"A Sail of Two Cities" - June 18, 2021

[jhseeman]

Ashore,
Thanks to a well timed nudge. thx.

[DrTom]

OK, now I'm ashore with help from a tug. I am also furious with myself because I submitted the WSJ answer to MGWCC. I've written Matt and begged his forbearance, hopefully he will listen.

[Bob cruise director]

Good Friday morning.

A light load this week as we have 5 on the ship and 43 on the shore. I think that a lot are sailing in circles and not between two cities

[sf592000]

I'm ashore as well with a nudge -- took a very similar path as most have mentioned.

[lbray53]

Good Friday morning.

A light load this week as we have 5 on the ship and 43 on the shore. I think that a lot are sailing in circles and not between two cities

I am on the ship after sailing between two cities several times without finding anything significant. Perhaps some time with Isaac will help me see the final step others have found to be difficult to navigate.

[C=64]

Checking in from the lido deck; I'm busy setting up my summer online classes before going camping for the weekend, so I probably won't solve the meta before I'm off the grid.

Step 1 was relatively easy, with the aid of some research materials, and then I confidently did what I thought Step 2 would be, but I'm not getting anything besides alphabet soup. I'll either have to tweak Step 2 or look for a Step 3.

[ALS]

Wandering at sea or thereabouts. I thought I found everything I needed for step one, but now I'm second guessing myself. And my thoughts on possibilities for a potential step 2 don't seem to be going anywhere either.

I fear my sailboat may capsize.

ALS

[LadyBird]

The star rating at the top is misleading. We should score puzzles solely on how quickly page 1 is filled up, which in this case took more than two hours. This is a solid 4.

I went back through the forum to see how long it took page 1 to fill up (I REALLY don't want to clean the bathrooms, which is what is actually on my to-do list!). You have to go all the way back to November 6, 2020 to get longer than this week. It was "Fresh Start" by Matt, with a 3.5 rating. It had the dreaded parentheses! And it took 2 hours and 42 minutes to fill the first page.

At first I thought that November 27, 2020 was in contention, which puzzled me since it had a rating of 1. Then I remembered that traumatic debacle where WSJ was an hour late getting the puzzle up on their site.

[brulo]

On shore, that one took me way longer than it should. Great aha moment. Now to get back to reading the Tales of Dunk and Egg with a nice cup of brown.

[hunkra]

Finally got around to finishing the grid and am now laying out my page of "notes" -- sounds like it's going to take me longer than usual to figure this out. Not even bothering to attempt a swim -- will stay firmly put with Isaac and some fellow passengers for now. Going to see my first in-movie-house movie tonight... In the Heights (woo hoo!)

[STL-D]

Would someone be willing to check my work? I'm about 95% sure that I have a good answer and about 90% sure that it is the right answer. Which is woefully shy of my usual feeling. But it's too good for me to abandon it, so difficult to move on.

[sharkicicles]

On the shore like Dinah Shore. Had to backsolve a bit.

[Eric Porter]

I'm on shore with a nudge to get the final step.

As usual when I've spent over an hour on a puzzle, I'd actually come somewhat close to the solution, but just didn't think to try it exactly that way.

This puzzle reminded of one from a while ago, but that didn't help me solve it.

[RichA2]

A long way from shore.

[Franklin.Bluth]

I went back through the forum to see how long it took page 1 to fill up (I REALLY don't want to clean the bathrooms, which is what is actually on my to-do list!). You have to go all the way back to November 6, 2020 to get longer than this week. It was "Fresh Start" by Matt, with a 3.5 rating. It had the dreaded parentheses! And it took 2 hours and 42 minutes to fill the first page.

FRESH START was a 5 on my scale, the only criterion of which is this: even when the solution is posted, I still don't really understand it. It becomes a "never ever" puzzle.

The problem with these star ratings is that they're heavily biased toward the solvers, who assume making it to shore means the puzzle was a 1. Here's my proposal:

1: You get the answer while filling out the grid. It's literally just sitting there, either in the grid or, in the case of POETIC JUSTICE, rhyming with the theme answers. (POETIC JUSTICE, 2/05/2021)

2: You maybe have to take one additional step, but the answer is still basically on the grid. (PAST AND PRESENT, 12/25/2020)

3: You have to take multiple steps, use the clues in a weird way, or look above or below the theme answers. (AP ENGLISH, 1/08/2021)

4: You have to take multiple steps, use knowledge from outside the puzzle, make logical deductions, or really comb the clues. Will almost certainly require Google. (IN BED BY 9, 12/18/2020)

4.5: Nearly impossible, but if you've done a lot of these and they happen to reuse a mechanism you might get it. Combines more than one mechanism to mess with you. Explanation has to be studied to be understood.(FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS, 5/14/2021)

5: Good luck. It'd be a better use of your time to just make a wild guess and go about your day. The explanation comes out, and you read it, but even though it seems to be English you still have no idea how they got the answer. (KING ME!, 5/01/2020)

(By the way...for new muggles [I've only been here since last summer], a good resource is studying the past solutions, which can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=277.)

[Beth C]

Ashore! Tough grid and challenging meta. Thank goodness for Google. I learned a few things along the way too. I'll celebrate with some Eagle Rare tonight! Good luck Muggles.

[pjc]

I think I'm in the same boat (ha!) as a lot of people; I have a list of items that I went through a couple of steps to get, but not sure how to translate them into a final answer. Out-of-town this weekend, so I'm likely to be lost at sea this week.

[rosiegirl]

Totally lost at sea. At step 2, no less.(if Step one is completing the grid!) It is going to be a long weekend!

[ky-mike]

OK, now I'm ashore with help from a tug. I am also furious with myself because I submitted the WSJ answer to MGWCC. I've written Matt and begged his forbearance, hopefully he will listen.

I’ve done the same thing in the past. Matt is very forgiving.

[woozy]

5/6 of the way there. Got the theme absolutely without question, but the mechanism and the answer itself.... not a clue.