"Jolly Old St. Nick" December 23, 2022

[Onaquest]

We never came lose to getting this answer. Very clever and well done to all the muggles who got it. Hearty thanks to you muggle moderators for all your support and hard work in creating so much fun and camaraderie on this forum. Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful and prosperous 2023.

[DianeA]

Well, not even close. Part of my problem was that i print the puzzle on the backs of other things i've printed out. This sheet had several folds, and combined with my crappy printer and poor eyesight, i mistook a quotation for an asterisk, and included 20A as a part of the meta clues. Oberon realy confused me. As well as adding non-symmetry to the equation.
With the puzzle title, I thought 41A, STS, was a big hint. so looking for saints...there is no St. Jay according to Mr. G.
First letters of the clues, themselves....IASHS, TMCS (not supposed to be there), L, OWK, S-UC, IGFC.....well maybe the first will get you DASHER, and somehow other reindeer are about.... Nope. A few other rabbit holes, and so I stayed at the bar all weekend.
Congratulations to those who got this one!!

[pjc]

Mildly amusing: before I finally solved it, I had posted a 'still on the boat' message. I had typed out 'ho-ho-ho' at the end of it as a sign-off, but removed it before posting. I might have been redacted without even having solved it!

See you New Year's Eve Eve Eve!

[FirstMax]

I circled all the STs in the puzzle. When that didn’t pan out I focused on adding Santa's laugh which got me HO STage. Three of the answers have ST in them so I stumbled for a bit until I realized the STs were coincidental. But…are they? Three of the five answers with ST feels like more than a coincidence.

[eagle1279]

My deepest rabbit hole was the outsized appearance of ST in the grid. At one point I tried collecting any letter in the same 4-square as every STS or SST but I suspected the answer was not an anagram of ENTONA.

After I gave up, my daughter called from a holiday party which apparently was not made more jolly by some people trying to solve the meta (one grinch was heard to say, “can’t we play a game that everyone can enjoy?”). Her call caused me to look again and find the HO- synonyms for the starred answers, then quick sledding (sleighing?) to the answer.

[mlvilv]

This was one of those puzzles that I am glad I didn't spend a ton of time on because I was never going to get it. I had fun at the bar with Isaac and a nice holiday weekend. Happy holidays everyone!

[caf.caf]

Great mechanism that I never saw…
Happy holidays to all and congrats to all the solvers!

[Ergcat]

I circled all the STs in the puzzle. When that didn’t pan out I focused on adding Santa's laugh which got me HO STage. Three of the answers have ST in them so I stumbled for a bit until I realized the STs were coincidental. But…are they? Three of the five answers with ST feels like more than a coincidence.

Hmmmm, the answer has ST too! “LiSTs”

[Ergcat]

I was on to HO HO early on but I was looking for HOs in grid words and clue words. But that didn’t yield much…. Then I focused on the asterisk themers CLUEs since they were strangely worded. HOSTAGE for CAPTIVE was the first HO synonym that popped . It was a quick solve after that!

[ship4u]

Finally on shore.

Got a very slight nudge. Mulled it over (like wine). Went off to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with my wonderful wife. Then made Christmas dinner. (No 7 fishes. Just salmon with a maple-Dijon mustard glaze.) While eating dinner, the inspiration struck me. Or, I guess, the salmon "chanted" the metanism to me. As in...

Salmon-chanted evening,
You will solve a meta,
You will solve a meta,
While eating di-i-nner.

Didn't know salmon came from the south Pacific!

@HunterX , thanks so much for the clarification. I always thought it was "Once you have flounder, never let her go."

[zacmoretz]

I almost felt like the list concept was continued in the second set of clues. “Believers“ in Santa Claus, the little NYC kids’ names on the list alphabetically (“James, Jane & Jay”)… It kind of peters out from there, but you could wonder about what “led up“ to the kids being on the good or bad list, Santa’s footsteps where he “trod” on the newfallen snow, and Santa up on a “stage” with kids waiting in line to tell him what they want for Christmas.

[MatthewB]

Looked for the nonexistent "ho"s but never thought to add them. My wife kept saying to look for alternative answers in the grid... Great meta.

[HunterX]

Finally on shore.

Got a very slight nudge. Mulled it over (like wine). Went off to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with my wonderful wife. Then made Christmas dinner. (No 7 fishes. Just salmon with a maple-Dijon mustard glaze.) While eating dinner, the inspiration struck me. Or, I guess, the salmon "chanted" the metanism to me. As in...

Salmon-chanted evening,
You will solve a meta,
You will solve a meta,
While eating di-i-nner.

Didn't know salmon came from the south Pacific!

@HunterX , thanks so much for the clarification. I always thought it was "Once you have flounder, never let her go."

Holy Mackerel, that was a good one!

I just posted that verse for the halibut. Didn't think I'd hook you in, though. Couldn't fathom it, since it wasn't on porpoise. But I'm not going to be a crab about it. It was just a fluke!

Let that sink in @DrTom, then you can flex your pun mussels for a bit. Compared to your punster abilities, I'm just a shrimp.

Okay, got that out of my system. (For now.) It was good for the sole.

[ship4u]

Finally on shore.

Got a very slight nudge. Mulled it over (like wine). Went off to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with my wonderful wife. Then made Christmas dinner. (No 7 fishes. Just salmon with a maple-Dijon mustard glaze.) While eating dinner, the inspiration struck me. Or, I guess, the salmon "chanted" the metanism to me. As in...

Salmon-chanted evening,
You will solve a meta,
You will solve a meta,
While eating di-i-nner.

Didn't know salmon came from the south Pacific!

@HunterX , thanks so much for the clarification. I always thought it was "Once you have flounder, never let her go."

Holy Mackerel, that was a good one!

I just posted that verse for the halibut. Didn't think I'd hook you in, though. Couldn't fathom it, since it wasn't on porpoise. But I'm not going to be a crab about it. It was just a fluke!

Let that sink in @DrTom, then you can flex your pun mussels for a bit. Compared to your punster abilities, I'm just a shrimp.

Okay, got that out of my system. (For now.) It was good for the sole.

Wow, what a whale of a response!

[clonefitz]

Full disclosure... my "on the beach" post was a few minutes early. I found the mechanism, but submitted "HO" as my answer. I immediately reflected back to the Halloween puzzle (Start in Fear) and thought to myself: "BOO wasn't the answer to that similarly mechanized puzzle." Then I went back and applied the final step to get the actual answer. Looking back on that Halloween puzzle, the clue was "a five-letter word related to Halloween". A similar letter count in this week's clue would have helped me. My family thought I should have known better than to submit HO, it was good for a laugh.

[Joe Ross]

@HunterX , thanks so much for the clarification. I always thought it was "Once you have flounder, never let her go."

Holy Mackerel, that was a good one!

I just posted that verse for the halibut. Didn't think I'd hook you in, though. Couldn't fathom it, since it wasn't on porpoise. But I'm not going to be a crab about it. It was just a fluke!

Let that sink in @DrTom, then you can flex your pun mussels for a bit. Compared to your punster abilities, I'm just a shrimp.

Okay, got that out of my system. (For now.) It was good for the sole.

Wow, what a whale of a response!

Ahi sea what you're doing here...

[Gman]

The pun never ends on the Muggles Blog. Nor does the groaning.

[mikeB]

I failed to give sufficient weight to 9A, which had me drifting around all weekend. After doing some household bookkeeping Sunday evening, I decided to give it one last look. Like several here, I had been looking for ways to eke out those five synonyms/alternates. No joy. Finally, LEDUP got me started on HO+, and the rest was easy. Waking up this morning, my mind went to 1D, ECHO. Not only does it include the HO, but it also suggests repeated use of HO. After all, what is the Alpine answer when you shout "HO!"? Reflecting on 1D in hindsight was to me an additional gift -- an echo, as it were, of the meta solve itself. This was a very clever meta, and a nice holiday feature. Happy New Year.

[Streroto]

My one reservation was that I associate LIST with Santa as in “he’s making a list”, not LISTS. But the ISTS in the center plus the overall elegance of the meta put me over the top. Another super fun one.

Stay well all

[BarbaraK]

The "Sound from St. Nick" clue caught my attention right away, but when I couldn't find ways to insert HO into all the theme answers or even theme clues, I set that aside and explored other rabbit holes.

I thought maybe the theme entries could describe the plot of a cheesy Hallmark (sorry, rabbit) Christmas movie - the star hates Christmas and is HIDING OUT; a friend tries to RAISE UP his spirits; they go out and run into bad guys and become CAPTIVE; escape after a madcap chase in a DRAGSTER; he discovers the true meaning of Christmas and HAS A PARTY. Only problem (only? ok, only other than that it's a ridiculous mechanism) is that there are so many holiday movies; Mike couldn't possibly expect us to know one from this. But I tried to google it anyway. No luck.

Then came the good rabbit hole. "Hiding out" must mean that the word "out" is hiding in one of the clues. Sure enough, there's one and only one "out" in 11D "Hangouts for GIs" USOS. Next, "Raises up" - where is there an "up"? Again, one and only one, in 46A "Pickup in an alley" SPARE. Yes! This must be it! Next, "Captive"; OK that one is different with just one word, but let's look for "ive"; uh oh, there are two - inventive and alternative. That's OK, no reason to let a minor inconsistency get in my way; I'll try the front half of this one instead, "capt", and there it is in 10D Benning of Captain Marvel" ANNETTE, perfect! So far I've got a U, S, A - wonder if they'll rearrange to spell CLAUS. Onward to "Dragster". No "drag" in the clues, but exactly one "ster" in 63A "Address for a headmaster" SIR. Hmm, ok, not Claus, but let's see what's next. No "party" in the clues so back to the front part, and look, there is exactly one "has" in 64A "It has wings and flies" STAGE.

So the answer is USASS ? One problem with that is that it's not a word. (Another of course is that it used the theme answers inconsistently and the least interesting part of each of them.) But other than that...

When I saw @CPJohnson's post about using her first thought, I figured that it was likely the same as my first thought, and I did need to find some way to use HO. And suddenly realized "hiding out" could also be "holed up" and was finally on the right bunny trail.