"Three-Pointers" - January 7, 2022 (MMXXII)

[Joe Ross]

Did no one else initially come up with “Triple Double”? All of the arguable “theme entries” (of course there were none) had double or triple letters. The patterns weren’t “elegant” enough but that seemed a plausible answer for a long time.

We had a lot of discussion on Triple Double on the zoom call. and went through the same logic that you went through.

More than enough red herrings.

As I recall, that discussion on the Zoom call ended abruptly after everyone realized that if Wendy Walker had managed to solve the puzzle, "triple double" and similarly esoteric sports terms could obviously not be in play.

With the appropriate "no disrespect intended" of course.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I also wanted an answer of TRIPLE DOUBLE, after seeing 49D, or possibly DOUBLE DRIBBLE, with all the double letters in answers. But I could never make that work. I spent so much time staring at TREs in the grid, or its permutations, without ever noticing the THREEs on diagonals until I got a nudge. This was one where a little bit of basketball knowledge served as a distraction.

The AHA, OHO, and AAH had me focusing too much on 3-letter answers. Even though they are common enough crossword answers individually, for a while I assumed they must have been all put in there to help spell something out. The other weird one for me was thinking "Hey, Ms and Ws have three points. Maybe they point to something?" But, guess what, since this is English, they almost all point at vowels!

[Cindy N]

The number of TRE or TRES entries in the grid initially tripped me up, but they obviously didn't "point" to anything. I searched the grid for other hidden THREEs - but was only looking vertical and horizontal. Even looked within words to see if there were some where I could extract letters to leave THREE and use those.

I finally thought "I don't get it. I've looked up and down and across and there are no THREEs. What am I supposed to do, look diagonal....ly...oh"

[Douglas]

Dang, I got the threes pointing to P L A Y, thought that was it, and submitted it. Hey, "play" is a basketball term, isn't it?

[MajordomoTom]

about the 5th time I was looking at the grid, I suddenly spotted one "THREE" on the right side, said to self, "hmmm, interesting".

2 minutes later, found a second one, then grabbed that bunny by the tail and kept going.

One is interesting, two is a definite trail.

I'm not tall enough for dunking, but I can sometimes manage a 2 pointer.

[joequavis]

My brother and I (both former high school basketballers) were stuck on Triple Double from the moment we saw the clue for 49D until our other brother who had never done a WSJ Contest before this one (and was better at football than basketball back in the day) said "Do they ever use diagonal words because there is a THREE spelled out diagonally..." He deserves a mug!

Interesting - I had wondered if this may have played a little easier for newer meta solvers than for seasoned ones.

[vandono]

My brother and I (both former high school basketballers) were stuck on Triple Double from the moment we saw the clue for 49D until our other brother who had never done a WSJ Contest before this one (and was better at football than basketball back in the day) said "Do they ever use diagonal words because there is a THREE spelled out diagonally..." He deserves a mug!

Interesting - I had wondered if this may have played a little easier for newer meta solvers than for seasoned ones.

I think there's truth in that, and I think it's a fairly common phenomenon in life where experience with the complex can make it hard to see the simple because your brain quickly generates a lot of ideas that have to be processed. Having less experience, I generated nothing like what is illustrated in Bob's screen shot. Approaching it with the beauty of a mind uncluttered by vast experience - and having just that week tried to create a puzzle with "corner to corner" spanning diagonally across the grid - the 'three' in the lower-right corner suddenly just popped. Well, after the SAD reference made me rethink the title.

Reading all the other rabbit holes others pursued - i never noticed most of those. If those were all intentional red herrings... man, that's pure deviousness.

[SusieG]

Very clever meta! I’m sorry I didn’t solve it, because it so fun to see now. I do recall seeing some Es that were diagonal, but I didn’t go any farther with them.

I also was stuck on triple-double once I saw Karl Malone in the grid.

[ajk]

As I recall, that discussion on the Zoom call ended abruptly after everyone realized that if Wendy Walker had managed to solve the puzzle, "triple double" and similarly esoteric sports terms could obviously not be in play.

The image attached here seems destined to be recycled for use in other contexts.

[patpatchica]

I needed a nudge to get this one. Of course, I was pulling out all the three letter words and getting nothing. After that, I decided Three-Pointers could be a reference to a word score in Scrabble. I went down that rabbit hole for a while. Also, I had lots of three letters with the same pattern like OHO and ESE and a pattern with a consonant followed by two Es. Nada.

I can’t believe I didn’t check the diagonals! I used to do that all the time as a new meta solver a couple months back! So. I do think this would be an easier solo solve for new solvers.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is LAYUP. In five places in the grid, the letters of THREE can be found reading diagonally, pointing to L, A, Y, U and P (from top to bottom).

This one was harder than usual, even though the answers were brilliantly hiding in plain sight. We had 955 entries, with about 48% correct (well below our usual level around 75%). Lots of airballs among the guesses (including one AIRBALL), starting with TRIPLE DOUBLE (92!), plus ALLEY OOP (15), FULL COURT PRESS (10), DOUBLE DRIBBLE (8), and REBOUND (7). And one LICKETY BRINDLE UP THE MIDDLE.

Congrats to this week's winner: Frank Kaplan of Atherton, Calif.

[sharkicicles]

I ran out of time this weekend to look at this, but the one rabbit hole I did go down with "Three-Pointers" was team abbreviations. There was TOR, MIN, WAS, CHI, POR, DEN in the grid.

The Bulls also gave up a nine-game winning streak last night. I don't think that's a coincidence.

[Mister Squawk]

The contest answer is LAYUP. In five places in the grid, the letters of THREE can be found reading diagonally, pointing to L, A, Y, U and P (from top to bottom).

This one was harder than usual, even though the answers were brilliantly hiding in plain sight. We had 955 entries, with about 48% correct (well below our usual level around 75%). Lots of airballs among the guesses (including one AIRBALL), starting with TRIPLE DOUBLE (92!), plus ALLEY OOP (15), FULL COURT PRESS (10), DOUBLE DRIBBLE (8), and REBOUND (7). And one LICKETY BRINDLE UP THE MIDDLE.

Congrats to this week's winner: Frank Kaplan of Atherton, Calif.

The lesson here is that even when both the number of submissions and the percentage correct are at near all-time lows, you're still not winning the mug .

[LadyBird]

Never did get it, but I snuck ashore anyways. These guys, unlike the cabana boy, didn't have drinks to offer.

20220110_044226.jpg

You must be a royalty since they all showed up in tux

Well, we got demoted because these guys in front forgot their tuxes!

Oops--wrong pic. This was from our hike to an overlook over the whaling station.

[Scott M]

If you want a laugh, here is my grid, marked up in five colors, circles, arrows and notes, from before and during the Friday zoom call

And I still had to be led to the answer.

IMG_20220110_0002.jpg

Some of the notations (colors are only which one I grabbed first)

Pink - answers with three of the same letter
Orange - long answers thought to be themes answers
Blue - first letter in each of the answers with three letters
Green - three letter words (or at least most of them)
Arrows - from the zoom call with three of the same letters pointing in the direction of something either near or from three point range
Circled 62A - NETS with an extra letter thinking that he may have NBA teams buried in there to lead to a meta answre
Orange in clues - something to do with basketball
Notes on sides are random thoughts of seeing if other rabbit holes led to something.

I purchased this set purely for the metas

[TeamDoubleTow]

Did no one else initially come up with “Triple Double”? All of the arguable “theme entries” (of course there were none) had double or triple letters. The patterns weren’t “elegant” enough but that seemed a plausible answer for a long time.

Yup! That was our inelegant guess until helpful muggles nudged us diagonally.

[hoover]

If you want a laugh, here is my grid, marked up in five colors, circles, arrows and notes, from before and during the Friday zoom call.

That looks a lot cooler than many of paintings I saw at the Sotheby's and Christie's viewings this fall. Should be worth at least 5 mil.

This was a very neat meta even though I initially gave up on it. Picking it up again and seeing a diagonal three was an extremely satisfying aha moment. Glad to see that I fell into the same rabbit holes as did others. Misery loves company.

When is the NFT auction?

[Colin]

I guess I will never find out if my “LAY-UP” (hyphenated) even made it into the tombola drum for the winner pick? It doesn’t really matter, I was ecstatic just to be on shore in a week when some very well-respected muggle-mentors spent the weekend with Isaac.
Happiness is a full grid, sandy feet, and an empty glass!

[Joe Ross]

If you want a laugh, here is my grid, marked up in five colors, circles, arrows and notes, from before and during the Friday zoom call

And I still had to be led to the answer.



Some of the notations (colors are only which one I grabbed first)

Pink - answers with three of the same letter
Orange - long answers thought to be themes answers
Blue - first letter in each of the answers with three letters
Green - three letter words (or at least most of them)
Arrows - from the zoom call with three of the same letters pointing in the direction of something either near or from three point range
Circled 62A - NETS with an extra letter thinking that he may have NBA teams buried in there to lead to a meta answre
Orange in clues - something to do with basketball
Notes on sides are random thoughts of seeing if other rabbit holes led to something.

I purchased this set purely for the metas

I use these:

[ron]

The contest answer is LAYUP. In five places in the grid, the letters of THREE can be found reading diagonally, pointing to L, A, Y, U and P (from top to bottom).

This one was harder than usual, even though the answers were brilliantly hiding in plain sight. We had 955 entries, with about 48% correct (well below our usual level around 75%). Lots of airballs among the guesses (including one AIRBALL), starting with TRIPLE DOUBLE (92!), plus ALLEY OOP (15), FULL COURT PRESS (10), DOUBLE DRIBBLE (8), and REBOUND (7). And one LICKETY BRINDLE UP THE MIDDLE.

Congrats to this week's winner: Frank Kaplan of Atherton, Calif.

The lesson here is that even when both the number of submissions and the percentage correct are at near all-time lows, you're still not winning the mug .

Exactly! My odds soared all the way to one in 450, and still no luck.