#701 - "We're Looking for a Phrase"

[HeadinHome]

Started this evening, and somewhat quickly got step 1 (and 2), but can't figure out what to do now, since what I get is gibberish. :-/

I bet that’s the same lane I idled in for about 20 minutes. Then I smacked my head and went “OH — I need to try that other thing I often forget to try…”.

[EmilyW]

It feels like it's been a while since I correctly solved a meta so I was looking forward to a nice easy week one, but unfortunately I am stuck. I think I'm most of the way there, so I'm going to take a break and hope for post enlightenment.

Well I had to leave it and come back a few times, but this time I saw it immediately. Pending leaderboard update, but beam me up!

[Barney]

#339 on the leaderboard.

[rexthree]

beam me up. had a eureka moment while falling asleep last night; luckily, remembered my thoughts in the morning and got it done. agree with everyone this felt a bit harder than usual week ones.

[SewYoung]

Started this evening, and somewhat quickly got step 1 (and 2), but can't figure out what to do now, since what I get is gibberish. :-/

I'm in that same boat.

[cbarbee002]

In typing a PM to someone explaining where I was with the puzzle, I discovered that I was mis-reading my handwriting and "typing" the grid numbers made it clear that I was using an incorrect number based on my self-produced gibberish. Anyway, finally beamed up yesterday.

[Laura M]

I'm running late on metas and comments and everything else this week. I eventually did beam up at #177 :-) I got there quickly but agree this seemed like a little more than the usual week one!

[burghman]

On the board. A couple Naticks and a word I’d never seen before but was close enough to another word that it forced some head-scratching. More fun than the typical week 1.

[MikeM000]

The one thing that slowed me down on this (especially since he's used Wheel Of Fortune in the past) was that the title sounded like Pat Sajak revealing the next puzzle. I had the right 7 letters but as WHLIFUS (grid sequence of the () clues) and didn't know if we were supposed to make WHALING FUSE or some such phrase. After a few minutes and noticing there were no references to "buying a vowel" or anything like that, I wrote down the grid #s for the changed letters and had it in no time.

[Guffman]

Am I the only one who noticed the name of one of the solvers near the very bottom of Matt's "Streaks" list this week? Coincidence? I don't think so.

[patpatchica]

Is it wrong to be giddy about my first solo solve? Only started trying the metas from WSJ in mid-October - yet to solve one without a nudge. I subscribed to Matt’s Friday metas a few weeks ago mostly just to watch and learn. After completing the first step of this meta, I stared at it forever until I had a aha moment yesterday. My family doesn’t understand my excitement! Hopefully, some of you will.

[MikeM000]

Am I the only one who noticed the name of one of the solvers near the very bottom of Matt's "Streaks" list this week? Coincidence? I don't think so.

I'm guessing someone put the wrong info in the wrong field on the entry page. That said, it makes me wonder how "manual" his process is, as that would never get past him if he checked every answer.

[Al Sisti]

Am I the only one who noticed the name of one of the solvers near the very bottom of Matt's "Streaks" list this week? Coincidence? I don't think so.

I'm guessing someone put the wrong info in the wrong field on the entry page. That said, it makes me wonder how "manual" his process is, as that would never get past him if he checked every answer.

Yeah, that has happened before... I actually informed him of that in an email and it came right off. I will admit that sometimes I look at the "overall" to see of there's someone with only 1 submission whose name looks like an answer.