XWord Muggles Forum

Good Friday evening muggles

If Matt can delay the MGWCC until Saturday, I can make up for it by having our Saturday status on Friday. So here goes.

First a welcome to our newest Muggle - Momo. Welcome to the clan and good luck winning the mug.

And on the 4:30 zoom call, I learned more about anvils thanks to @ship4u (the metal kind and not the ear kind)

We have 4 on the ship with Isaac and 165 on the shore.

On the ship are

hoover
Annabelle
Janet
Barney

And on the shore are:

oldjudge
docison
MatthewL
Al
jhseeman
clonefitz
paige
Wendy
Heidi
Eric P
Kay
MikeM000
HeadinHome
ajk
Gman
streroto
Joe R
Cindy
girubato1
Beth T
joe
Dannyvee
Meg
boharr
Chris
Peter
chriscross
Beth A
benchen71
Laura
pjc
Lee-Ann
sweetc
Scott M
Ergcat
krf
Georgeall
JetStream
michaelm
Eric C
MileHighSolver
Al Laubenstein
MarkWoychick
Jim and Anita
Les
SoccerMom
BrennerTJ
meowmiao71
Merry Potter
femullen
DCBilly
eagle1279
NDStegs
Sleepy
JimJim
katnahat
Tina
vandono
Don and Cynthia
ColinM
Flying_Burrito
iggystan
Jeremy
Acari
woozy
Lyman
b4alltime
TeaJenny
Dow Jones
linsocalm
Omnibus
lisajoy
CAe39
Jace54
Moi
David K
ky-mike
AaronT
Char
RobM
whimsy
Fred
Don and Lisa
jrdad
hottieruth
RDaleHall
Onaquest and Tim
ErikThor
William
CromsFury
Glyn
mattythewsjpuzzler
Mike H
Liz
mbryant
Berto
Lacangah
Henry Paul
PQ63
Bill
Trey and Marion
31 Down
bread-girl
Schmeel
Oxford Comma Mama
mikeB
Magistra
sjm
TheKater
Pilsbandy
BigPear
Ron
darth
D B Miller
Kwyjibo
Steveb
DavyGravy
ImOnToo
Guy L
Tom Wi
Franklin
lbray
Katiedid
Trish
Cinny
Hidden in 3D
Amanda Hugginkiss
minimuggle
Jean
Deb
Doug M
Dave C
higgysue
EVJ
sf592000
cbarbee
CPJohnson
TheFusionMoose
Fishoutowater
Bird Lives
EmilyW
rjy
MaineMarge
DrTom
JaneGummy
Mister and Mrs. Squawk
Grover
Fogway
PlymouthRock
mlvilv
Cindy N
TeamDoubleTow
MikeyG
Ann
relic (and Maggie)
Grandma Lolo
turbotron
Susan G
SingleMalt
Matthew
ajlying
Olof
Powers2020
pookie
Momo


Good luck with the meta and our next update will be noon Sunday

Barney wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 2:06 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 7:48 pm After some burrowing into rabbit holes, I have a very good and defendable answer.

On shore.

I don’t want a defensible answer.

I want a lock.

Ditto about wanting a lock -- usually both Mike and Matt provide answers that, once you have them, you're pretty confident in it.... but sometimes (and this puzzle is one of them) where, I'm not exactly sure how I should submit the answer - I think you could conceivably provide three different variants that would be 'correct'. Do others sometimes have this issue?

Rita and George

Momo wrote: Fri Feb 17, 2023 9:01 pm Maybe two answers this week?

No.

Don't forget when you go down a trail and chase rabbits with a magnifying glass, that you should always step back and imagine what the hairy thing in your hand is going to look like to a person on the street passing by. Do you really think if you explained the second answer to a person sitting across the table, it'd be at all plausible?

I mean, seriously, look at that thing.... It just doesn't work. Deep down you know it doesn't work, don't you?

[I remember my step-father once worked on a Sunday NYT and it had a clue "Like a manx cat" and he was convinced the 8-letter answer was BIDACTYL as manx cat's often have two extra toes. He managed to fill in an entire section of the grid with alternative answer (very far fetched). I said wouldn't bi-dactyl mean two toes; not seven and he was sure bi was justified. I said but not all manx cats have seven toes, do they? He said it was a very common effect of inbreeding and the most known attribute. I said but isn't the fact that they are TAILLESS more well known. He insisted he had never heard that manx cats had to be tailless but the usually had seven toes and besides, a T wouldn't fit the cross clue of "Ranked" which is clearly BOTTOM...]

[My point being... it's called "Occam's Razor"; not "Occam's Rubber Chicken"]

To @Momo and all the other new muggles

Improving at metas is a lifelong learning process. It is kind of like golf in the more you do the better you get and the more enjoyable it becomes.

And we are here to help.

Under Come Aboard/FAQs-Community there is a wealth of hints and tips. Starting from the top of the page, we have

Introducing the WSJ Crossword Course with links to the four part course done by WSJ crossword and meta editor Mike Shenk. And it starts with good advice - the only rule is that there are no rules for metas. So there is no set process but just a lot of helpful hints

#2 - Past WSJ Crossword Contests and Solutions - this give you the opportunity to do past WSJ metas for practice and to see techniques that creators use

#3 - Hints for solving meta contests - 3 pages of posts on lessons learned

Also there are topics with tips for doing the meta on your phone or iPad or using the weekly Excel spreadsheet

And then we have doing more metas, especially those created by muggles. All of these are contained in Other Meta Crossword Puzzles. In order of appearance in the topic are

@MattGaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest - this is a subscription service with a modest monthly fee. The contest is mailed to you at noon on Fridays to be submitted by noon on Tuesdays.

Muggle Meta Mondays - these are metas made by talented muggles and come out each week on Monday, nudges/spoilers come out on Wednesdays.

Pandora's Blocks Weekly Meta Crossword - Metas by Will Pfadenhauer (@AnswerPfinder), which may be more seasonal than weekly, due to his pursuit of his PhD.

Madhatter's Enigma on Wednesday (MEOW) - These metas were originally created by Josh (@madhatter5) however he is finishing up his PhD, also, so the construction has been take over by other muggles for some periods.

@Benchen71's Metas on a Tuesday (MOAT) These metas are done by muggle Ben Chenoweth and offer different levels of difficulty depending on how many Australianisms he puts in them. Since Ben lives in Australia, the metas may come through upside down

Muller Monthly Music Meta (MMMM) - a monthly music themed meta with a 13th megameta that builds on the first 12 months.

Pun of a kind (@MikeyG Metas) - a monthly meta published at the end of each month

And there are Other Meta Crosswords that get added to as various people find them

And we have our zoom calls. These are get togethers at 4:30 pm ET on Friday to help you solve them with others who have either solved or are still looking. We have a Last Call on Sunday at 8 pm ET for those who still need nudges or just want to chat. And we have our Tuesday 7:30 pm muggle get together to discuss whatever comes up

And saving the best for last - we have Private Messages on the forum. If you want a nudge, send a Private Message to one or more muggles, telling them what you have done and they will give you nudges to get you over the goal line. You don't have to know the muggle but find someone who is on the shore and send them a PM. Make sure that you have your settings so that you can receive PM's and also set it so you get a notification that you have a PM.

A spinoff of all this is that many of us have found solving buddies. All of our brains work differently and co-solving with someone else is very often the key to success. One person has an idea but can't get the answer and the other builds on that and quickly you can get over the goal line. That works best for those of us who have a spouse who is not interested in metas but tolerate our obsession (Cruise Director Bob raises hand).

Good luck with your growth in solving metas. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Ashore. Not as clean as I like, but pretty sure nevertheless.

Ashore!

On shore. Two weeks in a row, a small miracle for me.

Ashore!!

On shore, happy, happy!

I have my toes in the SAND both literally and figuratively. And I count that as a big WIn after the utter CHaos of my cross-country trek last week. This was quiTE the enjoyable meta‐-I even had my girlfriends trying to figure it out. I guess I've eaRNed tonight's Pina colada (and tomorrow's sangria).

On the shore!

Mechanics of the solve came to me while I was out and about this afternoon.

Drinking my Ovaltine on the beach!

Ashore and confident in solving!

Feels great to be in sync again this week.

Cheers everyone!

Ashore...challenging grid fill in spots, but straightforward meta.

Ashore! Ready for that Manhattan!

Ashore yesterday ... now what to do for the wickend?

Made it to shore yesterday while trying to decipher some -- ahem, "very helpful" -- statements from American Airlines at DFW about what time my flight would actually depart. Luckily from my experience solving metas, I had lots of practice with code words and misdirection.

Thank you for the welcome and the resources!! I’m looking forward to Friday even more now! And will continue to not like Monday’s I’m sure!!

This NC Tar Heel is on shore....31 across and all! Meta and Grid solved. Fun one!

I’m on shore but liked my first rabbit hole better.

Ashore