonder if it’s the same one I spent a day and a half in. If so, it’s not right and you need to back all the way out and try another approach.
You were right
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 1:14 pm
by Streroto
PeterLeea1a wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:41 am
“As hinted by the top right grid entry SAYS, which, using the theme answer mechanism, translates to ESSAYS, or Short Stories, there are six grid entries beginning with the letters SA (or “Essay”). Taking the remaining letters of those six entries in fact yields nothing, thus entering a very deep rabbit hole before finally divining CHAT ROOM.”
I went down this exact same hole. You can even make essay from the remaining letters. What convinced me to climb out was the realization that an essay is not a story per se.
Glad to have had company with Mr Cottontail!!
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 2:59 pm
by GlennG
CPJohnson wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2019 7:21 pm
How did you know that TBT meant "look for 2-letter combos that occur two times in a single grid answer"?
There's the big question. I've found repeatedly that there is no answer to it, except for what a limerick sayer might say: "I pulled it out of me arse."
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:14 pm
by GlennG
To get more serious than my comment above, for this one I actually saw the mechanism behind it and found all the entries intended, but the result didn't make any logical sense to me to do anything with. But with metas it's par for the course - and sometimes for crossword grids too. Most of the time when I have problems with crosswords it's because the clue is just gibberish (as in that doesn't make any sense, or an expletive I won't repeat here), especially when mated with the intended answer. I've noted several times that crosswords are one of the only things where 2+2 can be 3, 4, 5, or 6 and nobody thinks nothing of it. It could also be said it's like learning a whole other language - English to Crosswordese/Crosswordese to English. Metas are just Senior Level of that, it seems.
Edit: I had to add my favorite "metas make absolutely no sense whatsoever" story. Matt Gaffney did a meta for the WSJ that turned out to be "red things". The logical nonsense on that one was that all of his red things really weren't red things. I even straw polled the puzzle with a few other people. None of us logically picked out all ten things that Matt wanted as "red" and all of us was able to make some logical argument why that thing isn't logically associated with red. The whole puzzle was a complete bomb and should have never been published, but no one in crossword circles had a word to say except smashing raves as to how wonderful the whole puzzle was!
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:37 pm
by Emmaa
PeterLeea1a wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:41 am
“As hinted by the top right grid entry SAYS, which, using the theme answer mechanism, translates to ESSAYS, or Short Stories, there are six grid entries beginning with the letters SA (or “Essay”). Taking the remaining letters of those six entries in fact yields nothing, thus entering a very deep rabbit hole before finally divining CHAT ROOM.”
Touché!
SAy, those are many clues I totally missed. This suggests I was lost as a ball in tall weeds, but it felt more like an “A-HA,” than an “Oh no.” I would have likely continued to stay with my more concrete approach, unable to ignore the Urby buildings.
I haven’t been in a chat room in decades. I visited an Urby-styled apartment, for the first time just this past year. One answer is progressive, the other I thought faded out a few years after I put away the slide ruler.
My hat is off to those who got there. Congratulation, muggles who made it. You might be in a smaller, elite group this week.
I wonder if there are those out there who voted a 2 or 3 on the degree of difficulty before the answer was given, who might give it a four now.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:44 pm
by Hector
How did you know that TBT meant "look for 2-letter combos that occur two times in a single grid answer"?
You guess that because your first move is to look for commonalities among the salient entries, which often are the long acrosses. You find the repeated two-letter sequences and are confirmed that they're important because that could be described as two (occurrences) by two (letter sequence). You're not expected to FIRST guess that TBT might well mean this and THEN look for it in the entries.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 4:07 pm
by DBMiller
I also started down the UBRY rathole. Knew not to go for anagrams unless anagrams were already part of the puzzle, so didn't look at UBRY. Played phonetics on U-R-B-Y for a bit, got nowhere. Took the first letters of the words they represent, YBAW and also got nowhere. Took the left turn in Albuquerque at that point, and saw the YOCH answer. Only I just took out the Y, leaving OCH, since I was still looking at YBAW. Going back to URBY, I saw YOCH again, with BASKS starting with B, but there were too many R's and U's.
Finally came back around, and wrote down yo-U, and the yo-CH connection clicked. I then saw wh-Y/wh-OM and knew the answer would be CHATROOM. Back solved e-AT and ae-RO, but didn't see the full connection at first. As I was writing it up, I saw the full connection and was impressed that no other answer started with E.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
by Bob cruise director
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:28 pm
by DBMiller
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
Who?
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:34 pm
by GlennG
DBMiller wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:28 pm
Who?
I gather she's as famous as Margaret Cho (the reaction of that was perfect to how that puzzle was written. WHO?!?).
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 6:43 pm
by Tony S
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
She's new to me. The name was odd so I figured it could lead to a solution. Before I submitted it, however, I googled her just to make sure I wasn't basing my entry on a big mistake.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 6:55 pm
by Kas
Welp...I got Stage 1, i.e., "identify the missing letters from the abbreviated words," but the evil, dratted Part 2 eluded me. So, Isaac...got any good jokes? Looks I'll be sidled up to the ship bar until next week... Happy sailing (or beaching?), all! -K.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:03 pm
by SewYoung
Tony S wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 6:43 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
She's new to me. The name was odd so I figured it could lead to a solution. Before I submitted it, however, I googled her just to make sure I wasn't basing my entry on a big mistake.
I had never heard of her, but after looking her up, would love to see some of her designs in person. I wonder if any of them are still being maintained. Even if they are, it appears that most or all of them are in California, so unlikely that I would ever see any of them. Of course, I have seen Tara many times when watching the movie. BTW, I did not make it to shore. I finally submitted "Twitterverse", but was pretty sure it wasn't right. I got the abbreviations, but did not notice the connection with the rest of the letters in the grid. Better luck this week.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:31 pm
by CPJohnson
GlennG wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:14 pm
To get more serious than my comment above, for this one I actually saw the mechanism behind it and found all the entries intended, but the result didn't make any logical sense to me to do anything with. But with metas it's par for the course - and sometimes for crossword grids too. Most of the time when I have problems with crosswords it's because the clue is just gibberish (as in that doesn't make any sense, or an expletive I won't repeat here), especially when mated with the intended answer. I've noted several times that crosswords are one of the only things where 2+2 can be 3, 4, 5, or 6 and nobody thinks nothing of it. It could also be said it's like learning a whole other language - English to Crosswordese/Crosswordese to English. Metas are just Senior Level of that, it seems.
Edit: I had to add my favorite "metas make absolutely no sense whatsoever" story. Matt Gaffney did a meta for the WSJ that turned out to be "red things". The logical nonsense on that one was that all of his red things really weren't red things. I even straw polled the puzzle with a few other people. None of us logically picked out all ten things that Matt wanted as "red" and all of us was able to make some logical argument why that thing isn't logically associated with red. The whole puzzle was a complete bomb and should have never been published, but no one in crossword circles had a word to say except smashing raves as to how wonderful the whole puzzle was!
I remember that puzzle; the "red" things could've been red. I remember it fondly because I got the answer.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:34 pm
by CPJohnson
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
Not me.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:06 pm
by Tom Shea
Never heard of Florence Yoch, and never would have solved the meta if I had a year to work on it.
On to next week.
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:26 pm
by FrankieHeck
GlennG wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 3:14 pm
Edit: I had to add my favorite "metas make absolutely no sense whatsoever" story. Matt Gaffney did a meta for the WSJ that turned out to be "red things". The logical nonsense on that one was that all of his red things really weren't red things. I even straw polled the puzzle with a few other people. None of us logically picked out all ten things that Matt wanted as "red" and all of us was able to make some logical argument why that thing isn't logically associated with red. The whole puzzle was a complete bomb and should have never been published, but no one in crossword circles had a word to say except smashing raves as to how wonderful the whole puzzle was!
I would love to see this puzzle! Is there a link anywhere?
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:43 pm
by Julie O
I was flummoxed by this one. Had the U R B Y, realized Yoch & Aero had something to do with it, but never was able to make the connection to the U and R, felt like I should have, KAS 4. On to next week....
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:55 pm
by BarbaraK
FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 8:26 pm
I would love to see this puzzle! Is there a link anywhere?
I believe this may be the one referred to:
https://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/crossword/ ... cle_inline
Re: "Short Stories" - August 30, 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2019 9:21 pm
by MarkL
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 02, 2019 5:15 pm
Just out of curiosity, is there anyone here who ever heard of Florence Yoch?
Luckily, she wasnt an/the answer to derive!!