MGWCC #741 - “Time Travel”

[Tina]

Awesome meta! IMHO, closer to a week 3 than a week 2. Maybe a 2.5.

[woozy]

I would have solved this a bit faster if I had managed got stuck on the square like everyone else, but because I filled in the square with no issue the puzzle was much harder for me.

[BarbaraK]

This is another week when I'm absolutely amazed at the way Matt looks at the world and notices things he can turn into metas.

[Wendy Walker]

I too was stuck for a while on THAT SQUARE. I solved on the way to a luncheon meeting ... thank goodness, as the finance committee report I gave was a lot more cheerfully presented than it would have been otherwise.

WW: Revenues were up 4% quarter over quarter due to seasonality, but down from last year's second quarter due to increased.... Wait.... THAT'S IT! That @#$% square... Uh, where was I... expenses even... cash shortfall... the embezzlement thing... yada yada yada... it's in my report. Contact me Monday if you have questions. OUTTA HERE!

OMG, Hunter! It's like you were there!!

[SJMcK]

Cute puzzle today. Solved it. Just waiting on the leaderboard to update. Not entirely sure which square people are finding troublesome.

edit: #154

[benchen71]

Beam me up. Devious!

Edit: Nice to be quoted in the write-up of last week's puzzle, in the company of @MikeyG, too!

[higgysue]

Enjoyed this puzzle. Got to it late but beamed up!

[ajk]

Took a few cycles to overcome the square of confusion, but got there eventually.

[ky-mike]

Grid done early, but no clue what to do. Mowed the lawn and inspiration came. On shore.

[MarkWoychick]

Submitted an answer, waiting to be beamed up (or denied, I suppose) - will update when I know for sure but I think I got it...

Edit: confirmed at #183

[HeadinHome]

This is another week when I'm absolutely amazed at the way Matt looks at the world and notices things he can turn into metas.

My thoughts exactly! Who notices something like this ( the phenomenon of the solution) ?? I guess if it’s part of your livelihood and you do it as much as Matt, you just see things like this!

[TeamDoubleTow]

Struck out on this one. I had my justification but clearly not warranted... More time to work on WSJ.

[rjy]

Square of confusion was a bit of a speed bump, but rethought it to beam up outta here. And yet another look into the twisted mind of Mr Gaffney, I continue to be amazed by the myriad directions these metas can go.

Aaaaaaand back to WSJ… Enjoy your weekend, all!

[DrTom]

I too was stuck for a while on THAT SQUARE. I solved on the way to a luncheon meeting ... thank goodness, as the finance committee report I gave was a lot more cheerfully presented than it would have been otherwise.

WW: Revenues were up 4% quarter over quarter due to seasonality, but down from last year's second quarter due to increased.... Wait.... THAT'S IT! That @#$% square... Uh, where was I... expenses even... cash shortfall... the embezzlement thing... yada yada yada... it's in my report. Contact me Monday if you have questions. OUTTA HERE!

That EMBEZZELMENT thing??? You can't just sneak that in there without someone noticing (and apparently you cannot sneak it out without someone noticing either). Are you going to have to update your avatar to show it in an orange jumpsuit?

[DrTom]

Well I apparently am part of a rather growing crowd of (1) What kind of square is that??? (2) How does he think of these things? I have submitted an answer that I think makes sense (the crowd mumbles, "makes sense to you DrTom, but that may well be open to question") and is mechanistic, but we'll see. If it is not the mechanism it should have been.

EDIT: Hurrah I was right - #227 and a grand streak of 2 going on. If past performance is any indication, it may get to 3 but probably not 4. Doesn't matter, right now I'm giddy with success

[HunterX]

I too was stuck for a while on THAT SQUARE. I solved on the way to a luncheon meeting ... thank goodness, as the finance committee report I gave was a lot more cheerfully presented than it would have been otherwise.

WW: Revenues were up 4% quarter over quarter due to seasonality, but down from last year's second quarter due to increased.... Wait.... THAT'S IT! That @#$% square... Uh, where was I... expenses even... cash shortfall... the embezzlement thing... yada yada yada... it's in my report. Contact me Monday if you have questions. OUTTA HERE!

That EMBEZZELMENT thing??? You can't just sneak that in there without someone noticing (and apparently you cannot sneak it out without someone noticing either). Are you going to have to update your avatar to show it in an orange jumpsuit?

I worked at a federally insured bank for 35 years, and back in the day (ah... the start of the "When I was a young buck..." story) we were required to take at least one full week of vacation at a time. (It apparently used to be 2 weeks. But when I started, I was lucky to get 2 weeks total for the year.) The reason was that the Feds decided if embezzlement was going on, having everyone be forced to be away for one (or two) weeks would reveal the scheme. Even though I was a standard business-school banker, I knew enough about the computer systems we used that my boss joked that I should have to take a month off at a time. I lobbied for that to happen. Alas, never got remotely close to getting it.

And actually, while they made me a sys admin for our LAN, for reasons I can't quite remember, we never handled funds transactions. So I couldn't have set up a scheme if I even wanted to. I like my pinstripe suits to be well tailored, not state issued.

[boharr]

Beamed up.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Beamed!

Hope I’m right. We’re traveling (appropriately enough), and I did this one on the fly. (No, not on the plane. But jet lagged.)

UPDATE: On the board!

[Cinny]

Beamed up. Arrived at the correct answer in spite of the confusion with "the square". Streak still intact.

[lbray53]

Beamed up with the correct answer. I needed reassurance that I was right and then a nudge to see the complete mechanism. I could not get past the troublesome square mentioned by several here. I could not, in good conscience, claim a solo solve.