"Deal Breaker" - March 18, 2022

[ReB]

Ashore. Once I finally completed the grid and started to focus on the meta, the mechanism quickly became apparent, though I needed a nudge from my wife (who does not do metas) to accomplish the final step.

Yes, I quickly found CARD PROS PLAY HERE, and was trying things like CLUB and other possible locales that weren't working. Then I asked my wife, who said, "I don't know...Monaco, or...Las Vegas?". I looked for a few seconds until I spotted 38D and said, AHA, it's LAS VEGAS!

And then the Friday MGWCC turned into a family project with our adult children (who we hadn't seen all together since Dec 2019 [before COVID] prior to this weekend), who had never seen a meta before. But that's a different tale...

[Deb F]

Quite clever. I was never on this wavelength. Good luck, Muggles, on one of you getting the prized mug. 'til Thursday!

[woozy]

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?

Much as I disliked this puzzle, I see nothing wrong with that. Why should the clue provide information as to which grid answer to use? SALVAGES is the only grid answer that anagrams to something that answers "CARD PROS PLAY HERE".

You were expected to glance over all the grid answers and intuitively try to judge them as potential anagrams. It's reasonable to expect a solver to eyeball at SALVAGES while having "card pros play here" and have the right bells go off. That seems perfectly fair to me.

(Yes, TUCSON anagrams to COUNTS and TACIT to ATTIC and AIMED to MEDIA and a variety of others but just keep going: Does ALSO RAN anagram to anything? Does LAVER? Does SALVAGES?)

(And it helps that SALVAGES and LAS VEGAS is a "weak" anagram. SAL is just LAS with the S,L swapped and VAGES is just VEGAS with the E and A swapped. It's easy for the human brain to process that [given it's looking for an anagram with a meaning in the first place] as all the "structure" is in place.)

[drbockel2]

When I finally figured out the SKIP TWO and applied it to get CARD PROS PLAY HERE, my initial thought was VEGAS. So I searched for all of the V's on the board. SALVAGES jumped out at me and I knew I had it.

I ventured down a wrong hole at first--I saw DEBAR and recognized it as an anagram of BREAD and got stuck for a bit thinking about Cuban sandwiches...

[woozy]

Anyone briefly consider CUBAN BREAD = (P)ESO => ESO BESO, MORESO?

[Barney]

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

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

Salvages —> Las Vegas was a snap. I figured the “skip two” reference was elope. Not Mike’s usual style, but Matt’s last week, eg, was a bit of an imaginative reach also.

I howled when my email solving partner showed me the right answer the right way.

[ship4u]

In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him 'til he cried out
In his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains

Each week I learn more and more about meta solving from this wonderful group of friendly and helpful muggles. To all of the newer members who struggle, we've all been there, and frequently still struggle. Don't give up! We are all here to help each other.

[Jeanrosz]

I first found that by using first letters of long clues, CB, PR, PA, HD. Those all kinds of media and aimed was an anagram of it, but somehow the title Deal breaker did not fit… not elegant like most metas. So I kept looking. Wasn’t sure what todo about middle clue, skip two…but then it hit me in the middle of the night…strange how the mind works….

[ColinM]

For me this was the hardest WSJ meta in a really long time. The jump from "Skip two" to "take one, skip two, and repeat" is not something I would have ever guessed. Instead I skipped the first two and got "banbread" which had me thinking about banana bread, "precords" went to "prerecords". It broke down after that, but I never returned to thinking of another way to "skip two". I also got hung up on all of the four letter answers which were near anagrams of each other with one letter changed: "PISA" -> "AILS" -> "ALES" -> "APSE" -> "ANTE" -> "CATE", etc. You can even eventually get to "ESPN". Thankfully I had a busy weekend, otherwise I would have wasted many hours on this one.

[LesY]

Funny enough we were just in "lost wages" last week!

Had to bite my tongue/typing fingers when writing my hot take to avoid unintended spoilery.

[woozy]

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

But there are dozens of entries that can be anagrammed. DEBAR to BREAD, TUCSON to COUNTS, TACIT to ATTIC, AIMED to MEDIA, USHERS to RUSHES (which is a punny synonym for Hyper-Drive(s))AGES to SAGE, UNTIE to UNITE, ALP to PAL, PULLED AWAY to DEAL UP Y'AWL.

That's just the nature of English.

[Barney]

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

But there are dozens of entries that can be anagrammed. DEBAR to BREAD, TUCSON to COUNTS, TACIT to ATTIC, AIMED to MEDIA, USHERS to RUSHES (which is a punny synonym for Hyper-Drive(s))AGES to SAGE, UNTIE to UNITE, ALP to PAL, PULLED AWAY to DEAL UP Y'AWL.

That's just the nature of English.

True, that. But “skip two” to Las Vegas to elope was how my brain worked.

Every now and then a blind squirrel finds a nut.

[JeanneC]

Nibbled at the answer mechanism but never bit.
Congrats to those who solved.
On to my second cuppa!

[flyingMoose]

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

But there are dozens of entries that can be anagrammed. DEBAR to BREAD, TUCSON to COUNTS, TACIT to ATTIC, AIMED to MEDIA, USHERS to RUSHES (which is a punny synonym for Hyper-Drive(s))AGES to SAGE, UNTIE to UNITE, ALP to PAL, PULLED AWAY to DEAL UP Y'AWL.

That's just the nature of English.

Yes, but a non-Muggle could easily use an anagram tool and, seeing the title DEAL BREAKER and the grid entry ANTE, never fiddle with the mechanism at all and get the meta.

[MikeM000]

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

Salvages —> Las Vegas was a snap. I figured the “skip two” reference was elope. Not Mike’s usual style, but Matt’s last week, eg, was a bit of an imaginative reach also.

I howled when my email solving partner showed me the right answer the right way.

Yes indeed...I could not figure out the right application for "Skip Two" - I tried numbered squares and every across grid entry - LACE CASH was a promising start, but it fell apart soon after... Since there was a finite pool of possible answers, I went with "deal" from the title and the overall concept of card-playing from the Uno clue and found SALVAGES a couple minutes later. I discovered that on Friday evening and emailed it in on Sunday night as I hadn't found anything better.

[livpolfan]

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!

Did the same thing. My buddy and I both seemed to get paywalled (but not really - just had me log in) when we tried to get to the crossword on Friday which made PAYWALLED appear to be the correct answer. Considering the puzzle title Deal Breaker, Deal is jumbled in the middle of puLEDAway. Then, with the answer SKIPTWO, if you skip/omit the 2nd letter of PULLEDWAY, that leaves you with the letters for PAYWALLED. Who woulda thunk. In hindsight, this does utilize only a small percentage of the grid.

[jrdad]

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?

I was on the same wavelength. Break bread, etc. seemed too obvious to pass up.

[woozy]

I took a shortcut. Saw “pulled away” and “skip two” and was mostly looking for an entry that could be anagrammed.

But there are dozens of entries that can be anagrammed. DEBAR to BREAD, TUCSON to COUNTS, TACIT to ATTIC, AIMED to MEDIA, USHERS to RUSHES (which is a punny synonym for Hyper-Drive(s))AGES to SAGE, UNTIE to UNITE, ALP to PAL, PULLED AWAY to DEAL UP Y'AWL.

That's just the nature of English.

Yes, but a non-Muggle could easily use an anagram tool and, seeing the title DEAL BREAKER and the grid entry ANTE, never fiddle with the mechanism at all and get the meta.

I do have to admit I did think about that a little. There was a lot in there to make me think of cards and dealing but I couldn't get far with that.

[femullen]

After two years of doing (or, rather, mostly not) these things, you'd think I'd see it when the puzzleers give me operating instructions ("skip two"). Nah. Closest I got was to notice that "IN A MESS" sort of describes an anagram, and an anagram of IN A MESS is, apropos nothing at all, INSEAMS. Then our snow melted, so the lovely Mrs. M determined that it was a good weekend for planting, pruning, and other activities featuring mud. Can't wait till I retire and can spend all of Friday planting. I mean solving the meta.

[boharr]

After two years of doing (or, rather, mostly not) these things, you'd think I'd see it when the puzzleers give me operating instructions ("skip two"). Nah.

I learned this the hard way some time back. I knew what to do with a puzzle (Richard III) but spent like what seemed forever trying to figure out where to start. Finally I saw a grid entry that said START. The lesson: When the constructors' tell us stuff, listen.