"Please Find Enclosed" - July 2, 2021

[mheberlingx100]

LAS
Everyone seems concerned about Isaac having an empty bar. Don’t worry. I bellied up to the bar last evening and must have fallen asleep there because I’m still here bright and early this morning. Isaac is starting me with a cappuccino. I see step one. Now I have to find something “easy” based on the comments. hmmm

I'm right there with you! I seem to have COmpletely lost my meta mojo. I saw the first step while filling the grid but it's those infernAL parentheses! Looking towards the beach and I see a mulTITude of day-drinking muggles already lined up at the bar.

We leave bright and early tomorrow for a long drive to Pittsburgh. We're going to help our daughter and son-in-law get unpacked. Actually, I'm hoping that my job will be to keep our sweet grandbaby entertained!

And related to last week, we went out for dinner last night. A restaurant named Wildfire. Lovely dinner but it did remind me of last week's failure.

Happy Fourth of July and safe travels to all.

Hang in there and keep plugging away. Everyone goes into a slump now and then.

[Bob cruise director]

Good Friday morning and Happy July 4th to everyone

An interesting and tricky puzzle from Matt but the muggles are up to it. We have 7 on the ship and 108 on the shore

And we have three new muggles - MarkWoychick and architect and ahimel

[Janet]

Ahoy captain! I am going on shore leave.
I just finished the puzzle and the meta, I have a half-day off today.

[femullen]

Good Friday morning and Happy July 4th to everyone

An interesting and tricky puzzle from Matt but the muggles are up to it. We have 7 on the ship and 108 on the shore

And we have three new muggles - MarkWoychick and architect and ahimel

That would be eight, eight aboard.

I hear the meta is easy. Delighted to hear it. I look forward to confirming it.

[DrTom]

Unfortunately still ship bound. I have all the parts I just cannot put them together to get what I am sure I already know. Darn Parentheses!!!!!

[spotter]

I was just updating my spreadsheet to track which puzzle's I solved and failed on. As I was typing in one from April 9th "The Play's the Thing", it started auto-populating because it was the title of the 5th puzzle I ever attempted from June 7th, 2019. All the way on the earliest page of puzzles on this WSJCC forum. As far as I know it's the only title that's been repeated.

Just another mildly interesting observation of the day. I'm not sure if it was noticed back on the other puzzle's thread in April.

Someone else may have answered this but the same name has occurred twice in a few puzzles (and I find it like you did because of autofill)

Two's Company - September 27, 2019 and June 19, 2020
Two by Two - August 23 and 30 2019
The Play's The Thing - June 7 and 14, 2019
Secret Ingredients - June 3, 2016 and November 18, 2016
Connect the Dots - December 22 and 29, 2017
College Search - October16, 2015 and April 14, 2017
City Folk November 25, 2016 and march 29, 2019
Backdrops September 23, 2016 and November 1, 2019

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know about the other ones, though maybe I noticed a couple of them 2 years ago when it autofilled and just forgot

[LadyBird]

Thank goodness, I am ashore! Went for a run (well, still some walking too for this couch potato to 5K gal). Sat down on the front porch to cool off and voila!

We're heading to PA so I'll have a Yuengling.

[KscX]

I am ashore. Went to the Braves (for the win!) game at the new stadium for the first time last night and my husband caught me at the printer in the hotel bar… prepping for a WSJCC night cap. Grid before bed, meta zipped up on the ride home. Great start to the holiday!

[Susan Goldberg]

I’m on shore. Happy Fourth Everyone!

[minimuggle]

No day drinking for me. I got to step 1 quickly and have tried various ways to apply those numbers in parenthesis. At least I have 2 more days to go crazy. If anyone else is in the same position and wants to share ideas solving, I'm game. Happy weekend everyone.

[higgysue]

I really got excited about 63A until I realized it was a different UMD. Oh well. Go Bulldogs! (Obviously longer than four letters.)

[diplomatt]

On the beach! Happy Fourth weekend!

[Joe]

I'm still on the ship as well. Hate numbers. Hate hearing how easy it is. (not really HATE hate, but you know what I mean) I've got the obvious thing, but then... the numbers... hate 'em.

[SReh26]

No day drinking for me. I got to step 1 quickly and have tried various ways to apply those numbers in parenthesis. At least I have 2 more days to go crazy. If anyone else is in the same position and wants to share ideas solving, I'm game. Happy weekend everyone.

That’s my one regret about being ashore. What do I do now?

I only do one meta a week. On other days I just do the WSJ crossword. Im think of trying two metas a week and wondering what would be the best one for a newbie. Someone recommended Pandora‘s Blocks. Any suggestions?

[hoover]

Unfortunately still ship bound. I have all the parts I just cannot put them together to get what I am sure I already know. Darn Parentheses!!!!!

I missed the Q&A with Matt Gaffney earlier in the week. Did he say he was a Lisp programmer in an earlier life?

[Wendy Walker]

No day drinking for me. I got to step 1 quickly and have tried various ways to apply those numbers in parenthesis. At least I have 2 more days to go crazy. If anyone else is in the same position and wants to share ideas solving, I'm game. Happy weekend everyone.

That’s my one regret about being ashore. What do I do now?

I only do one meta a week. On other days I just do the WSJ crossword. Im think of trying two metas a week and wondering what would be the best one for a newbie. Someone recommended Pandora‘s Blocks. Any suggestions?

Yes, I used to do only one meta a week ... I remember those days ...
Go to the Meta Calendar at the top of this page (ably organized by Peter Abide) and choose any of them! What have you got to lose but all your extra free time??

[Richard]

Still on the ship.

I may be close but not sure. No idea as to how the numbers in parenthesis fit.

[BrianMac]

That’s my one regret about being ashore. What do I do now?

I only do one meta a week. On other days I just do the WSJ crossword. Im think of trying two metas a week and wondering what would be the best one for a newbie. Someone recommended Pandora‘s Blocks. Any suggestions?

Can't go wrong with the Gaffney contest (MGWCC). Expertly constructed obviously, and you also get a nice and predictable variety of difficulty levels.

[JaneGummy]

On shore! Needed a little help with the last step so I won't submit. Happy weekend everyone

[MaineMarge]

Well I did find enclosed, thank you, so I’m ashore.
Now you too can see what color is enclosed in this poppy bud casing I’ve been watching “pop” open( papaver somniferum, aka bread seed or opium poppy)

They seed around the garden in several colors.
We hit the jackpot this time.