"Overlaps" - March 5, 2021

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
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Dave C
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Joined: Fri Apr 26, 2019 2:30 pm
Location: Round Rock, TX

#221

Post by Dave C »

Got a late start, but easily ashore.
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tigerfly222
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Location: Barcelona

#222

Post by tigerfly222 »

On shore!
debbierudy
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Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 4:57 pm

#223

Post by debbierudy »

Ashore, with coffee in hand and toes literally in the sand. My only worry about coming to the Florida Keys was how to get this puzzle printed - easily solved by a nice lady in the hotel office who is also a crossword fan. A manatee almost upended our kayak - glad they are herbivores!
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ardentgailla
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#224

Post by ardentgailla »

I made it to shore!
Aspiring MUGgle
I don't want to be "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." 2 Tim 3:7
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Gman
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:47 pm
Location: Encinitas CA

#225

Post by Gman »

All this talk about easily swimming to shore is making me really frustrated. 20 weeks and much harder puzzles, but just not seeing it.
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LadyBird
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Location: Chicagoland

#226

Post by LadyBird »

For all you Guinness lovers out there....

I just finished reading a Lord Peter Wimsey novel (Murder Must Advertise) and was reading the biography of the author, Dorothy Sayers. One of her other professions was working as a copywriter for a London advertising firm. One of her popular campaigns was the animal-themed Guiness advertisements.
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Bob cruise director
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Location: Any golf course within 500 miles of Littleton MA

#227

Post by Bob cruise director »

debbierudy wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 6:30 am Ashore, with coffee in hand and toes literally in the sand. My only worry about coming to the Florida Keys was how to get this puzzle printed - easily solved by a nice lady in the hotel office who is also a crossword fan. A manatee almost upended our kayak - glad they are herbivores!
Are you getting her addicted to metas and ready to become a muggle?
Bob Stevens
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Bob cruise director
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#228

Post by Bob cruise director »

DrTom wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 11:43 pm
DrTom wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 6:08 pm Well I am pretty sure I solved it, it really could be few other things. BUT, I have a small nit to pick with the constructor because there is the possibility of some momentary reluctance to commit.

But I'm going to say, for the sake of counting and because I submitted, ASHORE
toes in sand.jpg
I appear to have caused some consternation among my fellow muggles. I do NOT think this meta contains a trap or is some trick, I just had an issue with a word that momentarily made me think there might have been more. I seriously do not think there was and am sorry if I caused any angst. But as I said today in the hospital when a patient threw a bottle of high potency Omega 3 capsules at me, at least the wounds were super fish oil. :D
Do you have a family that we can send flowers to for condolences? They have had to put up with these groaners for years - 24/7
Bob Stevens
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BreeZynCO
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Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2021 10:35 pm

#229

Post by BreeZynCO »

On shore!
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Richard
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:06 pm

#230

Post by Richard »

To me "easy" can be in the eye of the solver.
Any meta where the great Al Sisti is not on the first three pages is not that easy.

When you see the mechanism right away and are right, you think it is easy.
When you find the mechanism after hours of looking or never find it and think you should have found it early, then you call that "easy."

If you find it after hours of staring and are super proud of yourself for finding it, then its "hard."
Same for never finding it and realizing you would not have found it in a million years.

Obviously metas with multiple steps etc. are usually harder than those with one step.

I had an idea for the concept of the mechanism as I was doing the grid and think I was right so to me this one was easy. Maybe if I had not seen it might have found it to be hard.

Nice grid and nice puzzle.
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Gman
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Location: Encinitas CA

#231

Post by Gman »

On shore thanks to an excellent shove! Sometimes it's really hard to solve with the online only version of these puzzles.
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hunkra
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:35 pm
Location: Hudson Valley, NY

#232

Post by hunkra »

Toes in the sand. I also struggled for a time with this one, for reasons that I won't go into right now in case it proves a spoiler. Suffice to say, that our habits can get the better of us! Please... something tropical to wash away these waning days of bitter wind chills.
Channeling Molly Weasley on a good day.
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Powers2020
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Location: Charlotte, NC

#233

Post by Powers2020 »

Ashore. Tougher grid, short swim in.
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Janet P
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#234

Post by Janet P »

Gman wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:46 am On shore thanks to an excellent shove! Sometimes it's really hard to solve with the online only version of these puzzles.
Agreed! I almost always need to wait for Friday when my WSJ paper arrives to be able to solve the meta. I usually complete the online grid pretty quickly Thursday afternoon but rarely see the path to the solution until I redo it in the morning. Sometimes even that gets so muddled up that I print off a fresh one from the pdf file and start over on Saturday or Sunday.
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Natalie
Posts: 82
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#235

Post by Natalie »

Happy to be on shore, wishing a good weekend to all.
MaineMarge
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#236

Post by MaineMarge »

Gman wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:46 am On shore thanks to an excellent shove! Sometimes it's really hard to solve with the online only version of these puzzles.
Ditto to all the above. Now to do my penance laps around the island for not following all the way through on my first try at finding the meta.
Great puzzle and meta, Joanne.
Women rule!!
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Natalie
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:48 pm

#237

Post by Natalie »

SewYoung wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 8:37 pm Will celebrate with a Black Negroni this weekend. I was not familiar with "Negroni" so I had to look it up. Just looking at the two words; it appears to be repetitive and redundant.
The Negroni is a classic cocktail named for an Italian Count; it and its relative, the Boulevardier, are two of my favorites. I understand your comment about the Black Negroni, but the name is neither repetitive nor redundant. I've never tried the Black version but it sounds interesting. Anthony Bourdain, who was a big fan of the Negroni, once issued the caution that 'after four of five of them it will hit you like a freight train.' LOL ... ENJOY
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Bob cruise director
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#238

Post by Bob cruise director »

Richard wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:36 am To me "easy" can be in the eye of the solver.
Any meta where the great Al Sisti is not on the first three pages is not that easy.

When you see the mechanism right away and are right, you think it is easy.
When you find the mechanism after hours of looking or never find it and think you should have found it early, then you call that "easy."

If you find it after hours of staring and are super proud of yourself for finding it, then its "hard."
Same for never finding it and realizing you would not have found it in a million years.

Obviously metas with multiple steps etc. are usually harder than those with one step.

I had an idea for the concept of the mechanism as I was doing the grid and think I was right so to me this one was easy. Maybe if I had not seen it might have found it to be hard.

Nice grid and nice puzzle.
And that is why we have the KAS scale - it expresses all the same emotions
Bob Stevens
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Cindy N
Posts: 984
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:55 pm
Location: Wisconsin

#239

Post by Cindy N »

tigerfly222 wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:37 amOn shore!
I noticed that post#222 is from tigerfly222. Alas, I do not have Dr. Tom's punniness to find a clever way to mention synchronicity. Hoping he posts some cleverness for us to enjoy.
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Lyman
Posts: 115
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2020 7:15 pm

#240

Post by Lyman »

BarbaraK wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:28 pm
Lyman wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 5:16 pm Ashore, and looking forward to a WSJ article that explains to my family--better than I have been able to do to date--meta puzzles and their attraction.
How about this one:

https://www.xword-muggles.com/forums/vi ... 324#p15558
Excellent suggestion, and thanks! I'll use it. I was thinking about the following comment made to the February 5, 2021 puzzle:

"Hello, WSJ puzzlers! I'm an Audience Interaction Producer at the Journal and I wanted to let you know about a project we're working on. The puzzles team is currently developing a how-to course that will slowly teach new puzzlers how to find the weekly contest's meta answer. All four of the contest puzzles from February will be included in that course, and that may be why this week's contest may seem a bit easier than usual for seasoned puzzle-contest fans. But don't worry, each week our editors will increase the contest's difficulty to ease new solvers into the world of contest puzzles. Good luck to you all and keep an eye out for the crossword contest course coming soon."
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