XWord Muggles Forum

On shore! got side-tracked for awhile, but realized that wasn't going anywhere and tried a new tack. It worked.
A Harvey Wallbanger sounds refreshing. I think i'll have one.

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:43 am I JUST THIS MINUTE made sense of 50A.

Had the same issue. Enlightenment came after quite the delay.

Yay! Got it, on the beach! I had to revisit a few times before the final click became obvious. As usual, a very clever mechanism!

And here is this week's shot of utter cuteness, you are welcome!

hoover wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 12:44 pm

sharkicicles wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:02 am

markhr wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:50 am 19A should have been clued: "Like the Braves' bullpen."
(Baseball fans will understand.)

—>

Room on the AL bandwagon. Just saying.

I got the first two steps immediately, now trying to solve. I haven’t had a great last couple of weeks but who knows…

Pffft. After however years it's been now, I'm still not used to the Astros playing the Yankees. Pitchers should bat.

And the NL should only play the AL in the World Series!

On shore, for the first time in weeks. It took a while to clear my bar tab.

Grid was straightforward except for the usual guessing game I have to go through for movie stars and musicians. Meta? I'm in my usual spot. If I wore sandpaper trousers, this stool would be smooth as glass.

Ahoy, Isaac!

HeadinHome wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:28 am I’m with all of you on the CHEF D’OEUVRE … AND on the PIECE DE RESISTANCE “wrong” answers… but also add COUP DE MORTE (not GRACE).

On shore! After another very long work day, did the grid at midnight last night (fell asleep on the last few), and saw the meta pretty quickly this morning. Once I saw it, I figured out why the grid had felt just a bit odd while doing it.

More work today, but tonight? May just tuck into a big icy margarita.

I lucked into the correct synonyms last week. I was actually surprised to see the official solution describe them as French phrases as to me they are English phrases with French origins. When I hear cul-de-sac, non-de-plume, or tour-de-force, they sound pretty much English. (Coup-de-grace maybe not quite as much, but still much closer than true French phrases.) Chef d'oeuvre or piece de resistance in my head always have a thick French accent.

But I have sympathy for those who got stuck in the alternatives rabbit hole. I don't mind a simple look up, but I'm much less thrilled with having to get the exact right phrasing of your search query and even needing your google profile and history to match the creators so you get the same results they do. And I've done other metas lately where I was one of the ones who got stuck there.

Got it. Fun puzzle. Amazed at the how they construct these puzzles.

on shore, really liked this one

Ashore! With a little bit of help from my friends. Nice one. Like Dr. Tom, I struggled way more than I should have with this one.

michaelm wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:31 pm

markhr wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 1:50 am 19A should have been clued: "Like the Braves' bullpen."
(Baseball fans will understand.)

Were you expecting 47D instead?
The Phillies have once again been 61A (except for last two games!)

I love all this baseball talk after this week's MMM.

^^

Man us my face red. I have ben struggling all day with this puzzle and could NOT get a reasonable answer. I just went back and saw why...I solved on paper with my morning coffee and then went in and transferred to the computer (spreadsheet). Well although I solved the paper puzzle correctly, when I was transferring the letters to the spreadsheet I filled in an answer incorrectly. When I went back and looked at my answers (hoping that is where the problem lay), one look told me "hey, that's not right" and I was swimming like crazy for the shore.

So Bob, count me ashore, now to get dried off and tackle Matt's. Let's see if I can do the GRID more carefully this time.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:31 pm

I love all this baseball talk after this week's MMM.

Don't think I didn't notice that!

OK -- Really tricked me, but finally --
ASHORE

Only further digging by this bunny will be constructing a sandcastle on the beach -

I really admired the construction of this puzzle. I am admiring it from the shore.

I'm hanging out with Isaac, hoping that a Manhattan will relax my overwrought brain.
Maybe a fresh start in the AM will help!

On shore.

Ashore after a short, direct but fun swim. As always, very impressed.

Happily ashore. Made it much faster once I realized a silly mistake I was making. Fun one.

Happy weekend, Muggles.