XWord Muggles Forum

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:17 am Very nice. I too saw EDGAR/DEGAS in many places-just never got the mechanism. It didn't help that I couldn't unsee the two WOOD 'picture frames', resulting in my incorrect submission of GRANT WOOD (American Gothic). GRANTed, that answer was not particularly elegant, but it felt a little better than a total guess. Good luck on the mug!

Exactly what happened with me (saw the Degas and the intersecting “Wood” frames) and I was going to submit one of those but then I reached out for a nudge because it just didn’t feel “right”! Thanks to our Cruise Director, I finally saw the mechanism!

This one was my 100th WSJCC puzzle and I managed to make it to shore yesterday 77 correct, 23 times left stranded on the ship. I'm currently on my longest win streak of 20. Here's to 100 more!

Like many here, I quickly saw Degas popping up in the grid but took it to be a red herring because I could see no link to the title or the obvious clue PICTURE FRAMES. But when one of the Degas seem framed around a movie (picture) title by a favorite director (Kurosawa) in the grid I started looking for other picture frames still not making the connection to the titles mentioned in the clues. Since I had set the solved grid aside for several days, I was only searching for familiar movies framed by the TWO letters that would produce the meta I was convinced was correct; ARGO, ALI, RAN, TRON. With the deadline imminent, I found SHERWOOD with the requisite R and D but they weren’t framing the movie title (Her) that I had fixated on. It was only then, that I realized that all the titles were contained in the puzzle clues that I had solved a couple days before. WOO! that was a close one.

The rabbit hole I went down before solving was that both ALI and WOO had two intersecting answers in the grid. I spent a bunch of time trying to see if the other film titles also had corresponding answers. Once I got rid of that notion, it was an obvious solve.

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:29 am

bhamren wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:44 am

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 11:34 pm I got the answer, but I needed a reminder of something that I should have reminded myself of because I always forget it. So I'm on shore, but not enough so that I'm raising my tankard of ale.

Did the thing that you should have reminded yourself of have anything to do with the fact that Mike Shenk puzzles have a distinct propensity to involve words in the clues involved in the solving of the meta? I think you know what I mean, but that’s what I think of when I think of a “typical Marie” puzzle.

The answer is yes. I should have a sign on my computer screen that says, "Look at the clues, dummy." But Matt's puzzles also often require searching through the clues. What strikes me as different is that Mike's puzzles are more likely to involve ingenious letter-work. I think there was one where eight-letter automobile names circled the letters that were needed for the meta. Another where the theme entries had only one letter that was not duplicated within the word. That sort of thing. Matt's puzzles sometimes have theme entries that are, on their face, silly or nearly so. Mike is less likely to do silly.

"Look at the clues, dummy" sounds like a good screen saver. And as a corollary: After looking at the clues, go back to the grid. And vice versa. The clues and the grid entries often seem to have a symbiotic relationship.

My big rabbit hole was The MarCELS and Doo Wop so I thought the answer had to be Duchamp. Alley Oop gave the little bugger even more validity. But I couldn’t find “champ” and gave up on that fairly quickly.

KscX wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:03 am

HunterX wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:23 pm

KscX wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:05 pm

I’ll bet we are on the same page with that. Look forward to seeing what others have to say.

I am guessing I know what the two of you are referring to. And at first I considered it inelegance as well. But there are two reasons I came up with why it wasn't an issue for me. Or at least that was my rationalization.

ALI was my issue - it appeared twice AND the two intersected. It just made me feel like I was missing something after I had the mechanism and answer. Although not “framed” and it was the only title in a down answer, still bugged me.

Yup. That's what I figured it was. Saw that too. But all the other shows/pictures were in across answers, and you can't "frame" the "Ali" in 4 down since it starts the answer. So I figured it was just a coincidence, albeit an unfortunate one. Also, not that it helped, but "A-List" is a classic crossword answer when you need a 5 letters that start with 'A'.

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

You two.... Were I Canadian, I'd say, "You're just trying to make me moan, eh?"

Munch on that one for awhile...

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:09 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

And we have a winner!

Of course, the competition was, much like Dr. Tom's driver, a race to the bottom

Ah yes, punging to new depths!

My longest misdirection (before I was rescued) started with drawing a frame around

AL
DI

in the NE corner. Aha, there must be anagrammed painters’ names (or grocery chains?) framed throughout! Then I found RENOIR, suitable for framing, starting at square 62:

IN
RO
ER

Never got past looking for bits of names, never saw the five pictures in the clues. Congrats to those who got it, counting on another mug going to a Muggle!

And I echo the thanks to BrianMac for keeping us going.

I'm amazed I got this one right. My methodology was totally wrong, but I did get Edgar Degas.

I too was thrown by the DEGAS stemming from the D in SHERWOOD, went swimming around for a while with nothing to show. Finding ARGO was the AHA moment, I initially went with LE MIS in the NW corner, only to circle back to the clues for the correction. Quite fun!

HunterX wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:34 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

You two.... Were I Canadian, I'd say, "You're just trying to make me moan, eh?"

Munch on that one for awhile...

I Ottawa smacked you for that but I figured you were poutine us on.

HunterX wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:34 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:22 am I'm sure you've all heard the one about the art thief who robbed the Louvre but was caught in the stalled getaway vehicle just a few blocks away....

When questioned by French police as to why the vehicle just rolled to a stop, the thief replied: "....because I had no Monet, to buy Degas, to make the Van Gogh."

Apologies..............

What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

You two.... Were I Canadian, I'd say, "You're just trying to make me moan, eh?"

Munch on that one for awhile...

That's awful, just awful.

In fact, it's so bad it makes me wanna.....you know......scream....

I always spent a lot of time with the clues
(No dummy here..) My first scour of the clues looking for shows turned up those 5 all nicely framed by easily spotted quotation marks. I didn’t know WOO was a movie/show, but that clue wording and Google revealed it to be so. And there it was, also easily spotted in the grid. So off to the races to find the others, then to some nonproductive RH’s before my solving partner and I found the frames in a photo finish.

Here’s a picture already suitably framed.
Photographers sometimes bring a wedding party to our gardens. I didn’t know this gal, but had great fun trailing along for the show.
Here she is framed by pink Simplicity Rose in front, tallest Autumn Minaret daylily on left, Royalty crab behind, and a bevy of late summer bloomers.
September 7, 2013

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:53 pm

HunterX wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:34 am

DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:18 am
What apologies???? I LOVE that! Of course anaerobe you've left me sucking for air so let me volley back with my own.

"As the driver stepped out of the car to speak to the policeman his pants fell to his knees.
"Monsieur, what is going on, are you trying to moon a police officer" asked Gendarme Lautrec
Answered the flustered drive, "Non these pantings are too loose Lautrec"

At which point the other officer encouraged Lautrec not to dally because it was time for lunch and they were going to a new deli to try the Rubens and he was so hungry he was getting the munchies. The driver then tried to seize an opportunity and offered to buy them lunch if they each could go ya own way.

Your turn!

You two.... Were I Canadian, I'd say, "You're just trying to make me moan, eh?"

Munch on that one for awhile...

I Ottawa smacked you for that but I figured you were poutine us on.

BTW, I've only been on this forum a few months but where the heck is the moderator in all this 'punny business'?!!? I mean-I kicked in for the donation to maintain a professional and sophisticated discussion group--and this is what we get?!? This thread should've been flagged and redirected about 9 puns ago!

PS. I literally sounded out 'O T T A W A' slowly and phonetically in front of my display 3 times.

PPS. In all seriousness, I need some advice on responding via the quote thing above but doing so w/o copying the previous post(s) word for word. Is there an FAQ about that?

I won the mug!

Thanks to everyone on this forum! I started doing the crossword contest about a year ago, and discovered the forum the first time I needed to search for a solution. I come back whenever we've reached Monday and I was unable to solve, and have enjoyed the conversations. Getting my first mug way sooner than expected statistically, I figured I ought to join.

When it comes, I'll raise one up to you all!

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:40 pm PPS. In all seriousness, I need some advice on responding via the quote thing above but doing so w/o copying the previous post(s) word for word. Is there an FAQ about that?

You can read this thread for the most basic instructions on how to quote. Basically, you can edit whatever appears between the [ quote ] and [ / quote ] indicators, so it is helpful to edit out long posts (please don't quote Bob's list of 100+ people on the ship! ) or to just quote a snippet as I did above. Welcome!

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:40 pm BTW, I've only been on this forum a few months but where the heck is the moderator in all this 'punny business'?!!? I mean-I kicked in for the donation to maintain a professional and sophisticated discussion group--and this is what we get?!? This thread should've been flagged and redirected about 9 puns ago!

Dr. Tom is the official mod aerator of puns. (Picture him in a Neru jacket, goatee, and John Lennon glasses.)

anaerobe wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:40 pm PS. I literally sounded out 'O T T A W A' slowly and phonetically in front of my display 3 times.

Yukon sound it out all you'd like. I'm sure Prince Edward would be proud of you.

Honestly, I think I enjoy the Monday Morning Quarterpuzzling comments every bit as much as the puzzling itself.