"Deal Breaker" - March 18, 2022

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count tonight is 17 on the ship and 159 on the shore.

Great to be part of the zoom session tonight. Including our newest muggle CromsFury

Joining Isaac for the week are JerryF and jedimaster

And on the shore are

Lee-Ann
escapeartist
Colin
Steveb
Franklin
Jeremy
copperriver
haydendog
jrdad
Rita and George
Trey and Marion
Drew and Kasia (and two cute an active 8 year olds)
Inca
JRS51
James D
Heyitsheyjay
CromsFury
Puzzle mom

Have a good week.

[WSJosh]

At sea, without much time left.

[Jackie88]

On shore!

[KscX]

On the shore. Thanks WSJ for yet another fun puzzle. This grid was my toughest in awhile! I worked for it and enjoyed the meta, especially because of solving it with close friends on a weekend away.

[aaugusti]

Solved*

*thanks to last minute Muggle Zoom Meeting (thank you EVERYone!)**

**It takes a village

Absolutely. Totally helped!

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

[hcbirker]

My first thought was casino, but then saw salvages and it was a lock. The trick was starting with the right letter.

[mlvilv]

Wow that seems really getable now but I completely missed it. I did have a fun time at the bar with Isaac though. On to the next one!

[sanmilton]

On shore after having to resubscribe!

Here's a Pool Boy update:

...

Wow. You completed the grid, solved the meta and wrote a poem in 20 minutes. Simply amazing. I'm still scratching my head 20 hours later, after last call with Isaac last night and coffee getting cold this morning.

Possibly nobody cares, but I want to set the record straight: While this week's trip to shore was (probably luckily) a rapid one for me, you should know that first I posted my "On shore" notice immediately after submitting my solution. Then, a few minutes later, I edited that original post to append the "Pool Boy update." I had constructed the double limerick earlier Thursday, afternoon, and I spent a few more than twenty minutes with it. I made the edit rather than make a new post for the verse, at least in part, because Page One was still in progress.

Thanks, @ship4u, for your mention, but it wouldn't be honorable for me to let it stand without the disclaimer.

Good luck to all solvers in winning the mug!

And let me echo others who have marveled in these posts about the brilliance of Mike Shenk's construction of this Deal Breaker. Coming up with four theme entries that yielded such a perfect clue using the Skip Two mechanism was an astonishing feat! It absolutely took my breath away!

[Collegetowngirl]

I thought a lot about “skip two” but not the right way!!

[rosiegirl]

I wrote out the four long answers, used the "Skip Two" clue and wrote out the corresponding letters, and STILL did not figure this one out. Argggh! CARD PROS PLAY HERE was staring me right in the face!

[BensMom]

Made it to shore earlier tonight thanks to a nudge from my mom. I was using the “skip two” mechanism but I was not starting with the right letter!! That was a fun one.

[escapeartist]

I wrote out the four long answers, used the "Skip Two" clue and wrote out the corresponding letters, and STILL did not figure this one out. Argggh! CARD PROS PLAY HERE was staring me right in the face!

I was looking for CASINO and didn't find it and kept looking for a long time - this one was not easy!

[woozy]

I guess I'm having a real hard time justifying to myself when it is valid to say "These are the long answers". In this case I guess it *is* okay to say they all have exactly ten letters and no other answers have specifically ten letters. But I couldn't really allow my self to declare than those were the four themers when IN A MESS, ESO BESO, SKIP TWO and ALSO RANS were also multi-word answers and valid candidates for themers as well.... except they weren't as they were not symmetric to other two word answers and one of them is three words.

Basically, I figured there couldn't be any themers as there were no symmetry to the two word answer and I couldn't allow myself to consider length alone was enough (It wasn't until now that I even reallized POP RECORDS has the same number of letters as CUBAN BREAD).

I'll feel guilty is I get the mug this week as that was a major mental block the needed a nudge-too-far to get over.

[Cbaudhuin]

Arggh is right.
I skipped the first two long answers to arrive at PULLEDAWAY.
Yes, kind of sort of a deal breaker.
And an anagram within PULLEDAWAY is PAYWALLED.
OK, not 10 letters, but 9, and it would be a deal breaker for some.
Weak, yes… but an answer!

[Lee-Ann]

I went down a bunch of rabbit holes before using "skip two." Break bread, break records, break away, but break drive did not work. I was looking for D-E-A-L broken up within the grid. Once I finally got "card pros play here" on Sunday night, I was thinking casino. I saw "IBET" and "ANTE" but couldn't do anything with those. I hoped Tucson might be a gambling mecca and it anagrams to counts and counting cards would be a deal breaker. I finally found Las Vegas in SALVAGES but I didn't see anything in the clue "rescues from wrecks" that suggested that that was the grid answer to use. Was I missing something there?

[mheberlingx100]

After finding the skip two clues, I focused on finding an anagram for casino, then stumbled onto Las Vegas. Game over!

[minimuggle]

OK, I would argue that "salvages" would be an acceptable answer. Las Vegas is an answer to "Card Pros Play here". in the grid, and salvages is an anagram to Las Vegas..OK, I'm stretching. I was just so excited to get Las Vegas and then quickly submit its anagram "salvages". I still feel satisfied. Hope no one else fell into that hole. Have a great day everyone.

[sf592000]

While knowing I needed to “skip two” somehow I couldn’t get past bread and debar. On to next week!