"Continuing Education" - February 7, 2020

[garryj]

On shore Had a busy weekend. Solved the grid on Friday but didn't look for the contest answer until today. I really liked some of the grid clues. I agree with those who feel a little ambiguous about their answer. If it is a PAEGENT, so be it. Where I am, the beach is bright and sunny. Would rather be enjoying the outdoors than trying to find a deeper meaning.

[MajordomoTom]

Fresh eyes did the trick. Ashore! Understand the confusion.
I have only been doing metas a couple months now. It seems that I have accumulated so many ways of looking for clues, that I actually follow more false leads with each new puzzle. Is this something others have gone through? Do you start being able to recognize red herrings more and know to stay away?

I only started these in November myself, so only a few months.

More comments after the deadline.

[SewYoung]

Have been ashore (I hope its the right one) since Thursday night, just have not had a chance to check in. Haven't had a chance in a few weeks actually, but had nothing to report in those weeks anyway.

[Eric Porter]

Fresh eyes did the trick. Ashore! Understand the confusion.
I have only been doing metas a couple months now. It seems that I have accumulated so many ways of looking for clues, that I actually follow more false leads with each new puzzle. Is this something others have gone through? Do you start being able to recognize red herrings more and know to stay away?

I started doing these a year ago and there was a bit of a learning curve. I still get lost in rabbit holes from time to time but I usually get pointed in the right direction from the puzzle title, structure, description of the answer, etc.

For this particular puzzle, the first thing I saw turned out to be the right thing. I believe this to be a 100%er from my prior experience of knowing what to look for and what I can ignore.
With any puzzle, if you look hard enough you can find red herrings. I know of a few for this puzzle, but they don't lead anywhere.
Mike Shenk is a very experienced puzzle creator. The more of these you do, the more you'll recognize his style and know an answer when you see it.

If I'm wrong about this puzzle, we will be saying this word instead of 'pageant' in the future.

[Bob cruise director]

Fresh eyes did the trick. Ashore! Understand the confusion.
I have only been doing metas a couple months now. It seems that I have accumulated so many ways of looking for clues, that I actually follow more false leads with each new puzzle. Is this something others have gone through? Do you start being able to recognize red herrings more and know to stay away?

As you do more and more of these, you get to see patterns and get sensitive to things that are out of the order. If you want to speed things up, look at the hints and the past puzzles in the Come Aboard/FAQ-community sections.

[Janet]

I decided to join the shore party. Good luck to all!

[DennyB]

Finally on shore after weeks drinking with Isaac. Good luck to all.

[rwilkinson]

Ashore after a long absence. Got out of the habit of commenting when the forum moved off of the WSJ site. But I get the uncertainty with this one, glad to see that I'm not alone in questioning the instructions. We'll see.

[Kris Zacharias]

Been out of town all weekend, so came to the puzzle late. However, I think I'm on shore.

[Bob cruise director]

Ashore after a long absence. Got out of the habit of commenting when the forum moved off of the WSJ site. But I get the uncertainty with this one, glad to see that I'm not alone in questioning the instructions. We'll see.

Welcome back.

[dmorack]

Late to the shore this week. How about we all spend a few days on a real beach?

[jakeorjacob]

So, which answer is it? The extremely obvious one, or the one that make more sense but takes a final leap?

[hcbirker]

So, which answer is it? The extremely obvious one, or the one that make more sense but takes a final leap?

You'll have to wait for the deadline to find out.

[DaveWa]

I've been ashore since last night. It just took me a while to find my round tuit and report in.

[Bob cruise director]

I've been ashore since last night. It just took me a while to find my round tuit and report in.

Dave

Sorry, they only come in square this week

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count is 3 on the ship and 139 on the shore

And we have another new muggle since lunch: DennyB

Our new muggles on the shore are (many have been there but have not checked in)
garryj
SewYoung
John D
Lacey K
DennyB
Janet
Dennis
Robert W
Kris
Doug M
and David Wa

Long odds winning the mug this week. 2000 entries and 85% correct

[BarbaraK]

So, which answer is it? The extremely obvious one, or the one that make more sense but takes a final leap?

Probably too late for most now, but you could look through the previous puzzles, especially the Mike Shenk/Marie Kelly ones, for other examples of extreme obviousness or final leaps and see what was right then.

[juliet]

I almost forgot to post. . . I'm on a crowded beach, confident but not comfortable, and looking forward to the discussion tomorrow.

[Joe Ross]

As documented to a fellow muggle who has submitted, I see 4 possible answers, with my subjective handicapping, below. Explanation on Monday.

60%

30% My submitted answer.

9%

1%

I understand three, but not the fourth. Will look forward to the explanation.

Since I put it out there, here's my explanation before the solution arrives at 12:02 AM:


One of these [highlights] is not like the other:

Carnegie Mellon University was formed when the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research merged with Carnegie Technical Schools.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellon_In ... l_Research

1A: Mellon Institute of Industrial Research was founded by two Mellon brothers, not one, so ask which to submit as an answer, or do you choose to Jeopardy! the answer with a last name, only?

1B: MIIR was not founded as a college, nor as a school, but as a private research institute for hire. Modern equivalents would be engineering or design firms.
[Since posting the percentages, I received a link from a muggle citing a Carnegie Mellon University page regarding its founding, which states that the Mellon brothers originally co-founded the Mellon Institute and School of Specific Industries at their alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, weakening my thesis.]

1C: The above two points go against the theme answer description "a college founder" since it wasn't founded as a college and it was not founded by a single person.

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_ ... University

2A: One person, Andrew Carnegie, founded Carnegie Technical Schools.

2B: Mike Shenk goes out of his way to make sure that we see that colleges are schools, even giving it center position at 26D.

3: It is a first-week-of-the-month Crossword Contest, therefore I wonder if it is supposed to be this easy. Maybe it is.

Conclusion: There is a strong argument that the meta answer is Andrew Carnegie versus Mellon. However I have already submitted MELLON. Given the chance I might submit Andrew Carnegie and handicap answers as follows:

60% Andrew Carnegie

30% Mellon - My submitted answer.

9% Andrew Mellon

1% Andrew - I'm rooting for this as a long shot

Maybe it will be a Maine/New Mexico - June 8, 2018 sitch? :::SHRUG:::
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1st EDIT: Moved [bold & bracketed] to 1B from 2A

2nd EDIT: Added hyperlink & date to Maine/New Mexico reference

3rd EDIT: Corrected these EDIT notes (& going to bed!) Good luck to all on the mug!

[Hector]

So on the WSJ site it says the answer is Andrew Mellon, with no explanation as to why not (also) Richard Mellon.