"Fresh Start" - November 6, 2020
- LittleGood
- Posts: 214
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:21 pm
- Location: Greater Pittsburgh
Ok yep, there are a lot of Fs in the theme answers. Completely missed that.
Did anybody else get hung up on LOTION/LAOTIAN?
Did anybody else get hung up on LOTION/LAOTIAN?
- Joe Ross
- Moderator
- Posts: 5173
- Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:46 am
- Location: Cincinnati
I am more than proficient at monitoring grills and preventing rib reduction, no matter how many Guinness Draughts you force upon me. I'll wait, here, for my invitation.
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024
PLATELET ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ENORMOUS ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ:
๐ฐ๐ฌ% ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ,
๐ฏ๐ฌ% ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต, ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ,
๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฟ & ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐บ๐ฎ. ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐!
PLATELET ๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ ENORMOUS ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ:
๐ฐ๐ฌ% ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ,
๐ฏ๐ฌ% ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต, ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ฐ,
๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ฟ & ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐บ๐ฎ. ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐!
- DrTom
- Posts: 3915
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Listen while your mind is out there will you have it look for mine?
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
- Wendy Walker
- Posts: 1749
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
- Location: Unionville, PA
I was just thinking of that movie last night! We were setting up an "old" (ca.2015) computer in the garage so I can keep it there for my Zoom exercise classes. We tested the Zoom connection and it was grainy and slow -- reminded me immediately of the astronaut's video call back to Earth from the space station!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
- DrTom
- Posts: 3915
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
So, what ship is that sitting in the harbor? Looks vaguely familiar?mpmanning wrote: โMon Nov 09, 2020 9:14 am First things first, Happy Marine Corps Birthday to all the Leathernecks aboard!
But, now, Arrgh! Where did I get this headache? Where did that solution come from? That was not the beach I saw as I said I believed I was ashore! Where is the medical dispensary?
I'll be back after I relieve myself at the rail.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
- DrTom
- Posts: 3915
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
For those of you who are wondering just how badly I burnt the ribs I mentioned....
I may not get a "Good Job!" but I should get a "Well Done!"
I may not get a "Good Job!" but I should get a "Well Done!"
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
- John77
- Posts: 161
- Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2020 12:09 pm
- Location: New Jersey
It certainly isn't popular with me. Whenever I've planted it, it never survived longer than about three weeks.
Wir sind zu frรผh alt und zu spรคt schlau.
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- Posts: 82
- Joined: Fri Sep 11, 2020 2:57 pm
I agree that the numbers were not necessary. But, they did help me confirm that I was on the right track. The first one I spotted was Faze-Phase-Stage, and I paused because the number seemed coincidental. But when I then moved to Farrow-Pharaoh-Ramses and it had 6 letters, I was encouraged to keep going. And then it was just too coincidental that Few-Phew-Finally had the 7 work again.
Looking back, it almost seems like Matt was attempting to make it just a bit easier by including the numbers in the clues and also telling us that the answer was "six" letters. But I agree that it opened the door to a lot of potential rabbit holes, especially coming only two weeks after a parenthetical numbers puzzle that had a completely different mechanism. So perhaps it was actually Matt's attempt to make it just a bit harder. Either way, I liked this puzzle a lot.
Looking back, it almost seems like Matt was attempting to make it just a bit easier by including the numbers in the clues and also telling us that the answer was "six" letters. But I agree that it opened the door to a lot of potential rabbit holes, especially coming only two weeks after a parenthetical numbers puzzle that had a completely different mechanism. So perhaps it was actually Matt's attempt to make it just a bit harder. Either way, I liked this puzzle a lot.
Mister Squawk wrote: โMon Nov 09, 2020 5:43 am So this puzzle, which I solved, has two features that I found ... interesting.
First, the FILL -> PHIL -> ADAM connection was bogus, as Phil Hartman and Adam Sandler did not overlap as SNL cast members. Like many others, I deduced "FRAYS" from "FR?YS" and that was that.
Second, there is the matter of the red herring parenthesized numerals (7-6-4-5-5). A recent previous puzzle using the same mechanism ("Where's the Rest", September 11) did not include the numerals (the first gimmick was a set of answers that should have been, but were not, plural forms). In the case of the current puzzle, the numbers were completely gratuitous. They were not required to solve the puzzle, and for some of us, an ENORMOUS time-waster.
But I'm very happy to have solved this one after blowing the last two...
-
- Posts: 308
- Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 6:46 pm
I got this one right but almost didn't submit it because I can't see any connection between phrase and fresh start. Clarification??
BTW I must be one of the few people who likes doing homophones too as a retired reading teacher!!
BTW I must be one of the few people who likes doing homophones too as a retired reading teacher!!
- Bob cruise director
- Cruise Director
- Posts: 4589
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:38 pm
- Location: Any golf course within 500 miles of Littleton MA
Fresh start told me to change the letter F at the beginning of the theme words to something that sounded the same.
As an engineer, I was wondering if the homophone came out just before the cell phone?
Bob Stevens
Cruise Director
Cruise Director
- Joepickett
- Posts: 415
- Joined: Sat May 09, 2020 5:38 pm
- Location: Virginia
Phlox was not obvious to me. But soon as I recited them out loud, my wife picked up on it and said "Like the plant?"
Also with FARROW. I was so focused on the original word, I couldn't think of the very obvious PHAROAH.
It helps to have a teammate.
-
- Posts: 430
- Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 6:40 pm
- Location: Idaho
Thatโs bad!
Iโm glad you were just watching ribs and not children!!
- hcbirker
- Posts: 2074
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm
- Location: Studio City, CA
Well I ended up on the wrong shore. Won't say how I got there because it's too stupid. Let's just say that "fill a void" had me looking at filling in black squares and I came up with an answer I liked.
Heidi
- Kris Zacharias
- Posts: 223
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 2:05 pm
- Location: Reading, PA
My experience in solving this puzzle included some of the rabbit holes that others went down, such as trying "phewton" (="futon"). But "phewton" is not a word, unlike all the other homophones generated in the puzzle. The numbers in parentheses did help there, as the puzzle contained only a few answers with 7 letters. Finally I saw "finally" as a synonym for "phew" and got "FRAYS." PHRASE came to mind immediately, but then I started to second-guess myself. Previous puzzles have had little instructions in the answers, and right in the middle of the grid was "fill a void." Should I fill a void in "frays" and get "forays?" A foray is, after all, a kind of start that begins with "f." One thing I have learned is that metas almost always have a uniformity in the steps to the solution. So if "forays" is the answer, I figured, the theme should be "fresh starts." Moreover, "fill" was already used as a homophone for "Phil," and I cannot remember a clue/answer having two different functions in a puzzle. And finally, again, "fresh start" is a phrase. So I submitted PHRASE. Phew and whew!
-
- Posts: 635
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:25 am
- Location: Florida
Phlox, huh? Thatโs also the name of a character on a subsequent Star Trek show. Maybe Matt is a Star Trek Enterprise fan.... Anyway, I give myself credit for at least seeing the โFarrowโ and โRamsesโ connection.
Hey, if they were all easy, what would we do with our Saturdays and Sundays?
Hey, if they were all easy, what would we do with our Saturdays and Sundays?
โI cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this yearโs fashionsโ. Lillian Hellman
- Cosmo
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:59 am
Funny enough, I think I would have had an easier time solving this one if the parenthetical numbers weren't included! I noticed all of the F's right away, but unfortunately the numbers led me astray. Still a great meta, though!
It's a coffee table book about coffee tables
- Kas
- Posts: 274
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 9:23 pm
- Location: Usually in a rabbit hole.
Great puzzle. I was circling in the right area with the "F's," but without making that mental switch to "PH," I couldn't cross the...uh..."Phinish Line."
- ky-mike
- Posts: 2048
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 4:22 pm
- Location: Near Louisville Ky
I've been mugged!
With 1 of only about 520 or so entries this week, I won the mug lottery!
I guess the time is coming for a new avatar. Maybe the mug with Rabbit Hole bourbon in it
With 1 of only about 520 or so entries this week, I won the mug lottery!
I guess the time is coming for a new avatar. Maybe the mug with Rabbit Hole bourbon in it
Last edited by ky-mike on Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Joepickett
- Posts: 415
- Joined: Sat May 09, 2020 5:38 pm
- Location: Virginia
Yes I was trying the same thing for awhile!
Gaffney did that or someone did with BROKEN BOTTLES many puzzles back.
- mpmanning
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 10:02 am
- Location: Nahant, MA
That is my former cruise ship - a Navy guided missile light cruiser, the USS Little Rock (CLG4) moored on a buoy in her homeport of Gaeta Italy. The photo is a navy file photo. She is currently decommissioned and serving an emeritus role as a museum ship on Lake Erie in the Buffalo NY Naval and Military Heritage Park. Her namesake, the current USS Little Rock (LCS9), is a lighter, faster, more stealthy, more high tech deadly cruise ship homeported in Mayport, not far from you.DrTom wrote: โMon Nov 09, 2020 9:32 amSo, what ship is that sitting in the harbor? Looks vaguely familiar?mpmanning wrote: โMon Nov 09, 2020 9:14 am First things first, Happy Marine Corps Birthday to all the Leathernecks aboard!
But, now, Arrgh! Where did I get this headache? Where did that solution come from? That was not the beach I saw as I said I believed I was ashore! Where is the medical dispensary?
I'll be back after I relieve myself at the rail.