"Sounds Delicious" - July 29, 2022

[CAe39]

Ashore

[Joe Ross]

[mlvilv]

I was literally never ever going to get that. Not ever. Onward to next week.

[MajordomoTom]

was distracted by 66A and 67A ... "One I Or Less". That didn't help.

Wanted to turn (by letter substitution - of the ones with the numbers) things into "Deli" food - such as "LOT" in 29A to "LOX". That didn't work either.

[MajordomoTom]

... so the numbers correspond to the "correct" pastas? devilish.

[escapeartist]

[pookie]

Oh stop it.
Yeah, He pulled my arm "loosely" rhymes with VEAL PARMAGIAN.

[escapeartist]

I noticed that 5 of the 6 long answers ended in "ie" or "y" - which led down the path of adding "yum" (sounds delicious) to the end of the theme answers to get periodic table elements.

I got Plutonium and Gallium but couldn't make it work for the rest.

The clue with (4) was a real stopper on that rabbit hole.

[Isw]

Ashore…but just after the bell

[Bonnibel]

I'm sorry to admit I think this is one of the weakest metas I've seen. I am disappointed that the answer is nothing more than a loose rhyming scheme and not tied to anything in the grid, pattern, or clues. And of course I got stuck in the rabbit hole of deli foods... starting with DREAD LOCKS (LOX).

I would never have gotten this, not in a million years. Congrats to all who solved.

And to think I actually lived in Italy for 6 months!

See you next week.

[jimmyd]

Genie and Meanie right next to each other broke it for me... had to be something Italian!

[Richard]

I first saw “sour” with dough and got no where. Put it down and came back and saw some of the pastas but had manicotti with tonyazloty. Since FLMVOR made no sense it had to be FLAVOR. Even with Google could not backsolve the A but submitted the right answer.

[vandono]

This is the kind that at one time (not long ago at all) I would've felt like "I'll never get these!" Fortunately I'm learning to broaden my perspective when trying to solve metas. Hopefully that has some benefit in other areas of my quiet life. (I did have to do a little back-solving google action to get agnolotti.)

I tried to do something with the numbers at first. Coming to the realization that you didn't actually _need_ them to solve the meta - that they were just a hint or helped you confirm that you found the right thing - well, that's another thing for me to remember.

Congratulations to those who worked this out. I'm not surprised there were some misses, though. The rhyming was very subtle. Makes me wish I'd made the zooms because I'm curious how you nudge that without giving too much. Well, and to see everyone, of course.

[DBMiller]

I'm sorry to admit I think this is one of the weakest metas I've seen. I am disappointed that the answer is nothing more than a loose rhyming scheme and not tied to anything in the grid, pattern, or clues. And of course I got stuck in the rabbit hole of deli foods... starting with DREAD LOCKS (LOX).

I would never have gotten this, not in a million years. Congrats to all who solved.

And to think I actually lived in Italy for 6 months!

See you next week.

I'll have to respectfully disagree and say this is one of the easiest metas, and could have part of the Meta-101 series if it had been constructed before then. But easy is often in the eye of the beholder.

• You are told to look for a 6-letter word.
• No clues have asterisks, so you should probably look at the long (Theme) answers. In this case, a bunch of silly phrases. And there are six of them.
• Title, title, title. Sound -> Phonetics -> Rhymes. And delicious implies foods. This was all I needed to solve this one.
• Numbers in parentheses aren't always an index, they could also indicate length, as they did here. This was not strictly needed in this case, but supplied confirmation that you found the right rhymes.
• A Meta answer doesn't always tie back to the title, but if it does, all the better,

I didn't even notice the numbers, I found FL_VOR, with the rhymes, all pastas. My daughter supplied agnolotti which confirmed my already known answer of FLAVOR. And something that sounds delicious would no doubt be flavorful.

Are the rhymes a bit on the impure side? Perhaps. Rhymes often are. You say orange, I say door hinge.

[DebbieC]

I first saw “sour” with dough and got no where. Put it down and came back and saw some of the pastas but had manicotti with tonyazloty. Since FLMVOR made no sense it had to be FLAVOR. Even with Google could not backsolve the A but submitted the right answer.

I followed the exact same trail, thinking the (4) was for 4 letters is SOUR. Once I got to needing an A instead of an M, I googled 'pastas beginning with A' (my pasta-expert husband was napping) and found confirmation.

[SmellyJelly]

You’re telling me the answer is not PASTAS?! Darn.

[TeaJenny]

You’re telling me the answer is not PASTAS?! Darn.

Pasta la vista, baby!

[TeaJenny]

This is the kind that at one time (not long ago at all) I would've felt like "I'll never get these!" Fortunately I'm learning to broaden my perspective when trying to solve metas. Hopefully that has some benefit in other areas of my quiet life. (I did have to do a little back-solving google action to get agnolotti.)

I tried to do something with the numbers at first. Coming to the realization that you didn't actually _need_ them to solve the meta - that they were just a hint or helped you confirm that you found the right thing - well, that's another thing for me to remember.

Congratulations to those who worked this out. I'm not surprised there were some misses, though. The rhyming was very subtle. Makes me wish I'd made the zooms because I'm curious how you nudge that without giving too much. Well, and to see everyone, of course.

For this one, I'd give subtle nudges that emphasize the importance of the title in finding the solution, like "Reread the title." or "How does the title fit in?" or "Can you apply the title to the grid?" It was paying close attention to the sounds of the theme answers that put me on the right track.

[JoeFlanders]

Compared to the brilliance of almost ALL prior puzzles, I can confidently say that this is the worst WSJ Contest xword ever.

[mheberlingx100]

I got the pasta connection, but needed my wife’s help on Agnolotti. Never heard of that one before.