"Part Two" - November 22, 2019

[PeterLeea1a]

One rabbit hole, then on to shore.

[Joe Ross]

As I get older I strive to be odder!

But do you wear purple, with a red hat which doesn’t go...

I wear a LOT of purple. No red hats. If I wear a red hat, will that help my brain solve the meta?

A tin foil hat turns the trick, here.

[CallMeShane]

I am walking down the Wal-Mart dairy aisle at the crack of dawn.

I stop dead in my tracks, get a thousand yard stare. After being motionless for 10 seconds, my wife, perhaps wondering if I have had a stroke, says "what is it?".

"I've just solved the meta!"

And so I had. Most satisfactory. On shore.

[DBMiller]

I think I said iambic pentameter would cause a problem...

We find ourselves in need of prose in form.
I will report that I have tried my best,
It looks as though I might have done this right.
The shoreline slowly creeps into my view.

I did get a kick out of 6D...

Yeah. That and the clue at 46D. Was trying to figure out how to squeeze "iambic pentameter" into that answer.

[tim1217]

And almost like magic - got it! Focused on the title and it all became clear. As always masterful construction, where do they keep getting these ideas? So, ashore and now will be able to enjoy the weekend without feeling like a failure, or at least not a failure as fa as the puzzle goes. Oh, and I have to believe that 6D was a nod to the Muggles. Too late for wine, too early for hard liquor, I'll just go to bed.

I posted a strategy back a few months ago that went something like...

1) Make a solid effort to solve the meta but just can't make any headway.
2) Get frustrated to the point that you decide to announce your failure to the world by posting to this forum all your trials and tribulations.
3) Take a fresh look and...voila!

It's certainly not guaranteed, but I've seen it happen enough since then that I think it has some value. I'm not a psychologist (and I don't play one on TV) but I think it has some sort of therapeutic value in that it clears your mind of the mental blocks that are impeding your ability to see a clear pathway to the solution. Anyway...food for thought.

[Bob cruise director]

Ashore! Looks like a 'medium' difficulty (3 stars?). Rita and I (George) are finally getting the hang of these. It's really nice that when you 'get it', you feel that there was no doubt about it!

Thanks Matt (and Mike!)

Getting the hang of these generally means that your mind has become warped like the rest of us

[Bob cruise director]

I am walking down the Wal-Mart dairy aisle at the crack of dawn.

I stop dead in my tracks, get a thousand yard stare. After being motionless for 10 seconds, my wife, perhaps wondering if I have had a stroke, says "what is it?".

"I've just solved the meta!"

And so I had. Most satisfactory. On shore.

My wife gives your wife her condolences

[Wendy Walker]

In many of these puzzles, there is a theme, hinted at in the title, that links the answer and the mechanism for getting to that answer. Maybe that’s what Wendy had in mind when she thought that things might be getting “risque.”

I got the mechanism and the meta, but if there is a common theme, I missed it.

I will follow up on Monday! My still-in-junior-high mind spotted something early on in the solving process.

[Wendy Walker]

I am walking down the Wal-Mart dairy aisle at the crack of dawn.

I stop dead in my tracks, get a thousand yard stare. After being motionless for 10 seconds, my wife, perhaps wondering if I have had a stroke, says "what is it?".

"I've just solved the meta!"

And so I had. Most satisfactory. On shore.

Grateful for our long-suffering family members!

[anjhinz]

Got it!

[MajordomoTom]

after a reasonable night's sleep, I'm still on the boat ...

[KayW]

On shore, or not on shore - that is the question.
The answer: shore!

I solved the grid last night (once again using the helpful excel template Joe Ross provided here - thanks Joe!) and saw the first toehold (quick check to make sure that's no spoiler ). This morning I reworked the grid in the print edition and - boom! the solution popped out. I should keep some personal stats on how often that helps - it usually does the trick for me!

Agreed, this puzzle is a bit tougher than the last few. But as always, clever and fun!

[CPJohnson]

That was a fun trip to shore! Yes, a bit trickier than the last couple. I think novices will have a hard time with this one. There are answers that seem reasonable if you haven't been doing these long enough to have a feel for how they work.

So I wonder what the lead time is on these puzzles. Did Matt work in 6D after reading this blog last week? Or was this written so long ago he didn't even remember it til he saw it?

Poetry is very much not my thing, and I don't even really know what iambic pentameter is, but I'll enjoy reading everyone's offerings.

I am with you on the poetry comment, Barbara. I looked up iambic pentameter, and I still don’t think I could create it. Maybe I need to look up examples.

[ImOnToo]

On shore. 🏖

Fun one!

[tim1217]

That was a fun trip to shore! Yes, a bit trickier than the last couple. I think novices will have a hard time with this one. There are answers that seem reasonable if you haven't been doing these long enough to have a feel for how they work.

So I wonder what the lead time is on these puzzles. Did Matt work in 6D after reading this blog last week? Or was this written so long ago he didn't even remember it til he saw it?

Poetry is very much not my thing, and I don't even really know what iambic pentameter is, but I'll enjoy reading everyone's offerings.

I am with you on the poetry comment, Barbara. I looked up iambic pentameter, and I still don’t think I could create it. Maybe I need to look up examples.

From Wiki...

An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as:

da DUM
The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is the most common example of this rhythm.

A standard line of iambic pentameter is five [penta] iambic feet in a row:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Straightforward examples of this rhythm can be heard in the opening line of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 12:

When I do count the clock that tells the time
and in John Keats' Ode To Autumn:[1]

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
It is possible to notate this with a "/" marking ictic syllables (experienced as beats) and a "×" marking nonictic syllables (experienced as offbeats). In this notation a standard line of iambic pentameter would look like this:

× / × / × / × / × /
The scansion of the examples above can be notated as follows:

× / × / × / × / × /
When I do count the clock that tells the time

× / × / × / × / × /
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

So mine posted yesterday looks like this...

x / x / x / x / x /
A quest like that of the ho ly gr ail
x / x / x / x / x /
To my great dis may I week ly fa il
x / x / x / x / x /
It haunts me like a vic ious vi ral bug
x / x / x / x / x /
Oh to solve the me ta and win the mug

EDIT: Sorry, I tried to space the x's and the /'s out so they line up but the text editor on the forum won't cooperate.

[Geoduck]

Onshore!

[Bob cruise director]

Good Friday morning fellow muggles

A bit more challenging contest from Mr. Gaffney but an amazing number of us were up to it. Currently we have three keeping Isaac company and 71 on the shore. This one is tricky but when you have the methodology you know it. And some of us backed into the solution and then had to fill in the blanks

Good luck to all in getting the correct "certain parts of the body"

[Janet P]

Hanging with Isaac and enjoying a Bloody Mary.

[CPJohnson]

That was a fun trip to shore! Yes, a bit trickier than the last couple. I think novices will have a hard time with this one. There are answers that seem reasonable if you haven't been doing these long enough to have a feel for how they work.

So I wonder what the lead time is on these puzzles. Did Matt work in 6D after reading this blog last week? Or was this written so long ago he didn't even remember it til he saw it?

Poetry is very much not my thing, and I don't even really know what iambic pentameter is, but I'll enjoy reading everyone's offerings.

I am with you on the poetry comment, Barbara. I looked up iambic pentameter, and I still don’t think I could create it. Maybe I need to look up examples.

From Wiki...

An iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm can be written as:

da DUM
The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is the most common example of this rhythm.

A standard line of iambic pentameter is five [penta] iambic feet in a row:

da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM
Straightforward examples of this rhythm can be heard in the opening line of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 12:

When I do count the clock that tells the time
and in John Keats' Ode To Autumn:[1]

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
It is possible to notate this with a "/" marking ictic syllables (experienced as beats) and a "×" marking nonictic syllables (experienced as offbeats). In this notation a standard line of iambic pentameter would look like this:

× / × / × / × / × /
The scansion of the examples above can be notated as follows:

× / × / × / × / × /
When I do count the clock that tells the time

× / × / × / × / × /
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

So mine posted yesterday looks like this...

x / x / x / x / x /
A quest like that of the ho ly gra il
x / x / x / x / x /
To my great dis may I week ly fa il
x / x / x / x / x /
It haunts me like a vic ious vir al bug
x / x / x / x / x /
Oh to solve the me ta and win the mug

EDIT: Sorry, I tried to space the x's and the /'s out so they line up but the text editor on the forum won't cooperate.

Thanks! Are you a teacher?

[31 Down]

I am anatomically correct.