XWord Muggles Forum

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:29 am Actually Maine is the one state in the WHOLE US of A whose name is only 1 syllable.

Lah-ti-dah & Pfft!, Marge. ONE syllable eked out of FIVE letters? Look at you Mainiacs gadding about and putting on airs...

Ohio manages THREE syllables out of FOUR letters. Waste not, want not. What? What?

Don't get me started on Presque Isle...

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:29 am Actually Maine is the one state in the WHOLE US of A whose name is only 1 syllable.

Also the only state in the nation that shares a border with only one other state. Quite a special place.

Got thrown for a bit with EBUSINESS and ESS, BETA TESTS and TATE, and SO WHATS NEW and HATS. But no connection for LAGS BEHIND. Intentional red herring? Then saw NEW ENGLAND in the corner and was off to the races.

escapeartist wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 12:11 am I first started circling state abbreviations, then saw LA and ND together.

Then I saw ENGLAND, then I saw NEW ENGLAND and then - woah!

Very nice meta.

Similar thing happened with me with spotting ENGLAND, and I also saw NEW and STATE about the same time, which yielded the AHA moment - and everything crystallized after that. Had to correct a few grid errors to get the full intact message while marveling at the genius in Mike's constructing this puzzle. And of course the title and middle clue (BORDERS) were perfect nudges.

A very nice Easter* weekend present.

(*and Passover too...)

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:29 am We who live in Maine are called Mainiacs. Not content with that, I became maniacal when finding the answer. Actually Maine is the one state in the WHOLE US of A whose name is only 1 syllable.
You better believe I put in a special plea to the WSJ to “Pick me!! Pick me!” for the mug.
Here’s to Mike:
C0CC62A8-E2FC-4759-B944-DFB634C7902C.jpeg

I seem to recall that your mug was the answer to a meta a few weeks ago...perfecto

Last week I spent the entire weekend looking unsuccessfully for the (not so CUTE in MY opinion) metanism. This week I pulled up the pdf, saw the title, and wondered if there would be something in the border of the grid. While I was waiting for the puzzle to print, I started scanning clues, saw that 13D would be GLANDS, and thought "I bet that is going to be ENGLAND". And there I had it. These metas--humbling one week and exhilarating the next!

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:29 am We who live in Maine are called Mainiacs. Not content with that, I became maniacal when finding the answer. Actually Maine is the one state in the WHOLE US of A whose name is only 1 syllable.
You better believe I put in a special plea to the WSJ to “Pick me!! Pick me!” for the mug.
Here’s to Mike:
C0CC62A8-E2FC-4759-B944-DFB634C7902C.jpeg

Well if I win it, it’s yours!

Ride on the Reading
or
A grid noted herein

The solution is rarely so plain
Here’s my thoughts, you can hop on the train
Take a trip ‘round the border
Reading letters in order
And the journey will bring you to Maine

For some reason a Monopoly board came to mind as I thought about the solution. Yes, there’s no Maine St. in Atlantic City but I did pass GO and I may collect a mug.

I saw BORDERS, but the puzzle title OUTER REGIONS really clinched it for me. Had to correct ETHANE to ETHENE first. The bulldog clue made me think Georgia rather than Yale, but that obviously didn't fit. Correcting the A to E made it all correct. Loved this elegant creation!

Scott M wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:03 am Got thrown for a bit with EBUSINESS and ESS, BETA TESTS and TATE, and SO WHATS NEW and HATS. But no connection for LAGS BEHIND. Intentional red herring? Then saw NEW ENGLAND in the corner and was off to the races.

I did exactly the same

BUT

When I saw New England, I got off the horse.

Waaaay off on this one. I thought borders would be the black spaces, and the *outer regions* of each of the six long answers (4 horizontal and 2 vertical) *shared* a 3-black-space border with another clue. Together, the 3 letters on each side of the border could be rearranged to form easily recognizable but non-geographic words (e.g. 36a LAS and the first three letters of 43a BET form STABLE or TABLES). The only one this wasn't true of was the 1st 3 letters of 17a LAG and 24a NOH... which together form GOLAN H, which I thought referred to GOLAN H(eights), a geographical place name that happens to be a *contested* *border* between Israel and Syria.

And I thought I knew how deep the rabbit hole really went...

I've been trying for the coveted WSJ mug for about 5 1/2 years and I'm feeling lucky this morning. We'll see.

escapeartist wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 12:11 am I first started circling state abbreviations, then saw LA and ND together.

Then I saw ENGLAND, then I saw NEW ENGLAND and then - woah!

Very nice meta.

That is exactly the same path I took. Too funny.

DennyB wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:30 am I've been trying for the coveted WSJ mug for about 5 1/2 years and I'm feeling lucky this morning. We'll see.

Join the club

I think that @MaineMarge deserves the mug this week

At first I was stuck and feared that I "can't get there from here" or that I would be bashed against a "rocky" coast before I made it ashore, but eventually I landed on "sand beach."

(I know, "groan")

Turns out, I could have reached the end a heck of a lot sooner had I not entered AWASTE in lieu of EWASTE for 11D. Sigh. I kept looking at GLANDS and turning the corner from NGLANDS but didn't see the flow until later approaching from a different spot. Happy to have gotten to the beach even if it was a longer stay at Isaac's! Good luck, Muggles.

Scott M wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:03 am Got thrown for a bit with EBUSINESS and ESS, BETA TESTS and TATE, and SO WHATS NEW and HATS. But no connection for LAGS BEHIND. Intentional red herring? Then saw NEW ENGLAND in the corner and was off to the races.

This was my start too, but I wasn't off to the races, not even after noticing ENGLAND and then NEW ENGLAND. First I had to correct ETHANE to ETHENE. Then, at the lower left corner, I had SINA/ORA and I couldn't get past WHOSE NAME IS AN, scratching my head trying to think of a word starting with ESYLL. I had to write out the letters before I corrected ORA to ORO and saw the correct word breaks.

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:29 am Actually Maine is the one state in the WHOLE US of A whose name is only 1 syllable.

Are you forgetting about Why, that popular island chain vacation spot out in the Pacific?

katnahat wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 9:41 am I saw BORDERS, but the puzzle title OUTER REGIONS really clinched it for me. Had to correct ETHANE to ETHENE first. The bulldog clue made me think Georgia rather than Yale, but that obviously didn't fit. Correcting the A to E made it all correct. Loved this elegant creation!

I was way too busy this weekend to actually do the meta on time, but I did do it today (without peeking) and it is a Mike Shenk classic...my favorite metas. So no hope for the mug...but who cares, it should go to MaineMarge for sure, anyway.

I, too, had ETHANE instead of the correct ETHENE and was really wondering why the "clue" would be "Nameth a New England State etc." Why so biblical? Maybe a reference to Joe Nameth...but aren't we way past football season anyway (see I know "something" about sports...but isn't that spelled with an A..Namath?). It never occurred to me that my grid entry was incorrect

ETHANE and AWASTE had me thinking ANGOLA.