"Start In Fear" October 28, 2022

[Ergcat]

I no longer think I'm cut out for this. The only puzzles I solve now are the occasional bunnies. I used to solve at least three out of four, now not even one in four. Are these getting harder, or am I just getting worse?

They got harder in the past couple of months, but that's where the beauty lies. The chase and the hunt are always more fun than the prey. That's why I do not fully comprehend the 8 pm Muggle call on Sunday since the answer is revealed only 4 hrs later. Different blokes, different strokes i guess

Here is my rationale for occasionally attending the Sunday Last Call. For me, the Friday ZooMuggle call is too soon--I haven't really had time to exhaust my resources. Because, if at all possible, I want to solve it on my own. If I haven't figured it out by Sunday night, then I am probably going to need help! The benefit of the call is that I can get at least some of the "AHA" moment, as I work through it based on the hints given. There is no possibility of an AHA if I just read the solution at midnight--or the next morning.

And I do think that they are getting harder--or I am getting dumber. I looked through my Meta spreadsheet on Thursday, just to re-acquaint myself with previous solutions. I noticed that last year, I had a 30+ solving streak. Now I'm lucky to get 4 in a row!

Yep! I agree, LadyBird!

[The XWord Rabbit]

A scary Halloween treat from Mr. Shenk. His “Start in Fear” puzzle was a toughie, as it depended on a phonetic trick. Add the word “BOO” to the beginning of five entries, thus creating five new words. TEAK became BOUTIQUE, MERINGUE became BOOMERANG, TEASE became BOOTIES, CARESSED became BUCHAREST and FONT became BOUFFANT. Each of those words led to other grid entries: MALL, AFRO, SPEAR, KYIV and SOCKS, the first letters of which led to the meta: MASKS.

Your comments reflected a real consistency among non-solvers but were especially notable for their scarcity. Most Muggles were fixed on the word FEAR, trying to find anagrams or word ladders within the grid. But in the end, surrender seemed to be the road most taken, rather than the dogged determination it takes to make a decent and memorable rabbit hole story. Maybe it was because of Halloween or the phase of the moon …who can say?

With no nominations this week, it seems like a good time to remind everyone why we’re doing this, namely, to give an opportunity where wasted effort is rewarded. Your XWord Rabbit laughs at those who flaunt their solving prowess and sneers at mugs with minimal or no cartoon art. In a few months he will be announcing the first of our Golden Rabbit Hole Award finalists who will each receive one of these lovely and lasting reminders of their meta frustrations.

Until next week, then ...

[Bonnibel]

The Toys for Tots clue also initially had me stumped. Because it seemed like such a reach I viewed it as a clue to the meta - aka my main rabbit hole. As in, WORD changes to WOOD (TEAK), DANKE changes to DANCE (MERINGUE)...once I realized the dance is actually MERENGUE, I talked myself into ALOUD changing to CLOUD for MERINGUE...SAT changes to RAT (TEASE), BUTT changes to BUNT (CARESSED) - even though the tense was wrong...TYPO changes to TYPE (FONT). Of course this did not feel right...but it did anagram to CRONE. And not any sensible or right order.

Never mind about finding anything remotely related to START in FEAR! I thought about the letters F-E-A-R and also about the several places in the grid with TERR(OR) - even thinking about geographic places that began as territories...Alaska (AK), Guam (GU), American Samoa (AS), Northwest Territory (NT)...all of which got me to nowheresville pretty fast.

Note: the other clues that bothered me were Planning for UPTO and Forwent, both of which still seem pretty awkward.

I did think about EEK rhyming with TEAK and got nowhere with it. The audio approach with BOO just never entered my head, because BOO is what you say when you are trying to scare someone else, as opposed to EEK or SCREAM which is what you do when you feel scared.

I need to brush up on my alternative thinking skills.

My stubbornness won't allow me to ask for a nudge. Being on the west coast means the Friday zoom is just too early in the game for me. Sometimes I don't get to solving until midday Friday.

This was a terrific puzzle! Lessons learned!

[Flamel616]

I admittedly didn't give myself enough time for this, but I got distracted by TYPO and "Start in Fear" appearing as a typo, "Stare in Fear" being the more common expression. The appearance of a TYPO in the title made me sure that the meta answer would be found by letter substitution. This made me try to find typos in the answers to the starred clues (no joy) or typos in other answers that could change the answer to something related to the starred clues. I found a few, but not all, and I definitely didn't have time to finish that train of thought or to find a new track to go down.