XWord Muggles Forum

I had a busy week, so I looked at this briefly on Thursday, solved the grid with all of its blank space, and saw lots of people on shore quickly. I figured it was a Week 1-level Gaffney, so my first thought was Celebrity + Blank Space = Taylor Swift, which prompted my "Meh" reaction (to both the puzzle and the music), and didn't bother to submit. Had time to look at it more closely on Saturday and found Marie Kondo to keep my streak intact.

I like this puzzle a lot better than what I initially thought it was. I guess the idea is you pull the (obsolete) across words out of the grid and turn them into something better?

TMart wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:12 am I had a busy week, so I looked at this briefly on Thursday, solved the grid with all of its blank space, and saw lots of people on shore quickly. I figured it was a Week 1-level Gaffney, so my first thought was Celebrity + Blank Space = Taylor Swift, which prompted my "Meh" reaction (to both the puzzle and the music), and didn't bother to submit. Had time to look at it more closely on Saturday and found Marie Kondo to keep my streak intact.

Had to google to get that one. Taylor Swift is someone I have heard of from my cave, but know not one thing about! Glad you waited!

FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:16 am

Had to google to get that one. Taylor Swift is someone I have heard of from my cave, but know not one thing about! Glad you waited!

Same - I thought there was a song called that, but didn't know who sang it without Google.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:08 am By the way, can someone explain to me what a "tidiness celebrity" is or does. Is it kind of like your mother yelling at you to clean up your room?

Good questions. Anita always smiled at Marie Kondo's guidance to put everything you own in the middle of a room and then only keep what gives you joy. This presumes that you are able to get into the room after putting all your things there and that you've never had an instance (or 10 instances) where you have gotten rid of something of yours (or worse of your spouses) that you then had to a) later go buy a second one of because you found you needed or wanted it or b) did a mea-culpa if it was not replaceable (so sorry, sweetie, about that sweater you wore since high school)

Like Brian Davidson, we found the lack of vertical integration troubling. In the end, while we were glad to solve the meta, we held it up and asked "does this give us joy?". . . hmmmm.

Jim and Anita wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:26 am Anita always smiled at Marie Kondo's guidance to put everything you own in the middle of a room and then only keep what gives you joy.

Only if it gives you joy? I'd end up with nothing but my laptop, my phone, some photos, the Peloton, a coffee maker and one shirt. I'd never be able to leave the house (no pants or car) and I'd starve to death because cooking definitely does not bring me joy.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:08 am By the way, can someone explain to me what a "tidiness celebrity" is or does. Is it kind of like your mother yelling at you to clean up your room?

Exactly, but she makes millions for doing it. I have issues with glorifying someone who advises you to throw out your junk to celebrity status. But then again, if you manage to make $10 million out of other peoples garbage---that's impressive. So maybe she qualifies.

My first two guesses were Billy Blanks or Kevin Spacey. But the title didn't fit.

My phone app can reveal letters or the whole puzzle. Got a clue by revealing the M. Looked at the clue and started thinking cryptics.

Too many
Are obsolete
Reading material
Item in
Contain(ers)

And so on

It never occurred to me to leave the spaces blank and fill in new words without integrating them with the verticals. Instead, I doubled adjacent letters and tried to anagram the extraneous ones (quite a headache). Had heard of Marie, but considered her more of a social aberration rather than a celebrity, which she apparently is! I think Matt picked her exactly because of the weirdness of all this. Sometimes the brave new world is pretty funny.

BethA wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:13 am

Tony S wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:08 am Marie Kondo? Celebrity? Who knew? I bet Margaret Cho did!

Anyone using the wsj app on iPad. It filled in all of the blank letters for you. Disappointing.

Ps. Along with the Steelers. Guess I will have to change my avatar!

Agreed - it's disappointing to have the app 'spill the beans' wrt the puzzle, but I can see how that would be tough to coordinate. Hopefully they'll work out appropriate discretion for future puzzles of this type.

As for the Steelers, don't give up hope! While I wish #43 would come back and give some pointers to the cornerbacks and safeties, I think there's hope for the rest of the season.

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:08 am By the way, can someone explain to me what a "tidiness celebrity" is or does. Is it kind of like your mother yelling at you to clean up your room?

She has been on several t.v. shows and has a best selling book. Her main theme is if an item doesn't "strike joy" in your heart, get rid of it. (Heidi)

Once I figured out that the grid had blanks, got the grid.
Then find missing letters that made words and viola Marie Kondo.
Only problem was I thought I had heard of her but was not sure.
Goggled and found her, then asked the wife who confirmed that she had heard of her and what she was known for.
Celebrity enough for me.
Then saw the across words - shoes, cds, booklets, etc were things Marie would probably often throw out to declutter.
Good enough for me.

My wife thinks I have too many coffee mugs. I think I need one more.

I think this was a pretty good meta.

Richard

Tom Shea wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:59 am

hcbirker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:22 am As I was filling in the blank squares, I got to Marie K and thought wouldn't it be funny if it was Marie Kelly?

I was very tempted to submit Marie Kelly!

Only if the puzzle was constructed by Mike Shenk!

Looks like Matt tried to make the blank squares be located symmetrically but couldn't as two pairs are off by two squares to be symmetrical (M and the last O; R and N).

I figured out that some kind of an extra-letter gimmick would be important as soon as I saw that the space for CARL Sagan had five spaces.

FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:30 am

Jim and Anita wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:26 am Anita always smiled at Marie Kondo's guidance to put everything you own in the middle of a room and then only keep what gives you joy.

Only if it gives you joy? I'd end up with nothing but my laptop, my phone, some photos, the Peloton, a coffee maker and one shirt. I'd never be able to leave the house (no pants or car) and I'd starve to death because cooking definitely does not bring me joy.

You forgot your fishbowl of beer.

BethA wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 8:20 am

BrianDavidson wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 7:16 am The gibberish downs left this unsatisfying. Sure, you can say you don’t really need these extra down letters per the theme, but I’ve never personally encountered a crossword where across and down didn’t mesh.

Glad it’s over.

I’ve done at least one puzzle where I had to put two letters in the intersecting square - one to use when reading across and one to use when reading down. So when I couldn’t come up with just one letter for this puzzle that worked in both directions, I tried this idea to get two letters, but didn’t get far with that either! Finally decided that the wording of the across clues meant that only those were important in coming up with the letter.

I remember that puzzle with two letters occupying the same square--I spent that weekend on board! It was humbling to read the post-puzzle discussion about the mechanism and to realize my brain doesn't bend that way! What keeps me working on these puzzles (sometimes long after a reasonable person would put them aside) is the chance to improve my puzzle-solving flexibility.

I'd heard of Kondo and the KonMari method of folding clothes, watched some of the videos by her fans, and associated the approach with simplifying one's life by eliminating excess--still, I went to G to confirm the name of the celebrity. I liked how the extra letters in "I Really Don't Need This" made gibberish of the down words, reinforcing the title. The grid looked like a mess until the meta was revealed, making everything tidy, an homage to Marie Kondo. This puzzle brought me joy.

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:57 pm

FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:30 am Only if it gives you joy? I'd end up with nothing but my laptop, my phone, some photos, the Peloton, a coffee maker and one shirt. I'd never be able to leave the house (no pants or car) and I'd starve to death because cooking definitely does not bring me joy.

You forgot your fishbowl of beer.

While I do admit that we have a rarely used fishbowl taking up real estate in the freezer (it was a gift from our son), we do our joyful drinking at a bar aptly named The Fishbowl. Marie Kondo would have a field day in that place. I'll attempt to attach a photo of the fine establishment. We're in there somewhere.

Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."

FrancesY wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:43 pm Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."

Congratulations!!!!

FrancesY wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 1:43 pm Omg. Slept in today and didn't realize all the controversy over this puzzle. Then checked my email and...wait for it...I won the mug! The only explanation I can think of for the multiple possible letters making new across words is, ala Marie Kondo, choose the one that "brings you joy."

Congratulations! Always happy when a Muggle wins.
The question is: Are you getting rid of one of you other mugs a la the one (or 2) out for every new one in?