Q&A With Matt Gaffney June 29

This is a place to learn about the Muggles community and some of the terminology we use. It also contains suggested strategies for solving meta crosswords, as well as a repository of all past WSJ crossword contests and solutions.
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BrianMac
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#101

Post by BrianMac »

93 at 7:35 wins the mug. I'll figure out who that is later. :) Enjoy the event!
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SReh26
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#102

Post by SReh26 »

BrianMac wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:36 pm 93 at 7:35 wins the mug. I'll figure out who that is later. :) Enjoy the event!
Awh! to quote Maxwell Smart, Missed it by THIS much!!
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Abide
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#103

Post by Abide »

I think my 87 is in a tie with Larry (99). Coin flip or Price is Right rules?
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ajk
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#104

Post by ajk »

Thanks @Bob cruise director for setting this up! Super fun. And of course thanks to @MattGaffney for participating!
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
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Al Sisti
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#105

Post by Al Sisti »

That was so awesome...
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BrianMac
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#106

Post by BrianMac »

Abide wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:46 pm I think my 87 is in a tie with Larry (99). Coin flip or Price is Right rules?
I'll do a coin flip tomorrow or later tonight and post the results. Abide, you call it - heads or tails?
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Meg
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#107

Post by Meg »

That was great!! Thanks @Bob cruise director!
Check out and support http://CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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#108

Post by Abide »

BrianMac wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:27 pm
I'll do a coin flip tomorrow or later tonight and post the results. Abide, you call it - heads or tails?
How fitting that a coin is involved today. I'll go with tails.
The site is just a web page, a meeting place, a clubhouse - it's the group that's special.
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michaelm
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#109

Post by michaelm »

Lotta constructor talent on Zoom tonight. What a thrill!
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BrianMac
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#110

Post by BrianMac »

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hazmat
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#111

Post by hazmat »

Sorry I couldn't make it to this. Is there a video link?
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TeamDoubleTow
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#112

Post by TeamDoubleTow »

This was a fantastic event! Thanks so much for organizing!
Team DoubleTow=Ali who posts here, Alex & Maya the hound(with occasional assistance from son)
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#113

Post by Dplass »

+100 Thanks Bob for organizing and hosting!

Unfortunately my Zoom connection kept dropping (literally 20 times) so I missed about half of it so I'm looking forward to the recording too.
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Bob cruise director
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#114

Post by Bob cruise director »

Here is the link to our Q&A with Matt Gaffney. There are two files - video with our cheerful faces and audio only. The video only shows the 25 who were on my screen at any one time. We had about 100 people on the zoom call for most of the time

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1t6swn0lagyqd ... 0.mp4?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yib25falek46b ... y.m4a?dl=0

If you have any problems let me know.
Last edited by Bob cruise director on Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:05 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Wendy Walker
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#115

Post by Wendy Walker »

I enjoyed that discussion so much! Bob, you did an amazing job keeping everything moving along. How awesome was it that not only Matt but also Mike and Evan were part of the event!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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#116

Post by Guffman »

Thank you, Bob, for putting last night's Q&A with Matt together. I was rather amazed at how quickly he can put a puzzle together when he has to. Given last Friday's meta, he can certainly create them a lot faster than I can solve them.
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Larrry
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#117

Post by Larrry »

BrianMac wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:40 pm
I won a mug! Listening to Matt and the Q&A was reward enough.
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#118

Post by MattGaffney »

Thanks to Bob for organizing this and to all the Muggles who attended. We shall do it again someday.
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#119

Post by Joe Ross »

5 minutes before the witching hour, a storm came through & knocked out my internet. I was able to download the Zoom app to my phone & connect but didn't trust it to ask a question.

I didn't have a question as much as I wanted to sing the praises of & call attention to the great young creators who've made this site home. This event had several heavy hitters in the crossword world.

It was a fantastic evening and I look forward to watching the video to pick up the parts missed reconnecting several times.

Bob, you put on a superb show. You and Matt obviously prepared well for the presentation. THANK YOU!
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#120

Post by KayW »

Many thanks to Matt, Bob, and everyone else who made this possible!

A number of people posted various puzzle links to the chat stream throughout the talk. I saved all the links (I hope!) and am posting them here in case others are interested. Apologies for not retaining more information about each of the links.

http://devilcross.com/2014/02/

https://crosswordfiend.com/2020/04/13/a ... unt-is-on/

https://www.7xwords.com/all/i-fold.html

http://blog.bewilderinglypuzzles.com/20 ... -meta.html

http://gridsthesedays.blogspot.com/

These two links describe MGWCC #296, which had a total of 4 solvers:
https://xwordcontest.com/2014/02/mgwcc- ... ed-mr.html
https://crosswordfiend.com/2014/02/05/mgwcc-296/
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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