"Deathtrap" October 27, 2023

[The XWord Rabbit]

You Muggles are feeling pretty smug, aren’t you?

A breezy week from Mr. Shenk and not a rabbit hole story to be found.

Your Rabbit will forgo his usual explanation of the methodology involved in the puzzle and
let you all bask in the glory of a successful solve. (Besides, he’s sure you’ll be getting your comeuppance soon enough.)

Instead, he will take advantage of the situation by sharing a few photos of his favorite Halloween displays in the neighborhood. These folks worked hard to make the kids (and a few of us grown-ups who’ve never grown up) happy.
He invites you to share your photos as well.

Until next week then and Happy Halloween!

[Susan Goldberg]

Hello! After a short sabbatical taking care of personal projects I am back. I was a bit relieved to enjoy a quick solve this week. Good luck muggles.

Welcome back!!

[Colin]

Scuttlin’ skeletons!
With prickles in your pelvis,
You dance like Elvis!

(directed at The X-Word Rabbit #303, 3rd photo, but couldn’t figure out how to use @ with the space in his monicker)

[Joe Ross]

@Colin
@The XWord Rabbit

S-l-o-w-l-y start typing any exact part of a username, beginning with @, then select username from pop-up list that appears.

[CPJohnson]

Yeah, not a lot to discuss here. I was expecting to draw a pentagram ... connecting five letters, but maybe the WSJ would get complaints about that.

Yes, I was expecting exactly that. But then I thought the ordering of the letters might not be clear and many would think it as arbitrary anagram (a no-no). Of course it wouldn't match the title and theme.

I didn't thinks anagrams were a meta no-no, just an occasional happening, though rare. In my analysis of past WSJ metas, anagramming happens about as frequently as all themers having the same number of syllables.

[woozy]

Yeah, not a lot to discuss here. I was expecting to draw a pentagram ... connecting five letters, but maybe the WSJ would get complaints about that.

Yes, I was expecting exactly that. But then I thought the ordering of the letters might not be clear and many would think it as arbitrary anagram (a no-no). Of course it wouldn't match the title and theme.

I didn't thinks anagrams were a meta no-no, just an occasional happening, though rare. In my analysis of past WSJ metas, anagramming happens about as frequently as all themers having the same number of syllables.

I meant anagrams as the final step with no reason. For example if you somehow get the letters in order ERSHO and figure that anagrams to HORSE and that has to be the answer, you probably haven't actually finished as a tight meta would either had put the the letters in proper order had a reason for the order. Of course anagrams as a step a completely fair and a beloved mechanism.

What I was getting at was if we found this puzzle had five letters reading left to right, top to bottom Row 4, mid left: O, mid right S, Row 10, far left B far right M, Row 14 center T. ANd the reader spells them ought OSBMT and thinks "hmm, anagrams to TOMBS, I guess. But why that order" they would be missing the point. If you start at the bottom T, and construct a five points star and go up to the left to the O then down to the right to the M, the straight to the left to the B and the up to the right to the fifth and last point S, it would spell in order TOMBS. But most may not realize why that order.



I suppose if the theme of the puzzle were anagrams and the order spelled out a famous well known anagram that would be fair but I've never seen that. EDIT: Actually I guess that would fall under the "now apply the mechanism to what you got" school and I may or may not have seen that.

[Zobo3737]

Are you going to post the final tally—# correct and incorrect?

Thanks

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is TOMBS. As hinted at by the clue for 70-Across (SPIDER), each of the five theme answers has WEB trapping a single letter. Those trapped letters, in order, spell the contest answer.

This was one of our more popular contests, and one of our most successful for solvers. We had 2486 entries, with an extra-large success rate of about 97%. Incorrect guesses included MOVIE (4), BOMBS (3), and BELLE.

Congrats to this week's winner, Laura Broderick of Austin, Tex.! And Happy Halloween to all!

[Zobo3737]

Thank you!

[Colin]

@Colin
@The XWord Rabbit

S-l-o-w-l-y start typing any exact part of a username, beginning with @, then select username from pop-up list that appears.

@Joe Ross

Thanks Joe. I tried that without success (on my iPhone in safari) because the pop-up list extends past the viewable window and scrolling to see more just shuts down the pop-up list. Probably need to use laptop I guess. As you can see here, I got yours to work but I suppose the list for “@The” is much longer and of course, the pop-ups disappear after typing the space… that’s standard though.

[BarbaraK]

@Colin
@The XWord Rabbit

S-l-o-w-l-y start typing any exact part of a username, beginning with @, then select username from pop-up list that appears.

@Joe Ross

Thanks Joe. I tried that without success (on my iPhone in safari) because the pop-up list extends past the viewable window and scrolling to see more just shuts down the pop-up list. Probably need to use laptop I guess. As you can see here, I got yours to work but I suppose the list for “@The” is much longer and of course, the pop-ups disappear after typing the space… that’s standard though.

Apparently it looks for the string anywhere in the name, so if you do @ rabbit instead, it's a much shorter list.

I never noticed that before and was surprised to see it.

[Colin]

@BarbaraK
@The XWord Rabbit
@Joe Ross

Thank you Barbara - never thought of that but I tried it (post above) with all three names and hey presto! Once again, Muggles still teaching me stuff at my age! Sorry for taking up space with this!