"Think Straight" July 5, 2024

[woozy]

After weeks and weeks of coming here for commiseration when I'm stuck and getting pages of "Well, that was a quick swim", it is .... different .... to get it pretty quickly, and to come here thinking "well lets see how everyone else made piece-meal of it-- page eleven here I come" to find this. Not necessarily different good or bad... just different.

[SingleMalt]

I think I will a party of one on this post but I am grumpy about the prompt. "Term" to me implies one word, "Phrase" more aptly describes what we were looking for. Yes, I found it, but I didn't like it, suspecting a trap, as always....

Spare me the OED definitions, just for now get off of my lawn!

I had the opposite reaction. Because it didn’t say “word” I was quite confident it would be a 2 word, hyphenated, or some such term.

Well, boy howdy, thanks for ruining my rant by making a good point.... I still want you off my lawn for now....

[The XWord Rabbit]

Not much to talk about this week in spite of a puzzle that had its share of strugglers. Mr. Shenk’s “Think Straight” drew a respectable crowd on the Zoom calls but alas, lower-than-usual responses on the post-reveal. What’s a Rabbit to do?

“Think Straight” is the 23rd puzzle since finalists were last announced, so the time is fast approaching when we will have our glorious second anniversary of the Golden Rabbit Hole Award. The big winner will be named along with those Muggles whose sorry tales were deemed mug-worthy.

Don’t miss out! To those of you who are new to this site or have hitherto been disinterested in the ramblings of your Rabbit: Take heed. You can find the rules of the game, fast and loose as they are, RIGHT HERE.
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Thanks to all for sharing your stories thus far, and see you next week!

[ELSavage]

I have to congratulate Mike Shenk on camouflaging the poker terminology quite well. None of these clues stuck out as oddly worded, and they took me some time to notice even after earlier scanning for poker-related things in the grid. Nice AHA! when I finally spotted a couple.

I had a different experience, because I did specifically look for oddly-worded clues, which has got me on the right track more than once on these tricky ones. In particular, I look for over-clueing: instances where there are more words than necessary to elicit the grid answer. 7D gave two different examples of Hammett's work, where one could have sufficed. When I saw the word "Spade" in the second example and connected it to the idea of a straight in poker, I was off to the races. More subtle than some over-clueing, perhaps, but it was just enough for me.

The actual values (10 J Q K A) on the other hand didn't stick out at first, but I did remember having to figure out the Mets ace (28A) by getting most of the down entries and wondering about the weird set of tools for 34A.

The fact that they were all at the end of their respective clue did escape my notice, but I had the solution fever by then and just finding the words was enough.

[Brian K]

I solved the meta in less than five minutes. I did not do a single thing right, but still ended up with "ALL IN." Here's how it happened:

I looked at the four answers that were 11 or 12 letters long. I THOUGHT to draw lines through each of these answers STRAIGHT to the edges of the grid. These four lines formed a square. At the corners of the square were the four letters (I, L, N and A). But I still needed a fifth. So I tried the obvious - I drew the diagonals of the square which intersected at the letter in the center of the grid (L). These five letters gave me my answer, "ALL IN." It seemed too simple, but it was a term and not a word. So I submitted it.

Very improbable coincidence.

Mike Shenk is the master!

[BarbaraK]

I found "ALL IN" by an entirely different path. I looked at the four answers that were 11 or 12 letters long. I THOUGHT to draw lines through each of these answers STRAIGHT to the edges of the grid. These four lines formed a square. At the corners of the square were the four letters (I, L, N and A). But I still needed a fifth letter. So I tried the obvious, and drew the diagonals of the square which intersected at the letter in the center of the grid (L). These five letters gave me an answer which coincidentally happened to be the correct solution.

But was it really a coincidence? Perhaps I was seeing two metas converge?

Mike Shenk is the master!

Wow! That’s amazing!

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

7D gave two different examples of Hammett's work, where one could have sufficed. When I saw the word "Spade" in the second example and connected it to the idea of a straight in poker, I was off to the races.

I thought this clue might have been a nod to the frequent use of ASTA in crossword puzzles. A few weeks ago someone in this group posted a link to a very funny Reddit:What useless trivia do you only know due to doing crossword puzzles
One of the entries was "I knew that Nick and Nora have a dog named Asta years before I finally saw any of the movies."

[Joe Ross]

I would be surprised if MS would not have preferred five intersections.

My stab at divining specific thoughts in the mastermind of Mike Shenk: He preferred to title the puzzle One Card Draw.

Six cards. One answer.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is ALL IN. Clues for four of the Down answers end with card suits (SHILLELAGH/club, DASHIELL HAMMETT/ Spade, NEIL/Diamond, CARDIAC/heart). Clues for five Across answers that cross those words end with card ranks (IOWA/Ten, ELLERY/Queen, GOODEN/ace, TOOLS/jack, NONVIOLENCE/King). In poker straight order (10♠, J♠, Q♣, K♥, A♦) the letters at the crossings spell the contest answer.

This was such an ingenious and difficult puzzle! It stumped us at contest HQ. We had 735 entries, with about 70% correct -- congrats to all of you aces among that cohort. Incorrect answers included FLUSH (24), TINGE (23), GET IN (11), LOGIC (10) and POKER (7).

Congrats to this week's winner: Charlie Wentling of Madison, Wisc.!

[charliewentling]

I’d like to apologize for winning the mug. I’ve been solving these puzzles for a couple of years, but this week was only the 10th time I’ve submitted an answer. I know people try for much longer with no success. I should buy a lottery ticket.

It does feel nice though.

[DBMiller]

I’d like to apologize for winning the mug. I’ve been solving these puzzles for a couple of years, but this week was only the 10th time I’ve submitted an answer. I know people try for much longer with no success. I should buy a lottery ticket.

It does feel nice though.

No apologies necessary in my opinion. Random is as random does. Any poker player could tell you that luck is part of the game. And a random drawing is pure chance.

[BarbaraK]

I’d like to apologize for winning the mug. I’ve been solving these puzzles for a couple of years, but this week was only the 10th time I’ve submitted an answer. I know people try for much longer with no success. I should buy a lottery ticket.

It does feel nice though.

Woo hoo! Congratulations!

And thanks for posting today. The next best thing to winning myself is seeing a fellow muggle win. I'm thrilled to get to join in your celebration!

[ELSavage]

I’d like to apologize for winning the mug. I’ve been solving these puzzles for a couple of years, but this week was only the 10th time I’ve submitted an answer. I know people try for much longer with no success. I should buy a lottery ticket.

It does feel nice though.

You could say that you successfully drew to an inside straight. Congratulations!
As others have said, random is the name of the game - it's a lot better than if we had to race to be the fastest solver each week.

[krf]

On sand.

[HeadinHome]

I’d like to apologize for winning the mug. I’ve been solving these puzzles for a couple of years, but this week was only the 10th time I’ve submitted an answer. I know people try for much longer with no success. I should buy a lottery ticket.

It does feel nice though.

That’s big of you to apologize, but you should just enjoy that mug and keep playing! I for one have probably submitted over a hundred times with no mug yet… your “anyone can win” post encourages me!