"Dude Where's My Car?" - September 10, 2021

[kgiano]

On shore

[PQ63]

Ashore. Since it’s early I’ll have a Bloody Mary.

[kimberlysg]

On shore! Solved the meta before the grid was done, but my OCD tendencies made me finish it anyway.

[Colin&Chuck904]

Ashore earlier than ever

[Jeremy Smith]

I reached shore yesterday afternoon. I normally solve on paper but this time I had no access to a printer and had to solve on the phone. There’s a first time for everything, I suppose, but I hope I don’t have to solve on the phone again anytime soon.
I worked from the list of clues, filling in the entries on each clue line, so I never saw the grid until it was completed, and I switched to the grid view. Of course, the meta answer immediately jumped out at me.
Oh, the reason I didn’t have printer access and had to resort to a phone solve???
I was at the meta answer!

[Bob cruise director]

Good Friday morning muggles

Either we are on a very crowded shore or we are on a very crowded deserted island. Monday will tell.

First welcome to our newest muggles - barney, kgiano, Katiedid, Bill Gibbons Fly, and Tomgebhard. Always great to have more muggles

For clarification, I add you to the muggle list when you post that you are on the ship or shore any week prior to when I go to bed on Sunday. And this includes if you only post on the WSJ comments page. So if you post late Sunday night only or comment on Monday or post on one of the other meta sites or create an account and never post, we love to have you here but I don't include you as a muggle. The reason is that I don't spend 24/7 perusing all forum topics of our growing interests.

Next thing. One of the other metas is the Muller Monthly Music Meta (MMMM) by Pete Muller. It is coming up on the 10th anniversary of Pete doing his MMMM and on Friday September 17th at 8:30 pm Eastern time, Matt Gaffney will be interviewing Pete, talking about solving the MMMM and taking Questions from all of us as the time allows. As when we had our Q&A with Matt in June, it was an opportunity for us, as solvers, to interact with these meta creator superstars. And it is an opportunity for the creators to put faces with the screen names. The June Q&A worked out great and this should also. The session with Pete will be open to all, MMMM subscribers and others. One thing I thought was great in June was that other meta creators were there like Mike Shenk and Evan Birnholz and it was fascinating to see the discussions between these creators.

Details on the interview will follow including the zoom link. The session will be recorded for those who won't be able to make it. The current plan is to have questions real time both electronically raising your hand, through the chat function and sending questions in early.

Now back to our WSJ meta - Trips to shore came early and often. At present we have 197 on the shore and the meta has not been out 24 hours yet. Isaac is on the stern tending Maine Marge's garden to fill the time.

A full report will be out tomorrow at noon.

[Billy M]

On shore (with the rest of us who think we might be on the wrong beach), and has happened to me a few times before, the meta helped me solve the grid.

Cheers, muggles. It's a nice day for a Tom Collins!

[Flying_Burrito]

Solved grid and meta while on a client zoom call - predict we break the record of people on the beach

[Janet P]

On the crowded shore.
Remembering our freedom.
Thanks to all who serve

[rexthree]

on shore!

[TheCatt]

Is there any option for Zero stars?

We're on shore with everyone else.

[cremebrulee]

Yay! I think I figured it out this week--I'll see on Monday anyway. I see a lot of comments saying how easy it was, but for someone quite new to this (and who hasn't yet been able to get the hang of them), I find it quite encouraging!

[fstadler]

OK, I'm marking this one as solved, but at the risk of seeming ungrateful for this wonderful series of challenges, it didn't seem to have the elegance of other meta puzzles, especially those from MG. The theme phrases seemed particularly contrived and with a predictable format. Oh well, I'll look forward to next week....

[Doug C]

On shore.

[hoover]

Is there any option for Zero stars?

I don't think so, but you can rate it 1/2 star.

[eagle1279]

Ashore on Thursday evening, but had to think about it before stepping off the tender.

[pookie]

Hi Bob!
On shore.

[Crest]

On shore. Seemed way too easy, and as many have observed, the answer was (I hope) quite evident well before completing the grid.

[P1h3r1e3d13]

I'm still a newbie, but this was silly easy for me. Ashore after ~½ the grid and 1½ theme clues. I rated this ½ difficulty, but do I just know the theme better than they expect?

[TheCatt]

Is there any option for Zero stars?

I don't think so, but you can rate it 1/2 star.

Yeah, we voted 1/2 star