"Now That's a Gift!" - December 24, 2021
- GTIJohnny
- Posts: 70
- Joined: Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:55 pm
- Location: Palatine, IL
DrTom confirmed to me that I had two thirds of the mechanism correct.
However I could not run it to the finish line and didn't ask for another nudge.
Muggles who missed this one...you're not alone!
However I could not run it to the finish line and didn't ask for another nudge.
Muggles who missed this one...you're not alone!
-
- Posts: 626
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:25 am
- Location: Florida
Right there with you! Glad I saw some of the construction, though. Congrats to the solvers.escapeartist wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 12:08 am Noticed the verbs at the beginning but lacked the connection to the present.
Thumbs up to all who managed to get this one!
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
- Relic
- Posts: 200
- Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2021 4:29 pm
- Location: Fort Worth, TX
Got it despite one incorrect map. I mapped "were" to aCres instead of Care. Thankfully not fatal. I'm glad to know it should have been mapped to Care because the problem with mapping to aCres is that pesky "s" at the end. Oh well, it all worked out.
Thanks for the holiday fun Mike!
Thanks for the holiday fun Mike!
Good luck to all for a successful solve. If you see that I'm ashore - rare occasion of late - message me if you'd like a nudge. Be sure to include your progress so I can know better how to assist.
Alan A. and Maggie Muggle
Alan A. and Maggie Muggle
-
- Posts: 1398
- Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:26 pm
I never made it to shore. Got too distracted by NOTNEW/WENTON and the other semiordnilaps: MOOD (doom), SAWPIT (tip was), SPOT (tops), WETS (stew), LEE (eel), EVIAN (naive), SAG (gas). Those made me go looking for reversed words in the starred key entries, and I never climbed back out of that rabbit hole.
- Bird Lives
- Posts: 2708
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:43 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 79
- Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 11:16 pm
NOOOOO!
Instead of using the S in SLAY, I used the RE in RELAY. I submitted CAROLER. My fault for not being more diligent!
Instead of using the S in SLAY, I used the RE in RELAY. I submitted CAROLER. My fault for not being more diligent!
- mntlblok
- Posts: 324
- Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:13 am
- Location: The Villages, FL
- Contact:
Works for me.martimeryard wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 7:09 am NOOOOO!
Instead of using the S in SLAY, I used the RE in RELAY. I submitted CAROLER. My fault for not being more diligent!
- DianeA
- Posts: 104
- Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2021 7:58 am
- Location: Southport, NC
My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks. When i first converted the verb, was it just to the present tense, or the infinitive? WERE = (to) BE since i had BEBOPS staring me in the face crossed with WEREWOLVES. The final hurdle was LAID and LIE/LAY; i never got those right, but luckily did not get distracted by RELAY. Grammar, gotta love it.
But those pesky asterisks. When i first converted the verb, was it just to the present tense, or the infinitive? WERE = (to) BE since i had BEBOPS staring me in the face crossed with WEREWOLVES. The final hurdle was LAID and LIE/LAY; i never got those right, but luckily did not get distracted by RELAY. Grammar, gotta love it.
- mntlblok
- Posts: 324
- Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2021 6:13 am
- Location: The Villages, FL
- Contact:
-
- Posts: 789
- Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:12 pm
- Location: Seneca SC
I, too, was tormented briefly by “laid and lie/lay”… which is correct?? Luckily, it didn’t matter because both yielded the final letter “s” ( from LieS or Slay) for CAROLS.DianeA wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 7:29 am My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks. When i first converted the verb, was it just to the present tense, or the infinitive? WERE = (to) BE since i had BEBOPS staring me in the face crossed with WEREWOLVES. The final hurdle was LAID and LIE/LAY; i never got those right, but luckily did not get distracted by RELAY. Grammar, gotta love it.
- Colin
- Posts: 550
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:57 pm
Kids and granddaughters for the Christmas weekend. Got the grid before they arrived and played with it on and off with no result. Firmly in the excellent care of Isaac all weekend with lots of new games and toys to play with! My wonderful wife dished up a perfect prime rib roast and we were blessed with two bottles of 2005 Margaux (the only ‘100’-scoring Medoc vintage in Wine Spectator’s chart) that were given to us by a good friend years ago!
Belatedly, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and in case I am late again next weekend… have a safe, healthy and happy 2022!
Belatedly, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and in case I am late again next weekend… have a safe, healthy and happy 2022!
One world. One planet. One future.
-
- Posts: 311
- Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 1:16 pm
- Location: New Richmond ohio
Anyone else having problems with fleeting image and getting the Monday crossword? Doesn’t want to download ….? Any other way to get across lite?
- Mister Squawk
- Posts: 246
- Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 9:15 am
- Location: Boston
Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).
Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?
Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?
-
- Posts: 60
- Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:40 pm
Man, I was on to something but couldn't quite flush it out. So close...yet so far!
- Flying_Burrito
- Posts: 296
- Joined: Fri Apr 16, 2021 11:24 am
- Location: Johns Creek, GA
I suspect that w/out the asterisks 18A (Alit) could have technically been in play as the past tense of Alight.Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:11 am Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).
Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?
Senor Guaca Mole
-
- Posts: 772
- Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:57 am
- Location: Atlanta, GA
Welp, I saw some of the mechanism, but couldn't put it all together. I saw "present" and figured it had to do with timing, but then I got focused on all the words related to "new" (like neo, nuevo, etc.) and just couldn't get past that. Oh well -- one more attempt left for 2021.
Matthew
- RussHiggins
- Posts: 38
- Joined: Fri Mar 27, 2020 11:54 am
Ok, new rule of thumb: If your mechanism takes up more than 264 cells in your worksheet, you've got the wrong mechanism.
- BrianMac
- Site Admin
- Posts: 787
- Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:45 pm
- Location: Connecticut
Asterisks are often used when the theme entries are not the longest answers in the grid. In this case, two of the theme entries are only six letters long and there are two other six-letter across entries that are not theme entries, so identifying SAWPIT and WENTON as theme answers would have been difficult without the asterisks.Flying_Burrito wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:55 amI suspect that w/out the asterisks 18A (Alit) could have technically been in play as the past tense of Alight.Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:11 am Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).
Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?
- BarbaraK
- Posts: 2620
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:37 pm
- Location: Virginia
There was a comment on fiend about a website outage and temporary replacement
https://crosswordfiend.com/2021/12/26/m ... /#comments
- Richard
- Posts: 351
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:06 pm
I too first thought "Present" but then why the asterisks. Without the asterisks I might have submitted "Present."
I thought this was an excellent meta. For me a nice aha moments when I saw the present past tense deal and then the missing letters. And not so difficult that it affected my holiday.