"Minority Report" November 1, 2024

[avian]

Finally ashore. Thank you very much @Bobj . I appreciate all of your help!!
Not going to submit. Doubt I would have solved it on my own.

[Hidden in 3D]

I'm staying on the ship once again!

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 16 on the ship and 147 on the shore. Good luck winning the mug

[hoover]

+1 on the ship. I've been here since 4pm CT on Thursday. I can't tell whether ship is in really rough waters or Isaac's been making really strong drinks, but the deck is going up and down and side to side and around and around....

[EVJ]

I spent a very long time in the bar but never declared my position. I think there’s a whole contingent of us that do that. Anyway, finally made it to shore with help from my meta buddy. I needed that extra hour this weekend. Phew!

[Libbypibby]

On the boat this time

[hcbirker]

[hcbirker]

[Colin]

For the record… in bar with Isaac and friends

[Mirage]

In one of my rabbit holes, I correctly figured out that “minority” meant the least or minority of letters used but I mistakenly applied it to the row and not each meta word. This gave me OEIA in pOssEsspIzzAzz, Y in mommYbooboo, and TCMILE in aTaCaMadIddLEd. I even eliminated those letters which were duplicated in other rows which left me with YTCL but I never thought to apply that method for each word. Head slap to the forehead this morning! So close yet, as Carole King lamented in song, “so far away.”

[CV-at-Sea]

Mirage - I died in that same rabbit hole

[Zimodo]

this was the first wsj meta i was able to complete! fun one

[Bobj]

Mirage - I died in that same rabbit hole

Me, too.

And:

1) Going up from the first Ps you get PICS and POSE. Since one poses for a pic, that *must* be something.

2) POSSESS and OWN are synonyms; Hmm -- maybe ATACAMA and ARID and ... well, nothing.

3) IRT is right above the first A in ATACAMA and also an answer on it's own

etc,

Even when I got POE and TCM and BB -- isn't OY also for "I need a hand" == Help Me, Hmm -- I need another C to get SCOTCH. (and, I really needed a scotch by now). According to the googler, it's also a type of depressing music == EMO. And PIA is the airport code for Peoria -- do tech workers go to Peoria? So, so many "almost" words before I found the correct combination.

[femullen]

Starting to feel like Edward Everett Hale's Man Without a Country, condemned to spend the rest of his life at sea.

I'd have never seen this--neither in three days nor three years. I'm in awe of you who did.

[mikeB]

The prompt is helpful in framing our quest, announcing that the answer has six letters. The three theme entries are easy to spot, especially with all those repeated letters. Each themer is comprised of two words, and that's where the prompt comes in: Our goal is a six-letter answer emanating from three themers totaling six words. Most likely we’re harvesting one letter from each of those six words. That helps. It’s possible that the title’s MINORITY reference rings a bell at this point, since it reinforces looking at the leftovers (unrepeated letters), which are in the minority in each word. We’re aided by the fact that the leftovers, once the repeats are filtered out, form whole words or abbreviations that are easy to correlate with other grid entries and their clues. Before we know it, we have identified six primary entries for which our harvested strings are suitable alternates. All we need is to glean one letter from each primary entry, and we’re there. We take the most straightforward approach, looking at their initial letters placed in clue order, and suddenly there is glorious beach sand under our feet. This meta highlights how much more there is to these constructions than meets the eye. Let’s see: Find six words with three or four repeated letters in them. (That’s challenging enough.) Oh, and the balance of the letters in each word must (without anagramming) form an alternate answer to another grid entry’s clue. And let’s make sure the sequence of harvested letters matches the answer in some coherent way (such as by grid placement or clue order) – again, no anagramming required. And, of course, all of the above must be amalgamated properly into a grid. The artistry and engineering that go into these constructions are something to behold – and to be grateful for. Thanks go to Matt and colleagues for making this happen.

[Yoda66]

I had the minority mechanism right. Did anyone fall in the same Caterpillar hole where Mommy was addressed by Sonny (Sonny Bono was in Hairspray) and Booboo by Balboa (famous Rocky boxer)? I tried then to apply the same thinking for the longer words, to no avail.
I also originally identified Poe for Stoker (per original mechanism), but for Pia i interpreted as one the brain membranes, and for TCM i thought it was Seattle-Tacoma airport (replacing SFO). Should have spent more time with Mr G to debunk those

[Deb F]

I was about 80% sure I was on the right track--had it all but the "T". Only to learn I wasn't anywhere near it!

I took each of the themers and broke them into the two words.
Identifies the lesser letters
Got, in order, POE, PIA, MOY, BOB (this was the real problem one that didn’t really work), TCM, ILE
Looked for corresponding words in the grid and came up with: EMO, NAP, OHM, ???, OTC, LES.
Arrived at H-O-N-E-S but, because of the question on BOOBOO, didn’t really have a letter but thought it could be a T, hence, HONEST.

Finally broke through with help!

[minimuggle]

I won the mug! I am in shock

[Bobj]

I won the mug! I am in shock

Well,, I can stop hitting "refresh" on my email every 30 seconds waiting for something to show up from WSJ.

[BarbaraK]

I won the mug! I am in shock

Woo hoo!! Congratulations!!!