"Trick or Treat" - October 29, 2021

[hcbirker]

I was so close! I thought of Mick and nick and neat, but couldn't put it together. I was obsessed with 49 across, with the words "play" (dramatis) and "part" (remnants). Thought for sure that meant something. Congrats to the solvers!

[femullen]

I was slightly confused over the wording of the prompt: doesn't a "choice" comprise two options, like, oh, say, one from the -ICK words and one from the -EAT words? With help I found CLOWN but spent much time trying to make a similar anagram from the -ICK words. Here are my worksheets:

Ditto. I spent the entire weekend looking for a "choice 1" OR "choice 2" (as in Trick OR Treat). I wouldn't necessarily rule out a choice among three or more (small countable number of) options, like the multiple-choice questions on the SAT. But, as did some others here, I interpreted the OR in the title as indicating a choice between two, e.g., Dracula OR Frankenstein. CLOWN struck me as a choice only in the sense that you can choose it from among a practically unlimited number of options. Doesn't matter in my case, though, because I was never close to the mechanism anyway.

[JRS51]

I just haven't done well when the solution requires alternative answers, or when an answer is supposed to "remind" me of another word.
I will need to work harder to look for these alternatives when I'm stuck and unable to come up with a reasonable mechanism.

[BEACHEDWHALE]

I immediately considered the ICK and EAT combo as the Title of the Puzzle is almost always a huge giveaway. I didn't have much luck until i realized their could be the ICK in mICK jagger. That allowed me to consider Feverish, Yokels, and Smallcut based strictly on location in the grid. I never found Boots. eventually came up with CLWN. So obviously the only thing missing was an O. It was then just a matter of finding a word in the puzzle that started with an O (which was ODIST). Not the cleanest way to get to the answer but it worked in my case.

[ship4u]

In addition to the inherent difficulty of figuring out that the mechanism was to find words rhyming with trick or treat ANYWHERE in the grid, I was certain that "cheat" was the alternative to fraudster. I mean, come on, who says, "that guy's a real fraudster" any more than someone saying "bartender, I'll have that with no ice" or, "I small cutted myself shaving this morning"?

And, of course, kielbasas had to be a trick. "Polish sausages (which play no part in solving the contest)." Yea, right, whaddya think I was born yesterday........

I think that RABBIT would have been the more appropriate answer to this puzzle!!

[DBMiller]

No one has mentioned my rabbit hole(s)...

The clues contained a few treats: (Milk) Duds and Milky Way. Looked around for tricks but didn't spot any. Saw the witches and Frankenstein and tried to add them to the treats but to no avail.

Was too busy getting ready to sell our house and move and didn't have time to find the right mechanism. Might have gotten there with more time. We'll never know.

[JeanneC]

How long can it take to award the mug this week? I mean, really….!

[Kas]

Lost at sea this week, and I'm okay with that, I wasn't even in the right ocean. (A "KAS-5-tegory storm?" [groan].)
...but I nominate Ted "Isaac" Lange for an honorary mug. Who's with me?!?

[JAQT]

My ship broke up on the (NO ICE) rocks on this one. I was never even close. I focused on pairs of words with one-off letter changes (AIR vs AID, ARES vs AMES, STAR vs SCAR etc.) and of course that went nowhere.

I never got the ICK vs. EAT tie-in, and I frankly am still confused over the "hint" at 49A, "Polish sausages". What was the purpose in saying that they "play no part in solving the contest"? The same could be said for most of the other entries.

Congrats to those who solved. I rated it a Kas-5.

[Bird Lives]

Once I was on the right path, I kept thinking about the classic Variety headline about rustic-themed movies not doing so well in areas like the ones those movies were about: Sticks Nix Hick Pix.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is CLOWN. Five of the clues have alternative answers containing ICK (FEVERISH/SICK, JAGGER/MICK, BOOTS/KICKS, YOKELS/HICKS and SMALL CUT/NICK). Changing the ICK to EAT (like TRICK/TREAT) yields words that are alternative answers to other clues (SEAT/ CHAIR, MEAT/LAMB, KEATS/ODIST, HEATS/ WARMS, NEAT/NO ICE). The first letters of those alternative answers spell the contest answer.

Can we all agree this was one of the toughest contests in our history of contests? Certainly heavy on the trick (as well as treat). If you were stumped, you had plenty of company (including your faithful correspondent). We had 508 entries, and just 48% were correct (way below our usual correct rate around 75%). Wrong answers included WITCH (32), GHOST (30), SCARECROW (12), and VAMPIRE (11) among others.

Congrats to all of you ninjas who figured this one out, including this week's winner, James Marek of Yardley, PA!

[Bird Lives]

#320
Here are my worksheets:

Looks like you took a page out of DrTom's book. Or maybe DrTam's. Literally

[mntlblok]

I never got the ICK vs. EAT tie-in, and I frankly am still confused over the "hint" at 49A, "Polish sausages". What was the purpose in saying that they "play no part in solving the contest"? The same could be said for most of the other entries.

Someone pointed out that it rules it out as being the "meat", leaving only "lamb" for that part of the mechanism.

Ick and eat from trick or treat. My constantly punning mind has somehow always skipped over that one. Glad I didn't waste my weekend on this convoluted, low paying chore.

If one must constantly consider "wrong" answers - especially if they are the wrong length - maybe I need to set up a special spreadsheet for such things. Oh, and then set up an alarm for a designated time during the weekend for a reminder for checking in that particular pile should reasonable efforts fail during that period. Guess I also need to come up with all the *other* evil categories. Bet somebody has already devised such a system. . .

[Bob cruise director]

For those of you who are wondering - the last time we had that low a percentage and that few correct answers was October 23,2020 Just a Step More by Matt with 40% correct and 241 correct answers.

[Ergcat]

This could have been friendlier. Put Gillette in the grid and make the answer “sheet”!

“Sheet” was my eleventh hour “Hail Mary “ submission

[BarbaraK]

For those of you who are wondering - the last time we had that low a percentage and that few correct answers was October 23,2020 Just a Step More by Matt with 40% correct and 241 correct answers.

That’s the latest WSJ I missed. I have two meta kryptonites - members of sets and alternate answers to clues. So I’m pleased with myself that I actually got this one. And time will tell if I’ll remember to think about sets next time they come up.

[ship4u]

An Ode to the Muggles

Each week I pray
To get betta' at the meta.
But each week I stay
Still slow at the "go."

Helping to find my way
None here will begrudge a nudge.
So I can continue to play
And eventually reach the beach.

Perhaps some day
I'll have a slug from a mug.
'Til then, I'm happy to say
I'll struggle as a muggle.

[BEACHEDWHALE]

How long can it take to award the mug this week? I mean, really….!

A: Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred
quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us
in our quest for the Holy Grail.
S: Well, I'll ask 'im, but I don't think 'e'll be very keen-- 'e's already got
one, you see?
A: What?
Lancelot: He says they've already *got* one!
A: (confused) Are you *sure* he's got one?
S: Oh yes, it's ver' naahs.
(to the other soldiers:) I told 'em we've already *got* one!
(they snicker)

[mikeB]

Very similar experience with the -eats and -icks, including the extraneous Chick/Cheat. However, I didn’t get the chance to really work those -icks and -eats until too late. Spent a lot of time on unrelated alternative answers – too many to put down to coincidence. Examples: OUT as an alternative for FEVERISH (down with the flu), BOOTS for SCAR (Frankenstein feature), SMALL CUT for LAMB (butcher buy), DRONES for RAMBLES, LAMB for ODIST, and a few others. By the time 11:58 ET rolled around, I became 90% convinced I wasn’t going to get it, so I reluctantly took the rest of the minute off to relax.

[MaineMarge]

My mother would reuse paper…..
But the best was her reuse of Christmas/Birthday cards. She'd refuse to write on them, using yellow sticky notes to sign them. Then we could remove the stickies and send them back the next year. She also ripped the front page off of cards others sent her and then use them, writing on the back of the front picture.

Was your mother’s name Marge, by any chance? I do both of these tricks with especially beautiful cards. Great way to recycle.
BTW- my last name is Hunter, so I can sign my name XHunter