"Show Them The Way" - October 9, 2020

[RichA2]

Muggle Pic Resized.jpg

So close! But I just didn’t see it...

I was in the same boat! With Isaac!

That makes three of us. Can’t believe I didn’t see it.

[C=64]

I had a nagging memory from my childhood (specifically, when I was 8 years old) that turned out to be correct; here is a snippet from Wikipedia concerning ABC's 1980-81 schedule:

[Joepickett]

I think TOO MUCH TIKTOK is more appropriate for my kids. They almost never watch TV.

[boharr]

Muggle Pic Resized.jpg

So close! But I just didn’t see it...

I was in the same boat! With Isaac!

That makes three of us. Can’t believe I didn’t see it.

Like they say. Hiding in plain sight.

[BethA]

My first thought was that we would keep 8 of the letters of EACH long theme answers, maybe anagramming them. Seemed rather daunting, especially for PUZZLEOUT. Secondly, I felt strongly that SHOW names would be involved, due to the title, the tip-off clue, and a lot of tv or movie references (SCREAM and GIFT were right there). I also added 8 letters “One Day At” to ATIME, and got the name of a show. Or taking pieces of MATTYALOU, I could form MATTLOCK and LOUGRANT, both 8 letters. Third thought was that somehow names were involved, many first or last names were there, but couldn’t make anything of it.

After struggling for a long time with the long answers, I start to have doubts if they even are theme answers. That opens me up to all kinds of further investigations! That notorious RBG at top center, and since her passing, there are only 8 JUSTICES! Could only find bits and pieces of some of the names though.

Then I continued my studies on VICE PRESIDENTS, because Dick Van Patten (VP) and then Dick Nixon clue answer VPS!! Nowhere.

Also started noting down words in the grid with a lot of common letters, as a frequent meta mechanism, like SCREAM and SCRAM.

And early on I had examined letters at grid locations that had the number 8, or were multiples of 8, or added up to 8...

I’m one who thinks the fun of a puzzle is to see if I can solve it, so really prefer to avoid getting or giving hints, so as not to spoil my own or someone else’s AHA moment. But after feeling very frustrated and with the proximity of Dan as a possible hint source, relented a little this time. I just asked for confirmation that long answers were actually theme answers. I think it still took a few hours for me to get there. And not in the proper way. I had them all written on a separate piece of paper and was trying to form words going vertically. Finally got to the ends of the words and TV popped out, then the rest.

I just had too many ideas for how “Eight is Enough”.

Wild guesses were: PLAYING WITH MATCHES, WASTING THEIR LIVES, and LIFE OF CRIME.

OK, now I’m looking forward to Thursday!

[Scott M]

I made a detour into this rabbit hole: Based on the center grid entry, I Googled "baseball" and "eight" and found a bunch of stuff about the Black Sox scandal (which is right around 100 years ago now). Spent some time looking for baseball words or names hidden in the grid (or with implied letters just outside the grid, as in "Eight Men Out").
Thought I was onto something with 12D (G)ROUNDER!

Was Eight Men Out on Matt's puzzle site?

The MEN in MENDELEEV got me going down an Eight Men Out rabbit hole for a bit.

[DBMiller]

Was definitely straight forward for me, I just had to bite my tongue (prick my fingers?) when I saw replies like, "Our family did not watch much TV"
or "I spent way too much time making it harder than it was."

[Laura M]

I made a detour into this rabbit hole: Based on the center grid entry, I Googled "baseball" and "eight" and found a bunch of stuff about the Black Sox scandal (which is right around 100 years ago now). Spent some time looking for baseball words or names hidden in the grid (or with implied letters just outside the grid, as in "Eight Men Out").
Thought I was onto something with 12D (G)ROUNDER!

Was Eight Men Out on Matt's puzzle site?

Quite possibly it was a meta somewhere! But I just intended to reference a relevant movie title that vaguely looked like a meta mechanism idea. I realize that even with this explanation, it isn't very clear... Sorry for the confusion, I need a better editor :-)

[Janet]

I was making it more complicated than it was! I was trying to make one or two words from 8 of the letters, and then the leftovers would be used to make the 3-word phrase. So I had a lot of possibilities.

I was on the right track, but added an unneccesary step.

[Bob cruise director]

My first thought was that we would keep 8 of the letters of EACH long theme answers, maybe anagramming them. Seemed rather daunting, especially for PUZZLEOUT. Secondly, I felt strongly that SHOW names would be involved, due to the title, the tip-off clue, and a lot of tv or movie references (SCREAM and GIFT were right there). I also added 8 letters “One Day At” to ATIME, and got the name of a show. Or taking pieces of MATTYALOU, I could form MATTLOCK and LOUGRANT, both 8 letters. Third thought was that somehow names were involved, many first or last names were there, but couldn’t make anything of it.

After struggling for a long time with the long answers, I start to have doubts if they even are theme answers. That opens me up to all kinds of further investigations! That notorious RBG at top center, and since her passing, there are only 8 JUSTICES! Could only find bits and pieces of some of the names though.

Then I continued my studies on VICE PRESIDENTS, because Dick Van Patten (VP) and then Dick Nixon clue answer VPS!! Nowhere.

Also started noting down words in the grid with a lot of common letters, as a frequent meta mechanism, like SCREAM and SCRAM.

And early on I had examined letters at grid locations that had the number 8, or were multiples of 8, or added up to 8...

I’m one who thinks the fun of a puzzle is to see if I can solve it, so really prefer to avoid getting or giving hints, so as not to spoil my own or someone else’s AHA moment. But after feeling very frustrated and with the proximity of Dan as a possible hint source, relented a little this time. I just asked for confirmation that long answers were actually theme answers. I think it still took a few hours for me to get there. And not in the proper way. I had them all written on a separate piece of paper and was trying to form words going vertically. Finally got to the ends of the words and TV popped out, then the rest.

I just had too many ideas for how “Eight is Enough”.

Wild guesses were: PLAYING WITH MATCHES, WASTING THEIR LIVES, and LIFE OF CRIME.

OK, now I’m looking forward to Thursday!

Was there snickering going on from the other corner as Dan had it very quickly?

[BethA]

...

I just had too many ideas for how “Eight is Enough”.

Wild guesses were: PLAYING WITH MATCHES, WASTING THEIR LIVES, and LIFE OF CRIME.

OK, now I’m looking forward to Thursday!

Was there snickering going on from the other corner as Dan had it very quickly?

No, never!! More like silence from me, as I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I thought we were both struggling til sometime Friday morning, and just as I was about to suggest collaborating, he said “I got it!” It was fun to be able to discuss it after I finally got it!

[whimsy]

For Wendy and our other editors - I ran across a new word "spaghettification"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo ... d=msedgntp

Now that is one rabbit hole you don't want to anywhere near!!

[whimsy]

My group totally didn't get the meta. I think we had the letters written out but we thought it must be more complicated than that (but we didn't actually see the answer, just the letters). Title was really misleading and totally threw me off. Even the "eight is enough" part didn't help because we were arguing about whether it meant just look at the first eight or just look at what came after. We had an interesting rabbit hole where we looked at Matty Alou's baseball stats and found lots of 8's. We're used to being bamboozled so this was a good reminder to not overcomplicate things even when it feels like there's a deeper meaning behind the title/important clues/etc.

I found out that Matty Alou had 8 children!

[boharr]

My group totally didn't get the meta. I think we had the letters written out but we thought it must be more complicated than that (but we didn't actually see the answer, just the letters). Title was really misleading and totally threw me off. Even the "eight is enough" part didn't help because we were arguing about whether it meant just look at the first eight or just look at what came after. We had an interesting rabbit hole where we looked at Matty Alou's baseball stats and found lots of 8's. We're used to being bamboozled so this was a good reminder to not overcomplicate things even when it feels like there's a deeper meaning behind the title/important clues/etc.

I found out that Matty Alou had 8 children!

He probably figured that was enough.

[Bob cruise director]

...

I just had too many ideas for how “Eight is Enough”.

Wild guesses were: PLAYING WITH MATCHES, WASTING THEIR LIVES, and LIFE OF CRIME.

OK, now I’m looking forward to Thursday!

Was there snickering going on from the other corner as Dan had it very quickly?

No, never!! More like silence from me, as I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I thought we were both struggling til sometime Friday morning, and just as I was about to suggest collaborating, he said “I got it!” It was fun to be able to discuss it after I finally got it!

And he had this big grin?

[BethA]

Was there snickering going on from the other corner as Dan had it very quickly?

No, never!! More like silence from me, as I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I thought we were both struggling til sometime Friday morning, and just as I was about to suggest collaborating, he said “I got it!” It was fun to be able to discuss it after I finally got it!

And he had this big grin?

After all these years, he knows better than that!!

[GlennG]

I think TOO MUCH TIKTOK is more appropriate for my kids. They almost never watch TV.

A lot of that thing is just so boring for me. Usually if I do have the TV or a video on, I'm doing something else like reading or doing puzzles of some kind (crosswords lately, got a lot of books I'm trying to work down). Most of the time, TV/video just isn't that interesting enough to warrant my full attention.

[Kas]

Kas Level 5.

I'm...not going to say anything else. [But you can picture me sulking.]

[Kas]

And for the record:
a) We have 2 teenagers;
b) I therefore guessed, "Sex Drugs Rock-and-Roll; and
c) I would almost prefer that issue: This is 2020..."Too Much TV" is no longer the issue: It's "too much iPhone/iPad/iWhateverNotJustAppleProducts, and generally, "screen time."

Yes, this is all sour grapes...it is what it is. Hopefully, I'll be able to join you folks at the cabana again...someday...)

[KayW]

I was fortunate to see this one right away - as others have mentioned, highlighting the first 8 characters of each theme answer had the advantage of also isolating the "leftovers".

My parents must be disappointed with me in this regard! But I do have some advice for current parents: