"Three by Three" - November 5, 2021

[JeanneC]

Would never have made those little boxes. Congrats to the solvers!

[JRS51]

Sorry, how do we know it’s e, w, a, and u in the center?

[escapeartist]

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.

I didn't see the phonic portion of this fun assignment. Guess I was way off the mark.

(I thought it was the starting letters of the crossing new words in the 3x3 grids)

[Beth Tyrpin]

Scrolled carefully at the first explanation on Diary of a Crossword Fiend to get a hint. (The first step). Solved. Really cool puzzle.

[oldjudge]

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.

This is exactly right (unless I am missing something). I threw the letters into an anagram solver so it wasn’t an issue, but otherwise think the numbers are not very useful.

[Inkwisitif]

Sorry, how do we know it’s e, w, a, and u in the center?

They are the only letters that create valid words for the two intersecting words missing the center letter and also fulfill the pattern of forming a word that sounds like a letter.

TEA/t, BEE/b, EWE/u, OWE/o, KAY/k, EAU/o (french word #1), AUX/o (french letter #2), and ....
OUR/"r"

[DrTom]

Hmmmm -- a nip of what?

I've been trying to get my cats to bring Cognac!

[BEACHEDWHALE]

Once I recognized that the four long word answers consisted of four 3 letter words I knew they contained the answer with each using the same strategy. But having FOUR 3 letter words confused me. So I put them in an excel file and noticed that each of them contained 2 words starting in the same letter and the other 2 ending in the same letter. That would have meant nothing but the pattern was true for all four long word answers. I realized then I could combine them only one way in a 3 letter square which would be a 3 by 3 which fit the title. So the rest was easy. I would have never known what the numbers meant except there was another crossword several months ago which gave a good enough example as to how they could be used. (As I recall it had something to do with letters inside a shell.) However my answer was BOOKTOUR as one word and not BOOK_TOUR as two words. I hope that didn't disqualify my answer. But anyway, it was fun.

[sharkicicles]

No offense, but for this I will use a term an old high school friend gave us: "FTS." If this was my first introduction to metas, I certainly wouldn't be here now.

[sharkicicles]

edit: I'm unusually unhappy about this one, but not going to be a[n irascible old chap] about it.

[LivinaDogsLife]

Wow, I could not be more impressed by the folks solving this one. Bravo! I wracked my scarecrow brain trying to make the 3X3 grids, and having now seen the answer the grids seem obvious. Of course, I wouldn’t have made the next step without a serious knock to my noggin!

[mntlblok]

[quote="B

I’m sure you meant the Original Wendy, but this Wendy is a wordsmith and grammarian also (AND a knitter to boot… I’m really just a Wendy Walker wannabe) … and the answer is WHOM. You can always turn your phrase into a question incorporating either HE or HIM. If you choose “HE” use “WHO”; if you choose “HIM” choose “WHOM.” -

Ex.:
“How you solve the meta and with WHO/WHOM is a very personal decision.” ==> I solved that with HIM. (With WHOM? With HIM)

Yer welcome.

P.S. Thank you for the Oxford comma, too.
[/quote]

And then there're those prepositions which use a "clause" for their objects, just to keep us on our toes. . .

[mntlblok]

Bob the cruise director quote:
"Next before we get onto any dart throwing, the subject of teaming, collaboration, hints, nudges and such has been discussed a lot over the years. How you solve the meta and with whom (Wendy is it whom or who?) is a very personal decision. Some prefer to solve solo and some prefer to collaborate. And as you may have seen from the comments, do not confuse solving, being on shore and sending in an answer to the WSJ. This is a judgement call for each of us so just enjoy the moment."
You all may consider this dart throwing. So be it.
I commented quite awhile ago about "nudges". On that particular week it seemed like every other post was asking for a "nudge"
This week, on page 2, on Friday MORNING (post#29) a group solve via Zoom was in the works.
Then by Friday afternoon (post #73)..."a dozen relieved and thirsty Muggles will be heading his way after an amazingly productive and fun Zoom Group Solve!"
So, will the Muggle Group Zoom meeting be next Thursday @ 1:01p.m. EST?
After we solve the puzzle we can all share what we're getting for Christmas, after we've re-wrapped them and put them back under the tree of course.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and to their way of solving and whether to ask for or give nudges. We are after all not competing for a million dollars, a lung, a kidney or the right to represent our City, State, Country.

Solving the meta is fun to be sure, but the Muggle community, and by that I don't just mean the forum I mean the people, is such a fun, intelligent and downright funny group that meeting on Tuesdays, working on a puzzle together, collaborating to get an appearance by Isaac, or to honor one of the site admins far surpasses any tangible object. I do not look on this as a contest, and I'd bet that none of the people who solved in the group submitted for the mug. The prize WAS the collaboration and as long as we don't blurt out the answer on the forum and ruin anyone's fun then what is the harm?

I understand purists, I do. For much of my life I was one and often a disgruntled one because I missed some of the fun of those who were willing to try something different. I must also admit that I probably chastised those who weren't doing it the right way (i.e. mine). I regret that because it served me no benefit and probably either hurt or annoyed others.

If you wish to solve alone, I accept your particular choice and will not launch into a diatribe about how you are missing a good deal of the fun of a community of VERY smart, clever and amusing people. But remember that is your choice, not ours and if there is a Muggle Zoom called for Thursday at 12:02 I'll be there. The past year or so has brought little distraction and levity, and most of what there was came from this forum and these people. If it is all the same to you I will continue to enjoy that,

Dang. I needed that. Thanks.

[Streroto]

Very happy I did not spend a lot of time on this. Was never going to happen. Clever.

Stay well all.

[mntlblok]

Scrolled carefully at the first explanation on Diary of a Crossword Fiend to get a hint. (The first step). Solved. Really cool puzzle.

Cool! Does Joon post on this every Monday just after midnight?

[TeamDoubleTow]

We tried many ways to make 3x3 grids and nada, even with a nudges telling us to leave the center blank! This is brilliant but definitely in our blind spot.

[mntlblok]

Gonna see about nudging the wifey through this one. She never looks at this forum. After seeing how it works, I actually *love* it, but only for the brilliance of being able to put it together and make it work.

The pool of humans (or whatever species they are) who can figure out how to make this work on their own - with no more hints than what were given - would seem to be rather tiny. I really, really wonder about such folks. Am also most envious of them. Have read that we "normal" folks just aren't even capable of understanding "how" they think. (Have also heard them described as having IQ's of 160 and up). Would also love to know more about them.

[Joepickett]

1A had me trying to find two French words in each theme answer.

I had SAL (salle) and EEL (ile) to start. Which is Room and Island. Then I took SUE (sous) which Under.
Using R, I and U and placing them in R?U?I??? the answer was clearly REUNIONS. (College grads... People of letters)

I was bound and determined and stuck in that rabbit hole for awhile before I gave up trying to find other French words. I tried to turn GOT into Quatre (FOUR) but the F didn't fit my pattern. That is how desperate I was.

[mntlblok]

Gonna see about nudging the wifey through this one. She never looks at this forum. After seeing how it works, I actually *love* it, but only for the brilliance of being able to put it together and make it work.

The pool of humans (or whatever species they are) who can figure out how to make this work on their own - with no more hints than what were given - would seem to be rather tiny. I really, really wonder about such folks. Am also most envious of them. Have read that we "normal" folks just aren't even capable of understanding "how" they think. (Have also heard them described as having IQ's of 160 and up). Would also love to know more about them.

The more I think about this subject, the more I can't make myself shut up about it. While I can sort of "follow" this, there's no way I could ever pull it off. Very curious to know how many folks on this forum *can* comfortably derive Kepler's laws in such a manner. https://onlinehw.math.ksu.edu/math340bo ... kepler.php I'll crawl back into my hole, now.

[mntlblok]

Back out of my hole. Seemed worth sharing here. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/map ... ion-capita