A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
DrTom wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 2:49 am
And almost like magic - got it! Focused on the title and it all became clear. As always masterful construction, where do they keep getting these ideas? So, ashore and now will be able to enjoy the weekend without feeling like a failure, or at least not a failure as fa as the puzzle goes. Oh, and I have to believe that 6D was a nod to the Muggles. Too late for wine, too early for hard liquor, I'll just go to bed.
I posted a strategy back a few months ago that went something like...
1) Make a solid effort to solve the meta but just can't make any headway.
2) Get frustrated to the point that you decide to announce your failure to the world by posting to this forum all your trials and tribulations.
3) Take a fresh look and...voila!
It's certainly not guaranteed, but I've seen it happen enough since then that I think it has some value. I'm not a psychologist (and I don't play one on TV) but I think it has some sort of therapeutic value in that it clears your mind of the mental blocks that are impeding your ability to see a clear pathway to the solution. Anyway...food for thought.
Okay, I'm game to try your theory. I don't have it yet and am still on the ship. So announcing my struggles to the muggles in hopes of a revelation!
Although I'm completely new to metas so am also not familiar at all with the usual mechanisms -- but hoping with time I start to get the hang of it. I'm thoroughly amazed at all the rapid pace solvers on this forum -- it's fantastic!
x / x / x / x / x /
A quest like that of the ho ly gra il
x / x / x / x / x /
To my great dis may I week ly fa il
x / x / x / x / x /
It haunts me like a vic ious vir al bug
x / x / x / x / x /
Oh to solve the me ta and win the mug
EDIT: Sorry, I tried to space the x's and the /'s out so they line up but the text editor on the forum won't cooperate.
[/quote]
Thanks! Are you a teacher?
[/quote]
Thank you, but no, not a teacher (but I'd like to think I would have made a good one!)
After a frustrating six weeks of failure, I think I have started a new streak! But it was not without the help of my wife and our friends in Las Vegas where we are visiting. The last time this quartet worked together we were on a road trip across Montana, Idaho, and Washington on our way to a wedding high above the Columbia River Gorge....and we were successful that time too. Count me ashore!
Would still like to know if anyone has any info on how long it takes Matt or Mike....or anyone....to compose one of these remarkable compositions.
tim1217 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:52 am
I posted a strategy back a few months ago that went something like...
1) Make a solid effort to solve the meta but just can't make any headway.
2) Get frustrated to the point that you decide to announce your failure to the world by posting to this forum all your trials and tribulations.
3) Take a fresh look and...voila!
It's certainly not guaranteed, but I've seen it happen enough since then that I think it has some value. I'm not a psychologist (and I don't play one on TV) but I think it has some sort of therapeutic value in that it clears your mind of the mental blocks that are impeding your ability to see a clear pathway to the solution. Anyway...food for thought.
It happens enough that a while back someone gave it a name - post-enlightenment.
Inca wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:07 pm
Now not only am I frustrated because I can't get past step one but my mind is trying to think in rhyming iambic pentameter.
You will get it! Just let it percolate a bit and take another look.
Bird Lives wrote: ↑Thu Nov 21, 2019 11:36 pm
In many of these puzzles, there is a theme, hinted at in the title, that links the answer and the mechanism for getting to that answer. Maybe that’s what Wendy had in mind when she thought that things might be getting “risque.”
I got the mechanism and the meta, but if there is a common theme, I missed it.
I will follow up on Monday! My still-in-junior-high mind spotted something early on in the solving process.
I’m pretty sure that I saw the same thing as Wendy ... will find out on Monday, I guess ... .
Another follow-up comment: A week or two ago, someone commented that they tried to rate the meta, were told that they had already done so, and concluded that they must have done it by accident. The same thing happened to me on this one. Perhaps rating could be made a little harder to do, so that it will be less likely to happen by accident?
CallMeShane wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 8:35 am
I am walking down the Wal-Mart dairy aisle at the crack of dawn.
I stop dead in my tracks, get a thousand yard stare. After being motionless for 10 seconds, my wife, perhaps wondering if I have had a stroke, says "what is it?".
"I've just solved the meta!"
And so I had. Most satisfactory. On shore.
If you’re on Twitter, Matt Gaffney posted your comment today. Cool!
Last edited by Meg on Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
DaveKennison wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:52 pm
Another follow-up comment: A week or two ago, someone commented that they tried to rate the meta, were told that they had already done so, and concluded that they must have done it by accident. The same thing happened to me on this one. Perhaps rating could be made a little harder to do, so that it will be less likely to happen by accident?
This happened to me today, also. I’m pretty sure I had not touched the stars.
.
