"Play With Matches" November 10, 2023

[chriscross]

Got some hints that put me on shore. My step 1 was correct after all.

I can totally see how this is amazing. On the other hand, I'm not so sure I would describe this meta as "elegant." Maybe it's just frustration that Gaffney and Shenk train us to think of solving metas with certain standard principles, and Berry often comes in and completely breaks the expected norms.

[Relic]

Finally ashore! Thanks to @BarbaraK and the Zoomers for the help.

[Hidden in 3D]

I am staying on the ship, yet again. I've wasted far too many hours staring at this grid and now it is time to toss in the towel. I look forward to the reveal; I know it will be brilliant. Mr. Berry never ceases to amaze me!

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count is 31 on the ship and 107 on the shore

Good luck winning the mug.

[BigPear]

Just a meta meta note here. As agonizing as a missed or near miss meta is, I always find it interesting to figure out where my pattern recognition went wrong. If a rabbit hole is a pattern strong enough to make us dismiss its inconsistencies, I think its counterpart is the ugly duckling: a pattern we notice but dismiss too quickly because at first glance it looks inelegant. Maybe someday a cognitive bias researcher will invite all the Muggles to puzzle for science. Of course, the lab will need to have an open bar.

[Tcassutt]

On shore just in time! Very clever!

[Bob Cobb]

Do people who get help from others still submit for the mug?

[Joe Ross]

Some do. Many don't.

The help is to allow muggles to learn the ropes before abandoning crossword contests in frustration.

It's also to welcome all into this crowd.

[vandono]

Finally ashore. Better late than never! Let's see if there's any cognac left.

Looking at the steps... how do they come up with (and execute) these? Fascinating.

[mkmf]

Woohoo! It finally came together. Wonderful as always. So clean and clever (once the twisty rabbit holes were abandoned). On shore!

[LadyBird]

On shore with a nudge, so no mug. And 55D to all the solo solvers!

[Googly]

[hcbirker]

[Bob Cobb]

Lol what

[Bob Cobb]

Unfortunately you forgot to merge strike with every other word in the puzzle that had a double letter and then merge it with the synonyms of certain answers that also had double letters (WOOS, BOOZE, etc) and then run a de-dup Excel.

I’m sorry but there were not 100+ people in here who solved this.

[Bonnibel]

Wow. Just wow.

Not even close.

[escapeartist]

Thankfully I didn't spend a lot of time on this one this weekend.

[Cindy N]

Do people who get help from others still submit for the mug?

Even if you've solved, you should stop in on one of the Zoom "help" calls. So much of it is "What have you found so far, what are you looking at?" It can be a confirmation that you are moving in the right direction. And I don't think there's ever been a complaint from the WSJ creators that you shouldn't submit if you got a nudge. It's also a lot of fun. And if you just want to hang out and chat with your fellow muggles - there's the Tuesday call as well.

[Homer Buckle]

I got way too hung up on the 18 occurrences of double letters in the grid. Took me way too long to get off that track.

[Ergcat]

I started with getting rid of double letters but wouldn’t have thought of step 2 in a million years. Maybe next time! Congratulations to those that saw this!