XWord Muggles Forum

I'm James D in Atlanta, Georgia, but originally from Massachusetts. Wicked, eh?
I've been doing the WSJ crossword on/off for several years in the print edition after my father-in-law started doing them when he visited. Now I cut out the puzzles from almost every edition and mail them to him as a Christmas present.
I just started attempting the contest about 6 weeks ago and was cruelly humbled for several weeks until I started getting some of the easier ones.

Hi! I'm Julie, stay at home mom in suburban Chicago. I've been doing the WSJ metas for awhile (the earliest I can remember is IKEA) and have been reading the comments on the WSJ site, but rarely posted; figured if I'm going to lurk here, I should introduce myself. When I am not working on crosswords, you can find me with either a book or knitting needles in hand.

Hi again. I’m Marge from rural northern Maine. Glad to see our CD Bob is also a Mainiac, though perhaps not certifiable?? I’m 72, have been a crossword addict for all of those adult years. Mostly I’m a gardening addict- my husband and I spend every daylight hour enchantedly working in our 40 year old 5 acre perennial flower gardens, apple orchard, arboretum, lawns and huge water garden, created from scratch ( with shovels and wheelbarrow in the early years). My favorites are peonies and clematis. And the passing wildlife.
So crosswords are a nocturnal activity here.
My working life began as a 2nd grade teacher. Then followed 30 years working in my husband’s country veterinary practice.
Now retired, we can spend our non-gardening cold months traveling- currently indulging a NYC infatuation by spending every January in a delightful little West Village Air BnB.
Right now my heart is filled with joy as the 3’ of snow is finally receding from our northern Maine gardens exposing the new spring life calling out for attention.
See you in meta world...

Hello shipmates! I'm Susan and I currently live in Philly. My husband and I moved to the east coast from California one year ago. Why, you might ask? My husband took a new job and since we are empty-nesters we thought, what the heck! Unfortunately, the job didn't work out as planned so he is interviewing and I am working part-time in pharmaceutical sales and torturing myself with the WSJ Weekly Crossword Contest on the weekends. I've only attempted these meta-style crosswords for a year, and my record is a low 5 or so successes. But I'll keep at it! My beverage of choice is usually wine, but I also love a good G&T and if the meta is too tough I'll order a Manhattan! Cheers!

I am Debbie in California. I like to read the posts, I only post infrequently. Took me forever just to figure out how to sign up here--kept getting site can't be reached. So many of you are so smart! I only get one right every month --if I am lucky. Thank you for your posts and repartee.

debbienpete wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 10:27 pm I am Debbie in California. I like to read the posts, I only post infrequently. Took me forever just to figure out how to sign up here--kept getting site can't be reached. So many of you are so smart! I only get one right every month --if I am lucky. Thank you for your posts and repartee.

Welcome to the group. We are not all the elites but we do enjoy the challenge and knowing that there are other crazy people like us

I am Paul DiGiovanni, a pathologist originally from Philadelphia now working in Nashville and living in Franklin (a southern suburb). I did my undergraduate work at St. Josephs' in Philadelphia and medical school and training at Vanderbilt. My son Domenic has gotten into the Meta, and we have a competition (that becomes cooperative if one of us - usually me - gets stuck) every week to solve first. He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame. He lives out of state, so this is a nice way for us to stay connected outside of our usual topics (sports - especially hockey, Catholicism, books, etc). Be kind: we are reeling from the Predators early exit from the postseason last night!

pddigi wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm I am Paul DiGiovanni, a pathologist originally from Philadelphia now working in Nashville and living in Franklin (a southern suburb). I did my undergraduate work at St. Josephs' in Philadelphia and medical school and training at Vanderbilt. My son Domenic has gotten into the Meta, and we have a competition (that becomes cooperative if one of us - usually me - gets stuck) every week to solve first. He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame. He lives out of state, so this is a nice way for us to stay connected outside of our usual topics (sports - especially hockey, Catholicism, books, etc). Be kind: we are reeling from the Predators early exit from the postseason last night!

Paul and Domenic - thank for the intro and welcome to the land of the muggles. If there are any of our comments that don't make sense, I tried to explain them under the FAQ section under Introduce yourself. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

I like the family rivalry but I have to root for your son - we Electrical Engineers have to stick together.

And with the Predators sitting on the sideline, we welcome you to cheer for the Bruins

Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:20 pm

pddigi wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm I am Paul DiGiovanni, a pathologist originally from Philadelphia now working in Nashville and living in Franklin (a southern suburb). I did my undergraduate work at St. Josephs' in Philadelphia and medical school and training at Vanderbilt. My son Domenic has gotten into the Meta, and we have a competition (that becomes cooperative if one of us - usually me - gets stuck) every week to solve first. He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame. He lives out of state, so this is a nice way for us to stay connected outside of our usual topics (sports - especially hockey, Catholicism, books, etc). Be kind: we are reeling from the Predators early exit from the postseason last night!

Paul and Domenic - thank for the intro and welcome to the land of the muggles. If there are any of our comments that don't make sense, I tried to explain them under the FAQ section under Introduce yourself. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

I like the family rivalry but I have to root for your son - we Electrical Engineers have to stick together.

And with the Predators sitting on the sideline, we welcome you to cheer for the Bruins

We cheered for the Bruins last night! There's something about watching Canadian teams get eliminated which provides a guilty pleasure! Of the remaining teams, I think I am pulling for the Sharks or Avalanche in the West, and the Islanders (still fans of Barry Trotz, Nashville's first and longest-tenured head coach) in the East. Sorry Bob!

Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:20 pm

pddigi wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame.

Paul and Domenic - thank for the intro and welcome to the land of the muggles.

I like the family rivalry but I have to root for your son - we Electrical Engineers have to stick together.

I'm another in the Electrical Engineering crew - undergrad at RPI in Troy, Masters at Stanford - still designing hardware after all these years, currently for SiriusXM in San Francisco.

billkatz wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:34 am

Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:20 pm

pddigi wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame.

Paul and Domenic - thank for the intro and welcome to the land of the muggles.

I like the family rivalry but I have to root for your son - we Electrical Engineers have to stick together.

I'm another in the Electrical Engineering crew - undergrad at RPI in Troy, Masters at Stanford - still designing hardware after all these years, currently for SiriusXM in San Francisco.

Bill
What year did you graduate from RPI?

Hello, friends, and thank you to Brian for setting up this much-needed alternative forum, which I have just put on my favorites list. I'm a freelance editor for college textbooks. I started out doing just science and medical books but I now work on everything under the sun, from religion to conservation biology to treatments for hoarders. I also write a social column, "Unionville in the News," for our little local newspaper. I live near Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, AKA the Mushroom Capital of the World. Graduated from Dickinson College, class of 1980, with a memorable year "studying" at Lancaster University in the UK. I'm also a gym rat, knitter, and gardener and love to brag about my track-star nephew. Thursday is Puzzle Day in this household!

billkatz wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:34 am

Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:20 pm

pddigi wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:01 pm He is an Electrical Engineer who did his undergraduate work at Hillsdale and graduate work at Notre Dame.

Paul and Domenic - thank for the intro and welcome to the land of the muggles.

I like the family rivalry but I have to root for your son - we Electrical Engineers have to stick together.

I'm another in the Electrical Engineering crew - undergrad at RPI in Troy, Masters at Stanford - still designing hardware after all these years, currently for SiriusXM in San Francisco.

Hey, I'm also EE! MIT '92 and '94, HW verification now.

Greetings! Janet here -- same name I used at WSJ. I am an aerospace engineer in Virginia. Puzzles are a good way to stimulate the mind.

BS and MS from RPI! Glad to see other grads here.

Janet wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:28 pm Greetings! Janet here -- same name I used at WSJ. I am an aerospace engineer in Virginia. Puzzles are a good way to stimulate the mind.

BS and MS from RPI! Glad to see other grads here.

What years did you graduate?

Bob cruise director wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:47 pm

Janet wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 5:28 pm Greetings! Janet here -- same name I used at WSJ. I am an aerospace engineer in Virginia. Puzzles are a good way to stimulate the mind.

BS and MS from RPI! Glad to see other grads here.

What years did you graduate?

Bob, BS 81 and MS 82

Hi everyone. Tony S registering. On the WSJ board I am Tony who posts on the account of Rick Otis. I am a recent retiree who lives in Washington, DC.

Howdy all! I'm Howard, retired a couple years from being an anesthesiologist after growing up in Texas, went to med school in St. Louis then back to Houston to work for 20 years before the last 15 in Jefferson City, MO. Moved to Franklin, TN like Paul above as my brother lives here, but have MD son in Memphis and another surgeon son in Hawaii with an engineering degree. Other son in Seattle with engineering degree who's a patent attorney for Amazon. My Dad was an EE like a lot of you guys. Four young grandkids but I honestly got back into crosswords here out of sheer intellectual boredom! Started about a year ago, ended up going back through all the old puzzles from the past year before I decided to try a meta, the "Cheshire Cat" one, a shocking success not always repeated since! Reading the posts is a great experience; nicer people would be hard to find.

Howdy! I'm Scott from Bozeman, MT. I teach at Montana State University and have been doing the WSJCC for several years now. I'm finally ready to claim my stateroom. In addition to WSJCC, I love the Hex Cryptics. My user name Drink Til MT is in tribute to the motto of our best local brewery (Bozeman Brewing) who sponsors the men's hockey team I captain, with my primary responsibility being picking up our two-case game allotment of assorted frosty beverage.

I am Frank from San Francisco Bay Area, finally back on dry land and back home to allow me to submit something more than a terse post. Some trivia for the Patriot fans, my home is roughly a 15-minute drive from Tom Brady's high school, and roughly a 15-minute drive from Julian Edelman's high school, and also roughly a 15-minute drive from Edelman's junior college. I am a retired EE and started crosswords when I was middle-age. I happened upon the WSJ meta by accident; the first one I worked on was TOFU. Although I didn't know at that time, it was a pretty early one, about a couple of months after the contest was started. I didn't get the answer, but the way I failed was etched into my mind and that allowed me to avoid the pitfalls of COACH and PAGEANT.