"A Year to Watch" - December 31, 2021

[Joe Ross]

Is it Mike Miller the WSJ senior editor whose domain includes the crosswords?

Yes.

[LivinaDogsLife]

Like so many others I didn’t recognize all the shows contributing to the solution even though I watch plenty of TV. And I actually love how there was plenty of misdirection in the puzzle with TV actor names and shows, clues, and title that did little or nothing for the meta. Every crossword has the potential for some trivial subject (e.g., TV shows) and I’m certainly not smarter for having learned there are shows called Arrow and Weeds out there in the streamingplex.

After all, the first rule of metas is here are no rules. The answer is not what you want it to be but what the designer decided it would be whether you agree with the clues or not.

I have to believe this since I’m terrible at solving theses in general. I’m too slow to figure out most of the elaborate mechanisms and am riding a high that I had a preponderance of evidence on this one despite not cracking the code entirely.

Enjoy!

[Franklin.Bluth]

It helped that these were relatively long-lasting shows:

Arrow - 170 episodes
Wings - 172 episodes
I Spy - 82 episodes
Alf - 102 episodes
MASH - 256 episodes
Amen - 110 episodes
Weeds - 102 episodes

For reference, recent prestige TV shows Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones had only 62 and 73 episodes, respectively.

[DrTom]

"New heart for a New Year, always!"
Charles Dickens, The Chimes

Well I had never heard that quote from the little Dickens, but I like it and am going to just imagine THAT'S what Matt meant.

[DrTom]

Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this.

Also, WORST series ending ever. Such a copout.

Respectfully disagree. It was eminently solvable. The pieces were all there, in plain sight, you just had to look. There were distractors but that is part of a Meta, the intentional and the unintentional. The meta title may not have related exactly (unless you take Flying Burrito's Dicken's quote into account) but the mechanism for solving was so simple that everyone missed it. Once I FINALLY noticed the TV shows I, like so many, tried to use debut dates, cancellation dates, networks, episodes, etc., etc. to no avail. Then when writing the part of the "themer" (which were all VERY obvious - including the Half and Half one which we were TOLD was part of the mechanism) that contained the answer, NEWHART quite literally leads the way. You cannot help but see it.

So, IMHO this was a great series finale, not too hard but very clever. Now the MGWCC, that was fiendish, but this one, well I'd watch it again in reruns.

[flyingMoose]

I thought @Dplass was speaking of the end of the Newhart show - but perhaps I thought wrong.

[Dplass]

Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this.

Also, WORST series ending ever. Such a copout.

Respectfully disagree. It was eminently solvable. The pieces were all there, in plain sight, you just had to look. There were distractors but that is part of a Meta, the intentional and the unintentional. The meta title may not have related exactly (unless you take Flying Burrito's Dicken's quote into account) but the mechanism for solving was so simple that everyone missed it. Once I FINALLY noticed the TV shows I, like so many, tried to use debut dates, cancellation dates, networks, episodes, etc., etc. to no avail. Then when writing the part of the "themer" (which were all VERY obvious - including the Half and Half one which we were TOLD was part of the mechanism) that contained the answer, NEWHART quite literally leads the way. You cannot help but see it.

So, IMHO this was a great series finale, not too hard but very clever. Now the MGWCC, that was fiendish, but this one, well I'd watch it again in reruns.

Dr Tom you misunderstand. When I wrote "Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this." I am only blaming myself.

In terms of "WORST series ending ever" I meant the Newhart finale. It was done in St. Elsewhere and of course The Wizard of Oz. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... JustADream

[DrTom]

Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this.

Also, WORST series ending ever. Such a copout.

Respectfully disagree. It was eminently solvable. The pieces were all there, in plain sight, you just had to look. There were distractors but that is part of a Meta, the intentional and the unintentional. The meta title may not have related exactly (unless you take Flying Burrito's Dicken's quote into account) but the mechanism for solving was so simple that everyone missed it. Once I FINALLY noticed the TV shows I, like so many, tried to use debut dates, cancellation dates, networks, episodes, etc., etc. to no avail. Then when writing the part of the "themer" (which were all VERY obvious - including the Half and Half one which we were TOLD was part of the mechanism) that contained the answer, NEWHART quite literally leads the way. You cannot help but see it.

So, IMHO this was a great series finale, not too hard but very clever. Now the MGWCC, that was fiendish, but this one, well I'd watch it again in reruns.

Dr Tom you misunderstand. When I wrote "Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this." I am only blaming myself.

In terms of "WORST series ending ever" I meant the Newhart finale. It was done in St. Elsewhere and of course The Wizard of Oz. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... JustADream

Whoops, sorry. My apologies.

However, disagree with the Newhart ending. Him waking up with his wife from the other series was one of my favorite of all times! The "St. Elsewhere" snow globe was just odd (though I did like the program and its MANY double entendre instances). As for Wizard of Oz - well, there is no place like home.

Worst series beginning ever was the Dallas "It was a dream" episode - that has to go down with worst soap opera mechanisms.

[Larrry]

Dr Tom you misunderstand. When I wrote "Ugh. Can't believe I didn't see this." I am only blaming myself.

In terms of "WORST series ending ever" I meant the Newhart finale. It was done in St. Elsewhere and of course The Wizard of Oz. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... JustADream

Count me in the pro-Newhart finale camp. Having the callback to the series from the 1970s was very clever, implied that all of the off-beat characters in the show were figments of the imagination of someone who interacted with crazy people for a living (not that people who see a psychologist are crazy, but the patients in the 1970s show were very off-beat), and most of all, it was very meta.

[MaineMarge]

Well, I didn’t get this one, but I did have some fun with old Laugh-In episodes along the way. It would have been an apt answer for this group!

And Siri helped me reconnect with my collection of wispy clouds from the Cloud Appreciation Society. I’m looking forward to watching for such info from them every day in this new year.

Resembling the aftermath of a pillow fight, these Cirrus clouds are in the form known as ‘uncinus’. The name means ‘hooked’ in Latin. The appearance of these high, ice-crystal clouds results from shearing winds. This is when the wind speed changes abruptly with altitude. The wind up at the cloud level is actually blowing from right to left in this image. It is rather counter-intuitive, since at first sight it appears more as if it must be blowing the opposite way. But the cloud’s crystals start falling from the hooked end and they pass from faster winds above into slower winds below as they descend. The whole sky is drifting from right to left, and the ice crystals are trailing behind as they fall. The hook shapes show that this change in wind speed is abrupt. It is the sort of wind profile often found up high like this ahead of a weather front, which can bring a deterioration in the weather, a darkening of the atmosphere’s mood. There’ll be trouble to pay for this pillow fight.

Cirrus uncinus clouds spotted over Daphne, Alabama, US by Keith Williams (Member 47,659).

[HunterX]

And Siri helped me reconnect with my collection of wispy clouds from the Cloud Appreciation Society. I’m looking forward to watching for such info from them every day in this new year.

Resembling the aftermath of a pillow fight, these Cirrus clouds are in the form known as ‘uncinus’. The name means ‘hooked’ in Latin. The appearance of these high, ice-crystal clouds results from shearing winds. This is when the wind speed changes abruptly with altitude. The wind up at the cloud level is actually blowing from right to left in this image. It is rather counter-intuitive, since at first sight it appears more as if it must be blowing the opposite way. But the cloud’s crystals start falling from the hooked end and they pass from faster winds above into slower winds below as they descend. The whole sky is drifting from right to left, and the ice crystals are trailing behind as they fall. The hook shapes show that this change in wind speed is abrupt. It is the sort of wind profile often found up high like this ahead of a weather front, which can bring a deterioration in the weather, a darkening of the atmosphere’s mood. There’ll be trouble to pay for this pillow fight.

Cirrus uncinus clouds spotted over Daphne, Alabama, US by Keith Williams (Member 47,659).

No fair sharing interesting tidbits like this that send me down research rabbit holes when I have work to do! Don't you know I have meetings to attend, systems to check, spreadsheets to work on???

Good thing those on work calls can't see my other computer's screen....

Oh, and there are lots of cool photos out there!

And diagrams...