"Just Look at Yourself" - January 28, 2022

[HunterX]

Kids and I had the correct matching grid answers quickly, since we couldn't find an appropriate match for Heart-THUMPING, and settled on Chest-THUMPING for VAIN. But then I sat there staring at them in the order of the themed answers they match. What's a VELNA? So I went down the rabbit hole of doing the Gaffney-esque "use the mechanism one more time" and tried to find body parts to match the matching grid answers. VEIN for VAIN. TUMMY for NUMMY. EAR for EERIE. It was a painful head-slap when I realized VELNA could anagram to NAVEL, and their was a logical way to get there without resorting to an anagram. Took me way too long to make that switch.

I had definitely heard of Navel Gazing, but one of my kids had not. So I figured it was the young-folks who wouldn't know it. Though not the same, I always think of "navel gazing" when I hear the musical genre term "Shoegaze." The images of the two are essentially the same, though the causes and effects of each are usually different.

[kamashdas]

Longest Monday explanation ever?

[BarbaraK]

I submitted NAVELGAZING and the WSJ answer is NAVEL-GAZING. Would my answer be accepted as correct without the dash?

Picking winning entries is random, but deciding if the chosen one does indeed have the correct answer is done by a human. So, yes, any recognizable punctuation and spelling should be fine. In fact, the online entry mechanism usually doesn't allow punctuation, so people who submitted that way may not even have been able to use the hyphen.

[Deb F]

Along with Hunter and others, had Snob for Chest-thumping AND followed the -ing word order instead of the matching word order (i.e. Snob, Eerie, etc.) yielding SELNA. And there I sat. That is, until I got my Wendy nudge and that led me to the correct solution. Sigh. At least getting the answer freed me to enjoy the football without distraction. Thanks again, Wendy.

Good luck, Muggles.

[Abide]

Veteran tip: I used www.onelook.com to figure out watering and thumping.
The site has search features that are perfect for this type meta
“ ????? thumping”

[joequavis]

What a great meta! I encountered exactly zero rabbit holes...well, other than the one that actually had the rabbit. Just took a lot of contemplating for me this week. Good luck, Muggles!

And now it seems safe to mention how much I appreciated the wording of this post!

Ha, the subconscious strikes again!

[Dplass]

TBH I had never heard of NAVEL-GAZING when a former CEO (Marc) said it in a meeting about 15 years ago. I had to look it up back then...

And also TBH I didn't even notice the letters were top-to-bottom... I got ANEVL or something and miraculously noticed it anagrammed to NAVEL---- oh yeah! Marc said NAVEL-GAZING 15 years ago!

[DBMiller]

Count me in the Chest-Thumping = Snob category and missed it. Had I gotten VAIN, I don't know if I would have gotten it either. I've never heard the phrase, "navel gazing", but I have heard of "contemplating your navel".

[Richard]

I had heart thumping but then on a zoom call was led to chest thumping. Navel easily followed and navel gazing, no hyphen. I am pretty old but I had heard of it.

Spent too much time with wrong ideas about the numbers. Once I got jaw dropping and amazing the next three were pretty easy. I had never heard of "nummy" before.

[MikeM000]

The number in parentheses is the number of letters in the synonym for the hyphenated phrase.

So 39A 3-________ (4 letters) is the 3-letter body part EAR; the word to be entered in the grid (SPLITTING) completes the adjective. The synonym (at 61D) is LOUD, which is four letters.

The "3-" on that clue was useful for me when I deciphered what it meant, as my initial thought was "Hair". Although after the excitement wore off I realized that phrase is usually only said in the opposite construction ("splitting hairs").

Also...
I GET KNOCKED DOWN!
BUT I GET UP AGAIN!
NOTHING'S EVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!

[escapeartist]

At first I had thought the 3- and 5- in the clues referred to the down answers, so "skin tingling" produced "eerie", although didn't work well with the other clues.

[Ben B]

I was completely lost until I had a lightning flash of inspiration after picking up my notes for the umpteenth time. But I was hung up on “side splitting” for awhile and could not come up with a three letter body part. It took me staring at the grid to try to back in to a clue when I could LOUD and thought of ear splitting.

Very fun puzzle that I never would have solved 6 months ago.

[woozy]

Maybe I'm too old, but I've never heard of Navel-Gazing,

If there's an age divide among people who have and have not heard of navel-gazing it is definitely that the young are less likely to have heard of it. I'm a bit surprised that you are familiar with the word "omphaloskepsis". Most people hearing that for the first time ask what it means and are told it means navel gazing.

[Al Sisti]

Maybe I'm too old, but I've never heard of Navel-Gazing,

If there's an age divide among people who have and have not heard of navel-gazing it is definitely that the young are less likely to have heard of it. I'm a bit surprised that you are familiar with the word "omphaloskepsis". Most people hearing that for the first time ask what it means and are told it means navel gazing.

Yeah, I always liked that word. As for navel-gazing, I guess I was absent that day/era/location where it was taught. I thought the same thing for another of Matt's puzzles where the answer was "Side eye." I had never heard of that either. I guess that entries like NENE, ADIT and ETUI are -- thankfully -- giving way to a new day.

[tmk]

hey gang,
where does mike miller post who the winner is?
i know the winner gets a notification email from wsj, and the answer is printed on monday's puzzle, but always curious WHO the winner is!

[MatthewL]

The number in parentheses is the number of letters in the synonym for the hyphenated phrase.

So 39A 3-________ (4 letters) is the 3-letter body part EAR; the word to be entered in the grid (SPLITTING) completes the adjective. The synonym (at 61D) is LOUD, which is four letters.

The "3-" on that clue was useful for me when I deciphered what it meant, as my initial thought was "Hair". Although after the excitement wore off I realized that phrase is usually only said in the opposite construction ("splitting hairs").

Also...
I GET KNOCKED DOWN!
BUT I GET UP AGAIN!
NOTHING'S EVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN!

Glad I wasn't the only one who though of this song.

[EVJ]

hey gang,
where does mike miller post who the winner is?
i know the winner gets a notification email from wsj, and the answer is printed on monday's puzzle, but always curious WHO the winner is!

Mike Miller will post on this blog as soon as he knows, along with some fun and interesting statistics. It could take a day or two or three but sometimes as soon as Monday.
Stay tuned right here. And good luck; it may be you!

[Joe Ross]

I guess that entries like NENE, ADIT and ETUI are -- thankfully -- giving way to a new day.

Hmm... ETUIS - Not a bad 1st attempt on Wordle... Sure, SUITE would work, but where's the fun in that?!?

[DianeA]

But then I sat there staring at them in the order of the themed answers they match. What's a VELNA? So I went down the rabbit hole of doing the Gaffney-esque "use the mechanism one more time" and tried to find body parts to match the matching grid answers. VEIN for VAIN. TUMMY for NUMMY. EAR for EERIE. It was a painful head-slap when I realized VELNA could anagram to NAVEL, and their was a logical way to get there without resorting to an anagram. Took me way too long to make that switch.

I had the same problem with VELNA. I "know" there are few anagrams in these puzzles...just not as elegant. So i broke down and highlighted the clues on my grid. In order (left to right from the top down), there it was: NAVEL. Quick leap to Navel Gazing...but i waited a bit to see if i could work in Navel Driving. Matt had already used 6 of the "ing" words in the solution, i couldn't believe he'd leave one dangling.

I hope to remember to look at a different order when words are a mix of Across and Down entries.

[CPJohnson]

I guess that entries like NENE, ADIT and ETUI are -- thankfully -- giving way to a new day.

Hmm... ETUIS - Not a bad 1st attempt on Wordle... Sure, SUITE would work, but where's the fun in that?!?

I start Wordle with orate…….