"Backdrops" February 2,2023

[Grover]

I am able to see the dinosaur, but what is in front of him. Is that a globe, just a ball or ??

[LizD]

Hooray for the zoom! I'm ashore!

[hottieruth]

Want to start by saying I love this group and the commrodarity! Thank you moderators and organizers for all your work. The zoom calls are fabulous for anyone stuck down the rabbit hole and to meet and greet fellow like-minded peeps.

I especially want to thank Dr.Tom for his "nudge" help throughout the year.

With that said, can we start our own annual mug or perhaps shotglass contest? I'm happy to provide the prize!

Thoughts? Ideas? Feel free to PM me!

[WSJosh]

Sadly still at sea, but enjoying a Vieux Carré

[martimeryard]

Ashore! Just needed to type out my thoughts! First one this year. Thanks for reaching out EVJ! I'm not sure if my PM made it to you. My message is in my outbox but not my sent folder (??).

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

First a welcome to our newest muggle garnermoney - always great to have more muggles on board

And our final count is 13 on the ship and 147 on the shore

Good luck winning the mug and have a safe week

[JAQT]

I'm totally LAS. I submitted a SWAG (here, the S is for "stupid" not "scientific") for the only 9-letter theater term that I could think of. I had an interesting rabbit hole that actually led to real words, though not a theater term (or any other kind of term), and not worthy of a golden x-word rabbit submission. Oh well, next week.

[WSJosh]

Sadly still at sea, but enjoying a Vieux Carré

And ashore!

[randyiscrazy]

Ashore!

[EVJ]

Ashore! Just needed to type out my thoughts! First one this year. Thanks for reaching out EVJ! I'm not sure if my PM made it to you. My message is in my outbox but not my sent folder (??).

I’m so glad you got to shore!

[DaveKennison]

Wow! After looking at the puzzle now and again since Thursday afternoon, with no idea how to interpret the title or the hints at 52-Across and 60-Across, I decided to take one last look before going to bed and … I made it ashore with less than an hour to spare.

A tad stressful, but … hey … I’ll take it! … .

[woozy]

I am able to see the dinosaur, but what is in front of him. Is that a globe, just a ball or ??

A bush? A tree? an egg? two little dinos canoodling? A globe with the outline of Pangea?

[Colin]

Phew! That was so close!
Saw light eleven thirty,
Submitted just now.

[DrTom]

Sadly still at sea, but enjoying a Vieux Carré

Have two more and you won't care...I do love a good Vieuw Carré but only if you use Peychaud's!

[cheekumbaldy]

Sent in my first Hail Mary for the contest. I wasn't able to see this one unfortunately, and I ended up being too busy to ask for a nudge. Interested to see it though.

Edit: Oh wow. I should've got that one!

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

[DrTom]

welp i'm so much still stuck out there with isaac that ... wait..... am i becoming isaac.... ? ... no longer able to tell us apart, we're both such permanent fixtures on the ship at this point....


UPDATE: omg solved, can't believe i got this one tbh. existential crisis averted (till next week, at least).

I believe that the "I am becoming Isaac" is a special instance of a known phenomenon, Meta Evoked Stockholm Syndrome (or MESS for short). I know because I am often in a MESS...

[DrTom]

My rabbit hole:

So there it was, I was CERTAIN of it. A puzzle named “Back Drops” and many words that could have had “back” dropped from their name. Furthermore it was reinforced by the “nudge” clues:

GRAB BACK
ADDS BACK
BACK YARD
BACK BONES
HANGS BACK
And the “nudge” clues
BACK OVER
OUT BACK (or BACK OUT)
BACK FLIP

Yes the BACK was sometimes at the front and sometimes at the end but I was looking for a “dropped” back so it didn’t matter.

So, GAYBHOOF – well seems odd, but there are GANDY DANCERS and HOOFING is something done by dancers in theaters, so maybe when I find the last BACK (SETBACKS could either be the 9th or another “arrow” towards what I should be doing!). Was there a famous dancer in a stage show named GAYBE, I mean theatre terms have come about for sillier reasons than that (“break a leg”, “The Scotch Play”, etc). Maybe it is the last letter (the BACK letter): BSDSSRTP – NOPE. Has to be something I am just missing.

Well how about ADDS BACK = EMENDS, BACK OUT = EBBS, HANGS BACK = AVERSE – well I’m really stretching and anyway I’ve got all vowels and am having a hard time finding other duplicate meanings.

Finally after an eternity I ask for a course correction and was told "Nope", and “Did any of the clues seem odd?”, I was asked. Well of course; I remember thinking BIRCH, BIRCH, why would a crib be made of birch? Sure it COULD be but why would that be preferred? Maybe it is a play on BACK as in BIRCH BARK. However that is where that started and ended. So, why is BIRCH good for a CRIB…hey, wait a minute, BIRCH and CRIB are the same except for one letter? One letter; why if I can find 8 more I am in business! I had made GRAB BAG GRAB BACK but gee GRAB and BAG are also the same save 1 letter, MEAD and DAM, oh yeah baby...!

So, darn lucky there is no GAYBE HOOF or GAY BEHOOF or GAY BEHO OF and that someone finally warned me off back tracking.

T

[DBMiller]

Ready to get your mind blown? Get a drink ready, you're going to need one after hearing this trail to the wrong answer.

Title is "Backdrops". Engage free assocation mode... BACK, so backwords or back ends of words maybe. DROPS, so dropping a letter? That's kind of standard metanism, either drop or add. Grid is done, so let's begin...

First thing I see is that the BACK end of easycrEDIT is nearly the reverse of aTIDE. Might have an A or an R here.

Ooh - skybORNE and RENO. BACK end again, but not BACKWORDS. What letter would that give me? B?

I continue my search and find...

crEDIT -> aTIDE -> R or A?
bORNE -> RENO -> B
MELOn -> ELMO -> N
haciENDA -> DANtE -> I or T?
rePAST -> SPlAT -> E or L?
gRAB -> BRA -> G
mADD -> ADDs -> M or S?
baTAAN -> mANTA -> A or M?
aLSO -> SLO -> A

I know my order is way off, these were as I found them. I've done this before; Anagrammed the answer and figured out the right ordering later.

For whatever reason, I wasn't consistant, but wrote down ABNTEGSMA. (Should have been ABNTLGSMA, I accidentally FLIPped the E/L choice

Holy cow! I'm just two letters off from BACKSTAGE! That would be a very fitting META: A theater term, and including BACK in the answer! Did I do something wrong? Is there confirmation in the puzzle anywhere? Perhaps something like GATES or GASKET or EGOTS in the grid? No... Well maybe if I find the right missing letters, I can still back solve.

I need a C and an K. Oooh! Theres CAPO -> ATOP. I try desparately to get any of the K words in the grid to fit the bill, but I just can't make it work. And it doesn't make sense. MELON/ELMO would *HAVE* to be an N, and there isn't one in BACKSTAGE. Maybe I'm missing something in the clues that might indicate which words I should be using to get my nine letters. There's no *'s. No numbers. Let's look around some more.

I highlight MILKS in the grid, the clue pops up and I see SKIM. Exactly BACKwards with one letter that could be skipped OVER AND tossed OUT. But it's also the K I need for BACKSTAGE. This must be it! (I know... Wait for it)

I click on GRAB, since I was sure BRA -> GRAB was right, and notice BAG in the clue... Wait a minite...

I click on MADD in my grid, and instead of bringing up the down clue, it brings up the clue for MEAD. Ohhh... DAM -> MEAD. Again, exactly BACKWARDS, with one letter to skip over and toss out. All three so far use the last word of the clue. Interesting.

A new search begins, and I find...

BAG -> GRAB (R)
ROMA -> AMORE (E) ! Hmm... not a skipped one, just the next letter
CRIB -> BIRCH (H) ! I think I see where this is going
DAM -> MEAD (E)
?ONE -> RENO (R) ! Hmm... FIRST word of the clue, not the BACK and no skip
ARAB -> BASRA (S)
SKIM -> MILKS (L)

Oh... SKIM/MILKS never gave me my K for BACKSTAGE (Told you to wait for it). Dumb bunny! [No offense, Rabbit]

I didn't really look at the FIRST words of the clues, just happened to notice ONE/RENO and didn't give it a whole lot of thought. Let's go back and pay attention this time.

DRY -> YARD (A) ! Ayup
MME -> EMMA (A) ! You sneaky little sominabeech

META confirmed as REHEARSAL and not BACKSTAGE. Glad I stayed with it.