"Following Directions" - May 14, 2021

[DrTom]

well, if it was near the urinals, that probably would not have been the cleanest rest stop in the country.

I made DrTom laugh, my job's done here for the week.

You certainly did - it was like a META, it snuck up on me and then the chuckling began - although judging from some of those rest stops I believe that instruction is already in use! I actually know a cute, but NSFW or NSFMF, joke that uses that concept.

[CPJohnson]

This is my first day as a member of the forum. I still need to familiarize myself with the "ship to shore" argot that's going on, but I've admired Mike Shenk's talent as a cruciverbalist since first encountering his work in the now defunct "GAMES Magazine". I've been taking on this WSJ Friday challenge for some time now, and I thought it was about time to enter the mix with both feet on the ground...or in the sand, as it were. Which is where I guess I find myself, thankfully.

Hi, Zagman49, Welcome to the group! If you'll go to Board Index, Come Aboard, FAQs - Community / Solving Resources, Muggle Overview.....you can see a brief history of this forum and how it has evolved.

[HeadinHome]

Someone on page one said they had seen that only 40 answers had been submitted so far at that point... where are you seeing these stats?

Just opened but looks like a toughie with only 4 entries in 40 minutes.

Peter's post was the 5th after the Bob's opening, non-entry post, leaving 4 entries before his, which was posted 40+ minutes after the puzzle dropped.

Ahh - yes i read that too fast! Duh.

[Ergcat]

Solved the grid (with only a couple of Googles, which is a big thing for us with a Shenk puzzle!), but still searching for a lead on the meta. Hubs and I are celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary today (been together nine years), and crosswords were one of the first things we ever did together. I think it was about five years ago we discovered meta crossword puzzles, so it’s kinda special we have one to work on for our anniversary. We’ll keep at it and hope to solve this one to commemorate four years of marriage!

Many happy returns!
I, like you, celebrated my anniversary yesterday. But I knew better than to try to peek a glance at the puzzle until today. My better half is usually very tolerant of my interest in crossword puzzles - but I didn't want to push my luck!

Happy anniversary!! May 13 sure is a good day for love I’m so glad metas are something hubs and I work on together — I couldn’t solve most of them by myself so I’d end up spending many hours alone every weekend trying to solve them, haha!

Today is my 38th Anniversary! Here I am staring at the puzzle hoping that I “see it”! My husband just said he’d take a look and help me (romantic gesture) but after 2 minutes he gave up! Ahhh, isn’t love grand! Looks like I’ll be in the Bar with Isaac for a while!

[SusieG]

OK, my weird sense of humor had me chuckling about this for about 70 miles.

We stopped at a rest stop on the way back from the Keys. In the Men's rest room, above and to the left of the hand dryer and sink was this sign:

hands free.jpg

Now surely I cannot be the only one to have ever marveled at the irony of this and the futility of announcing that nothing there needed hands except perhaps to read the sign? I'm not being insensitive mind you, just gobstruck that this was the only information provided. What exactly would you get from reading that sign if you were not sighted?

The only thing that might be less helpful was a similar type sign on the waffle iron at a hotel breakfast that read in English and Braille "DO NOT TOUCH WAFFLE IRON IS VERY HOT" (and I'll bet you somewhere that sign exists!)

What are the dumbest signs people have seen? Given our collective senses of humor there have had to be those that made you go "WHAT"

Not to be cruel, but drive up ATMs also have Braille lettering. I imagine that is so the ATMs serve a multipurpose. However, it doesn’t seem very safe to me.

Braille on the drive-thru ATM makes sense if you consider that the blind person might be in the back seat of the car and not want to divulge the PIN to someone else to carry out the transaction. As for the rest room sign, well, blind people need to pee, too.

One of the funnier signs that I heard about was from a college friend who worked as an umpire. The door to the umpire’s changing room at a MLB stadium noted “Umpire’s Locker Room” in Braille, implying that sometimes the ump really is blind.

[Homer Buckle]

This one tasked me so much, but I finally got to shore. Great puzzle and meta!

[ky-mike]

On shore.

Had dinner with one of our engineer daughters. Showed her the puzzle and gave her our observations. We were close and she got us ashore.

[SReh26]

Day 2 on the ship. Keep approaching the shore but then drifting back away, not finding the dock. Hope to land or at least resist asking for a nudge until Sunday.

[hashbrownoholic]

I feel like I’m circling it. I’m 99% sure I have my directions correct, I just have no idea where to start following them. I suppose since this is my first puzzle I’ll get the hang of it after some weeks. But there goes my weekend cause I know I’ll be all consumed trying to sort this thing out

[EVJ]

The Mrs and I are hanging at the bar with Isaac. More than one person needs to rate the meta so that I can either (a) be continued to be depressed that it's a Level 1 and I'm stumped or (b) be encouraged that it's > 1 and therefore I'm supposed to feel depressed 'cuz it's difficult.

It has subsequently gone up to a Level 3. Not that that is of ANY USE WHATSOEVER to those of us on the ship!
Maine Marge, I've got a ton of annuals -- want to help me plant them on the sun deck?

Can I help? I’m not getting anywhere on the meta. It’s either plant bulbs on the sun deck or keep drinking whatever Isaac pours. I think I’m safer with you girls!

[Georgeall]

Ashore!

[dap2180]

Grid solved, but I feel like I'm just sifting through letters now. Need to find how to put them together...

I've been checking rabbit holes in my Excel sheet with no luck. I think I've resigned to needing some sort of nudge...

[rosiegirl]

THAT was brutal. Toughest puzzle in recent memory, as far as I'm concerned. I NEVER would have gotten it without a kind Muggle, displaying truly superhuman patience, leading me to the answer as I committed one unforced error after another.
Edit: Why, yes, I DID notice that knitting reference in 47A!

Reading that you have found this meta difficult makes me feel so much better. I have come up with nothing but jibberish!

[otlaolap]

Alas, my poor wife. She was quietly working on genealogy (two active monitors, many lines from record to record, intense concentration), when "AAAAA GOT IT" ripped through the house. She is at the moment not pleased. But, other than that, I am.

On shore. It is nice -- nice nice nice nice nice -- to have a puzzle again that delivers such a wallop when the aha moment strikes. Been missing those since the slush of February and the guess-at-a-phrase-without-real-in-puzzle-confirmation answers (requiring the word "suggest" in the official explanation) recently issued. Nice nice nice nice nice.

Good luck to all and may you find that "aha" as delightful as I did.

[ricky]

Ashore. This one took some work!

[Brandon W]

On shore after a nudge, legit think this mechanism is a 4.5/5. Do not think I would have made it without help.

[ImOnToo]

I have nothing at this point.
Hellllooooo, Isaac!

[jhseeman]

Ashore....after a rough week and a couple of Kraken and Cokes it cleared up.

[cinemagical]

I'm ashore! Mike Shenk is a genius! What a thrill!

[seahawks_seashanty]

I solved the grid, but I think I need a nudge to push me in the right direction (sorry, was that too on the nose?)