"Make the Connection" - May 20, 2022

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

This one popped out at me because I was being sloppy filling in the grid in the WSJ interface. I was working from top to bottom and had highlighted the square where the E in ONE should have gone, and I was reading "Common lunch hour" as the clue. But my eyes were on the down answer, which was four letters and started with N. So I filled in NOON where NEVE should have gone. I realized the error, but then also saw NOON sitting right there in NO RIGHT ON RED, which gave away the whole game for me. Finally seeing 75A at the end of the grid was just confirmation.

[woozy]

I get thrown whenever the letters are in grid order rather than in themer order. You'd think I wouldn't keep having that issue... Maybe if I printed rather than doing them online.

[Cindy N]

I had exactly the right idea, but for some reason the long middle fill eluded me - I didn't see the "ME", so disregarded the other four. That violated my meta solving rule - two is a coincidence, three is a pattern to follow. It's a good thing it specified five letters, or I might have just submitted JOIN. Whew.

[Mister Squawk]

I initially thought that the mechanism was the first two and last two letters:

GOAHEADOF -> GOOF
DOYOUREMEMBERME -> DOME
SOWHATSUP -> SOUP

And the other two were vertical:

HARMS -> HAMS (IPaella Pieces -> PEAS)
OWNED -> OWED (Not free of charge -> ??? )

Mrs. Squawk straightened me out.

[zonkswonk]

Agh!! I spent an hour and a half looking at the five pairs of words looking for acronyms that made sense but somehow I never tried going down the grid :/ better luck next time I suppose

[MatthewB]

Amazing meta. I figured that two and two had something to do with it but never saw the two letter words.

[mheberlingx100]

I saw Goof and Noon first and then had strong suspicions that I was in the right track. Remembered the lunch clue (thinking at the time, I have lunch at noon, not one!) and then it was off to the races.

[Dplass]

I get thrown whenever the letters are in grid order rather than in themer order. You'd think I wouldn't keep having that issue... Maybe if I printed rather than doing them online.

Me too! I highlighted them (on paper) after failing to anagram oijtn lol.

[CPJohnson]

Finally after staring and staring found the way! On shore !

Staring and staring is my usual tactic, but this week, I saw the mechanism right away. Hoping that happens again soon.

[NuYear68]

Call me lucky - I mistakenly matched DOME with TEPEE instead of TRUSS, but still got the "T".

[pjc]

I initially thought that the mechanism was the first two and last two letters:

GOAHEADOF -> GOOF
DOYOUREMEMBERME -> DOME
SOWHATSUP -> SOUP

And the other two were vertical:

HARMS -> HAMS (IPaella Pieces -> PEAS)
OWNED -> OWED (Not free of charge -> ??? )

Mrs. Squawk straightened me out.

Those were my first three, too. And I didn't really notice that I had found two-letter words - just the first and last two letters of the grid answer.

With those, it seemed obvious that JOINT was the meta answer and I had to look and re-look at the other two long answers and work backwards from the other two grid answers whose initial letters contributed to JOINT before it jumped out at me that we were dealing with the two letter words within the long answers.

[Limerick Savant]

I’d like to be first to anoint
Matt Gaffney for making the point:
With simple directions
You’ll make the connections
No reason to be out of joint

I quickly saw GOOF, DOME, and SOUP the long clue answers but thought it a rabbit hole because the other two didn’t provide a word formed from first two and last two letters. It wasn’t until last night when I came back with fresh eyes that I realized the words were all formed from two letter word pairs. From there it was a hop, skip, and jump to find the other answers for which the five could be alternates, NOON jumping out as the typical lunch hour. Child’s Play once you see it but a challenge until you do.

Kudos to Mr. Gaffney even though 2+2=5 in this case!

[JeanneC]

My Hail Mary a last minute pitch,
When my meta skills hit a hitch,
Rabbit holes I dug,
For me there’s no mug,
But being a lady I won’t bi-ch.

Congrats to all who solved.

[Collegetowngirl]

My rabbit hole was noticing that aloof rhymes with goof and hoop rhymed with soup. Luckily I couldn’t find any more rhymes like that and got to noon/one. Then it took me a while to remember I’d been caught by that “grid order” thing recently. Felt good to turn in on a Saturday as usually it doesn’t click til Sunday (if it clicks at all).

[JRS51]

I was only able to give the meta a few minutes of attention this weekend, due to travel and lots of quality time with two of our grandchildren! But I was hopeful that it was one that I would be able to solve and I wanted to complete it for practice and personal satisfaction.
So I didn’t check the solution last night as is my usual routine.
Having coffee this morning I solved it quickly! So I won’t hurt anyone’s chances to win the mug but I do feel satisfied and look forward to this week’s contest.

[Hidden in 3D]

@pjc, I need an introduction to that sweet beagle in your avatar! What a cutie!

[Limerick Savant]

I get thrown whenever the letters are in grid order rather than in themer order. You'd think I wouldn't keep having that issue... Maybe if I printed rather than doing them online.

I know that my brain functions better with pen in hand. I scribble words and ideas all over the page and mark areas of the grid until the paper becomes a general mess. I typically let my wife read anything of interest to her before I launch into my feverish meta search.

[otlaolap]

Never did notice the clue linkage until after I submitted. Got the five words from the grid essentially immediately, and then spent time looking for words that related to each of them. WEAN and NURSe, NOON and ONE, no brainers. SOUP, though: soup to nuts? maybe nuts comes at the end and Jello is a dessert? so OK, SOUP and JELLO. DOME: well, you can live under a dome and a TEPEE too. GOOF and IMP was sorta close. Anyway, I had two columns of words on my paper, and just luckily I noticed that they could be anagrammed to JOINT. Sure hit the title. After a good night's sleep the clue connection struck, and that is when TRUSS replaced TEPEE and the top-down elegance popped into view.

[ship4u]

After stumbling out of the gate last week and, as a devoted English Rose gardener, not seeing ROSE in the mechanism, I approached this week with energy and determination. Mr. Gaffney blessed me with a technique he has used before in grid substitution and I spotted it right away. Life is good. Now, gimme that mug (it worked for @escapeartist )!

[minimuggle]

I got the mechanism pretty quickly but I made a stupid mistake of connecting the CAMPBELL clue with soup which gave me NNOIT to work with. Finally I realized that the soft food clue was the appropriate clue and J (ello) saved the day. Live and learn. Metas are almost always consistent. Very enjoyable puzzle.