"Position Statement" August 19, 2022

[caf.caf]

I'm in the 'never would have got it' group, but now that I see the mechanism, it's beautifully elegant! Congrats to all solvers!

Give me square roots any day:))

[kurtalert]

ARGH. So I basically had it, but I ended up with REMAKE instead of REMARK because I missed the PRINCESS one, and instead thought “Pat Down Directive” was pointing to the E below “PAT” coming down from SPREADEM. Oh well.

[MatthewL]

No rabbit holes for me this week -- while solving the grid I saw all the "overs" and "ons" in the clues, and given the title of the puzzle I figured that must be significant, especially given that those positional words only appeared in the across clues. Plus, as someone above mentioned, the clue for 28A was just weird, and got me focusing on the use of the one French word and how that could be significant. From there, it went pretty quickly. Sometimes you just see it right away, and this was one of those times for me.

[MaineMarge]

Wow, I had the 6 letter homophones and circled them in the grid, but failed to look at the letters above or under them. Was pretty sure the answer wasn’t IIOUPC. Great solve by those who saw it.

This cracked me up!
Rabbit hole of the week nomination

[hoover]

Wow, I had the 6 letter homophones and circled them in the grid, but failed to look at the letters above or under them. Was pretty sure the answer wasn’t IIOUPC. Great solve by those who saw it.

IIOUPC is what I had on Thursday. I stared at it some more on Friday and finally found REMARK. Sometimes you just need to sleep on it.

[Kris Zacharias]

My rabbit hole-derived wrong answer: look for synonyms in the grid.

Flying starts could also be "aero"
Carmen's "habenera" could also be "chili"
Sampler makeup could also be "demo"
rats could be "pests "
star could be "Elgort"
nice looking= hot= "stolen"

The first letters of the words in quotes spell "spaced" , an answer to a possible question "How should I write down these letters, or what positions should these letters be in?

There is so much wrong with my reasoning here even though some metas have been based on synonyms in the grid. Then there is the fact that the chili is a habenero and Carmen's aria is "Habernera" a dance. But habernero chilis are hot, and so, I guess, was Carmen and also Ansel Elgort, whom I had never heard of..
I should have known immediately that "spaced" was not the right answer because the letters did not appear in descending order in the grid and the process was anything but tidy. Guess I just wanted to be done.

[BarbaraK]

I went down the same path for STATEment. 25 states have their postal code included in the grid, that seemed like a lot, but I have to say I've never counted before . And as you mentioned, a couple of the long answers (INFLiCTINg and CAptaINNEMO) included four postal codes.

I’ve counted them far too many times:) Most puzzles have a ton - there are some very common pairs of letters.

[The XWord Rabbit]

I sense competition may be fierce this week.
Don't dawdle posting your rabbit hole rationale.

[hcbirker]

After seeing what others have mentioned, I took another look at all the French references. I found French words hidden in the grid - ces, oui, mot, lis, and neu. Ooooh that almost spells "column"! Like an op/ed position! Where's the "u"? Then found mer and tossed it aside. But it was fun!

[Hidden in 3D]

I always try to remember to look carefully at the clues, especially when Mike Shenk is the constructor. So, of course I saw the prepositions on, over and under in the pertinent across clues. As soon as I spotted the first homophone (eyes/I's), I knew I was onto something. I thought it was especially genius of Mike to put two of the required letters in one word, so as to make the theme entries harder to spot. (I have been "trained" to think that each theme entry will only supply one letter of the contest answer, even though this is obviously not always the case.) I think it is also interesting that this sort of mechanism is one that Matt Gaffney uses almost exactly in his resource titled "Guide to the WSJ Crossword Contest" that @Joe Ross posted back in 2020 (#19, p 1) in Hints for Solving Meta Contests on this very forum!

[hunkra]

Should never have left the ship -- I had I-O-U-L-P-C (for some reason I included "L" for "by La Lune" and thought I had something wrong with the "U" because it seemed obvious the answer was "POLICY" -- a very plausible answer for the Position Statement title. Never confirmed my answer with anyone. Ugh, *sigh*

[Richard]

I did not get it and congrats to those that did.

I did not have as much time as usual this weekend. Not sure if I ever would have gotten it.

Very nice meta.

[Dplass]

I always try to remember to look carefully at the clues, especially when Mike Shenk is the constructor. So, of course I saw the prepositions on, over and under in the pertinent across clues. As soon as I spotted the first homophone (eyes/I's), I knew I was onto something. I thought it was especially genius of Mike to put two of the required letters in one word, so as to make the theme entries harder to spot. (I have been "trained" to think that each theme entry will only supply one letter of the contest answer, even though this is obviously not always the case.) I think it is also interesting that this sort of mechanism is one that Matt Gaffney uses almost exactly in his resource titled "Guide to the WSJ Crossword Contest" that @Joe Ross posted back in 2020 (#19, p 1) in Hints for Solving Meta Contests on this very forum!

I totally disagree that putting two letters into one clue was genius. I felt it was inconsistent and sloppy.

[RussHiggins]

Here is my half-solution that "remarkably" led me to the right answer:

[boharr]

I always try to remember to look carefully at the clues, especially when Mike Shenk is the constructor. So, of course I saw the prepositions on, over and under in the pertinent across clues. As soon as I spotted the first homophone (eyes/I's), I knew I was onto something. I thought it was especially genius of Mike to put two of the required letters in one word, so as to make the theme entries harder to spot. (I have been "trained" to think that each theme entry will only supply one letter of the contest answer, even though this is obviously not always the case.) I think it is also interesting that this sort of mechanism is one that Matt Gaffney uses almost exactly in his resource titled "Guide to the WSJ Crossword Contest" that @Joe Ross posted back in 2020 (#19, p 1) in Hints for Solving Meta Contests on this very forum!

I totally disagree that putting two letters into one clue was genius. I felt it was inconsistent and sloppy.

They were eyes -- I's -- (plural). Two of 'em. Like most of us have. Brilliant.

[DBMiller]

I wasn't sure how many themers there were... 4,5,6,7? My first instinct from the title was to look for ordinal positions in the clues (First, etc). Didn't pan out.

So I too, expected one letter per themer, and I start looking at TAKEOFFS and SPEREADEM instead of ABUSERS. FF are Flying Fronts (Cryptic anyone?) and I saw the PAT down from the P in SPREADEM. But I had way too many letters - REFFMREK. After re-reading the clues, I found the ABUSERS clue, and was able to eliminate the non-homonyms.

[Bird Lives]

I totally disagree that putting two letters into one clue was genius. I felt it was inconsistent and sloppy.

They were eyes -- I's -- (plural). Two of 'em. Like most of us have. Brilliant.

"She's easy on the eye," said Sammy Davis, Jr. of his wife May Britt, who was a head taller and had twice as many.

[ricky]

At 10 pm last night I decided to give it one more try. While reading through the clues again, I saw "eau" and "pea" and finally got the necessary aha moment and was ashore by 10:30. Definitely the longest I've ever invested in a WSJ without giving up entirely, seeking out a nudge, or submitting a Hail Mary.

[ky-mike]

We were focused on the in, on, under, over, etc. from the beginning, but there were too many to use. Then it was hinted to read the clues out loud. That got us focused on the peas, eyes, eau, etc., but what to do with them. Then noticed that princess had only one P and eyes had two I's. Smooth sailing from there.

[mheberlingx100]

I can’t tell you how many times that when I was lost at sea, I peeked down the rabbit hole of “words that sound like letters”. Finally it paid off, with a little variation due to the prepositions.