"Well-Rounded" January 31, 2025

[Nlobb]

I always do the grid in all caps but then transfer the themers onto paper to try to puzzle out the answer. When doing this I use capital letters and small if it’s names. So Megan Fox had nice round e, g,a, n, o and n. Plus I write capital M with rounded tops… so I had way too many letters!!
Wouldn’t it be funny if the WSJ actually sent good job emails to everyone who got the right answer?? Imagine the disappointment to open it thinking you had won the mug but got a good job instead!!

[BigPear]

This was a rare Sunday solve for me as my odds of solving plummet if I haven’t gotten in by Saturday. At first I fixated on O’s and then expanded to C’s, but it took me forever to realize other letters had curves, too. I went down so many rabbit holes! The fact that I write my E’s like backward 3’s did not help. But a solve does not have to be pretty- just done.

[Nlobb]

Who knew penmanship would be so important in getting or not getting the answer!!

[Hidden in 3D]

I'm staying on the ship once again! I filled in the grid on Thursday evening and that's about as far as I got. Poor Mr. Hidden came down with a horrible case of the flu and I've spent most of the weekend trying to take care of him. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I'm not the next one to succumb to sickness!

I actually thought about taking a look at the curved letters in the themers as I was headed for the medicine cabinet to get the thermometer to take Mr. Hidden's temperature. Just never got around to it after the flu bug showed up. Definite head slap!

[ELSavage]

I don't know that this is deep enough to be a rabbit hole, but I noticed the crossing of COFOUND and DOORS right in the middle of the puzzle and tried to see if I could make anything of that. The best I came up with was a better description of me in the current state (failing to see what had jumped out at so many people by then), rather than an answer to the prompt: "This man's a wreck!"

(For those not old enough to know, or who only think of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek was the other founding member of The Doors.)

[Hidden in 3D]

Aw, so close. I definitely was on the right path - and I think I could have made it to shore easily had it not been for the stomach bug that hit my 2 year old and my husband! Zero brain cells to spare.

Looks like the Saras had similar weekends. Hope your little one and hubby are feeling better and that no one else gets sick!

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is GOOD JOB. As suggested by the title in 69-Across (“Real Women Have Curves”), find the letters that have curves in the names of the four theme women. Those letters spell the contest answer.

A very clever one this week. (Though as one solver noted: "This one relies heavily on one's handwriting, tbh. You would not BELIEVE my E's."). We had 999 entries, with an impressive 91% correct. Other guesses included WELL DONE (24), SWELL (4), CONGRATULATIONS (3), WAY TO GO (3), and a handful of others.

And good job to this week's winner: John Williams of Greenwich, Conn.!

[krf]

I saw the double-L in "WELL" in the title and spent a lot of time chasing the high number of double-L's in the puzzle. After that, I went after the singles. (This puzzle has roughly double the number of L's you would expect in a normal distribution.)

[sharkicicles]

My rabbit hole involved Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd (hmm… back to the future?), Post Malone, and Alexander Graham Bell. Kinda confusing.

[Zobo3737]

I always do the grid in all caps but then transfer the themers onto paper to try to puzzle out the answer. When doing this I use capital letters and small if it’s names. So Megan Fox had nice round e, g,a, n, o and n. Plus I write capital M with rounded tops… so I had way too many letters!!
Wouldn’t it be funny if the WSJ actually sent good job emails to everyone who got the right answer?? Imagine the disappointment to open it thinking you had won the mug but got a good job instead!!

Same problem. I was trying to do the right thing, but my cap M has curves, and my capital J does not have a curved tail. I should have typed the themers.

[The XWord Rabbit]

“Well-Rounded” is in the eye of the beholder apparently, as many of you Muggles discovered this week.
In spite of a slow start and a goodly number of you needing nudges, there doesn’t appear to be much
for your Rabbit to work with.

Oh, yes, there’s benchen71’s Post #253, but your Rabbit can’t begin to tell you how many times he had to reread it just to have a vague idea of the methodology involved. As you will discover this Friday, your Rabbit actually expects a certain amount of clarity in your stories of being lost. Is that too much to ask?

See you at the Zoom when finalists will be announced!

[Brian K]

I should have been looking for small curves instead of big ones, like this one I found in the fourth themer:

......... j
..........e
.........W
lakebELL
..........l
..........s

That is certainly "WELL-ROUNDED!

Looking to find the same metanism in the other themers, I was stumped only by the first themer, and ended up with;

_____ ALL DONE WELL

I was sure I was on the right track. But a really good rabbit hole gives you "just enough" to keep you digging deeper and deeper. It got deep - as was my eventual disappointment.

Is it too late to self-nominate for an XWord Rabbit Award?



.

[mitchel674]

I was stuck on the ship with 24 across. I love when Mike throws that in from time to time.

[vandono]

Ms Lacangah and I typically fill out the grid in lower case, which added a wrinkle in solving this weekend. What case do pencil/pen Muggles typically use?

Congrats to all who solved it - have a great week

I go with capitals as I was drilled to write them in a high school drafting class a thousand years ago. Have to make sure I don't misread a letter when working on a crossing word.

[Joe Ross]

Font-based metas on their way.

Yet another trick to check.

[steveb]

Font-based metas on their way.

Yet another trick to check.

Hate to be the Courier of bad news...

[HunterX]

Font-based metas on their way.

Yet another trick to check.

Hate to be the Courier of bad news...

Oh, get with the Times, man...

[steveb]

Font-based metas on their way.

Yet another trick to check.

Hate to be the Courier of bad news...

Oh, get with the Times, man...

Don't be a Dingbat!

Speaking of font humor...

[woozy]

Did anyone else think this theme was kinda old-fashionedly sexist? I mean in a cute way, like an old-fashioned uncle one has affection for, but still kind of not the sort of joke we make any more?

Or did I read too much into it? (Long before I finished the grid and before I read the omega clue I got that the themeres was all actresses and their roles and the title was "well-rounded" so I thought "Hmmmm....." or does the omega clue [once read] make it all acceptable?)