"Getting Possessive" - March 11, 2022

[michaelm]

Yep, I first looked for "HAT", even though that is the wrong number of letters. But once I saw "KISS" in the final across clue, I knew that was the answer.

For the people that aren't familiar with the phrase, I'll echo @OliviaL's comment that the word has had a resurgence lately in the on-line world, with people posting the word or the image (sometimes with a MWAH!) in appreciation of a particularly apt comment or meme.

As opposed to "You'll Never Solve This One" with a MWAHAHA!

[HunterX]

I realized it was CHEF’S KISS immediately as soon as I saw “CHEF” and without even seeing that “KISS” was included in the last clue. I just did a little research on the phrase and it seems it was coined in the US during WW2 and then wasn’t really popular again until the past decade where it’s been big on Twitter and has even become a meme. I don’t use Twitter and I have no idea where initially heard the phrase, but it seems I’ve probably come across it on social media at some point or another. I may have actually had an advantage for once being in my late twenties!

That must explain why my 22-year old, who basically lives on the internet, and does tweet, knew it must be "Chef's Kiss" immediately, while I first went to "table," "selection," "hat," "counter," etc.

[Limerick Savant]

First thing you think of when you think of a chef is that white hat if anyone actually wears those or not…

The hat is a toque.

Which is what I felt like I needed to take in order to discover the second part of the phrase.

[Limerick Savant]

March 14
Happy Pi Day, Folks
Chefs of Muggledom! Let’s get on it!
D356F1D1-3BCE-4B18-ABF7-C4545289460D.jpeg

Had some quiche for lunch. Does that count?

[woozy]

I don’t use Twitter and I have no idea where initially heard the phrase, but it seems I’ve probably come across it on social media at some point or another. I may have actually had an advantage for once being in my late twenties!

To be fair, I don't think any of us are unfamiliar with the gesture or concept-- just never had a phrase for it.

I wonder how many of us old farts will now insist on using al bacio (the actual phrase) in protest.... and then get angry when no-one knows what it means.

[Jacksull]

While I was familiar with the gesture, I only recently came across the term Chef's Kiss. It was in a puzzle, but I can't remember which one. It may have been a cryptic or a variety puzzle. I had to look it up and remember thinking "So that's what it's called".

[Joe Ross]

Here is an older expression which is relevant.

[ship4u]

If you think this is frustrating now, just wait......

[Flying_Burrito]

I got Chef's Kiss but I shamelessly googled for Chef's to get Kiss. My biggest rabbit hole at the beginning originated from Spin Doctor. I followed the Spin Doctors rock band quite a bit in my 20s and coincidentally enough there were 2 names in the grid that corresponded to 2 band members (Eric Shenkman and Aaron Comess). I did spend a good 30 minutes trying to figure out if/how these 2 names could play a role in the meta only to eventually decide to revert back to the main clues from the grid

[Bonnibel]

The key for me was that I was looking for a phrase that included "Chef's." Not a mere possessive but a phrase or idiom. Lots of items in the clues and in the grid that could be possessed by the various occupations = all rabbit holes. It took seeing KISS for the umpteenth time for me to see the light. For me, that AHA moment is always worth the struggle!

[Limerick Savant]

I don’t use Twitter and I have no idea where initially heard the phrase, but it seems I’ve probably come across it on social media at some point or another. I may have actually had an advantage for once being in my late twenties!

To be fair, I don't think any of us are unfamiliar with the gesture or concept-- just never had a phrase for it.

I wonder how many of us old farts will now insist on using al bacio (the actual phrase) in protest.... and then get angry when no-one knows what it means.

Hear, hear! I would argue that the difference between the two expressions is like the difference between a Hershey’s Kiss and a Perugina Baci. One will do in a pinch while the other is pure perfection.

But then I do admit to being an old fart.

[BrennerTJ]

There were just a handful of clues left to consider beyond 'Dozen halved' leading to only one conclusion... Googled the phrase to be sure.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is CHEF’S KISS. Each job in the five theme answers forms a common possessive phrase using the first word of a clue: JUDGE’s Chambers (14-A), TEACHER’s Pet (19-A), WRITER’s Block (29-D), DOCTOR’s Orders (49-A), BAKER’s Dozen (67-D). The first letters of the answers to those clues (CRANE, HAIR, EPEE, FIRES, SIX) spell CHEF’S. “Kiss” is found, similarly to the others, as the first word of 77-Across’s clue.

Another big turnout for this clever puzzle: 1,574 entries, with about 83% correctly following Matt's nice trail of clues. Several solvers found CHEF'S and then proposed a different four-letter word; of these the most compelling was CHEF'S RULE (10 entries), not a phrase we knew but "Rule" (like "Kiss") was the first word in a clue (44D, "Rule fought by Nehru."). As it happened, our randomly drawn entry had CHEF'S KISS so we didn't need to adjudicate this interesting alternative. Also CHEF'S MENU (13), PICK (9), CAPS (7) and TBSP (6) and sundry other non-chef entries.

Congrats to this week's winner: Pablo Iglesias of Towson, MD!

[SusieG]

Like many of you, I’d never heard the phrase and went to Chef’s table, which wouldn’t fit (thankfully they gave us the letter count). I googled it, which my son told me was cheating. It took me another day to find KISS in the clues. I was looking for it, I just missed it. I did like the idea of a Chef’s High, though. If anyone has worked in a restaurant they know how likely that is.

[BarbaraK]

I thought this puzzle was great! Is there an opposite of sour grapes? Sweet grapes? Maybe the fact that I solved it quickly colors my opinion.

Seeing all the professions and thinking about their possessives, I loved that we didn't have to pull phrases out of thin air. The second word was right there, in a nearby clue. In fact, all of the associated words were in exactly the same order as the theme entries, so there was none of the usual trial and error to figure out which way to arrange them. Another touch of elegance!

Once I had CHEF'S, I again assumed that we'd have to just figure out the rest, and nothing with 4 letters came immediately to mind. But knowing that I'm not up on current things, I turned to google and auto-complete's first suggestion was CHEF'S KISS (which I have heard of but did not know was particularly popular with the young-uns these days.) When I then saw kiss as the first word of the last clue - mwah! Perfection! Nothing to just think up, like the others it was right there.

Someone suggested chef's rule as another possibility. Never heard that as a phrase, but as noted above that doesn't mean much. Google says it is a thing, so it seems worth considering as an alternate answer. But looking at the search results and number of hits, it seems clear which is the more common phrase.

[higgysue]

I liked this puzzle a lot. I had never heard of the term but was happy to learn it. Count me as a Gaffney fan.

[Don S.]

And of the 931 Google hits for chef's rule BarbaraK showed, the first one doesn't even look like a possessive--it looks like a plural with a greengrocer's apostrophe...

[bradisbrad]

Welp, I had everything but JUDGE'S CHAMBERS. Went with JUDGE'S RULE instead, which gave me RHEFS. That was enough to convince me I was missing letters between those that I found instead of having a wrong pair, but given that I was out of town this weekend, I just marked this one down as a week at sea. Clever puzzle though, and for those keeping score at home, put me down as another under-30 that was abundantly aware of the phrase CHEF'S KISS prior to this puzzle.

[Collegetowngirl]

My husband and I had a long dry spell after our daughter moved out, causing me to be too sad to even check this forum for over 6 months. But two or three puzzles ago suddenly we had some good luck, which caused us to try harder on this one than we would have.

For context, I am usually the one who figures out most of the grid and the meta. My husband is the scholar who gets all the geography, history, and Biblical words.

So when I figured out the possessive bit and showed him the pattern (at the time I had two wrong so the letters were RHSFS), he fixed that by identifying block and chambers first. Now we had CHEFS. He immediately said “chef’s kiss.” I with all my unfounded self confidence said, that’s not a phrase like the others. He shrugged. I worked on it for another hour or two. Then finally checked Google, as so many others here. Yay!

So. Huge bonus points to WSJ for restoring marital grid balance!!

Also thanks to the poster who provided the Merriam
Webster link! Love it!

[Inca]

Whether I liked the meta or not, congrats to all who amazingly solved it correctly...and so many did. Some in as little as 15 minutes! Actually, I realized that many of the muggle members are very experienced mugglers. While I am here from the start, they have left me in the dust. That's why I have been spending less time on the metas. The puzzles seem to have gotten more intricate and my mind hasn't progressed along with them...