"Back To The Start" January 19, 2024

[Ergcat]

I used OPENTO instead of OFFERS for the first word. Not a great fit but with the other four letters in place the first letter had to be an O.

Me too. I thought OPENTO fit ok and I knew I needed an O so I didn’t search any further.

[Zobo3737]

I used OPENTO instead of OFFERS for the first word. Not a great fit but with the other four letters in place the first letter had to be an O.

Neithe “offers” nor “open to” is a synonym for HOLDSOUT but The clue for 57A fits HOLDSOUT better than the clue for 18A, IMO, so I agree with OPENTO.

[LadyBird]

I used OPENTO instead of OFFERS for the first word. Not a great fit but with the other four letters in place the first letter had to be an O.

Neithe “offers” nor “open to” is a synonym for HOLDOUT, but The clue for 57A fits HOLDOUT better than 18A, IMO, so I agree with OPENTO.

I had trouble with this one at first because I was thinking of HOLDS OUT as hanging back and not doing. And then I realized that it was "She HOLDS OUT the gift and OFFERS it to her friend".

[Zobo3737]

I used OPENTO instead of OFFERS for the first word. Not a great fit but with the other four letters in place the first letter had to be an O.

Neithe “offers” nor “open to” is a synonym for HOLDOUT, but The clue for 57A fits HOLDOUT better than 18A, IMO, so I agree with OPENTO.

I had trouble with this one at first because I was thinking of HOLDS OUT as hanging back and not doing. And then I realized that it was "She HOLDS OUT the gift and OFFERS it to her friend".

Ok, that makes sense. At least we opento people ended up with ONSET, so that’s something.

[MajordomoTom]

Ah oh! Reset.
Smarten is a makeup
And holds out (as in hanging tough) riding the rapids
With rafts.
I wonder if anyone else did that. But the mechanism was fun.

I was solving up from the bottom, had the T, the E, the S, and thought "ok, it's RESET, let's submit and find the RE later", then decided, no, let's actually finish the work and ... went ... DOH, found the N, and had to push to find the O.

So got to the right island, but almost took a nasty detour.

[itsmejpd]

why is it ONSET and not STONE or NOTES? all same letters...did I miss more to the meta?

[mbryant]

My rabbit hole was seeing only the first part of the asterisked answers and seeing alternative answers: Rash - “in need of calamine” - Bitten (skin rash) and Mar - “damage” Harm. Old and Tall were a stretch with history and past and maybe Aha for Man, but nothing worked. Finally saw Hold, smart, trash, and stall but could not figure out what to do with eman. Kept adding letters- emana, emanat.. aha! Emanate and Stallone were easy, the other three took me a second. Satisfying solve.

[Dickie_Dunn]

why is it ONSET and not STONE or NOTES? all same letters...did I miss more to the meta?

Following the theme answers as they appear in the grid is how the correct order is determined in this case. HOLDS OUT with OFFERS, SMARTEN with NEATEN and so on. (not to mention ONSET fits with the title)

As far as the RESET - the corresponding words are not simply synonyms to the newly made words (HOLDS OUT, etc.) but both need to fit the clue for those words. For example - I thought AXES at first when matching up with TRASHES (as in axes/trashes an idea) but the clue was "Graph Lines" so TRASHES did not work. Same can be said for "Name on cosmetic packages" - you wouldn't get to NEATEN.

STALLONE is not a synonym of TALIA but they both work with "Name on Rocky posters."

[Joe Ross]

why is it ONSET and not STONE or NOTES? all same letters...did I miss more to the meta?

The letters are in order of the theme entries, top to bottom.

• H-OLD SOUTH - OFFERS

• S-MARTENS - NEATEN

• T-RASHEST - SLAMS

• E-MANATEE - EMIT

• S-TALLONES - TALIA

While not 100%, this is typical. The creators will have the letters appear in order in the grid, by Theme Entry, or some other logical sorting order. Solvers are not fans of anagramming. It seems the creators acknowledge that & avoid anagramming like The Plague.

Welcome, @itsmejpd! Great question.

Apologies to @Dickie_Dunn for repeating.

[woozy]

This is probably the one where the key entries both in the hidden and revealed states seemed the most natural and where finding the alternative entries was the most tricky (yet still absolutely certain).

The was exceptionally well done in terms of "natural syntax".

[Wlawson]

why is it ONSET and not STONE or NOTES? all same letters...did I miss more to the meta?

The letters are in order of the theme entries, top to bottom.

• H-OLD SOUTH - OFFERS

• S-MARTENS - NEATEN

• T-RASHEST - SLAMS

• E-MANATEE - EMIT

• S-TALLONES - TALIA

While not 100%, this is typical. The creators will have the letters appear in order in the grid, by Theme Entry, or some other logical sorting order. Solvers are not fans of anagramming. It seems the creators acknowledge that & avoid anagramming like The Plague.

Welcome, @itsmejpd! Great question.

Apologies to @Dickie_Dunn for repeating.

Also, the solution usually relates back to the title of the puzzle. As a synonym to "Start", I thought "onset" was a much better fit than any anagram.

[Bonnibel]

I used OPENTO instead of OFFERS for the first word. Not a great fit but with the other four letters in place the first letter had to be an O.

Neithe “offers” nor “open to” is a synonym for HOLDOUT, but The clue for 57A fits HOLDOUT better than 18A, IMO, so I agree with OPENTO.

I had trouble with this one at first because I was thinking of HOLDS OUT as hanging back and not doing. And then I realized that it was "She HOLDS OUT the gift and OFFERS it to her friend".

My thinking exactly. I initially used OPENTO for the very same reason.
I often need to consciously "unscrew" my brain in order to see words/phrases in multiple ways. Sort of like one of those optical illusion pictures.

[MMe]

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries. ... h/hold-out
hold something out:
to put your hand or arms, or something in your hand, toward someone, especially to give or offer something
I held out my hand to steady her.
He held out the keys and I took them.

I think there is also a more general, metaphorical sense of holding out options or possibilities for someone to choose among.

[RDaleHall]

I had HOLDS OUT in my mind more along the lines of the "rides the rapids" clue and therefore to the entry RAFTS.

Which led to the meta answer of STERN... which made sense to me as it could be the word "terns" (with the S moved to the start per the convention of the puzzle)

Plus also with "BACK TO THE START" being the title of the puzzle... STERN is the back of a boat.

Chalking this one up as me being just off-center of the target -- a slight miss.

[Yoda66]

The shift from TALL ONES to STALLONE is a touch of 'sly' genius

[The XWord Rabbit]

Please pardon your Rabbit. He’s still a bit giddy over the results of last night’s football game. Yes, he’s fully aware that there are those of you who don’t care about football unless it’s used in a meta. More the pity.

On to this week’s puzzle: “Back to the Start” by Mr. Shenk. From all appearances it was one of those “You-see-it-or-you-don’t” metas. Fewer than usual post-reveal comments and most discussed the OPENTO vs OFFERS or STONE vs ONSET issues. Whatever the case, it was another no-nomination week for the bunny.

Not only that, your Rabbit desperately looked for something to close this week’s review with “Back to the Start” in the title, but was sorely disappointed there as well. Apparently, it’s from the SECOND greatest hits album by a group called Megadeth, but the Rabbit has no idea who that is (Carmen Miranda or Spike Jones never recorded it.)

Instead, he will leave you Muggles with a warning: The end is near. The end of the biannual accounting of your woeful tales of rabbit holes is at hand. This coming week’s puzzle will be the 26th since your Rabbit last announced finalists.

So, if you’ve ever hungered for crockery picturing yours truly, then take heed. Remember: The odds of your being a member of that rarified group are far better than winning the lottery they call the "WSJ Contest puzzle."*

As always, good luck and see you next week!

*Too snarky? Your Rabbit apologizes for any malignment of that sacred institution.

[Bill Bovard]

The shift from TALL ONES to STALLONE is a touch of 'sly' genius

That was the first one I saw. I was looking for words inside the starred answers, forwards and backward. Then I saw STALLONE and thought, that's too good to be an accident. What is the first one other people saw?

[RDaleHall]

The shift from TALL ONES to STALLONE is a touch of 'sly' genius

That was the first one I saw. I was looking for words inside the starred answers, forwards and backward. Then I saw STALLONE and thought, that's too good to be an accident. What is the first one other people saw?

RASHEST to TRASHES popped out straight away, especially with SLAMS being the entry almost right next to it.

[michaelm]

The shift from TALL ONES to STALLONE is a touch of 'sly' genius

That was the first one I saw. I was looking for words inside the starred answers, forwards and backward. Then I saw STALLONE and thought, that's too good to be an accident. What is the first one other people saw?

MUGS - SMUG
Oh, wait, that was only in my weekly Sunday night dream.

[Cindy N]

I had trouble with this one at first because I was thinking of HOLDS OUT as hanging back and not doing. And then I realized that it was "She HOLDS OUT the gift and OFFERS it to her friend".

Thinking of the adjective, not the noun for "present" makes a difference as well. Not prez-uhnt, but pree-zent. Offers and presents being synonyms.