"The Paper Chase" - July 19, 2019

[Tom Shea]

From Monday’s PDF —

The contest answer is GUTSY. The five cities in the theme answers combine with a word in the grid, with one letter changed, to form a newspaper: Miami Herald (GERALD), Denver Post (POUT), Chicago Tribune (TRIBUTE), Boston Globe (GLOBS), and Fresno Bee (BEY). Those changed letters spell the contest answer.

Got the first four papers easily since I have been in those cities a bit. Fresno, figured I needed a 'Y' and got stuck on Layla for a while before headed to shore.

I wonder if there is a paper named La Bla. Must be a pretty boring read if it exists.

[BethA]

I was definitely off the boat but didn’t quite make it to shore. Second week in a row I couldn’t figure out the order of the letters from the grid. At least last week I figured out “solution” was the correct solution. This week however, I couldn’t see “gutsy” and only saw “gusty”. What put it in the order for “gutsy”? Still not seeing it. Maybe printing it out is the best thing to do.

You get GUTSY if you go in order of the theme answers, MIAMI first on down to FRESNO last. I happened to write them on a separate sheet of paper, with 3 columns: theme answer, major newspaper, grid entry that’s one letter off from newspaper name.

I always print meta puzzles, too. Recommend it!

[CPJohnson]

I was definitely off the boat but didn’t quite make it to shore. Second week in a row I couldn’t figure out the order of the letters from the grid. At least last week I figured out “solution” was the correct solution. This week however, I couldn’t see “gutsy” and only saw “gusty”. What put it in the order for “gutsy”? Still not seeing it. Maybe printing it out is the best thing to do.

Top to bottom order of theme answers. (I always print the puzzle.)

[hcbirker]

When I first entered "tribute" into the grid, I knew what was going on. And "Bey" seemed forced, so it went together quickly from there. (Heidi)

[Tom Shea]

On shore and had to mix our own martini's. Sorry Isaac, but I'll double tip next week.

Enjoying the mountain, ducks about to hatch, early corn, and awaiting the induction of the best relief pitcher in the history of the world into the Hall of Fame as the first unanimous pick ever.

are you in Cooperstown?

I am not. I am about an hour and a half away in VT. I will have to stream it to see it.

It is a chilly 79 here with 100% humidity. Thank god for the elevation and breeze.

Ducklings hatched

Sorry for the blurry image...

[MikeMillerwsj]

A crossword contest love letter to journalists! Thank you Matt. We had a big turnout, 1677 entries, about 94% correct. 15 of you guessed HERALD, and the rest were a lovely litany (in small numbers) of epithets for journalists: RESPECTED, SKEPTICAL, INTREPID, INDEPENDENT, COSMOPOLITAN... it's as if you're walking through the WSJ newsroom.

Congrats to this week's winner: John Wayne Pint of Hingham, Mass.!

[Gwyneth_S]

I saw the pattern and knew I needed the “t” but had written Sun-Times for the Chicago paper. Stumped briefly until I realized my error, and tribute jumped out, completing the meta.
This level of difficulty (or not, depending) is my preferred speed.
Have a good week, everyone.

[Bird Lives]

The only Bee I'd heard of was Sacramento (I knew a guy who worked there.) Now I discover that there's a Fresno and a Modesto. And a Samantha, though unlike the others, she is not owned by McClatchy.

[Scott M]

Congrats to this week's winner: John Wayne Pint of Hingham, Mass.!

An appropriately named winner! Hope Mr. Pint shared one with Al Sisti and others on the board.

[Thurman8er]

First time in my life it helped that I live in Fresno. Still in shock...

[Joe Ross]

Got the first four papers easily since I have been in those cities a bit. Fresno, figured I needed a 'Y' and got stuck on Layla for a while before headed to shore.

I wonder if there is a paper named La Bla. Must be a pretty boring read if it exists.

I've been a devotee of USNPL.COM since its inception, but knew of the Fresno Bee. Per this site, the US is lousy (or should I say "busy") with Bees, but no "La Bla":

Amherst Bee
Beeville Bee-Picayune
Belleair Bee
Bonner County Daily Bee
Bullhead City Bee
Cheektowaga Bee
Clarence Bee
Danville Register & Bee
De Queen Bee
East Aurora Bee
Fresno Bee
Ken-Ton Bee
Lake County Record-Bee
Lancaster Depew Bee
Modesto Bee
Newtown Bee
Orchard Park Bee
Ossian Bee
Ripley Bee
Sacramento Bee
Soledad Bee
Steel-Country Bee
West Seneca Bee

world-newspapers.com lists no "La Bla".

[Joe Ross]

I've studied drafting, have done a bit of it, and would rather print in block letters than write in cursive. For day-to-day printing, I much prefer gel ink over pencil.

WSJ Puzzle's online app for completing crosswords appeals to my need for speed (I solve puzzles much, much faster using it) and to my neat-freakishness, in that corrections are quickly & cleanly made, with no pencil (shudder) erasures on newsprint. I do subscribe to the online & paper WSJ.

I also use Excel daily and am comfortable with it.

Given the above, I use the online app & Excel to solve the puzzles & to work out metas. I offer it for consideration.

Routine:
- Open new spreadsheet page.
- Format all Row Heights to 17.3 (46 pixels), Columns A-E Widths to 15.3 (236 pixels), and Columns F+ Widths to 25.0.
- SAVE this spreadsheet as a blank for future puzzles.

- Open the Friday contest puzzle in PDF form.
- Copy the grid & clues of the PDF to the upper left corner of an Excel page using the Snippet Tool.
- Downsize PDF Snippet by dragging SE corner to make grid rows match Rows 1 through 15.

- Solve the grid using the WSJ online app.
- Copy the solved grid to the upper left corner of the puzzle PDF and downsize Snippet to match PDF grid.

- Highlight theme answers:
--- (in Excel) INSERT - ILLUSTRATIONS - SHAPES - RECTANGLES
--- Click & drag rectangle over a theme answer.
--- Format Shape: Fill @ 50% Transparency & select color. No Line for shape border.
--- Copy & paste rectangle to other themed and useful answers. Change colors as desired.

- Use Columns F & beyond as scratch pad for rabbit holes, brainstorming, etc. Highlight & format cells as desired.

These seem like a lot of steps, but the beauty of Excel is the ability to copy & paste, once the basic spreadsheet, PDF, grid, & highlighting shapes are established, even from week to week. Also, erasures are clean & simple with a couple of right & left mouse or mouse-pad clicks.

Paper Chase was a relatively simple solve, so the spreadsheet, below, is much too clean. Other weeks can look as if a clown vomited confetti all over them.

[Inca]

Given the above, I use the online app & Excel to solve the puzzles & to work out metas. I offer it for consideration.

Wow! Thanks for sharing this.
For the same reason you give, I like doing the puzzle online. I have to say that for most metas, I just solve the meta that way.
However, sometimes it just doesn't work...and then I need something more. So I also make an excel version for myself.
But mine is a bit more time consuming to do because while I do copy/paste the clues, I never thought of snipping and pasting the entire puzzle with the clues and then with the filled in grid. I did not think of using shapes and highlighting so I needed to have each letter it's own cell.
There is one thing about mine that helps me, though. Because I cannot simply copy/paste the completed version of the grid, I have to re-fill in the grid and sometimes things that did not pop out at me the first time I filled the grid, will do so on the second go round.
I'd show my version, but the end result looks kind of the same....and I'm at work and don't have access to the file here.
Next time I feel the need to highlight the grid, I will try your way and see how it works out for me.

[Joe Ross]

Inca,

I should have mentioned that I also use the shapes to highlight grid clues, when I think that they may be part of the solution. If you don't copy & paste the PDF with clues, you cannot highlight the clues.

I wouldn't attempt to highlight paper as it cannot be erased nor altered.

Too, on the rabbit holey/confetti-ed puzzles, I may use lines, arcs, arrows, ovals, & circles to connect words, clues, & scratch pad lists. These are also easy to copy/paste/alter/erase.

Another way to highlight grid answers is to use straight lines, making them square-ended & increasing their widths to your desire. You may find this easier, however rectangles are a better tool for highlighting clues with multiple lines.

To investigate multiple lines of thought more cleanly, each Excel sheet can be copied & pasted to multiple tabs within the same file. In the example posted, there is only one sheet/tab (at the bottom), named "Sheet1".

[Joe Ross]

The formatting of rows & columns mentioned fit my Surface with a 12" screen. Your display/pad/laptop may vary by a large degree.

There is no need to have the Snippeted PDF span Columns A through E, as I do. Column A could be widened to the width of the PDF Snippet, with the "scratch pad" columns starting with Column B.

If anyone has questions or wants help. please send a PM. I'll do my best.

[31 Down]

Joe - this is way too much "work" for me but I do hope you post your detailed methodology to the Come Aboard section under FAQs.

[FrankieHeck]

Joe - this is way too much "work" for me but I do hope you post your detailed methodology to the Come Aboard section under FAQs.

I agree. It all looked super helpful and impressive, but I don't think I'm smart enough to do it. It would be great to have it in the FAQ so that if I miraculously become smarter one day, I can go back and look for it.

[BrianMac]

Joe - this is way too much "work" for me but I do hope you post your detailed methodology to the Come Aboard section under FAQs.

I agree. It all looked super helpful and impressive, but I don't think I'm smart enough to do it. It would be great to have it in the FAQ so that if I miraculously become smarter one day, I can go back and look for it.

Done! Joe Ross' Guide to Solving the WSJ Meta with Excel

[Joe Ross]

Thank you Thomas W & Frankie!

Thank you, Brian! That's hilarious!

[Emmaa]

Do any of you you have a simplest way to print out the completed grid, to use to solve meta, prior to the deadline, on an iPad?