"I Spy" - November 19, 2021

[Laura M]

For the record, I never made it off the ship. I thought for sure that CATSUP/TOILET was the right path, but I got tired of looking for other words. (Also, I thought that the answer would definitely be a famous spy!)

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

This one was totally solvable and I never would have solved it on my own. With previous puzzles, I tell myself to stop staring the grid trying to find patterns in the clouds, but staring at the grid was what was required here.

I was sure there was something more to the puzzle title, either in the "I" or the rhyming. I went down the route of finding alternate answers in the clues, like @patpatchica mentioned, except I used "Lab" for yellow, which I liked because it rhymed with CAB. I spent some time focusing on phonetic letters "Gee" "Ess" "Enne" and "See" which crossed theme answers.

My strangest detour may have been the five answers that started with a long 'I':I WERE, IDEATE, IRA, ISL (a stretch), and IGOR (which requires you to remember the "Young Frankenstein" gag). They crossed or were next to 4 of the 5 theme answers and when I looked at the letters after the 'I', I saw "G: Green, W: White, hey I'm onto something! R: Red!, and D: hmm, no... S: aw darn."

The last four puzzles have been tough, but I would rather have four puzzles I don't solve than four puzzles I solve within 15 minutes of finishing the grid.

[JJD]

One other rabbit hole was that both yellow clues had “down” in them. And if you use that and the “close” hints, to “spy” the nearby “I” answers in the grid, then remove the letter I from each, you can spell AGENT BEA “DEAD END” WALLER. Who isn’t a spy. (Or is she?!? LOL)

[higgysue]

I actually thought of Waldo as a guess but I don’t submit guesses. Was confused by the “getting close” part. Should have solved it but didn’t. I like the puzzle now that I know the answer!

[LadyBird]

What's wasabi?

A viciously hot horseradish paste cut with soy sauce to taste for sushi.

I.e., one horror on top of another.

I didnt know you were supposed to cut it with soy sauce--that will make it better!

My son and daughter-in-law came over for dinner and games last night. One game we played was Sushi Go! with this game piece. Didn't help with solving (until a nudge).

[Suzeq]

How do we find out how many correct answers were sent in on any given week?

[BarbaraK]

How do we find out how many correct answers were sent in on any given week?

Mike Miller will post it here and in the comments section on the WSJ website. It's usually sometime Tuesday when he posts but can be earlier or later.

[BEACHEDWHALE]

I found the META very fast because of the "No, but your getting close clue". The only one I found tricky was OLEO because unlike the other four, it wasn't parallel to the two associated answers... But by scrambling the WADL, I recognized WALDO (my kids loved those books) and started searching for the O. I found two of them in OleO, which was symmetrical for the middle position, so it was straight forward from there...

[CPJohnson]

I mentioned the year, earlier, but the September 21, 2018, puzzle: BOUND FOR SPACE — JUMPS — by MIKE SHENK AS MARIE KELLY used the jump-over-blank-space mechanism. There may be others.

Yes, but that one had a hint in 1A, and it gave numbers for the length of the word for which you were looking.

[Nlobb]

I really enjoyed this puzzle. It brought back so many fond memories of reading the Waldo books with kids and grandkids. It put a smile on my face when I got the answer!!
Happy thanksgiving to all!
I could use a mug for my thanksgiving tea…

[stmv]

I was also on Team Seychelles. I was also fascinated by SEEDLINGS also being green things in the field. The trick of looking for words crossing a black square never occurred to me, sad to say. It will be nice when we finally get a WSJCC that I can actually solve.....

[Joe Ross]

I mentioned the year, earlier, but the September 21, 2018, puzzle: BOUND FOR SPACE — JUMPS — by MIKE SHENK AS MARIE KELLY used the jump-over-blank-space mechanism. There may be others.

Yes, but that one had a hint in 1A, and it gave numbers for the length of the word for which you were looking.

It uses the mechanism, not the theme. Newer metas have, also.

[MaineMarge]

After I had exhausted most of the mental gymnastics you all have,I played “Eye Spy (with my little eye)”.
Green eyed = envy hey! There’s VEIN!
Red eye = plane/pleat
Yellow eye = beans/ beano
Blue eyed = Paul/pail (Newman!)
( it’s my game- I make the rules)

White eye…?? Google kept bringing up the white-eyed vireo, but no go. Where was @LadyBird when I needed her?
By then I was looking for a D, which would give me IDIOT- a proper name for me.

[mntlblok]

Neither of us put much effort into this one, but, after reading the solution, nudged the wifey with taking a look at 1 and 5 across. She's half Japanese and makes her own norimaki. Bizarre process involving seaweed and those Cochise vest thingies. (Googling finally turned up "breast plate). Oddly, she didn't spot wasabi. So, I added that it was kinda close to the green stuff. She then quickly jumped on dove, apple, and lake, but then stalled. I led her back to 1 across and she *still* didn't see it, at least not at first. Good chuckle.

[DrTom]

Well I for one am delighted that my rabbit holes were the same as many other people's rabbit holes.

I was CERTAIN I had it when I saw red E/CATSUP and green W/YARDS. Then when I got the white P/HAIL I was on the "this CANNOT be a coincidence" trail. I confirmed that with the perfect yellow S/BEE and a nice, keep me at home on Sunday, blue N/LAW.

So CYHBL - WHAT????????

OK, there is a C a B and a Y I need an O and an S to spell COSBY, famously (well famously a while back and before the fall) of I SPY. I just have to find something that is blue once I change a letter to O and....

It took a "right church wrong pew" nudge (actually nudge or two) to get me to where I saw the spanned words. Therefore I did not submit.

I'm disappointed in myself (though it is happening with such frequency that the pain is, though not lessening, no longer as acutely surprising) but at least I have the MGWCC to make me feel better (yeah RIGHT, I cannot even see a glimpse of daylight in that darkness)

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is WALDO. Hidden near each pair of wrong guesses is the right guess for each color: green WASABI in TWAS/ABIDE, red APPLE in SLAP/PLEAT, blue LAKE in NILLA/KENT, white DOVE in MISDO/VEIN and yellow OLEO in LOL/ EOS. Their first letters (in a clockwise spiral) spell the contest answer.

Well, by our count this was four extremely tough contests in a row. So if you had a hard time, you're in good company. As noted before, we think this a coincidence, not a nefarious plan by our contest constructors (who often are surprised by how easy or hard their contests turn out to be).

We had 511 entries, with about 42% correct (that's way below our usual level around 75%). Wrong answers included lots of guesswork in the world of spies: JAMES BOND (14), DR. NO (7), ROBERT CULP (5), MATA HARI (3) and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Neville Fogarty of Newport News, VA!

[ship4u]

I didn't enjoy this metta. When I first saw the abundance of theme clues and answers I thought it was going to be a fun challenge. However, the clue to the first "color" answer was "no" and the second "color" answer was "no, but you are getting close," it seemed to me that sequence was indicating a certain "direction" towards the second color answer. It took me a very long time to move to the second step of the mechanism and to see that the third "color" was spread across the grids of the first and second answers.

[Joe Ross]

oof

The contest answer is CLOWN. We had 508 entries, and just 48% were correct

10-29-21: 508 x 48% = 244 correct submissions

The contest answer is BOOK TOUR. We had just 387 brave entrants, and only about 53% of them were correct.

11-05-21: 387 x 53% = 205 correct submissions

The contest answer is SCOOP. We had just 361 entries and slightly less than 1/3 correct

11-12-21: 361 x 33% = 119 correct submissions

The contest answer is WALDO. We had 511 entries, with about 42% correct

11-19-21: 511 x 42% = 215 correct submissions

[flyingMoose]

oof

The contest answer is CLOWN. We had 508 entries, and just 48% were correct

10-29-21: 508 x 48% = 244 correct submissions

The contest answer is BOOK TOUR. We had just 387 brave entrants, and only about 53% of them were correct.

11-05-21: 387 x 53% = 205 correct submissions

The contest answer is SCOOP. We had just 361 entries and slightly less than 1/3 correct

11-12-21: 361 x 33% = 119 correct submissions

The contest answer is WALDO. We had 511 entries, with about 42% correct

11-19-21: 511 x 42% = 215 correct submissions

I only have microMug scores since March of last year, but by that gauge, of the five toughest metas, you have listed four of them.

[zach]

oof

The contest answer is CLOWN. We had 508 entries, and just 48% were correct

10-29-21: 508 x 48% = 244 correct submissions

The contest answer is BOOK TOUR. We had just 387 brave entrants, and only about 53% of them were correct.

11-05-21: 387 x 53% = 205 correct submissions

The contest answer is SCOOP. We had just 361 entries and slightly less than 1/3 correct

11-12-21: 361 x 33% = 119 correct submissions

The contest answer is WALDO. We had 511 entries, with about 42% correct

11-19-21: 511 x 42% = 215 correct submissions

In February, when the WSJ was doing the contest tutorial, the average number of submissions each week for those four puzzles was 3,556. For the last four weeks it was 8x fewer than that, with an average of just 442 submissions. While I personally have loved the mental challenges of recent weeks, I wonder to what extent this string of contests has abandoned some of the audience, and I wonder if that even matters (does anyone actually subscribe to the WSJ just for Friday puzzles?).