"Double Trouble" - December 3, 2021

[mntlblok]

Oh great... I said "A DOLLAR SHORT AND A DAY LATE" ... Since the quarter clues started at the top of the puzzle I thought that was the start of the answer... Oh well, next time maybe...

If your name gets pulled from the hat, I think they will accept your answer.

How bout mine? Three thirds of a day late and four quarters short?

[mntlblok]

But with what keywords? That's what would have gotten me.

Well, dang! I'm trying to stay out of spoiler jail!

"Time and money" Googled with any but "idioms" (but not "idiom", it turns out) yields a bunch of "time is money" stuff, but no ADLAADS.

Now see that "money sayings" could get you there, but "time and money sayings" won't.

[CPJohnson]

But how were we supposed to know to add the quarters together, and add the 8-hour segments together?

[mntlblok]

But how were we supposed to know to add the quarters together, and add the 8-hour segments together?

Kinda puzzling, eh?

[patpatchica]

That was a very interesting meta. I’ve never seen one quite like it. Granted, I’ve only been trying the metas since October which is probably why I kept looking for some specific mechanism to pull out letters to get the answer. I saw “a day late” right after I completed the grid Thursday night, but dismissed it when I couldn’t find “a dollar short.” It was Sunday afternoon before my aha quarter moment!

Edit: Also, I’m old enough to know exactly who Lou Gramm is but young enough to be clueless about Burma Shave.

[HunterX]

We had a semi-backsolve on this one. Noticing the themed answers' "shifts" right away, I was riffing on different ways to phrase the three 8 hour lags, and I used "late." I also mentioned that the 8 hour offset times 3 was 24 hours. My son then mentioned the answer phrase and we had to backsolve on the quarters, which wasn't too hard since STATE was obviously "odd" as an answer for "Coin...," and all were in the corners.

Another brilliant construction by Matt Gaffney!

[coffeefrog]

Late posting but on shore since Thursday night

[mheberlingx100]

But how were we supposed to know to add the quarters together, and add the 8-hour segments together?

I listed out the answers that were missing a quarter and the answers where the times were wrong. Then I calculated how wrong the times were - all three of them were late by 8 hours. Then it came together. The answers in total were short by four quarters (one dollar) and late by 24 hours (one day). Fortunately I was very familiar with the phrase.

Sometimes it just clicks and sometimes it doesn’t.

[Limerick Savant]

With this puzzle I’m pleased to report
I’m ashore at the Muggles’ Resort
Prepaid and on time
For it would be a crime
Late by eight and just four quarters short!

Actually I spent those 4 quarters 8 hours earlier watching the UC Bearcats claim their spot in the CFP for the first time ever. Fortunately I wouldn’t be caught short anyway because I always have my trusty $2.00 bill stashed away in my wallet for just such emergencies. Now all I have to contend with is being likely the only one in town rooting for Cincy when they square off against Bama. I’ll also be the only one serving my own version of Skyline Chili at my watch party.

I loved the puzzle this week. The odd clues made the grid a challenge and there really didn’t seem like there was a mechanism to decipher. I found myself trying to parse the meaning of an 8 hour time shift and the absence of the word quarter in several answers when the “Aha!” Moment hit and the phrase came to mind.

[TeaJenny]

I've been waiting all weekend to share this:

https://www.thecomicstrips.com/comic-st ... 0-26/27656

[Limerick Savant]

But how were we supposed to know to add the quarters together, and add the 8-hour segments together?

I listed out the answers that were missing a quarter and the answers where the times were wrong. Then I calculated how wrong the times were - all three of them were late by 8 hours. Then it came together. The answers in total were short by four quarters (one dollar) and late by 24 hours (one day). Fortunately I was very familiar with the phrase.

Sometimes it just clicks and sometimes it doesn’t.

For me the phrase came to mind thinking about 8 hours (a typical workday) late and it was only after I realized that there were 4 missing quarters that the math set in.

[MaineMarge]

Brilliant, Matt!
Before seeing the quarters (but still scratching my head about those 4 clues/grid words), I Googled “phrase about being late”, and up came the answer. Good. Now I could stop scratching.

Time for a million dollar view of our late fall garden

Mother Nature is also brilliant in many ways.

[otlaolap]

I was stumped until this morning at breakfast. I told my husband I needed to run it by him. He laughed and said I was sweet for letting him think he could help. After showing him, I immediately solved it. Funny how saying things out loud sometimes will shake the answer loose.

In a freshman psychology class sixty years ago I learned, if I remember correctly, about the corpus callosum, a part of the brain that connects the right and left halves. If this is damaged then external things like aromas or speaking may be the only way for one half to communicate with the other. People will know a color, for example, but not be able to retrieve the name for the color.

Anyway, on this puzzle I was mulling and rationally working the grid, pondering letters and adding numbers, when suddenly, with absolutely no volition that I could sense, I shouted "a day late and a dollar short", and then my mulling rationalizing analyzining mind thought "yep, that is it". There was a distinct momentary lag and separation of process going on there. So somewhere the word part had put things together before the reasoning part and was eager to let the world know (including, it turned out, my long-suffering wife in a different room).

[MatthewL]

I saw the 8 hour time shift right away in 3 of the clues, of course, and the missing quarter thing came a few minutes later of staring at the grid. Didn't know what to do with any of it for a bit (kept thinking quarter hour for some reason, and trying to make that fit somehow with 1/3 of a day), but then the STATE [Quarter] clue made me think of money and then it was a quick trip to -- hey, 4 quarters equals a dollar, and 3 8 hour stretches equals a day, and then there was the answer. Clever mechanism and a different kind of puzzle. It's what keeps me coming back to try them, even when I go through an awful stretch such as late October/November.

[Barney]

So disappointing to miss this, because it’s one of my very favorite sayings. But I am such an ignoramus about sports that I didn’t pick up on quarterbacks or quarterfinals.

I did see there was some thing off about state as the answer to a coin for Colorado or Connecticut. But I didn’t put it together.

I didn’t do the math on the time changes but I didn’t add them together.

Absolutely brilliant puzzle in my opinion.

[LadyBird]

I noticed the missing quarters and the time lag while still on our flight, but couldn't figure out the mechanism. I leaned across the empty middle seat (hoping for a repeat of that on tonight's flight) and showed it to my husband, who immediately noticed the 8-hour difference in all three answers. ADLAADS popped into my head, but I wasn't ready to accept it because I couldn't make if fit with Double Trouble. So, I found all the double letters: a combo of O-L-M-E-T. I could make MOTEL & OMELET. But that was leading nowhere. Then I looked up the phrase and realized it referred to two problems: ADL and ADS. Then I was OK with it--plus there was no more time with our early Christmas celebration.

[sphorning]

I thought quarter missing from BACKS was odd, but never clued in when it was missing from FRENCH and STATE. Never would have put quarter with FINALS. I did get the eight hour time difference, but would not have thought to put 3 eights together to make A DAY. KAS 4 for me!

[JJD]

But how were we supposed to know to add the quarters together, and add the 8-hour segments together?

I listed out the answers that were missing a quarter and the answers where the times were wrong. Then I calculated how wrong the times were - all three of them were late by 8 hours. Then it came together. The answers in total were short by four quarters (one dollar) and late by 24 hours (one day). Fortunately I was very familiar with the phrase.

Sometimes it just clicks and sometimes it doesn’t.

I had a mental math error/block in that I kept thinking that 8 hours was 1/4 of a day, so that probably slowed me for a day or so.

[CPJohnson]

I was stumped until this morning at breakfast. I told my husband I needed to run it by him. He laughed and said I was sweet for letting him think he could help. After showing him, I immediately solved it. Funny how saying things out loud sometimes will shake the answer loose.

In a freshman psychology class sixty years ago I learned, if I remember correctly, about the corpus callosum, a part of the brain that connects the right and left halves. If this is damaged then external things like aromas or speaking may be the only way for one half to communicate with the other. People will know a color, for example, but not be able to retrieve the name for the color.

Anyway, on this puzzle I was mulling and rationally working the grid, pondering letters and adding numbers, when suddenly, with absolutely no volition that I could sense, I shouted "a day late and a dollar short", and then my mulling rationalizing analyzining mind thought "yep, that is it". There was a distinct momentary lag and separation of process going on there. So somewhere the word part had put things together before the reasoning part and was eager to let the world know (including, it turned out, my long-suffering wife in a different room).

I have my excuse from now on when I can't solve a meta......my corpus callosum is defective!

[TheCatt]

Well, we were definitely a day late, since we didn't do the puzzle this weekend, but congrats to those who got it!