A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
Hidden in 3D wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:50 am
Well, at least I was on the right path on Thursday night before we left to visit daughter, SIL and granddaughter. I even wanted to bring some of those three-letter words into the metanism, but I was using only the alternative words (RI + O = 64D RIO). It never occurred to me to use the first letter of the answer and its alternate. This photo shows my notes on the back of the completed puzzle that I printed out that evening. I'd like to believe that I would have figured it out eventually if I'd stuck with it, but it was may more fun to play with the birthday girl and her American Girl dolls!!
WSJCC 22.10.07.jpg
So close you could almost taste that General TSO!
Screenname of Hidden in 13D instead might have helped this week too...
This reminds me of a recent meta that I almost missed because I forgot the "The" in The Sun Also Rises (TSAR) and the "A" in A Christmas Carol (ACC). That was my third puzzle, and I learned the importance of articles.
When I googled Shakespeare plays I landed here, which just says TEMPEST. I also carelessly included MISSISSIPPI as one of the states, so having extra choices seemed to be valid. Similar things have happened before in these metas.
Will be interesting to see how many submitted OTHERS and if it will be accepted. https://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/v ... _alpha.php
Still wasn't obvious except that I noticed T and S in Thursday-Saturday also appeared in Tso. And the only reason that stood out was because I'd been trying to make something from Washington, Eisenhower, and Tso all being generals.
...
And just to shake things up a little, I'll add that Othello was a general also.
Funny you mention that, because HORROR was the answer to the clue "Get Out" genre in this Sunday's LA Times crossword!
clonefitz wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:57 am
I ultimately made the correct submission, but an alternate answer that I came up with involved reviewing all of the six-letter grid answers and seeing if an alternative answer could be applied to one of those. The one that seemed obvious was 35D "Get Out" genre. The grid answer SATIRE was not my first instinct, I wanted to submit as HORROR, so this seemed like it could have worked as a puzzle answer.
Cruciverbalisticexpi wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 5:31 pm
Funny you mention that, because HORROR was the answer to the clue "Get Out" genre in this Sunday's LA Times crossword!
clonefitz wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 9:57 am
I ultimately made the correct submission, but an alternate answer that I came up with involved reviewing all of the six-letter grid answers and seeing if an alternative answer could be applied to one of those. The one that seemed obvious was 35D "Get Out" genre. The grid answer SATIRE was not my first instinct, I wanted to submit as HORROR, so this seemed like it could have worked as a puzzle answer.
I saw that too! Speaking of that, do the crossword editors at the large papers conspire with each other? Our local paper published LA Times puzzle so I do that and WSJ. So many times there are common words, clues, and themes that seem like can't just be coincidence. I swear there is a "word of the day", I'm going to start keeping track.
I've lost count of how many times the same word will appear in the same day's mini and regular puzzles on The New York Times app. If the repetition would only spread to Wordle, maybe my stats could look a tad better!
Cruciverbalisticexpi wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 1:57 pm
After getting the first step on the first three answers, I thought for sure the meta answer was going to be ERSATZ. A word that describes substitutes. Disappointed when that turned into ERSOOH. Lol
oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 2:05 am
As Joe said the play is The Tempest, not Tempest, so it doesn't work. Secondly, as a tip for solving Matt's puzzles, Matt is too polished to give solvers a random group of letters to anagram for a solution. Almost always the letters composing the answer will be found in grid order. If you have to anagram to get your answer be very skeptical of what you have.
Agreed that Matt would not normally require that kind of anagram. However, the full name of Macbeth is "The Tragedie of Macbeth" and the full name of Othello is "Othello, the Moor of Venice" so using Tempest makes as much sense as using Othello. I think both answers should be accepted.
LOL, Othello is referred to as Othello; no one refer to The Tempest as Tempest.
BTW, since we are discussing alternative titles, I would like to point out that it is perfectly acceptable to refer to me as “The Limerick Savant” or simply “The Savant,” But certainly not the latter this week.
Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Oct 10, 2022 11:57 am
My first answer took the first letters of the alternative answers HSOEOR. And they spell SHOOER - which is a real word. But it did not fit the title and the anagram was not Matt's style. But it gave a good laugh until a very slight nudge in the right direction
Yup shooer is a real word
And it’s a homophone of “SURE”, : 29D “I guess that works”. Yeah, ok Sounded like confirmation to me in 6 letters!!
( got it later with a nudge)
Wowsers! My finger is getting tired liking all your rabbit holes. The Xword Rabbit must be working overtime to come up with nominees this week!!
FWIW, Henry IV and Henry VI also work, so the statement in the solution “there is exactly one alternate answer that would fit”. Is simply wrong. Just a little sloppy in my mind.
But certainly not the latter this week. 
