"Three by Three" - November 5, 2021

[Trey]

Marion and I could sure use a friendly nudge - we are stuck along the way...........thanks.

[clueless_solver]

LAS. Whenever the puzzles involve 3-letter words, I start seeing things that are probably just coincidences. Title says Three By Three but we have Four By Four 3-letter words *facepalm*. Would love a nudge.

Bottom right corner is also driving me insane with double letters.

[NDStegs]

Thanks to a nudge, we got it. Very clever and very difficult.

[LadyBird]

Good evening

Our final count is 67 on the ship (very high) and 64 on the shore (very low). Congratulations on those who figured this one out. A very clever and creative one from Matt.

And we have a couple of new muggles since our last report - KaiS and Inkwisitif and JerryF - welcome to the group.

What a tough week to be a new Muggle--but welcome!

The WSJ had a half-page ad for the meta crossword class this week. They should have checked with Shenk and run it during an easier week!

[FKelly]

On shore with a nudge from my friends.
I nearly wrote the meta answer next to the prompt on Thursday. It's essentially the same thing.

[whimsy]

Wouldn't you just know....
One more reason to be cautious when it comes to nudging --

Hmmmm -- a nip of what?

[RobM]

I'm going to be interested in seeing how the puzzle answer PDF shows this week's solution. Seems like it's going to take more space to make clear than usual.

[DrTom]

Of course you can submit. Why do you think no one reveals their real name here? It's because when they announce the winner, people won't be able to identify the beneficiary of a nudge!!!!!

Oh golly I hope you are wrong, and I believe you are. I have never met a nicer, more honest group and honorable group of people in my life. NOBODY I know who asks for a nudge, if it is anything except a teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy, miniscule nudge, would even think of submitting. If that were the case I might rethink my propensity to unrestrainedly send out help. I assume that, like me, at that point people just want to know the way home and are not focused on "winning".

Trust me, you "won" the minute you started to post on this forum and got the assistance and community of the board. Truthfully the Muggle have made me a better person.

It was a joke!!! I thought that the smiling emoji indicates a joke. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

If I took your jest seriously I certainly apologize but this week there has been more than one post disdaining nudges. I also learned a long time ago that putting a smiley face on a potentially negative e-mail statement (whether it is meant that way or not) does NOT make it lighthearted.

If I say - "if only Mr. Gaffney would stop hiding under bridges and scaring Billy goats" - that might be funny

If I say - "If only Mr. Gaffney would stop trying to show his dominance over us by making impossible METAs" - that is not (oh, and PLEASE, I do not for one minute believe Mr. Gaffney is doing that, I am certainly if he did want to NONE of us would ever solve what would be the cleverest meta EVER!!!)

[ky-mike]

Well, absent some last-minute enlightenment, I will have to concede to both Matt Gaffney for the WSJ puzzle and Pete Muller for the November MMMM puzzle as, after a couple of nudges on each of them, I have neither one. I believe that I am close on both, but time is not on my side (contrary to what Mick Jagger might tell me).

However, my night is good as two of my favorite music videos popped up in my FB feed - Thriller (probably the best music video of all time) and Dream On (my favorite Aerosmith song). As Steven Tyler sings it - "You've got to lose to know how to win". That is where I am tonight, but dreaming of a win next time for both metas.

[Bird Lives]

I have been hauled ashore -- heavy ropes and a large winch were required.
I'm surprised Matt didn't keep this one for his own MGWCC -- like for a month when there are six Fridays, maybe seven or eight.

[Isw]

Looking or a last chance nudge…

[PQ63]

Got stuck after step one. Submitted a Hail Mary.

[Laura M]

Got it (I think) with less than 2 minutes to spare. In retrospect it shouldn't have taken that long (but aren't they all like that). Neat concept!

Update: I'm on shore, whew! It didn't help that the online submission option was missing so I had to scramble to log into my email account at the last minute. Excellent puzzle though, wow!

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

[meowmiao71]

Major respect to everyone who got this one (and last week's)! I STILL don't get it after seeing the solution, so obviously this was far beyond my ken.

[woozy]

My only complaint is that "OUR" is NOT pronounced as "R". It just isn't.

[escapeartist]

ACK!

So close - got the 3 x 3 grid, filled in the center letters, but I got E, R, A, U

Didn't know where to go from there.

*shrugs*

How does one know what letter is first and what letter is second? The little 3 x 3 grids can be flipped - they still work, but what letter goes where?

[woozy]

Wouldn't you just know....
One more reason to be cautious when it comes to nudging --
Capturebunnynudge_LI (2).jpg
Hmmmm -- a nip of what?

Rabbits are more like cats than people would suspect.....

[woozy]

How does one know what letter is first and what letter is second? The little 3 x 3 grids can be flipped - they still work, but what letter goes where?

That bugged me too.

You don't.

Each could be either one so thre are 2^4/2 = 16=8 possible solutions. But with the letters [B,T], [O,O], [U,O], [K,R] it should be pretty clear what the answer is.