XWord Muggles Forum

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:17 pm

802puzzler wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:25 pm Just finished the grid (tough one), so count me at sea for now. I'll take a jigsaw puzzle break and then come back with fresh eyes and clear mind!

Are you available to help on my Christmas jig saw puzzle? Van Gogh's Starry Night - makes the meta look easy

Oh, man! I would love to be working on that!

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:17 pm

802puzzler wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:25 pm Just finished the grid (tough one), so count me at sea for now. I'll take a jigsaw puzzle break and then come back with fresh eyes and clear mind!

Are you available to help on my Christmas jig saw puzzle? Van Gogh's Starry Night - makes the meta look easy

We just finished that very puzzle! It was a doozy, but fun -- although not as bad as a recent Game of Thrones map puzzle I did that only had 3 colors.

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:55 pm Late in reporting--I made it ashore yesterday afternoon. It was a DAsh to the meta answer once I finished the hard woRK of the grid. Step one quickly caught my EYe and the solution soon followED. Now I must JUmp into the car for an eNCOunter with the oral surgeon. The kids and spouses are coming in this evening for a covid-delayed Christmas, so this unexpected dental glitch is not appreciated. But my son-in-law was able to find the Yuengling Hershey that someone mentioned here a few weeks ago, so I will be having that tonight after they arrive!

Forget the junco, you need to come to New England in the winter to PURsue your PLEasure and stay on the SANDs and PIck up another PERsonal life bird.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:26 pm

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:55 pm Late in reporting--I made it ashore yesterday afternoon. It was a DAsh to the meta answer once I finished the hard woRK of the grid. Step one quickly caught my EYe and the solution soon followED. Now I must JUmp into the car for an eNCOunter with the oral surgeon. The kids and spouses are coming in this evening for a covid-delayed Christmas, so this unexpected dental glitch is not appreciated. But my son-in-law was able to find the Yuengling Hershey that someone mentioned here a few weeks ago, so I will be having that tonight after they arrive!

Forget the junco, you need to come to New England in the winter to PURsue your PLEasure and stay on the SANDs and PIck up another PERsonal life bird.

I wish I could be on my way! I wouldn't normally think of New England as a winter destination, but if birds are involved....

Grid was tough.

Not getting anywhere with the meta.

hunkra wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:23 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:17 pm

802puzzler wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:25 pm Just finished the grid (tough one), so count me at sea for now. I'll take a jigsaw puzzle break and then come back with fresh eyes and clear mind!

Are you available to help on my Christmas jig saw puzzle? Van Gogh's Starry Night - makes the meta look easy

We just finished that very puzzle! It was a doozy, but fun -- although not as bad as a recent Game of Thrones map puzzle I did that only had 3 colors.

How long did it take you?

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:29 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:26 pm

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:55 pm Late in reporting--I made it ashore yesterday afternoon. It was a DAsh to the meta answer once I finished the hard woRK of the grid. Step one quickly caught my EYe and the solution soon followED. Now I must JUmp into the car for an eNCOunter with the oral surgeon. The kids and spouses are coming in this evening for a covid-delayed Christmas, so this unexpected dental glitch is not appreciated. But my son-in-law was able to find the Yuengling Hershey that someone mentioned here a few weeks ago, so I will be having that tonight after they arrive!

Forget the junco, you need to come to New England in the winter to PURsue your PLEasure and stay on the SANDs and PIck up another PERsonal life bird.

I wish I could be on my way! I wouldn't normally think of New England as a winter destination, but if birds are involved....

And snowy owls, black scoters and harlequins all at close range.

On shore! Really enjoyed this fun puzzle. But please no AP Calculus!

Colin wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 11:15 am

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 10:56 am

Colin wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 9:38 am I am stunned at the warp speed that many muggles take when consuming this (and every) week’s fruits. I prefer to take time to admire the container, check the vintage, read the labels, carefully remove the cork, check for indications of mal-storage, leave to breathe for a while, carefully move the contents to a different container, inhale the unique qualities, take a small sip to see what we have, allow the flavors to flower, imagine the work that went into crafting this special product, visualize the place of origin, multiplex small sips with my dinner, put the stopper in and then repeat until finished. This can take hours or sometimes days but the feeling I get when finished is like being on some remote shore in paradise!
So far this week, however, I am still admiring the container.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Gimme a bucket of ice & a bowl of Splenda®.

Hmmm. You have a point. Some people just don’t appreciate the reverence of well-crafted beverages...
https://youtu.be/_akYdDIqYiE

Well bless my soul, as someone who appreciates the reverence of a well-crafted beverage, the kind in which you might make an in-vestment, and certainly would want to drink at the advent of a communion with family and friends, I wouldn't altar your description of the act of indulgence one bit. But I must say, 2020, and the 2020 OT we are in now, has circumcised the Acts of wine drinking to 1) Pop cork, 2) Slosh into nearest glass, 3) Down, 4) Repeat.

(Take it away, Dr. Tom!)

BTW: Haven't started the puzzle yet. Still in port, waiting on the gangplank for my kids to tell me when they have time to zoom. (How long does Counter-Strike take?)

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:29 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:26 pm

LadyBird wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:55 pm Late in reporting--I made it ashore yesterday afternoon. It was a DAsh to the meta answer once I finished the hard woRK of the grid. Step one quickly caught my EYe and the solution soon followED. Now I must JUmp into the car for an eNCOunter with the oral surgeon. The kids and spouses are coming in this evening for a covid-delayed Christmas, so this unexpected dental glitch is not appreciated. But my son-in-law was able to find the Yuengling Hershey that someone mentioned here a few weeks ago, so I will be having that tonight after they arrive!

Forget the junco, you need to come to New England in the winter to PURsue your PLEasure and stay on the SANDs and PIck up another PERsonal life bird.

I wish I could be on my way! I wouldn't normally think of New England as a winter destination, but if birds are involved....

You need to see this video. All bird lovers should.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzKsfhalAPo

finished the grid quickly but still at sea....you guys amaze me

Giddily On shore! I needed one clarification from Boharr at the last step, but I'm still very pleased.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:17 pm

802puzzler wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 2:25 pm Just finished the grid (tough one), so count me at sea for now. I'll take a jigsaw puzzle break and then come back with fresh eyes and clear mind!

Are you available to help on my Christmas jig saw puzzle? Van Gogh's Starry Night - makes the meta look easy

I have a similar one that was a photomosaic - which seemed to make it even trickier: And the next challenge? A mystery bag jigsaw puzzle I found in my closet. No box, NO PICTURE WHATSOVER

Ashore methinks. Mehopes.

As many have already commented, I found the grid in this weeks meta trickier than the last several months! My first thought was does this auger well for the meta?

I noticed a sharp transition in the discussion toward ornithology, so I thought I would also add my observations of the unusual sightings at my backyard feeder in New England. My local supplier, who pushes product in 10 kilo bags, had alerted me that many users had reported a surplus of unususal sightings of species displaced from Nova Scotia because of weather patterns. One stunner, is the red breasted nuthatch, shown below, ( photo by the Cornell bird site, my cell phone camera is not that good.) These now outnumber the usual white breasted nuthatches 5 to 1 at my feeder.

The diversion cleared my head and made the start to the meta far more transparent. I'm now ashore working on the MGWCC.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red ... 040881[img][/img]

As others have said, the clues in the grid provided for a slightly more difficult solve. Currently at sea, no doubt staring at the shore somewhere in this, but it's tough to see at the present.

hcbirker wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 3:45 pm
You need to see this video. All bird lovers should.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzKsfhalAPo

Thank you, Heidi!

Birds of Paradise know they can dance.

National Geographic BOP

I’m on shore!

That was a fun puzzle! I’m ashore.

DrTom wrote: ↑Fri Jan 08, 2021 1:09 pm Well that was refreshing! I looked at the META last night after solving the rather grueling GRID and got NADA/SQUAT/NOTHING. Then after my haircut this AM (which my wife feels is a complete waste of money) and a trip to Trader Joe's (where I can never go without coming home with at least 7 more things than were on my list) I got the puzzle and some coffee and put it on the kitchen island I was sitting at [WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, DID YOU NEVER TAKE ENGLISH, "on the kitchen island where I was sitting"] when it hit me [YOU ARE HOPELESS! REALLY, THE COUNTER ACTUALLY HIT YOU? FOR GOD'S SAKE TOM]. From there on it was an easy stroll to the solution.

Clever and different mechanism and a confidence builder. I just downloaded Mr. Gaffney's week 2 puzzle so I'll see how I fare with that one. But as for the WSJCC - ASHORE!!!

"Clever and different mechanism" - I couldn't disagree more. We've seen this, or its variants, again and again...