"The Global Marketplace" June 30, 2023

[Steve_S]

On Shore!!! Feel REALLY dimwitted - had all the pieces and all the clues and still took 2 days to put them together ! Unless I am the norm, there will be MANY correct responses this week...
Steve

[CromsFury]

On Shore!!! Feel REALLY dimwitted - had all the pieces and all the clues and still took 2 days to put them together ! Unless I am the norm, there will be MANY correct responses this week...
Steve

On weeks like this, I always wonder what the most popular WRONG answer ends-up being (and how many people submit it.)

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

Started late this weekend, but on shore without trouble

[BetterMonday]

I also tried to make this alot more complicated than it had to be! Onshore!

[Craven_Mug_Craver]

Oh, my. Can that possibly be right? My spidey-sense says yes so I'm going with it! Somebody beer me!

[Bonnibel]

I see that I pretty much closed down the bar with Isaac. Not the first time and probably not my last.

I usually am the last to leave the dance floor, too.

Been celebrating hubby's 75th birthday all weekend and literally had no time to think much about the puzzle til everyone left (grandkids and all).

We had a beautiful and relaxing weekend at home complete with a birthday dinner, boat rides, swimming, flying big foam airplanes (which I highly recommend), in general lots of playtime and toys are scattered all over the house. Much fun was had by all.

Apparently we had a 3.8 magnitude earthquake at 2 am but I was so tired I slept right through it.

Re the meta, I'm not going to use "that" word because, after all, I was taking my sweet time.

Literally face planted when I saw it.

Happy 4th everyone!

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening

Our final count is 3 on the ship and 236 on the shore.

Over the weekend, a few have lamented not getting this meta quickly and think that they are the only ones who did not get it in 3 minutes or less. My estimate is that 25% of the solvers have commented that it took a lot longer than they think it should have taken so if you put yourself in the headslap category, there are many more muggles with you.

Have a great week

And stay safe

[Cindy N]

Late to posting, but definitely on the beach. Not sure what I'm going to drink, as long as it's super cold and refreshing

[mikeB]

I admire the way this meta's mechanism remains hiding in plain site. It is a credit to the constructor to find this balance between obvious and head-slap. I only wish I could solve this one . . .

[Colin]

Made it ashore … last minute!

[hcbirker]

[/quote]

[escapeartist]

I had written down VII XI before I did the head slap

[RDaleHall]

Ashore earlier today- late start with holiday weekend travel. Have a great Independence Day celebration!

[Colin]

Was I glad to get ashore at 11:57pm! Didn’t spend ages on this one, but way TOO long. Saw the seven XIs immediately, and from there, it was all ‘downhole’…
- substituted the XIs with all sorts of variations, including the A in square 11 - nothing
- removed the XIs - nothing
- searched for other countries with ‘Roman numeral’ leaders (because the clue for 71A included “is ALSO a Roman numeral”
- checked the leaders of Thailand (SIAM), Mexico (MEXICAN) and Iraq (IRAQI) to see if their names, initials, etc spelt a retail chain
- added in Asia, Iowa, Norway and China and checked first letters, last letters … nothing
- figured that 7 x 11 = 77 but no 77th clue, so started counting 11 squares from the start 7 times to spell… I can’t remember, but it was gobbledygook
- repeated including blanks in the count… same result
- then finally wondered what the heck I was doing, since other muggles were posting about slapped foreheads and using “doh”-type phrases, so I asked myself “What have we got here?” and I answered “Seven elevens.” In the time it took between a literal flash of lightning outside and the subsequent loud clap of thunder, it FINALLY dawned on me and I submitted with a slim margin… not much more than 77 seconds! And all that for a 1 in 5,000 shot at a mug!
These admissions are somewhat embarrassing, but I hope it helps illustrate one of my mantras: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again with ever-decreasing stupidity.

[Cindy N]

I didn't get to the grid until Saturday. Saw 71A which helped with the long fills. Put everything together, wrote down the long fills, counted them to make sure I had them all and shut things down for the night. Woke up this morning and thought "OK, so I found all seven of the XI entries. All seven of the 11...d'oh!"

I will say my initial thought when I started noticing all the Xs in the grid was TJ Maxx.

[mheberlingx100]

I made it to shore, but it took me quite a while, as I was seeing XI and thinking “9”. Kept on trying to figure out what seven-nine meant. I finally got on the right track but my head slap could probably be heard miles away.

[Mister Squawk]

"There are seven elevens -- have you tried looking for 77 in Roman numerals?"

[otlaolap]

Only one brief rabbit hole for me this week: "X marks the spot" popped in to my mind quickly, so I spent time hunting around the physical Xs looking for something. Was called away briefly, came back and registerd all the Is, and then heard the echo of "China leader" "Roman numeral", and the thunderclap of "Aha". Liked this immensely.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Matt has done the seven eleven thing before. He posted one with seven 11 letter words. Remembering helped in my case

[pjc]

I spent a good day (off-and-on) trying any number of rabbit holes - including math because I got the 'eleven' quickly, but used it to look at the clue for 11 down: "Summit" (or, as said phonetically, "sum it"). So, I thought I just HAD to be dealing with adding up the Roman numerals in the long answers, or in the grid overall, or....

When the answer finally hit, I had to laugh at my follies.