XWord Muggles Forum

MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:29 pm

GlennG wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 6:32 pm

MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:11 am I've solved the puzzle, but have no idea how "Backdrops" and the five letter noun part of the "meta" works. Any help?

Not really. Actually for doing these for four years, I've gotten worse over time. Main thing I can say: Don't expect any logical connection or even any sense to be made out of these things. I describe meta puzzles as "in-jokes" for that reason: You'll either get it or you won't and there's no rhyme or reason behind it.

Like this one, there's (hopefully) some logical extension between "Backdrops" and "Five letter noun" that is supposed to let me know what to look for in the grid, but there's no connection that prompts me anywhere in the grid. Meanwhile, there's others where I see something in the grid, but there's no logical connection from that into the answer. How to solve a meta: Step 1: Do the puzzle. Step 2: ? Step 3: Solution! Or to follow a meme: How to draw an owl. Draw a circle, then draw the rest of the owl. A few can figure out how to get to the owl, others will never be able to do so.

If you get the "joke" on these things, congratulations. If you get made to be the butt of the "joke" like I get to be week after week, well ... there's always a less than par puzzle that just got solved.

I've looked at some of his prior puzzles and the explanations of the meta, the number of steps taken to get to the correct answer ... this stuff is daunting.

I mean, I look at this one, there are five clues. Four of them are 10 letter compound words, the 5th, the middle one, is ... different. It's 7 letters, it's in the exact middle of the puzzle, it's not the same type of compound word, and it has a weird "xy" in the middle of it.

So I'm convincing myself that this word is a key, perhaps the key, but at least a key, to the puzzle.

And then I just can't get any further. I'm not a good anagrammer, and I know this builder uses those, so that's not going to be a productive path for me to attempt. I've played with words and letters. I guess I just have to wait another 24.5 hours to find out what you all have seen.

JJD wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:19 am I’ll tell you that the first 5-10 puzzles seemed horrendously arbitrary time when I read the answers. Now I’m usually able to solve week 1’s, and l’m less than 50% on the rest of the weeks, though I think I’m improving.

Patty wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 10:18 am Unless post enlightenment strikes I shall be closing out the bar with Isaac. I've seen plenty of interest but nothing that leads to an answer. Good luck Muggles on winning a mug!

DaveKennison wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 1:14 am I didn't start doing the WSJ crosswords until late June, 2016, so I missed the first 40 weeks of daily puzzles. Two months ago, in hopes of getting better at doing the metas, I printed out all 230-odd puzzles that I had missed and started doing them in chronological order. I have now finished them all, including 38 metas. (Two Fridays fell on holidays.) I have succeeded in getting all but three of the metas: I got the wrong answer for one because some facts had changed since it was published; I made a really stupid mistake on another; and I'm still working on one from March 4, 2016, titled "A. Crossword Puzzle", which, so far, has me totally stymied. A lot of the early metas were extremely easy, easing the learning curve a bit, and I think that the whole exercise has really paid off. The metas definitely require a different kind of thinking and you have to be very patient with the hard ones, walking away as often as necessary to let your subconscious mind notice what you need to notice to succeed. (Earlier today, I finally got the meta from May 13, 2016, titled "Sea Change", after a full month of being totally mystified by it.) So ... if you're retired, like me, and have nothing better to do, you might want to try some of the older metas. (I'm never going to be an Al Sisti, but I'm a lot better off than I was ... .)

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Sun Nov 03, 2019 9:22 am This was a Kas 4 for me as I got a nudge so I will be with Isaac week. My sentiment is best captured by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

GlennG wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 6:32 pm

MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:11 am I've solved the puzzle, but have no idea how "Backdrops" and the five letter noun part of the "meta" works. Any help?

Not really. <snip> Main thing I can say: Don't expect any logical connection or even any sense to be made out of these things.