"Keep on Truckin'" October 14, 2022

[pilsbandy]

EDIT: A few people reached out, so disregard this nudge request!

Stuck at sea and looking for a nudge! I felt like I had some good leads but they've lead me nowhere.

[Susan Goldberg]

I guess I’m on the ship again this week. I thought last week’s success might have turned the tide, but no such luck!

[SusieG]

I am ashore after being dragged in by Dr. Tom. I wouldn’t have solved on my own, but can’t believe I missed it. Good puzzle! Great muggles!

[Lisa]

Thanks to an excellent nudge from BarbaraK I am happily ashore. I was deeeeeep into a rabbit hole, that was so utterly believable I have to wonder whether the tunnels were purposefully planted. I was so deeply dug in to my wrong idea that hearing, essentially, "no, you're wrong, look somewhere else" brought me ashore in about 2 minutes.

Does anyone else ever wonder what this group could collectively accomplish with all this mental energy???

Good night everyone!

[Collegetowngirl]

On shore with happy good feeling of sand in my toes right before sunset. Thanks to everyone here who encouraged us to keep trying. I went back to the welcome section of this forum and re-read the suggestions there. That plus a few more hours of frustration until the lightbulb I was waiting for finally came on.

[CromsFury]

Ashore! (Thought I had already posted on Friday . . .) Oops!

[WSJosh]

Ashore, after finally having some time to look at the meta. Wiseacre Oktoberfest for me.

[Sleepy]

Tiny nudge by BarbaraK and done within 10 minutes. Ashore on page 11!

[hoover]

ship
(submitted a Hail Mary)

[Magistra]

Stuck with Isaac this week. Looking forward to finding out what I missed.

[escapeartist]

ship
(submitted a Hail Mary)

My Hail Mary would have been Good Buddy - sadly I don't think it's that

[MMe]

The first letters of the grid entries with clues of 10 and 4 letter words spell SEMIPROFESSIONAL.

[Colin]

Does anyone have Joe’s number… the wait is killing me!

[Bill Bovard]

ship
(submitted a Hail Mary)

My Hail Mary would have been Good Buddy - sadly I don't think it's that

I also sent that with two minutes to spare. Maybe the wrong answer will win the popularity contest, like last week.

[escapeartist]

Does anyone have Joe’s number… the wait is killing me!

The answer has been posted on the wsj site

[BethA]

From Monday’s PDF —

The contest answer is SEMI PROFESSIONAL. Hinted at by 38-Across (TEN-FOUR), there are 16 Across clues that consist of two words of lengths ten and four letters. The first letters of the answers to those clues spell the contest answer.

[Bonnibel]

I solved this without much trouble however I spent a fair amount of time in a rather elegant rabbit hole before seeing the right path.

I noticed there are exactly 4 ACROSS clues that begin with the letter C, and that another 4 begin with letter B. Likewise, there are exactly 4 of each in the DOWN column as well. I had myself convinced that somehow these 16 CB clues would combine in groups of 10 & 4 letters to form the answer. It was just too perfect to be a coincidence!

I would sure like to see that mug next to my coffee pot.

My hat is off to Mike Shenk for his genius construction.

[BethA]

If anyone would like to try this week's puzzle from Matt Gaffney's own crossword contest, I just noticed this on his Twitter feed:

Today's MGWCC (Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest) is #750 in my series, which will end in 2027 at Puzzle #1000. I'm giving today's puz away for free; if you'd like to try it, email me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com with "750" in the subject line

It took about 5 hours from request to receive, “gmail issues”, but just got on the board. Recommend for any who struggled with this week’s WSJ. Including me. A nice pick me up!

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]