"The Five W's" - November 12, 2021

[SusieG]

SAD indeed.

I identified the five single U’s, but didn’t look at the numbers; odd, because I almost always consider numbers. I dismissed them as red herrings, because UNTO U (or UUNTO) and URIS U, etc. didn’t make sense. 41A was the real red herring and I couldn’t get past it (removing a letter).

[michaelm]

Anyone else surprised at the high difficulty rating? If the last two weeks were 4.0, seems to me this should have been under 3.

My theory is that after the past two weeks of hard solves, many folks (including myself) way overthought this one, resulting in the low solve rate and high difficulty rating.

[RobM]

So many red herrings. Like many, I figured the 5 Ws in the title referred to the journalistic ones (who, what, when, where, why) and tried to include them in the mechanism.
1. In the solution to the previous day's puzzle, an entry, WHO+D, but nothing corresponding to the other four. Also, next to the WHO+D was the word UNIT, and UNITS was in today's grid -- could that relate somehow. (Also, the previous day's solution included ON ICE, which is very close to NO ICE, which was an important element in the Trick or Treat meta two weeks ago). But I realized that if you solve online, you don't see the previous day's solution, so that can't be it.
2. One entry, UNDER, forms a compound word with a homophone of WHERE, but again, nothing corresponding to the other four.
3. Looked for entries with two Us (double-U), but didn't find any, just two diagonally adjacent.
4. Three entries relating to journalism - EDITORIALS, TYPESET and PRESS AGENT, but nothing more came of that
5. Looked for entries where a W can replace a letter to form a new word: Plenty of those (FLAP>FLAW, SPED>SPEW, OATER>WATER, etc.), but none that do so in two directions.
6. There are 4 Ws in the shaded box ("The answer to this week's contest . . ."), plus one in the title, but . . . what could that mean?

[Ergcat]

Oh also there were 10 clues with "double u" which led us astray...

Yep, that was the rabbit hole that I focused on! Got the “double U” pretty quick but zeroed in on the clues! I even Notedthe 5 U’s in grid too but never thought to double the grid number! Note to self: remember the grid numbers!

[Dplass]

Anyone else surprised at the high difficulty rating? If the last two weeks were 4.0, seems to me this should have been under 3.

My theory is that after the past two weeks of hard solves, many folks (including myself) way overthought this one, resulting in the low solve rate and high difficulty rating.

I disagree. Knowing that you had to double the *clue number* is very non-intuitive. Doubling the letters, doubling the words, doubling the fun, but not doubling the numbers.

[hoover]

Like others, I quickly zoomed in on the 5 Us after finding 0 Ws. Then I got stuck looking at the entries that crossed the ones starting with U: LUIGI, LURE IN, IRS AUDIT, DUSTIN, BHUTAN, but LLIDB doesn't anagram to anything useful.

I had also had EQUUS in the grid until none of the crossing words fit.

Thank you all for providing such wonderful company on the ship. Shuffleboard tourney next time?

[boharr]

First thing I did was make a list of newspaper terms/jargon, and Scoop was on top. It only took me about 48 hours to return to it.

As others have mentioned, the stumper was not recognizing that a lateral move was needed to forget all the W's and Double U's and realize that in the last step "Double" switched to its math connotation of 2x. But there was a hint. The U's were at the top of the grid, allowing enough room to double the numbers in the squares without running off the grid.

[JeanneC]

Saw the 5 U letters and thought: heh, another hole. “Brilliant” move on my part. Congrats to the solvers!

[Barney]

So many red herrings. Like many, I figured the 5 Ws in the title referred to the journalistic ones (who, what, when, where, why) and tried to include them in the mechanism.
1. In the solution to the previous day's puzzle, an entry, WHO+D, but nothing corresponding to the other four. Also, next to the WHO+D was the word UNIT, and UNITS was in today's grid -- could that relate somehow. (Also, the previous day's solution included ON ICE, which is very close to NO ICE, which was an important element in the Trick or Treat meta two weeks ago). But I realized that if you solve online, you don't see the previous day's solution, so that can't be it.
2. One entry, UNDER, forms a compound word with a homophone of WHERE, but again, nothing corresponding to the other four.
3. Looked for entries with two Us (double-U), but didn't find any, just two diagonally adjacent.
4. Three entries relating to journalism - EDITORIALS, TYPESET and PRESS AGENT, but nothing more came of that
5. Looked for entries where a W can replace a letter to form a new word: Plenty of those (FLAP>FLAW, SPED>SPEW, OATER>WATER, etc.), but none that do so in two directions.
6. There are 4 Ws in the shaded box ("The answer to this week's contest . . ."), plus one in the title, but . . . what could that mean?

Those long entries were big pointers. Wish I’d factored that in.

[BarbaraK]

I never did get this one. Saw the 5 U's, noted they were all in the top half of the grid, and assumed that meant they couldn't be part of the solution. Then went down tons of other rabbit holes including all those mentioned here plus most recently engine oil viscosity - 5W20, 5W30, etc which had me thinking about grid numbers but still didn't trigger the right move.

Kas 4, woulda, coulda, shoulda. My mug refuses to be seen with me this week

[Cindy N]

Before ultimately getting through this with the right nudge, I started with the journalistic Ws and saw EDITORIALS as What and PRESS AGENT as WHO but that seemed to peter out. I also looked at entries that had an alternate "W" word.

FRET/WORRY
TYPESET/WRAP
EENSY/WEE
PASTY/WAN
ORCA/WHALE

I decided at that point that there were too many of them. Kudos to those who went with the "right" swaps to engineer the answer!

[BarbaraK]

First time poster.

We must be making a mistake or missing something here, but my wife and I came up with BLEAT.

I *think* there are five clues with two ("double") U's - 5A, 25A, 34A, 29D, 55D. Taking the first letter of the grid answers to these clues going left to right spells B-L-E-A-T. And what do "Ewes" do? They bleat. Thought that was it for sure.

The only asterisk that we could find are:
* 36D, which has four (not two) U's, and
* 16A, which has two U's in the clue, but this becomes 3 once the missing part of the quote "unto" is inserted.

Good puzzle, we really like these, we'll keep trying.

There's also 13D and 45D. Yeah, I tried that too. (Also figured that Mike would have gotten rid of those asterisks if that were really the mechanism.)

But add that to the list of possible future mechanisms

[Scott M]

Kudos to Mike on this one. The title was a total red herring, rewarding those who think outside the box better than I apparently do. As others said, this was quite simple - if you saw it. I give it thumbs up even though I crashed and burned.

[Scott M]

I never did get this one. Saw the 5 U's, noted they were all in the top half of the grid, and assumed that meant they couldn't be part of the solution. Then went down tons of other rabbit holes including all those mentioned here plus most recently engine oil viscosity - 5W20, 5W30, etc which had me thinking about grid numbers but still didn't trigger the right move.

Kas 4, woulda, coulda, shoulda. My mug refuses to be seen with me this weekavatar WSJ Mug in hiding.jpg

I do not allow myself to drink from my mug when I don't solve. It's getting lonely...

[MatthewL]

An interesting mechanism. This one reminded me of the Thousand Island Dressing puzzle from a few months ago. Every once in a while, I guess the numbers do matter.

[Laura M]

Never got off the ship this time (again). I noticed the 5 Us (as well as 5 Ms) but not that they were all in numbered squares. I really should have seen that there were exactly 5 words starting with U, I think that would have led me to the right path. Kudos to the observant solvers who got this one!

[Flying_Burrito]

An interesting mechanism. This one reminded me of the Thousand Island Dressing puzzle from a few months ago. Every once in a while, I guess the numbers do matter.

yes but the clue (Restaurant order) on the 1000 island dressing was much more tell-telling that this one where Mike did a mwahahah job in concealing; I solved that meta and the one with oregano in Al Sisti's speed.

[Deb F]

Nope. Was never gonna get this. Diabolical1
Have a good week, Muggles.

[mntlblok]

I got SCOOP, but in a different way. I looked at clues that could have alternative answers starting with W:
- sped (whizzed)
- crème (wafer)
- oater (western)
- orca (whale)
- pasty (wan)

Had to back solve for the S.

Not correct methodology, but got the same result by dumb luck. As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while.

Amazing. As was the other "alternate answer" solution. You guys are incredible.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I had also keyed in on the Us, but spent all my time looking at the other letters and crossing clues and such, but never the numbers. And then, as Barbara K said above, I thought the fact that they were all crammed into the top of the grid might mean they weren't important, when instead it was an essential feature.

The weirdest rabbit hole I considered was that the UTLITYMAN and INPOSITION answers combined with the 5 reporter Ws, might be related to the Abbott and Costello "Who's on First" routine, which has WHO, WHAT and WHY as well as TODAY and TOMORROW for WHEN.