"Power Trips" - July 15, 2022

[femullen]

Some witty Muggle over the weekend, gloating that he was dry, ashore, and well liquored, admonished the crowd of sulkers at Isaac's to not give up: "You can do this!" he falsely cried.

Har har! This naïve fellow has no idea of my superpower, which is the ability to render opaque all that to others is clear, the ability to systematically overlook critical clues, the ability to mask quiet signals with the broadband noise of my brain.

Despite these advantages, I did ultimately find the trio: my losing streak is now three.

[boharr]

I know I will be hated for this, but I have to:

May we declare a moratorium on using THE POLICE in every music-related crossword/contest, please?

Let's go back to overusing and beating-to-dumbfoundedness BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, maybe?

Afterall, it takes another earworm to dislodge the first, yes?

I kinda thought he used The Police on purpose after the last MMMM.

[Kas]

I haven't even printed the puzzle yet, I just like to check in about this time Thursday evenings to see if the puzzle is a 3-pager, or a 14-pager in this forum.
And at 9:30 p.m. EST, it's a 3-pager...which puts me in an interesting head space, equal parts: (a) "Heck, I should just give up now, save myself the angst" on the one hand; versus (b) My admitted alpha competitor genes kicking *RIGHT* into gear, yep.

With this much time before midnight Sunday, I can afford to be spicy, so: IT'S *ON* GAFFNEY. I'M COMING FOR YOU, BUB!!*

*[I reserve the right to later claim this whole post was those darned hackers again. Ahem.]

And this, my friends....is a textbook definition of two different and distinct but equally relevant concepts:

1. First Concept: KAS 4 on the MUGgle Scale

a) I had identified the 3-repeating-letters words;
b) However, I forgot that most basic of Meta Solving Steps...to check the first letter of those words. (I spent a fair amount of time trying to anagram the repeating letters, before heading off to explore another rabbit hole...)

2. Second Concept:

Karma. (See my post from Thursday, above.)


Well played, Mr. Gaffney. Well played, indeed.

[KscX]

I know I will be hated for this, but I have to:

May we declare a moratorium on using THE POLICE in every music-related crossword/contest, please?

Let's go back to overusing and beating-to-dumbfoundedness BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, maybe?

Afterall, it takes another earworm to dislodge the first, yes?

All weekend long: de do do do, de da da da

All weekend long: Rehumanize yourself, rehumanize yourself
Only after looking back at all the lyrics did I realize the police have a big presence in that song. Eerie. I was raised on The Police! Today would be a good day to listen. Then when I’m done- the Boss.

[CPJohnson]

Thanks to everyone who explained the poker term TRIPS. Sometimes specific knowledge is needed to solve metas, or to make sense of them. I remember Settlers of Cataan, my lack of knowledge about the original language of some novels, puzzles requiring knowledge of French, Spanish, or Japanese, cities with federal reserve banks, Sue Grafton novels, which shows air on which TV networks, etc. My knowledge base is probably medium, certainly not broad. So if specific knowledge is needed, I usually struggle. (And sometimes I struggle with the puzzles that just require counting letters!)

[michaelm]

Original stab and resultant weekend earworm was Emerson Lake and Palmer
EXHIBITION - Pictures at an Exhibition
IMMEMORIAL - From the Beginning
AFISHOUTOFWATER - Children's book by Helen Palmer (Mrs Seuss)

[TeaJenny]

Ugh! I could kick myself. I had all of the triple-letter answers, but focused on the triple letters themselves, not the initial letters. I made it harder than it had to be because I was expecting something more complicated from a Gaffney puzzle.

Regarding 39A, I wonder if A FISH OUT OF WATER is a reference to "Englishman in New York." Granted, it's one of Sting's solo songs, but he was in The Police, so perhaps it was a hint.

[Collegetowngirl]

“Musical trio?” my husband said. “Probably the Police. Maybe Green Day.” And then I spent hours/days looking for fish, bodies of water. The letters between the triples, u in hubbub and o in powwow. Etc. Then it suddenly seemed super significant that there were a lot of black squares in the puzzle — maybe the “fish” was a 3 letter word that would fit in one of those gaps!! The don’t give up from this group finally got me to look at the first letters of those words.

[Secret Adversary]

well that did not go well. I was trying really hard to do something with the hubbub, powwow, oh hush, etc. But those stuck out to me more than tamara, cheese, etc so I never caught those other words. I did see 'ore', 'airier' and 'oils' so I came up with Earth Wind and Fire.

I tried for a long time to back solve to Earth Wind and Fire as well - on the lines of (power?) elements, but missing one, ie 'out of Water'.

[Bird Lives]

TRIPS is a poker term, meaning three of a kind. That works.

POWER? Why have it? If you must have it, why the GIANT RED HERRING at 54D Give power to - ELECT?

I too was distracted by ELECT and its clue since Matt often puts a hint in the SE corner, usually the last Across but possibly the last Down. I think that he insists that he does not deliberately put red herrings into his puzzles. But this fish in or out of water certainly had a coral tinge.

[Bird Lives]

I used to play poker once a month with my coworkers, and the dealer calls the rules for the hand. Often as they dealt, they’d say, “Jacks or better to open, trips to win”, i.e. you needed three of a kind to win the hand.

Off-topic, but Hold 'em players should take a look at the NYT Sunday crossword. Great construction.

[Susan Goldberg]

Ouch! My forehead is suitably slapped. Had the triple letter words marked right off the bat. But I, too, kept trying to come up with something from ABIWHOMEC. Switched to working on the Power herrings. Then on to the fish. Double letters. Three letter words. Then to staring blankly and hoping something would pop out.

I will hang my head in shame today. Shoulda... coulda.... woulda...

I am right there with you. I spent the weekend with ABIWHOMEC swimming in my head. I try very hard to be kind to myself when I miss one; but I am slap, slap, slapping myself today - why did my brain not go to the first letters. UGH!

[Susan Goldberg]

Ugh! I could kick myself. I had all of the triple-letter answers, but focused on the triple letters themselves, not the initial letters. I made it harder than it had to be because I was expecting something more complicated from a Gaffney puzzle.

Regarding 39A, I wonder if A FISH OUT OF WATER is a reference to "Englishman in New York." Granted, it's one of Sting's solo songs, but he was in The Police, so perhaps it was a hint.

SAME. So frustrating!

[Barney]

Ironically, I have one of the worst solving records in this entire group, but I immediately saw the triplet letters in all the entries and knew that was the path. It was just a bit of an ordeal to highlight them, and then their respective starting letters, which was what my distance solving partner pushed me to do.

5-star puzzle.

[drbockel2]

UGH! I had the mechanism 95% figured out but didn't make it to the beach. So frustrating!

[MatthewL]

I too got stuck for a bit on the word "power" in the clue for 54D, but ultimately moved on to the 3 letter metanism. What started me on the right path was the clues/answers for 16A and 9D. Someone once mentioned that when you get weird clues or answers that you have never seen in a crossword before, it's likely because the constructor needed to force a very specific word or letters into the puzzle. When I saw the 3 A's in 16A, that got me thinking about powwow and ohhush, and I was on my way. Clever puzzle, and just as an aside, saw The Police in concert in 1982 which, holy crap, was 40 years ago. Good lord, the time does fly.

[pjc]

I lucked out on this one by seeing the triplet words immediately, but abandoned the triple letters themselves because they created gibberish. My only other thought was using the first letters of the words - and I could see that THE POLICE was forming from them (and I chuckled because of the MMMM). I had COMPLETELY overlooked TAMARA in the first go-around, but was able to backsolve to find it once deciding that THE POLICE was the correct answer.

All in all, a fun ride.

[beccacollins]

Was at the lake all weekend so didn’t get to post or submit which is fine as no chance of winning the mug. I used the first letters of the answers containing double letters (HUBBUB, OFF, LOOPHOLE, AAH, CROONERS, IMMEMORIAL, CHEESE, TOSSED) which unscramble to spell CATHOLIC. My guess was Peter, Paul and Mary. I struggled with connecting to the title but thought several others clues supported it.

[whimsy]

ELECT TRIS Speaker!

[DBMiller]

Saw the triple letters. Anagrammed to Amebic Who and knew that wasn't it. Then started with the across letters and had The Lice. Then added PO from the downs and had the answer after a little chuckle over The Lice.