"Tie Game" August 18, 2023

[Hidden in 3D]

Sad to say that I'm staying on the ship again this week. Three in a row. Harrumph!

[JAQT]

Definitely on the ship with Issac, but for the second time in recent memory, i need to thank @HunterX for his avatar!

[WSJosh]

Sad to say that I'm staying on the ship again this week. Three in a row. Harrumph!

Me too. At sea, yet again.

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 21 on the ship with Isaac and 128 on the shore. Reflective of how challenging the meta was this week.

Good luck to those who submitted winning the mug.

[HunterX]

Definitely on the ship with Issac, but for the second time in recent memory, i need to thank @HunterX for his avatar!

Glad to be of service! Care for a game of 34A? The stakes are quite high. Just ask that pesky James Bond fellow. If you can find the body, that is.

[Colin]

Happily, on boat,
Tied up, ready to move home.
No game, this moving!

[dpl11]

Ashore -- late submission after a weekend of moving my daughter back to college. I think I earned a gift from Isaac more than once this weekend.

[Franklin.Bluth]

Had to work a little harder than usual for whatever reason, but I ended up straggling onto the beach with just over an hour to spare.

[woozy]

Sad to say that I'm staying on the ship again this week. Three in a row. Harrumph!

Me too. At sea, yet again.

Three weeks in a row for me. It may or may not be a record.

[ADS]

I just got there. With less than an hour to spare. Tough one. A lot of rabbit holes this week. Circled back to one of my first thoughts which ended up being the right path.

[KscX]

Ashore after a last ditch effort

[LadyBird]

Hail Mary submitted.

Edited: Hail Mary wrong, of course.

[hcbirker]

[Al Sisti]

Shoot. Giving it one last shot at 11:45, I noticed the four four-letter entries...and stacked them, hoping they'd spell a word in column. I spent WAY too much time dealing with the four clues that had "game" in the clue.

[woozy]

Oh, "tie".

That's cute. Utter red herring.

Counting letters is something I almost never do. Never would have gotten this.

[escapeartist]

Nope.

I have only been doing these WSJ metas since late 2020, but they have become very difficult this year.

I gotta go, Isaac asked for another bucket of ice.

[Kas]

There once was a man from Pawtucket
Whose Meta skills drowned in a bucket.
On the ship he did stay,
In utter dismay,
And all he could say was, “Oh hi, Isaac—yes, it’s me again.”

[MajordomoTom]

I found the four four letter words, was trying to stack them or make a cube.

then noticed that they started with F and ended with K ... did you notice that "FOLK" is embedded in the word Norfolk?

I thought that was too much of a stretch, put the puzzle aside, and later went "DOH - tie them together" and the answer presented itself.

Lesson: if you force something and aren't satisfied with it, don't submit that idea, it's probably wrong.

[MajordomoTom]

There once was a man from Pawtucket
Whose Meta skills drowned in a bucket.
On the ship he did stay,
In utter dismay,
And all he could say was, “Oh hi, Isaac—yes, it’s me again.”

There once was a man from Pawtucket
Whose Meta skills drowned in a bucket.
On the ship he did stay,
In utter dismay,
Again he'd made a muck of it.

[JeanneC]

Wow! Was I off. I submitted “even”. I took 12 down (evident) when I saw the e-v-e-n embedded. I thought 55d “lip” being “right under your nose” was a clue back to 12 down. I subtracted the “i” from Liz, the “d” from Ida and the “t” from PTA (LIP) to change “evident” to “even”.
Talk about overthinking!!
Congrats to those who REALLY solved!