"Tense Situation" August 26, 2022

[Steve_S]

OK, I'm rather new here - lurked a little but enjoying the crowd. With respect to this week's puzzle, I am curious to know whether the space (BUY IN vs BUYIN) was required. I saw the "grid answer" as being the 5 characters in the grid, not the two words making up the clue answer. I would hate to think my response didn't qualify over something so trivia - I don't solve that many of these!! AND was surprised to get this one so quickly! It was a relief after the past two weeks....
Also, while looking at the mechanics of this whole thing, does ayone know whether it makes any difference in how you enter - web page vs email? I have generally used the submit button except those weeks when there isn't a submit button (on my system, YMMV).
Any thoughts or observations would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Steve

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

OK, I'm rather new here - lurked a little but enjoying the crowd. With respect to this week's puzzle, I am curious to know whether the space (BUY IN vs BUYIN) was required. I saw the "grid answer" as being the 5 characters in the grid, not the two words making up the clue answer. I would hate to think my response didn't qualify over something so trivia - I don't solve that many of these!! AND was surprised to get this one so quickly! It was a relief after the past two weeks....
Also, while looking at the mechanics of this whole thing, does ayone know whether it makes any difference in how you enter - web page vs email? I have generally used the submit button except those weeks when there isn't a submit button (on my system, YMMV).
Any thoughts or observations would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Steve

Welcome aboard, Steve_S!

My understanding of the process is that the WSJ first selects an entry at random, and then checks to see if it is correct. So you don't have to worry about your entry being filtered out if it doesn't have the right spaces or punctuation or something else. I'm sure any entry drawn with BUYIN or BUY IN would be a winner. As for method of submission, I've never heard about one being more favorable than the other, just that the submit entry button does sometimes get hung up on punctuation or special characters, so people will instead submit those via E-mail.

[DBMiller]

Actually neither BUYIN nor BUY IN would be accepted. The correct answer was BUYIT.

[Steve_S]

Yes, I did have the correct solution, just typed it wrong here.... The devil is in the details!

[Inca]

So here’s that book I was talking about. A quick light read and very enjoyable.

Thank you! I downloaded the Epub version from the library.

(Ohio residents, the Dayton Metro Library has this.)

I just did the same. I am a member of two libraries the first didn't have the book availabele; I bet another muggle beat me to it

[michaelm]

Yes, I did have the correct solution, just typed it wrong here.... The devil is in the details!

Congrats to this week's winner, Steve Sivyer of St. Augustine, Fla.!

Well at least A Steve S won the mug this week...
That's a start!

[LadyBird]

Yes, I did have the correct solution, just typed it wrong here.... The devil is in the details!

That is always what I fear when submitting my answer--a typo!

[M and M]

Got it. And not putting any spoilers in our answer, though we can see a fun one.

I bet a lot of people carefully avoided using "thought" or "ought" in their answers.

I thought that saying that this really ought to be an easy one was too much of a spoiler...

[The XWord Rabbit]

The shore was teeming with Muggles early on, having quickly solved last week’s “Tense Situation” puzzle (or a better title might have been “What Hath Matt Wrought?”) The XWord Rabbit was feeling pretty smug, sensing there’d be no nominees for his Golden Rabbit Hole Award this time around, but he was wrong. Ergcat came to the rescue with this lovely bit of meandering logic:

“First, I did think about the title and “verb tense” but then when I saw all the verbs in the grid, I couldn’t see a mechanism to choose one. Second, I thought it was odd that the clue for “Fight Club” was NOT like the other clues (action phrases). And that was when THE rabbit popped up when I realized that “The Matrix” was also a CULT FILM FROM 1999! Coincidence? I think not! So I pursued a common mechanism of finding alternate grid answers for the theme clues, take first letters, reverse back to an answer:

1) I took the 5 themers (with asterisks) and found alternate answers in the grid

(17a) seek advice = (3a) oracle
(25a) Think fast = (15a) aim at
(39a) bring to the table = (11d) lend a
(48a) Fight Club = (3D) The Matrix
(62a) Wreak Havoc. = (50 d) Go mad

(2) first letters of the alternate answers anagrammed to spell “GLOAT”

(3) Reverse step 1 and I get:

GLOAT ———> TYPE A (68a) like some aggressive people

Confirm: TYPEA/ aggressive people/Gloat would be a ‘Tense Situation’”

It's worth mentioning that DBMiller took a somewhat similar route but had already received a nomination this month. The XWord Rabbit likes to spread the joy around. Until next week then, he will leave you with the words of that great philosopher Casey Kasem who said, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the rabbit holes.” (He paraphrased.)

[Cindy]

I suck at these puzzles and usually jump on the Friday Zoom for a hint. Couldn't get on yesterday. Anyone willing to share a hint? Also why am I not better at this? I swear I'm smart and I really enjoy trying every week. But when is this going to start coming together more easily? Been trying for about a year now and I feel dumber every week. Haha!

If you have time, I would suggest going back and doing old puzzles. Then you can read about them on crosswordfiend.com as well. It really helped me when I first started.

[Ergcat]

nominee25smaller.png

The shore was teeming with Muggles early on, having quickly solved last week’s “Tense Situation” puzzle (or a better title might have been “What Hath Matt Wrought?”) The XWord Rabbit was feeling pretty smug, sensing there’d be no nominees for his Golden Rabbit Hole Award this time around, but he was wrong. Ergcat came to the rescue with this lovely bit of meandering logic:

“First, I did think about the title and “verb tense” but then when I saw all the verbs in the grid, I couldn’t see a mechanism to choose one. Second, I thought it was odd that the clue for “Fight Club” was NOT like the other clues (action phrases). And that was when THE rabbit popped up when I realized that “The Matrix” was also a CULT FILM FROM 1999! Coincidence? I think not! So I pursued a common mechanism of finding alternate grid answers for the theme clues, take first letters, reverse back to an answer:

1) I took the 5 themers (with asterisks) and found alternate answers in the grid

(17a) seek advice = (3a) oracle
(25a) Think fast = (15a) aim at
(39a) bring to the table = (11d) lend a
(48a) Fight Club = (3D) The Matrix
(62a) Wreak Havoc. = (50 d) Go mad

(2) first letters of the alternate answers anagrammed to spell “GLOAT”

(3) Reverse step 1 and I get:

GLOAT ———> TYPE A (68a) like some aggressive people

Confirm: TYPEA/ aggressive people/Gloat would be a ‘Tense Situation’”

It's worth mentioning that DBMiller took a somewhat similar route but had already received a nomination this month. The XWord Rabbit likes to spread the joy around. Until next week then, he will leave you with the words of that great philosopher Casey Kasem who said, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the rabbit holes.” (He paraphrased.)

@The XWord Rabbit I am truly honored to be nominated for the Golden Rabbit Hole!!
-Elaine (Ergcat)

[Dplass]

I had a dream that I was doing this week's WSJ at the office and that one of my officemates was the author. One of the clues was FOOD and the answer was EATING MATERIAL and I was soooooo mad at them for "such a stupid answer".

[802puzzler]

Turns out I was on the wrong beach! Congrats to all who found the right one!