"One-Word Answers" - June 26, 2020

[Bob cruise director]

Anyone think that the word rabbit going down was a little Easter egg about going down a rabbit hole?

Zac
My belief is that Matt and Mike are playing mind games with us. There seems to be a clue or answer somehow relating to muggledom e.g. nudge.

[Bob cruise director]

As I was completing the grid, 58A jumped out at me "I'm Bushed" seem contrived when Patrick could have easily put in ambushed. And that was next to Brombones which was easily Trombones. With those two in hand, the rest came quickly.

By the way, the book "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin is an excellent history of the oil industry. His follow up book The Quest carries the industry through to the present day.

[Wendy Walker]

When I was filling in the grid and only had some of the letters to ARTCRITIC before reading the clue, I saw that it could have been ARTHRITIS, so I guessed what was going on then. I had already filled in ACHY, so I thought there would be another level to this where the one-word answers could satisfy a different clue as well, but that seemed to be the only one with an alternate. Nice construction, however, with the new down answers also being valid words.

YES, same here! I've been a little ouch-y this week from overdoing it with exercise and yardwork, so naturally I saw ARTHRITIC immediately and the clue to 15D spoke to me as well, "in need of aspirin." I looked for alternate clues like you did, but that was the only one I found.

[femullen]

It took me far longer to solve the grid than the meta this week because I never heard of The Prize, or Leeza Gibbons, or Vindaloo, or Bosco (wasn't he a saint?). And while I've read Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it was more than 50 years ago, so I'd practically never heard of Brom Bones either. All those missing intersections killed me, hence "Mr. G" had to throw me a life ring.

After that I noticed right away that the theme answers were two words while everything else was one. First attempt to turn them into one-word answers was by selectively deleting letters. Trouble was that you could come up with a large number of one-word solutions that way and get nowhere, which is where I quickly got.

The right method came by accident: I changed For Rent to Forrest. Right method, wrong answer, but it gave me HOS SEAT, which soon afterward led to the solution.

Like others here, though, I worried about this because it's a two-word answer. Also, in converting the two-word theme answers into single words, all of them changed the first letter of one of the words--except for Rat Race to Retrace, which changed a second letter. So that became a last-minute rat hole to make sure there wasn't a first-letter alternative. Finally, I had, and still have, no clue how HOT SEAT was an answer to "Place where you might give one-word answers."

[Tom Shea]

Brom Bones was the alarm bell for me. No way that is in the grid without being changed to trombones.

Just a little hunting after that.

[MaineMarge]

My first foray into the warren involved body parts- arm, ear, knee, yap, limbs. No there, there. On to the search for “one”. Only 2. Then looking for grid words inside the themers. Anti=eat in minus E. Off to a good start, but...
Finally retraced my steps back to the trombones which I had considered earlier, but had ignored that flag waving me by on the first lap. Then followed a torrent of AHAS leading to the checkered flag at the beach final pit stop. Just in time - the after meta race tune up revealed a few very loose screws in my head gasket.
Perhaps Dr. Tom will have advice.
Give Patrick The Top Prize, all wrapped up with a satin bow.

[burak]

Still lost at sea but hope to devote some time this afternoon! After being on this forum a while, I gotta ask... who’s Isaac?

The background for a lot of the comments like Isaac, ship, shore, etc are explained on Come Aboard/FAQ Community/Solving resources/ Muggle Overview forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=34

And you will hear about being Pageanted and that is explained on the link Come Aboard/FAQ Community/Solving resources/Being Pageanted

forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36

Finally you will hear about the KAS scale which was developed and named after Kas DeCarvalho and is explained at Come Aboard/FAQ Community/Solving resources/The KAS scale. forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=35

Hope this helps

Bob

I feel like we need to amend the almost-perfect KAS Scale with a 1.5 (or maybe even KAS 0?): Metas that give you a little pause in the beginning but you're able to solve with relatively little and pleasant effort. This week's was neither KAS 1 nor KAS 2 for me, it felt somewhere in between.

[Tony S]

If you got to shore, it was a KAS 3 at the most for you. KAS 4 are ones you don't get but should have and KAS 5 are ones you don't get and never would have --- don't be so hard on yourself!

I got it because someone said - “Change letters in the theme answers to get other words and the letters will result in the answer to the meta.”

I never would have solved it if not for that AND I still have ZERO clue what pointed anyone to the method of changing letters in the theme answers. Normally in the ones I don’t get I at least see the clue or hint that the constructor provides afterward - not so here. So that’s why it’s a KAS 5 for me.

I see why you called it a KAS 5. I thought the title of the puzzle, "One-Word Answers," was the big clue because all the answers in the grid were one-word except for the 7 theme entries. To make them "compliant," i.e. one-word answers, you would have to rearrange the letters. As you know the leftover letters led to the solution.

[eagle1279]

Wow, not only were the theme answers the only two-word answers in the puzzle, but as someone has noted above, changing the letter to make them one-word resulted in the intersecting down answer changing to another word. I thought HOT SEAT being two words was an ironic twist — the only result in finale that was not one word.

First thought of a hot seat as police interrogation, where short answers are usually best (at least that’s what someone told me...). Or cross-exam in a courtroom, where lawyers are trained to ask leading questions to elicit one-word yes or no answers (and that we’d better darn well know what those answers were going to be!).

[michaelm]

Thanks to everyone who offered s suggestion for a coming-of-legal-age beverage.
This will not be his first rodeo, so probably going to keep our family celebration of the event in-home, with round(s) of shots from a quality bottle of whiskey that can also age and be used in the future for special occasions.
That's what my dad did for me and it kept me returning home many years for that tradition.
Really enjoyed the Muggles / engagement video.
Hope the mug goes to one of the 700+ Muggles this week!

[LadyBird]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

[Bob cruise director]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

Isaac has a mask in the picture at the top.

He want's to be safe for all muggles.

[TPS]

During my business career I was deposed several times and the advice that our outside counsel, a major international law firm, always gave was to provide no information other than what was specifically asked for and to be as succinct as possible, as in a one word answer was best.

As I said previously, it depends. It sounds like in this case you weren’t a party to the suit and the person advising you was your company’s outside counsel and in some cases their interests don’t align with your own because they don’t represent you personally.

In some cases it’s best to answer with short answers but not always. There is a reason why when you cross examine someone you ask closed ended questions to elicit “yes/no” responses - they are unambiguous and if you are able to impeach them later it is difficult for their attorney to rehabilitate their testimony if there is no wiggle room. So if you are being deposed it’s good to not give definitive answers that can later be used to impeach you...But there are times when short answer does work best and if you aren’t party to the suit and your testimony isn’t at the heart of the issue at bar then those are the times it’s just better to get in and out.

[LadyBird]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

Isaac has a mask in the picture at the top.

He want's to be safe for all muggles.

That is really weird, because he is not wearing a mask on my computer screen. There is a little blue blob on his chest though. Guess his mask slipped on my page.

[Joe Ross]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

Isaac has a mask in the picture at the top.

He want's to be safe for all muggles.

That is really weird, because he is not wearing a mask on my computer screen. There is a little blue blob on his chest though. Guess his mask slipped on my page.

Try clearing your browser's cache.

[EVJ]

You all make it sound so obvious. Sister-in-Law and I were trying to turn the two-word answers into one-word answers that were in the grid. RARE ANTI NOTE ROBS but reached a dead end. I kept tripping over I’M BUSHED/AMBUSHED and kept swatting it away like a pesky fly. We never got to the answer so KAS 5 for us but we are learning! The consolation is that reading this blog is half the fun! I hope all the muggles have a great week.
Until next weekend...Stay safe!

[Bob cruise director]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

Isaac has a mask in the picture at the top.

He want's to be safe for all muggles.

That is really weird, because he is not wearing a mask on my computer screen. There is a little blue blob on his chest though. Guess his mask slipped on my page.

Interesting - this is what shows up on my screen

[flyingMoose]

Did the ship advance to the next stage of pandemic precautions? Isaac is not wearing a mask. Or has he been maskless for weeks and I am just now noticing?

Isaac has a mask in the picture at the top.

He want's to be safe for all muggles.

That is really weird, because he is not wearing a mask on my computer screen. There is a little blue blob on his chest though. Guess his mask slipped on my page.

I have the same unmasked Isaac. I think earlier in the weekend, he was masked. I installed the latest macOS over the weekend, so perhaps that is part of my Isaac somehow.

[BrianMac]

Isaac understands the importance of wearing a mask around other people, but he asked if he could remove it for the 4th of July. I thought it would be OK since we have not had any confirmed cases on the ship. It may take a while to show up on your device, but if you clear your browser's cache, it should show up immediately.

[Bob cruise director]

A couple of you have asked about next week's contest. From Mike Miller - the WSJ will be published on Friday so the contest will come out Thursday on a regular schedule

There will be no Saturday WSJ.

Bob