"Playing Dress-Up" June 23, 2023

[kurtalert]

Like a few others I've seen mentioning it, ORBIT- while being the least baseball-y word in the long answers- was the key for me. SLIDER, ACE, and DINGER were obvious baseball terms, and it seemed like an impossible coincidence. Googling "baseball orbit" to see if I was somehow completely oblivious to ORBIT being a baseball term (my gut reaction was that maybe it was an alternate phrase for "hitting for the cycle") led me immediately to the Astros mascot. From there, it was a pretty quick solve- I enjoy sports, and the 3 letter location abbreviation for the teams seemed like it would be one of those "common" mechanism elements. I actually didn't even notice that they were all on the same row of the puzzle as their mascots until after I'd already solved, but that was a nice confirmation that I hadn't jumped the gun in any way, and this was a 100% confidence level answer.

Metas are funny. I'm definitely one of those "I'm going to see it right away or I'm probably never going to get it" people. This one was clearly a hard puzzle for most, but it popped right out at me almost immediately. I didn't start solving the grid until 45+ minutes after it was released- usually that means Page 1 is already full of posts. Somehow, after a half-hour solve from that point, and I was the third one done? All of these people who routinely nail these puzzles within the first half an hour, but that stump me for 4+ days (and I usually give up on, most months I'm lucky to even get 2 solves), were nowhere to be found? I had to double-check to see that I was even solving the correct puzzle, and that I hadn't accidentally pulled up the wrong week or something! I'm sure next week will be an "easy" one and I'll get absolutely nowhere with it, and all will be right with the world again. LOL.

[Cindy N]

When I got the connection, CLEW was the first I looked at. After all, Mike told us it was a CLUE, didn't he?

[mheberlingx100]

I spent a lot of time on movies and acting. Polar orbit intersects Scrooge, and Tom Hanks was Scrooge for in Polar Express, so there had to be something there, right? Well, no. Or the last name of the actors in the 4 movie parts named in the clues anagrams to Spar? Not a good fit for anything. Or that Borat’s daughter’s name in the sequel movie was Tutar, anagram of Tartu. Couldn’t find anything else there.

I thought acting fit in well with the dress-up title. Lots of rabbits holes.

[sharkicicles]

A bonus from this meta is that I now know that Clark is the Cubs mascot.

I know a family whose two children are Addison and Clark. Well of course he is.

I suppose that’s better than naming them 35th and Shields.

Thanks to the zoomers… would have never even got a toehold on this one.

[JetStream]

I was lost at sea on this one. I'm sort of glad i gave up easily since I would never, ever have gotten this one. See you next week.

[femullen]

Not even The Smarter Half could help. Last time I was aware of an MLB mascot's name was when the Expos traded Youppi to the Canadiens.

[lxpeterson]

No joy in my Mudville… I struck out

[qvart]

MLB mascots? Srsly? Pfffffft

[woozy]

I thought Mike threw a good pitch on this one. There were enough baseball terms to lead us to the solution which was in plain sight

There were? If there were I missed every single one. Even going over them the only one I can tie to baseball is the porch pirate clue.

What were some of the baseball terms?

I think this just goes to show that those who are fans of something assume it is more ubiquitous and references are more obvious than they are.

(Unlike Wendy I have never heard that ACE was a baseball term. SLIDE [and therefore slideR] sure but I'm far more likely to pursue t he hamburger angle for that [is there a hamburger chain with a DINGER?])

[hoover]

Well, there was no way I was going to win the mug this week, but maybe I can go for the Rabbit Hole award.

This is one of those where living in Houston is probably a disadvantage.

The first thing I saw was MONEY PIT, which led me to wonder whether there was a Tom Hanks theme? But I didn't see anything else.

Then I looked at the long compound entries and immediately saw a baseball theme. I recognized without Googling that the four key words were baseball-related somehow, but didn't know what to do with them.
BACKSLIDER SLIDER is a pitch
FLYINGACE ACE is a pitcher
HUMDINGER DINGER is some kind of hit
POLARORBIT ORBIT is the Astros' green booger mascot, which I didn't have to Google because I live in Houston.
However, when that didn't go anywhere I even Googled SLIDER ACE DINGER ORBIT together, but that search didn't reveal that SLIDER, ACE, and DINGER were also mascots.

Then I noticed in the middle of the long compound entries were state abbreviations... oops, not quite.
BACKSLIDER KS Kansas
FLYINGACE GA Georgia
HUMDINGER MD Maryland
POLARORBIT RO ... nothing

Then I looked at the clues and saw there were a bunch that ended in ", say" or ", e.g."
, say
17A BACKSLIDER
50D HONK

, e.g.
28A FLYINGACE
36A ART
37D MONEYPIT
53D HAND

Then because of the "UP" part of "PLAYING DRESS-UP" I looked at down words that spell another word up
25D ARE ERA
48D PAR RAP
32D ENID DINE
55D TIDE EDIT
56D ETAS SATE

Then I looked at clues whose first word could complete in the phrase DRESS ___
4D Show ASK
28D Casual FLINGS
60D Pants RIP

And then I wondered, how does MINTY fit in? or EPEES?

At that point I figured I had better things to do with my weekend.

[Eric Porter]

Like Wendy and many other people here, I'm not a baseball fan. I hadn't heard of any of the mascots. When I was pretty sure that there weren't any hidden words in the 4 theme answers, the usual next place to look is at the second word when all 4 contain 2 words. I knew 'slider', 'ace', and 'dinger' were baseball terms, but it wasn't until I'd searched for them on Google that I realized they were mascots. Even then, it was still another 15 minutes for me to notice he'd hidden the scoreboard abbreviations in the puzzle.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is WEAR. Each of the four theme answers ends with the name of a Major League Baseball team mascot (SLIDER for the Cleveland Guardians, ACE for the Toronto Blue Jays, DINGER for the Colorado Rockies, ORBIT for the Houston Astros), and the adjacent grid answers consist of the team’s abbreviation plus one letter (CLEW, TORE, COLA, HOUR). The added letters spell the contest answer.

This was one of our toughest ones in a long time! An ingenious construction, making it all work so elegantly on four symmetrical lines, but it stumped us at contest central. We had 569 entries, about half correct. A big turnout for GARB (we assume that's because it's formed by the initials of the four teams, and fits the title nicely too), with 84 entries. Plus BALL (19), DRAG (16), and lots of other guesses.

Congrats to this week's winner: Judy Adamski of Jenison, Mich.!

[VanVeen]

Those that that are saying this needed some kind of hint toward baseball or mascots or something in the puzzle or clues somewhere, I think, are right. The "dress-up" in the title led me to look through the clues for some kind of clothing. Hey, look at 60-down: "pants problem." That answer is RIP.

I tried so many ways to rip the theme answers in half which led nowhere.

Then I noticed three-letter words with 'i' in the middle. LID, YIN, DIN and BIT. That couldn't be a coincidence, right? I spent way too long trying to make something work with that. Because of that red herring, I didn't even think about googling baseball things; I googled types of dresses.

My only explanation is that Mike must be a big baseball fan and overestimates everyone else's basic knowledge of the game. Kinda reminds me of this comic: https://xkcd.com/2501/

[Bonnibel]

The contest answer is WEAR. Each of the four theme answers ends with the name of a Major League Baseball team mascot (SLIDER for the Cleveland Guardians, ACE for the Toronto Blue Jays, DINGER for the Colorado Rockies, ORBIT for the Houston Astros), and the adjacent grid answers consist of the team’s abbreviation plus one letter (CLEW, TORE, COLA, HOUR). The added letters spell the contest answer.

This was one of our toughest ones in a long time! An ingenious construction, making it all work so elegantly on four symmetrical lines, but it stumped us at contest central. We had 569 entries, about half correct. A big turnout for GARB (we assume that's because it's formed by the initials of the four teams, and fits the title nicely too), with 84 entries. Plus BALL (19), DRAG (16), and lots of other guesses.

Congrats to this week's winner: Judy Adamski of Jenison, Mich.!

YAY for Judy Adamski! I am an Adamick. Adamick being the Americanized version of Adamczyk that became the family name when my father in law emigrated from Poland as a child in 1904. If I was not destined to win the mug this week, it's some consolation that the winner has a Polish surname so close to mine. Kudos!

[Yoda66]

I thought Mike threw a good pitch on this one. There were enough baseball terms to lead us to the solution which was in plain sight

There were? If there were I missed every single one. Even going over them the only one I can tie to baseball is the porch pirate clue.

What were some of the baseball terms?

I think this just goes to show that those who are fans of something assume it is more ubiquitous and references are more obvious than they are.

(Unlike Wendy I have never heard that ACE was a baseball term. SLIDE [and therefore slideR] sure but I'm far more likely to pursue t he hamburger angle for that [is there a hamburger chain with a DINGER?])

Fair points Woozy. Actually Dinger was the one that did for me (although i was thrown off for a while by the fact that humdinger is one word vs the other 2-word clues). Mike is a big baseball fan and he can include baseball related metas during major season events (we have the all star game coming up).

[kurtalert]

I thought Mike threw a good pitch on this one. There were enough baseball terms to lead us to the solution which was in plain sight

There were? If there were I missed every single one. Even going over them the only one I can tie to baseball is the porch pirate clue.

What were some of the baseball terms?

I think this just goes to show that those who are fans of something assume it is more ubiquitous and references are more obvious than they are.

(Unlike Wendy I have never heard that ACE was a baseball term. SLIDE [and therefore slideR] sure but I'm far more likely to pursue t he hamburger angle for that [is there a hamburger chain with a DINGER?])

SLIDER = a type of baseball pitch- fastball, slider, curveball, knuckleball, etc.
ACE = the star pitcher on a baseball team
DINGER = popular slang for a home run

I didn't know any of these were mascot names prior to googling, but recognizing those as very common baseball words got me to google with the right theme in mind.

[mheberlingx100]

I thought this could be my week, the odds would be as good as they could possibly be for me to win the mug. Curses, foiled again!

[Deb F]

I did know the baseball terms except for Orbit--and learned on Google that it was the name of the Astros mascot. Hmm. So I focused then on the mascots and ID'd the teams thus taking me to GARB and was certain I had it--until I learned I didn't. Plan B. Still focused on the mascots, there was only one that was 4 letters--looked at 26A and saw ONEA which matched PAWS--Detroit Tigers. AHA. Ran that by my chief nudger and learned that too was not it. Egads. After more agida, got a nudge that led me to the answer. I have to say, it was really a clever, neat meta, even though it took a lot to get me to WEAR. I didn't submit and am proud of all the Muggles who got it.

Have a great week, Muggles.

[MMe]

A lot of Tom Hanks material in the grid: MONEYPIT, POLAR (Express), SCROOGE, BORAT (he appeared in the "Subsequent Moviefilm") . . . even OTTO. I thought "dress-up" might be heading towards Bosom Buddies.
But of course it turned out that was all GARBage.
Thanks to those who clued us into the special-knowledge feature of this one. I could easily have been staring at it all weekend.

[Bird Lives]

Sports is a well-known Achilles heel of mine,

Maybe so, but then why the picture with this alter-ego avatar?
.