"Swap Meet" - April 16, 2021

[LadyBird]

Can we agree that we are done with the puns? Deal or No Deal?

[DrTom]

BREAD AND VINEGAR?

Sure add onion, cucumber, bell pepper and some olive oil and you have panzanella! That might not seem important, but it salad a help.

[DrTom]

Can we agree that we are done with the puns? Deal or No Deal?

[Bill Bovard]

Bah.

[DannyWalter]

I was close. I submitted "Trunk sale later on. Eye girl went to the dea with an axe to buy a new car."

[burak]

I'd guess this was very straightforward for experienced solvers and not so much for newbies. I liked it.

[Laura M]

Ashore - good mechanism. Had the answer halfway through working the meta, but the OCD in me forced me to put everything in place before submitting. But then the submission function wasn’t working, so I had to email it in.

I've run into this before; you have to be careful about what you submit through the website. (Email is a perfectly good alternative though.)

I was being circumspect before, but I suspect that problems submitting through the website were due to the apostrophe in IT'S. Unless something has changed recently, the online submission form doesn't like apostrophes. It pained me to submit ITS A DEAL but sometimes you have to make sacrifices :-)

[Gman]

This was the first time I was able to solve a meta that had parentheses (although it still took the help of a nudge from a fellow muggle). Something about those numbers in parentheses makes my brain cramp. Next time I see them I hope to solve it without any help, but I probably won't .

[Scraps]

It's just as well visiting family kept me too occupied to attend to the meta. Now that I've seen the solution, it's clear there was no way a beach was going to factor into my weekend plans: my time was going to be spent either with family or with Isaac!

I'd have been too hung up on doing something immediately with the numbers ever to reach the final step when they mattered.

[Dplass]

Swap Meet solution JPR.png


20210416 WSJCC Swap Meet highlighted.png

I love the weekly colorful solution!

[femullen]

OVER AND OUT (1,2/8)

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[ChrisWill]

I really enjoyed this one. After trying a lot of different things with the numbers to start, I realized that there was some first step I was missing. Sometimes I've caught myself trying to jump into whatever explicit clue seems to be provided, when sometimes you have to transform the puzzle answers in some way. I'm still trying to get better at figuring out when those changes are needed. Still very much a meta rookie at this point!

[TPS]

1. I like Patrick Berry's puzzles better than Mike or Matt's but that is just because I've never not solved one on my own AND they are not throw away puzzles that I solve in 15 minutes - they are of moderate difficulty. Granted my sample size is much smaller but that is where I am at.

2. I gave a fair number of nudges this week and most were to people who got to where I first got stuck before figuring it out. I got the first 4 swaps and stopped thinking I was done - hence my comment that I was lazy but then I went back and saw the rest. (I frequently get stuck on the meta because I forget to look at the Down answers)). I think the numbers intimidated people so they were anxious to get to the point where they are employed but in my limited experience when there are numbers they are almost always part of a 2nd or 3rd step never the 1st step so that might be something to keep in mind for future puzzles.

[Wendy Walker]

WB93 raised the bar (as it were) on Muggle playfulness this week.
WB asked for a nudge, and at the end of my reply, as always, I said, "Please let me know how you do!"
WB's reply: "Thanks. It’s a deal. Will let you know when I figure it out.

Just kidding. I got it."

[MaineMarge]

Great meta from our one and only PB!

Ooh, I love show and tell, so I’ll show you this great photo, then tell you the story:

My veterinarian husband had taken care of this horse since his sweet owner here had been a little kid. When she asked if she could bring him( her best friend) to the garden for graduation photos, of course we said yes.
He nailed that photo op- never harmed a single leaf.
Clematis Pink Champagne.
July 2009 photo

[whimsy]

"Calling Dr. Tom... Calling Dr. Tom... You're needed in the Muggles wing, STAT!"

Here as paged! I was playing Hide and Seek with a drug rep....... Plus I was also busy trying to counsel a patient with bladder control issues, seems he cannot always control his elimination and sometimes manages to wet his hand, he called it his pee knuckle.....

To paraphrase Sam Cooke -- Don't know much about urology, but in my amateur opinion, this could be a symptom of the problematic results of holding back too long......

[Pembroke]

The alternate second half of the four phrases jumped out at me immediately. Then I focused on the numbers in parentheses because who would’ve thought any constructor could fit additional relevant words into this puzzle!

I don’t ask for nudges because I’ve solved metas on the last day and that feels very rewarding. Plus, I’m pretty new at this and mistakes are tremendous learning experiences. I tried lots of things (when words like open, early and saving show up as anagrams you’re encouraged to dig further down that rabbit hole). I will never forget how I struggled over this. Lesson thoroughly learned.

[DrTom]

OVER AND OUT (1,2/8)

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Love it!

[John77]

I don't feel too bad not getting this one. It was way too much like work.

Very nice design, though.

[TeaJenny]

Loved this meta (well mainly because I got it) but I have to admit I tried LOTS of combinations of what the numbers might stand for before finally hitting the magic formula. I had the alternate "phrases" early but it was quite some time before i arrived at the "deal", Monty Hall would be proud.

I put the cart before the horse and spent way too much time playing around with various letter/number combinations before I caught on to the alternate phrases. Once I found those, everything clicked.

At the Risk of starting a War, I tip both my hat and my teacup to a fellow punster. Very well played, sir. Clever word play has always been one of my favorite things. Probably the result of watching too many Marx Brothers movies as a kid.