"Showtime" November 25, 2022
- Onaquest
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2021 7:09 am
Last week with the all the hoop-la I forgot to submit. On a rare/unique occasion when I got it wrong and still had a chance of getting the mug. Anyhoo, just had a final look at this week’s and bingo. Also remembered to submit. How on earth did Mr Shenk divine this one??
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- Posts: 36
- Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2022 11:06 am
If you're stuck, this is a puzzle that rewards discipline in discarding ideas and thinking of new ideas. You have to try something (conceivable... from a certain angle) with essentially no confidence of success beforehand. There are signposts.
- Colin
- Posts: 572
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:57 pm
Ashore! One of my early mentors taught me to trust my intuition. Good advice! Still, that didn’t stop me spending a few hours in dark places before circling back to my first idea and polishing that rough little mud-covered and rock-encrusted diamond into the shining crown jewel that is my meta submission! Time for a Loch Lomond 12-yr old with a very small ice cube to celebrate being on page 12!
One world. One planet. One future.
- MajordomoTom
- Posts: 1463
- Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
I just threw myself headlong overboard with a swag, so no longer at the bar.
maybe at a sand bar, we'll see.
maybe at a sand bar, we'll see.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
- MajordomoTom
- Posts: 1463
- Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
been there, done that, only found this lousy t-shirt
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
- Joe Ross
- Moderator
- Posts: 5655
- Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:46 am
- Location: Cincinnati
- Joe Ross
- Moderator
- Posts: 5655
- Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:46 am
- Location: Cincinnati
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- Posts: 115
- Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2021 9:58 pm
Ohhhhhhh. I had a feeling the numbers were it and tried so many ideas including the letter positions of the last two digits, 88, 81, etc. I even noted the clue for YEAR but still didn’t think of checking all four digits!!! Argh. Beautiful construction; hats off to Mike Shenk!!
- escapeartist
- Posts: 448
- Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:24 am
Having the grid answer of 13D YEAR really helped solidify that the dates of the theme clues were important.
I wouldn't have solved this week's puzzle without that tidbit.
I wouldn't have solved this week's puzzle without that tidbit.
* 2022 WSJ Mug Winner - I bask in its Glory *
- escapeartist
- Posts: 448
- Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 12:24 am
OMG how many movies are titled where the digits of the year of the movie's release spell a word that can be used to clue a grid answer AND fit symmetrically into a standard crossword grid?
* 2022 WSJ Mug Winner - I bask in its Glory *
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- Posts: 34
- Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:34 pm
OK. So I am competing now for the Rabbit Hole Award. First of all, I looked at the title SHOWTIMES and the answer A MOVIE TERM. So like many of the solvers I continued to dig deeper and eventually found the puzzle answer, but for some reason, it didn’t really seem to fit from my experience. Because, before I actually solved the “real” answer I went down a Rabbit Hole which seemed much more fitting to my experience. Now when I think of movies, I think of ones I see in the actual movie theatre. And because I love my wife, I let her decide which movies we watch. And because my wife is such a wonderful and loving person, she always chooses those ones that were described in a recent WSJ puzzle answer, namely, ROMCOMS. Personally, I enjoy documentaries, sports, games etc. but not ROMCOMS. So, when I first started solving the puzzle, I took the end number from each of the year dates in the clues. Namely 8, 1, 4, 3 and 1. So then when I counted back to the letters in those numerical amounts, I came up with L, P, S, E and T, in that order. So then after rearrangement I came up with and ANSWER: SLEPT!! Which is exactly what I do when watch a ROMCOM movie! So that is the answer I submitted.
- MajordomoTom
- Posts: 1463
- Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
Ok, I jumped off the ship and landed in a lifeboat hanging from davits off the port side, never made it to the water, much less to dry land.
There's always next week.
There's always next week.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
- ZooAnimalsOnWheels
- Posts: 357
- Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:02 pm
- Location: San Diego, CA
And are not totally obscure films...escapeartist wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:16 am OMG how many movies are titled where the digits of the year of the movie's release spell a word that can be used to clue a grid answer AND fit symmetrically into a standard crossword grid?
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- Posts: 51
- Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:54 am
Well of course, it seems so obvious now. But I didn’t know what to do with the years, so I added the four digits of each year. Got 26, 19, 22, 21, and 17. The letters in those numbered squares S, I, E, P, C anagram into my answer: EPICS.
- clonefitz
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2022 1:23 pm
- Location: Oakland County, Michigan
I'm seeing trends regarding the puzzles that I can't solve. I will have to try to keep these lessons in mind next time I'm stumped. I knew the year was significant, but I was chasing the rabbit hole of looking up Oscar winners from those years and hoping to see a pattern.
- Ben B
- Posts: 200
- Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2021 11:50 pm
- Location: Houston
When I was trying to solo solve, I was stuck in a shallow but persistent rabbit hole regarding alternate clue answers. 54A "Test by a Neurologist" fits EEG, but I smiled with joy when I realized that is also a "Spinal Tap". How could that not be the right path? Thankfully my son saved the weekend by focusing instead on the year clue, otherwise I would never have been able to let this go.
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- Posts: 87
- Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2021 7:14 pm
That was my answer, too. It didn't seem right, but it was all I could find.
- MikeM000
- Posts: 579
- Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2020 11:31 am
- Location: Metro Detroit
This becomes super-easy to figure out nowadays with a Wikipedia-esque list of movie releases by year, a copy of MS Excel, and knowing how to use the LEN, LEFT and MID functions.escapeartist wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:16 am OMG how many movies are titled where the digits of the year of the movie's release spell a word that can be used to clue a grid answer AND fit symmetrically into a standard crossword grid?
I never even noticed 13D; my solve was based entirely on the "Time" half of the puzzle title.
- KayW
- Moderator
- Posts: 4234
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
"super-easy"???MikeM000 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 7:12 amThis becomes super-easy to figure out nowadays with a Wikipedia-esque list of movie releases by year, a copy of MS Excel, and knowing how to use the LEN, LEFT and MID functions.escapeartist wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:16 am OMG how many movies are titled where the digits of the year of the movie's release spell a word that can be used to clue a grid answer AND fit symmetrically into a standard crossword grid?
I never even noticed 13D; my solve was based entirely on the "Time" half of the puzzle title.
- MikeM000
- Posts: 579
- Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2020 11:31 am
- Location: Metro Detroit
8 minutes and 58 seconds, with a couple breaks to get my dog some treats. Got a list of 271 1987 movies; 142 had 9-15 characters in the title. These could conceivably start clues, although SEVE and OONA might be tough without an apostrophe S.
BlindDate 9 B e t a
DeadlyPrey 10 D e r P
EmpireState 11 E a t S
LeonardPart6 12 L a P d
Mauvaissang 11 M a s s
NowheretoHide 13 N o t e
OneWomanorTwo 13 O o n a
ScaredStiff 11 S i t S
StreetSmart 11 S a m S
SweetRevenge 12 S e v e
(and yes, if I did this again I'd change it to ALL CAPS. Tough to tell capital I from small l.)