"Gift List" December 22, 2023

[The XWord Rabbit]

[Cbaudhuin]

A nice Christmas present—
To be safely ashore.
Merry Christmas to all.

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 1 on the ship with Isaac and 244 on the shore.

Good luck winning the mug and have a great week

[Colin]

G-kids are asleep,
Santa has done his magic,
Christmas on the beach!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[JoeS]

Ashore. Natasha is back home from Moscow, so I picked this back up and worked it out only moments before St Nick (Father Frost) makes his way down here to Houston. Houston we got no problem. Merry Christmas to all!

[hcbirker]

[Kris Zacharias]

Upon discovering the metanism for this week's puzzle, I was immediately transported to the following version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by the King's SIngers:



Merry Christmas!

[Annabelle]

Made it to shore today, Monday. But, no WSJ today, so I think maybe I'm still okay?

Happy Holidays to all!

[woozy]

Now that it's over does anything know about the site of WSJ puzzle answers: https://wsjcrosswordsolver.com/slime-on ... sword-clue ?

It claims the verified answer for 8D is GOO and 15A as STRAY which they obviously aren't (for one thing 15A has six letters)

[SewYoung]

Now that it's over does anything know about the site of WSJ puzzle answers: https://wsjcrosswordsolver.com/slime-on ... sword-clue ?

It claims the verified answer for 8D is GOO and 15A as STRAY which they obviously aren't (for one thing 15A has six letters)

For (I think), the first time ever I got the answer without finishing the grid, so didn't pay much attention to the finished grid. After seeing your post, I googled the answers to those clues that I wound up with and found this information,

Estray, in common law, is any domestic animal found wandering at large or lost, particularly if the owner is unknown.

Have you ever wondered how to make slime without borax? This gak recipe is only two ingredients and is Borax free!

Apparently those "verified" answers are incorrect.

[woozy]

Have you ever wondered how to make slime without borax? This gak recipe is only two ingredients and is Borax free!

Um... no.

But now I am wondering how you make slime with Borax. Wouldn't that be toxic?

[Tom Shea]

Upon discovering the metanism for this week's puzzle, I was immediately transported to the following version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by the King's SIngers:

...

Merry Christmas!

I have the Bob and Doug MacKenzie version stuck in my head.

Merry Christmas all.

[SewYoung]

Have you ever wondered how to make slime without borax? This gak recipe is only two ingredients and is Borax free!

Um... no.

But now I am wondering how you make slime with Borax. Wouldn't that be toxic?

Having no experience with nor interest in slime, I didn't actually read the article, just saw the headline which confirmed my entry in the grid, which apparently resulted from crossing entries as I hadn't even noticed it until looking in response to the above post. I don't even know what I would do with slime if I had any

[hoover]

Have you ever wondered how to make slime without borax? This gak recipe is only two ingredients and is Borax free!

Um... no.

But now I am wondering how you make slime with Borax. Wouldn't that be toxic?

Without looking it up, and not having any children, I think the usual slime recipe involves Elmer's glue and 20-mule-team Borax (or is it 40 mules?).

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is DECK THE HALLS. Each of 12 Across clues ends with one of the gifts in the lyrics of “The 12 Days of Christmas” (Partridge, doves, hens, birds, rings, geese, swans, maids, ladies, lords, Pipers, drummers). The first letters of the answers to those clues, in order, spell the contest answer.

A really ingenious Christmas gift from Mike--sneaking all 12 gifts (in order!) into the across clues. This was a popular and unusually successful puzzle. We had 1731 entries and an exceptionally high 97% correct. A holiday miracle! The few incorrect answers included 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (6), FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, WE THREE KINGS, THE FIRST NOEL, and a few others.

Congratulations to this week's winner: Pat Dittoe of Hudson, Ohio! Happy holidays to the awesome Muggles!

[ship4u]

"Congratulations to this week's winner: Pat Dittoe of Hudson, Ohio! Happy holidays to the awesome Muggles!"

Hooray, the mug winner is getting closer in proximity! Only 30 minutes away. Keep coming north.

[Joe Ross]

I promised an explanation to my personal quick solve. Sometimes a blind squirrel...

To begin solving, I decided to take my time using the PDF, paste my mouse written alphabet to it, then copy & paste each letter into the grid as needed. However, everything fell into place for me, quickly.

• The title mentions GIFT LIST for the Christmas contest crossword.

• The first clue had "partridge" in it. It seemed obvious what the list is & that the list is in the clues.

• Reading the rest of the clues & finding the other 11 gifts from The Twelve Days of Christmas, then looking at the initials of those clues' entries, it was obvious after 3 entries that the "three word title" is DECK THE HALLS.

Here is how my PDF appeared when the AHA! hit:

If I can solve that quickly, anyone can.

[The XWord Rabbit]

It’s pretty evident that your Rabbit has nothing to work with this week, and that’s fine with him.
He’s a busy bunny himself, so whaddaya say we end the year with a little Hollywood nostalgia?

He expects you’ve seen a certain movie of late more times than you care to count.
So how about a clip of Santa’s lawyer spending a not-so-quiet evening with Carmen Miranda?*



And here’s a clip of Santa himself, fighting giant ants.*



Until next year, then.

*John Payne in "Week-end in Havana" (1941).
*Edmund Gwenn in "Them!" (1955).

[BarbaraK]

I was in a rabbit hole. If anyone is interested, on Monday I will be giving lessons in How to Manufacture a Rabbit Hole While Ignoring Blatant Markers for the Solution.

I’m interested! Do tell!

[woozy]

I promised an explanation to my personal quick solve. Sometimes a blind squirrel...

To begin solving, I decided to take my time using the PDF, paste my mouse written alphabet to it, then copy & paste each letter into the grid as needed. However, everything fell into place for me, quickly.

• The title mentions GIFT LIST for the Christmas contest crossword.

• The first clue had "partridge" in it. It seemed obvious what the list is & that the list is in the clues.

• Reading the rest of the clues & finding the other 11 gifts from The Twelve Days of Christmas, then looking at the initials of those clues' entries, it was obvious after 3 entries that the "three word title" is DECK THE HALLS.

Here is how my PDF appeared when the AHA! hit:


XWD12222023JRSolved.png


If I can solve that quickly, anyone can.

Pretty much the same for me. I had guests so I was sneaking peaks. I chose to look at 18A as it was likely to be themer and I entered CHICKEN COOP and didn't particularly notice the "hens". I then looked at 52 "Some pipers" and had no idea of the entry but saw the "pipers" in the clue right away and knew the theme had to be the twelve days of christmas and looked back at 18A and noticed the hens. Glanced at clue 1 and the cinched it completely and I fill in 1A. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" does no have three words so it couldn't be that easy. So I figured I had to take the first letters to get a twelve letter three word song beginning with D?C. That had to be Deck the Halls. Counted the letters. Yep 12. Eyed the next for clues for the clue about doves and found it and EGGS was a good answer.

So 1 minute 49 seconds I was confirmed with the solution to the meta and all required was doing the grid.... well.... some three hours later....