"There's That Voice Again" March 10, 2023

[Colin]

Finally ashore. Hazy IPAs and Oscars winners. Colin is smarter than Chuck.

Good to know!

[Ergcat]

I'm curious to know how many solved this on their own; is there any stat like that? For me puzzles like this one are impossible to solve and that makes me less inclined every week to even make an attempt. This is not in any way a judgement of the puzzle at all; it is a judgement of myself and my lack of meta-bility.

@Inca don’t be discouraged! A couple of years ago when I first started, I didn’t get many metas! Had no clue what to do!! But after doing some, and studying past puzzles, I’ve gotten better and more confident. This week, my meta journey was exactly like Woozy’s ( see post above). As soon as I saw clue 48a with “voice” in it and there was “voice” in the title, I knew this was the HINT/entry to the solve! I find There is always a hint somewhere ( sometimes not too obvious, though).
I always try to solve on my own first but if I can’t, I do reach out on this forum for a small nudge or get on the Zoom call for the group solve. This is a great group of Muggles and they all want everyone to solve!

[LadyBird]

I WISH that I could say "I wasn't fooled" with every meta that I have encountered!

[Barney]

What a great puzzle! Smacking ice cream cone into forehead! (If anyone remembers that horrible old joke)

I got the first step almost immediately and never even thought of looking up the perpetrators of their actions.

D’oh! A dunce cap would not be a bad add to the emoji lineup.

[pjc]

Really quick solve for me this time; the 'passive voice' clue jumped out right away and the rest just fell out - so no rabbit holes to talk about this week.

This ties my personal best streak of 8 - let's see if the next one resets me again

[Al Sisti]

Really quick solve for me this time; the 'passive voice' clue jumped out right away and the rest just fell out - so no rabbit holes to talk about this week.

This ties my personal best streak of 8 - let's see if the next one resets me again

I thought I had a quick solve... until I saw @docison come in at 4:12!

[DBMiller]

Great puzzle, but alas, Delilah's role in cutting Samson's hair was passive. I only know this because of the movie Fitzwilly, which I went to see because it had Barbara Feldon in it. Dick Van Dyke's character wins a bar bet over whether Delilah cuts Samson hair. https://www.tcm.com/video/281597/fitzwi ... he-godless

For those who don't want to watch the clip, here is the bible verse:

Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.

Ah, but the clue didn't say cut, it said his locks were broken. She broke his locks by betraying him and helping to get them cut off.

[Collegetowngirl]

I'm curious to know how many solved this on their own; is there any stat like that? For me puzzles like this one are impossible to solve and that makes me less inclined every week to even make an attempt. This is not in any way a judgement of the puzzle at all; it is a judgement of myself and my lack of meta-bility.

@Inca don’t be discouraged! A couple of years ago when I first started, I didn’t get many metas! Had no clue what to do!! But after doing some, and studying past puzzles, I’ve gotten better and more confident.

Agree with Inca on this. Back in 2016, we only solved it once every two months or so. And in all of 2019, we got it right only once! Now it’s about 2 to 3 times a month.

But also curious what Ergcat means by “on their own.” I think everyone has their own honor system rules on this.

In our house we have two solvers, or four when our daughters are home, which definitely makes it easier. Hubby knows history and geography. Daughter 1 knows music and cinema and theater and has an uncanny knack with metas. Daughter 2 knows art and biology. (I’m only useful for French and Japanese and food.).

Our rule is it’s not okay to use Google for grid answers but it IS okay to use Google for meta answers. So although depending on your definition, we figured out the metanism on our own, without looking at this forum, but then we did use Google for 5 out of 12 of the “actors” identifications. I still consider this legit to submit.

Another thing I’ve decided is still “on our own” is scrolling through this forum once I know I’m stuck. Sometimes someone will mention staring at the grid and having an aha moment, which makes me look more at the letters, for example. Or once someone said they just retraced the answers, and when I followed suit the answer became clear.

Only when I get an actual nudge (send a direct message here in the forum to someone who has solved) do I not submit. I recommend that path highly, once you’ve given up, because other Muggles are really good at helping me feel I’m still figuring it out on my own. They ask great questions and I’ve learned a ton. I’ve never tried the Zoom but it sounds excellent in the same way.

[Joe Ross]

Really quick solve for me this time; the 'passive voice' clue jumped out right away and the rest just fell out - so no rabbit holes to talk about this week.

This ties my personal best streak of 8 - let's see if the next one resets me again :-D

I thought I had a quick solve... until I saw @docison come in at 4:12!

The Doc is rarely off.

[Al Sisti]

Really quick solve for me this time; the 'passive voice' clue jumped out right away and the rest just fell out - so no rabbit holes to talk about this week.

This ties my personal best streak of 8 - let's see if the next one resets me again

I thought I had a quick solve... until I saw @docison come in at 4:12!

The Doc is rarely off.

Indeed. We're talking about Adam Doctoroff, folks. Fastest solver I know (he's on the right here).

[Colin]

Muggle who was thought to be stupid for seeing the 12 clues but not applying the (now) obvious mechanism!
Grid answer: COLIN
Hidden actor: HIMSELF

Very nice meta!

[femullen]

The Rules of Good Writing make clear the best choice:
For impact and clarity, use active voice.

A few of our number were thusly confused
When none but the passive of voices was used.

The question of who does the doing is moot;
Obscuring the doer's the purpose, at root.

The name of the doer on purpose concealed,
The "who" of whodunnit is never revealed.

[Flamel616]

I found the passive voice clue and the 12 related clues very quickly, basically as soon as I finished filling in the grid. Took me two more days to think of looking for the actors, then only another five minutes before I had it solved. I rarely get the solution, but even among the ones where I do find the answer, I think this one was particularly fun.

[hoover]

Shall a coincidence be considered when actors are to be sought for a puzzle that is to be submitted on the night when the Oscars are awarded ?

[Oxford Comma Mama]

Very late swim to shore for me! I'm glad I didn't look at any spoilers and solved it even after the deadline, because this one was FUN! It looks like quite a party was had on this beach!

Had a very good reason to be late though - this weekend my daughter was officially adopted! Wait, lemme try that again in the active voice - WE officially adopted our daughter this weekend! It was a wonderful celebration and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

[docison]

I thought I had a quick solve... until I saw @docison come in at 4:12!

The Doc is rarely off.

Indeed. We're talking about Adam Doctoroff, folks. Fastest solver I know (he's on the right here).

Thanks for the plug, Al! (Though this just goes to show that you don't know Paolo, who is in the middle of this video, and is one of the 3-5 fastest crossword solvers in the universe in addition to being a topnotch constructor and human being).

[Al Sisti]

The Doc is rarely off.

Indeed. We're talking about Adam Doctoroff, folks. Fastest solver I know (he's on the right here).

Thanks for the plug, Al! (Though this just goes to show that you don't know Paolo, who is in the middle of this video, and is one of the 3-5 fastest crossword solvers in the universe in addition to being a topnotch constructor and human being).

...right, only by reputation. His well-earned reputation.

[woozy]

What a great puzzle! Smacking ice cream cone into forehead! (If anyone remembers that horrible old joke)

Joke? I know of the Grateful Dead tee-shirt. (But not any joke.)

I got the first step almost immediately and never even thought of looking up the perpetrators of their actions.

I wouldn't have except that the clue to 48A described the pv as "obscuring performers". Had it be described a bit more accurately as "where the object is the subject" (not all passive actions have actors) I'd not have gotten it. But if the metanism clue refers to something specific being hidden or obscured, it's best to look for that thing.

[steveb]

What a great puzzle! Smacking ice cream cone into forehead! (If anyone remembers that horrible old joke)

Joke? I know of the Grateful Dead tee-shirt. (But not any joke.)

I got the first step almost immediately and never even thought of looking up the perpetrators of their actions.

I wouldn't have except that the clue to 48A described the pv as "obscuring performers". Had it be described a bit more accurately as "where the object is the subject" (not all passive actions have actors) I'd not have gotten it. But if the metanism clue refers to something specific being hidden or obscured, it's best to look for that thing.

Not just a t-shirt, but the cover of the Europe '72 album

[BarbaraK]

I'm curious to know how many solved this on their own; is there any stat like that? For me puzzles like this one are impossible to solve and that makes me less inclined every week to even make an attempt. This is not in any way a judgement of the puzzle at all; it is a judgement of myself and my lack of meta-bility.

There are no stats for WSJ puzzles (unless someone is going through the comments and keeping a spreadsheet).

If by “on their own” you mean with no other people, MGWCC does track that and includes it in the weekly write up.

If you mean without google, I don’t know any meta that tracks that since most meta constructors seem to consider googling a normal part of the process.

For this one, I solved solo but only got 4 of the 12 ‘actors’ on my own. Used google for 7, and even with googling more about Loki’s movie than I’d ever want to know, couldn’t find a definitive answer for that one. Since I knew it had to be a T, I guessed Thor and called that good enough.

I know there are some people who really don’t like using google to solve metas, and I was thinking while solving that they’d need a lot of varied trivia knowledge for this one.