"Protect UR Brand" February 24, 2023

[boharr]

Hi everyone. I’m new to the group. Been doing the crosswords for a while, but the Friday one gets me a very time. Ugh. What does ashore/on shore mean??

If you are on shore you have solved the meta puzzle. If you are on the ship you haven't. Check the Acapulco Lounge thread to see our curious language and tips on how to solve the puzzles!

And welcome to our crew!

Heidi

Solving tips, past solutions, FAQs, etc. are actually in the Come Aboard! thread.

[hcbirker]

Hi everyone. I’m new to the group. Been doing the crosswords for a while, but the Friday one gets me a very time. Ugh. What does ashore/on shore mean??

If you are on shore you have solved the meta puzzle. If you are on the ship you haven't. Check the Acapulco Lounge thread to see our curious language and tips on how to solve the puzzles!

And welcome to our crew!

Heidi

Solving tips, past solutions, FAQs, etc. are actually in the Come Aboard! thread.

You are absolutely correct. My mistake.

[Joe Ross]

Hi everyone. I’m new to the group. Been doing the crosswords for a while, but the Friday one gets me a very time. Ugh. What does ashore/on shore mean??

If you are on shore you have solved the meta puzzle. If you are on the ship you haven't. Check the Acapulco Lounge thread to see our curious language and tips on how to solve the puzzles!

And welcome to our crew!

Heidi

Solving tips, past solutions, FAQs, etc. are actually in the Come Aboard! thread.

@xaemama@me.com,

@Bob cruise director posted a guide to help here:

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.

[Snowcat]

Not sure why it was UR in the title but happy to see myself in the grid!

[Dplass]

"It is kind of like golf in the more you do the better you get and the more enjoyable it becomes."

Oh @Bob cruise director you're so funny.

[ship4u]

Took a trip out west

Funny to hear someone from Texas say they took a trip "out west." Growing up in Maryland, we considered "out west" as being anywhere west of the Mississippi River!

[Ergcat]

Not sure why it was UR in the title but happy to see myself in the grid!

@Snowcat Because the “YO” is missing from the common/correct “YOUR” in the Title! This was a hint to the mechanism I.e. to look for missing letters in the themers….

[Snowcat]

Because the “YO” is missing from the common/correct “YOUR” in the Title! This was a hint to the mechanism I.e. to look for missing letters in the themers….

I thought the missing letter mechanism was obvious enough and UR primed me to be ready for other common texting abbreviations or meme-speak.

[steveb]

Took a trip out west

Funny to hear someone from Texas say they took a trip "out west." Growing up in Maryland, we considered "out west" as being anywhere west of the Mississippi River!

My wife is a lifelong Californian. I cracked up when I once heard her talking about going "back east" - to Colorado!

[Al Laubenstein]

My beloved wife and solving partner just got an email telling her she won the mug. WooHoo! On my birthday, too!

[Wendy Walker]

^^^^ Wonderful news! And Happy Birthday, Al!

[Bob cruise director]

My beloved wife and solving partner just got an email telling her she won the mug. WooHoo! On my birthday, too!

@Al Laubenstein Congratulations to you and your bride.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is FADE AWAY. Each of the seven “Trademarked” clue answers is missing a letter (or letters) from its standard, noncommercial spelling: LAND OF LAKES, SWEET AND LOW, FLICKER, LEAD ZEPPELIN, SNOW-CAT, NORMAL, STAYGREEN. Those omitted letters, in order, spell the contest answer.

A huge and successful turnout this week! We had 3,365 entries, and about 92% of them were correct, even more if you add the 115 entries with FADEAWAY as one word. A smattering of other guesses in small numbers, including CRASH & BURN (2), LOSE MARKET SHARE (2), and 5 variants of GO GENERIC and BECOME GENERIC.

Congrats to this week's winner (as noted just above): Karen Laubenstein of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.!

[hcbirker]

My beloved wife and solving partner just got an email telling her she won the mug. WooHoo! On my birthday, too!

Congrats and happy birthday!

[The XWord Rabbit]

Yawn. Another week…another puzzle about as exciting as watching paint dry for Your XWord Rabbit.

After last week’s dearth of worthy nominees, there were high hopes that this would be a more challenging meta, dragging behind an army of frustrated solvers with lots of sorry tales in their wake. Alas, it was not meant to be. General consensus was Mr. Gaffney’s “Protect UR Brand” was a great puzzle for novices, but not so much for the veteran solvers of Muggledom – or a hungry Rabbit.

The “brands” in question consisted of 7 across entries, all trademarked names, which took liberties with proper spelling by eliminating a letter or two. Those missing letters, in order, spelled out the meta: F-AD-E A-W-A-Y.

And so your Rabbit sits patiently, waiting …. waiting…

Still, it would be remiss of your Rabbit not to mention DBMiller’s post #319.
This week’s terrain may have been too straightforward for finding worthy rabbit holes, but Mr. Miller continues to amaze and amuse by finding false trails along the way. If metas were movies, you’d likely find him doing the Walter Houston dance in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”



Until next week, then.

[BarbaraK]

My beloved wife and solving partner just got an email telling her she won the mug. WooHoo! On my birthday, too!

Wonderful! Congratulations!! (And happy birthday too!)

I don't recall any other back to back muggle wins. Hope this is the start of a long streak.

[BarbaraK]

rsz_paint_dry (1).jpg

Once again, the Rabbit's portraitist is phenomenal!

[dho]

Nice little, probably random, coincidence in the puzzle is that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin recorded (Not) Fade Away, the famous song written by Buddy Holly, and performed by Holly, The Rolling Stones, and others.

[MaineMarge]

Up here in the North Country today, it was important to protect UR SELF from these guys

Locally pastured buffalo herd escaped and went for a jaunt this morning, as reported by all the media outlets.
3 of them galloped down the road right in front of our house

As of this reporting, 1 of them is still at large

[PQ63]

My beloved wife and solving partner just got an email telling her she won the mug. WooHoo! On my birthday, too!

I’m from Palos Verdes Estates - just down the road from RPV. This may be the closest I ever come to winning the mug. Congratulations.