"Who Says?" - January 3, 2020

[Lucas S]

Made it to shore earlier in the weekend, but I forgot to post due to my emotional investment in the Bills game (anticipation, excitement, anxiety, and sorrow - in that order).

[Bob cruise director]

Cheers to a mere few to several shy of a gross (137) of muggles on the beach!

What is the record number posting as solved?

Right now I have 130 on the beach. The record is 137 on February 1, 2019.

[Bob cruise director]

Good Sunday morning muggles. The beach is getting more crowded every minute.

We have another couple of new muggles: dplass and asehres. As always we welcome everyone to our continually growing clan.

We have 2 on the ship with Isaac. Both have answers but are afraid of getting pageanted!!

and as noted above we have 130 on the shore.

new since yesterday are:
Carla
Howard H
dplass
Colin
streroto
Tom S
Patty
rexthree
Julie O
Natalie
garryj
asechres
jag
Niobb
Brian M
dennis
and Lucas

I expect a record number this week - most likely over 2500. And it will either be 98% right or 98% wrong.

[juliet]

Count me on the beach.

[Scott M]

Searched fruitlessly for a path to a pageant, so I'm going to submit the obvious answer. Long odds this week.

[Tennisfan826]

New here. Ahoy from Minnesota!

Been attempting metas for a while now so decided to join the community. This week’s meta seemed quite straight forward compared to the usual but I gather these go through a cycle wherein they get progressively harder?

[Bob cruise director]

New here. Ahoy from Minnesota!

Been attempting metas for a while now so decided to join the community. This week’s meta seemed quite straight forward compared to the usual but I gather these go through a cycle wherein they get progressively harder?

There is no planned cycle like you get with the NYT crosswords (Friday harder than Monday) or Matt Gaffney's subscription service (each week in the month is harder than the previous week). However some weeks are definitely harder than others.

And welcome to the clan. Always great to have another muggle. And I suspect that any tennis you are playing for the next few months is indoors.

[DrTom]

Wow, approaching a record number of beached solvers. I wonder if this were Venice, CA would they refer to it as "Muggles Beach".

Getting to that prodigious number though reminds me of a bad math joke:

OK, the teacher says, what is 12 x 12?
Ewww, that's gross, comes the reply!

and while I am on bad math jokes (as alluded to last week I am math challenged, but gosh I like a good silly joke):

What tasty dish's volume can be described by a cylinder with a radius of z and a height of a?
Pizza of course!

Infinitely many mathematicians converge on a bar. The first says, "I'll have a beer." The second says, "I'll have half a beer." The third says, "I'll have a quarter of a beer." The barman pulls out just two beers. The mathematicians are all like, "That's all you're giving us? How drunk do you expect us to get on that?" The bartender says, "Come on guys. Know your limits." (hint - converging series)

or the corollary

Infinitely many mathematicians harmoniously walk into a bar. The first says, "I'll have a beer." The second says, "I'll have half a beer." The third says, "I'll have a third of a beer." The barman bellows "get out of here, are you trying to ruin me!" (hint - harmonic series)

[Richard]

On shore

Been there a while but too much football etc. to post

[DaveWa]

You can add me to the list of cave dwellers who made it ashore with confirming help from Google. Who knew this was a YouTube series? Oh, wait, I guess everyone except me and a few other spelunkers!

[LaceyK]

Add me to the shore and help beat the record.

[Lucksta]

Think I am safely shoreside, but we shall see. Seems too easy by half.

[Kas]

On shore! Calling this a Kas 1.5—but pleased to break a MetaFail streak for the new year!

[pookie]

Hi Bob, cruise director. Count me onshore too. I took the plunge. It's such a nice day, the swim felt good.
Hope we all beat the record!

[Nlobb]

I will definitely keep at it! I am already addicted and look forward to each week's new puzzle! Great fun!
Nlobb

[sphorning]

Back at it! Busy day, but managed to swim to shore. Happy 2020 everyone!

[jhcogan]

I spent parts of two days on the grid. Enlisted my girlfriend for help, too. Then, I could not come up with the easy answer that the blog was assuring me I'd find. After a couple hours, I'm satisfied that I finally found it Only my 2nd time on shore!!! Finishing up the eggnog Happy 2020 -John from Vermont, but sitting in Quebec as I submit my answer (girlfriend's place).

[Hector]

Oh, so you're telling us that you have a Canadian girlfriend??

(Just kidding!)

[jhcogan]

Oh, so you're telling us that you have a Canadian girlfriend??

(Just kidding!)

Oui

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count is 144 on the shore - A NEW RECORD!!!

and contributing is our newest muggle Tennisfan826

Putting us over the record line by coming on shore since lunch are:
Janet
Joe R
Beth C
Juliet
Tennisfan826
LacyK
Kas
DavidWa
SusanH
Richard
Luckst
pookie
Joel
and jhcogan

Good luck to all in getting the mug but the odds will be long.

See you on Thursday