"Ahead of Time" March 1, 2024

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count for this week is 244 on the shore and an empty bar for Isaac. After the last couple of very busy weeks, he needs the down time.

Good luck winning the mug but there will be long odds.

[JRS51]

Busy and distracted this weekend, lots going on but just got home, looked at the puzzle and thankfully found it was a quick solve.
Happy to reach the shore before the deadline.

[Ben B]

Late Sunday solve! But happy to be on shore.

[Olof]

Came ashore in the same boat as @JRS51 : after a busy weekend, zipped through this one for a very last minute solve.

[ADS]

Also made it to shore with a last minute solve.

[MaineMarge]

Been ashore since Friday.
My collection of 80+ old ticking chiming clocks should ensure I get where I’m going ahead of time, but procrastination almost won out here.
Here’s a favorite of 1 of the 20 I keep wound every day

[hcbirker]

[Cindy N]

"PRE-DATE" was my quibble with this puzzle as there are no "dates" in the grid. There are seven DAYS and that slowed me down, looking for dates in the clues and grid.

[Renee]

dfhdgh

[Bob cruise director]

Been ashore since Friday.
My collection of 80+ old ticking chiming clocks should ensure I get where I’m going ahead of time, but procrastination almost won out here.
Here’s a favorite of 1 of the 20 I keep wound every day
IMG_6976.jpeg

@MaineMarge Would you make a recording of what the house sounds like at noon each day and post it here.

[mheberlingx100]

I spent a fair amount of time looking at past tense verbs, trying to make them present tense (I.e. pre-date them). Nothing there, but I remembered this from some earlier puzzle. Eventually I took a step back and saw the days and went on from there.

[DBMiller]

I wonder how many people will have submitted DAILY instead of ALREADY. Seeing the days of the week, and thinking about adverbs might make you miss the key part of the title and the PREDATE hint.

[laurenmessmore]

Wow, I had a different solution, much less elegant. Five grid answers can form a phrase preceding the word "date": SALE (pitching goal), SEND (dispatch), HIRE (take on), DUE (bill word) and EXAMS (end-of-semester ordeals). The clues suggest other grid answers: ERA, ASAP, LET, RATE and THESES. The anagram of the first letters in the alternative grid answers is LATER.

[pddigi]

I have been off this board for some time, with occasional drop-ins. Nothing personal! But I do have a question: it seems to my best recollection that the mug winner was once easily found, but I don't remember how. On the WSJ puzzle page? If so, on the Monday puzzle or the Friday puzzle? In the comments or somewhere else? And if not there, where? Nowadays, I can't seem to find the winner's name posted wherever I look. Help!

[kurtalert]

Wow, I had a different solution, much less elegant. Five grid answers can form a phrase preceding the word "date": SALE (pitching goal), SEND (dispatch), HIRE (take on), DUE (bill word) and EXAMS (end-of-semester ordeals). The clues suggest other grid answers: ERA, ASAP, LET, RATE and THESES. The anagram of the first letters in the alternative grid answers is LATER.

This was the first rabbit hole I went down. Fortunately, I wasn't really getting too far with it- and I've generally been discouraged by others in the past from attempting to anagram my way into answers like that, unless anagramming is part of the metanism in another way. So, when the answer wasn't popping out at me as I found words that fit with DATE, and they weren't symmetrically located... I abandoned ship and looked for another path.

[flyingMoose]

One place is on this forum when @MikeMillerwsj gives the official results. See #264 last week.

His post most often appears (I think) on Tuesday, sometimes Monday, rarely Wednesday.

[pddigi]

One place is on this forum when @MikeMillerwsj gives the official results. See #264 last week.

His post most often appears (I think) on Tuesday, sometimes Monday, rarely Wednesday.

I guess I have to lurk more frequently! Thanks for the info.

[otlaolap]

I have been off this board for some time, with occasional drop-ins. Nothing personal! But I do have a question: it seems to my best recollection that the mug winner was once easily found, but I don't remember how. On the WSJ puzzle page? If so, on the Monday puzzle or the Friday puzzle? In the comments or somewhere else? And if not there, where? Nowadays, I can't seem to find the winner's name posted wherever I look. Help!

I'm on a plane at the moment so I cannot check, but I think the name of the preceding week's winner is posted in the small rules box in the Friday contest crossword puzzle as it is published in the newspaper and in the downloaded PDF.

[BarbaraK]

I have been off this board for some time, with occasional drop-ins. Nothing personal! But I do have a question: it seems to my best recollection that the mug winner was once easily found, but I don't remember how. On the WSJ puzzle page? If so, on the Monday puzzle or the Friday puzzle? In the comments or somewhere else? And if not there, where? Nowadays, I can't seem to find the winner's name posted wherever I look. Help!

The winner is posted on the WSJ site, in the comments for the Friday puzzle. It's often not until after the comment closing time of 4PM Monday, but Mike can override that and post anyway. And of course it's on the PDF (and in the physical paper) for the following Friday meta.

But I find the easiest way is to come to this site, click on the Members list link (down at the bottom of every page) scroll down to MikeMillerwsj - about 1/3 of the page - and click the number of posts for him. That gives this page

search.php?author_id=56&sr=posts

where I can easily jump to the one I'm looking for.

[Bob cruise director]

One place is on this forum when @MikeMillerwsj gives the official results. See #264 last week.

His post most often appears (I think) on Tuesday, sometimes Monday, rarely Wednesday.

@flyingMoose and @pddigi Paul welcome back. Hope to see you more often.

Mike Miller posts the stats and the winner when he hears back after notifying the winner on Monday. And then he has his normal work to do in addition to us. That is why there is no set time however if Mike does not hear back by Wednesday, he will publish the stats and let us know that he has not heard back from the winner.