"In A Crunch" February 2, 2024

[Nlobb]

Very special about the wedding dress! It will be a great memory for both of you. I designed/sewed mine 50+ years ago. Still have it but it doesn’t exactly fit right anymore…

[JoeFlanders]

OMG...zipped through the puzzle and the meta in no time at all Thursday afternoon, then got stuck at the VERY last step. Just drove back from shopping and then it hit me. Can't believe I didn't get it right away. Now on the beach.

[aaugusti]

We just made it ashore! Great puzzle! Time for a glass on Cabernet.

[Kwyjibo]

Ashore!!!!

Solved the grid on my phone but couldn't see after starting the last few days. Printed it out, took a couple minutes to spot the shore and then a couple more to swim there.

[Katiedid]

Quickly ashore on Friday. That was fun. I wonder if there will be a lot of wrong answers.

[Cruciverbalisticexpi]

I had the first step down and was then completely stuck. So I thought I was wrong. Then, like others it sounds like, it just slaps you right in the face. Great meta. I'll take a dark and stormy, since that's what's coming here in So Cal. Plus my slightly delayed dry Jan just ended. So I've earned it! Lol

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 2 on the ship and 212 on the shore

Getting to the shore since Saturday noon are

femullen
JimJim
Tom S
Alvibu67
Penny_Keatley
auee89
jimbo1
Collegetowngirl
LuscombeDriver
bigtuna
haydendog
rjy
Notbitter
Grover
Debbie
ALS
Jarrod
Secret Adversary
Libbypibby
Ann
DannyWalter
dk letter
Charmin
Sleepy
Susan G
Bob B
Katiedid
JoeFlanders
BetterMonday
Drew and Kasia
SusieG
Kwyjibo
Cruciverbalisticexpi

Good luck to all winning the mug.

[mikeB]

Ashore! What a challenge and what great fun. To me, this is a complicated and wonderfully designed meta. Wow . . .

[hcbirker]

[Miki]

Bob, count me in. I forgot to say I was ashore in my haste.

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I had to be dragged to shore because this one broke me. It all works neatly and is an amazing construction, but boy I went in a different direction.

There are four starred Across clues and corresponding answers: SCALE UP, SEA FLOORS, MOON SEEDS, and HOT WING. All the answers have two words, and "second counts" in the clue for 70A got me thinking about the letter counts in the first and second words. They are, respectively: (5,2), (3,6), (4,5) and (3,4). Ah, so each one is different! But how do we get to five letters from four answers?

Well, look at that! There are five Down answers that also have two words: DEFER TO, NEW POTATO, DIET PEPSI, TEA SETS, and REC ROOMS. If we count the letters in each word, we have (5,2), (3,6), (4,5), (3,4) and (3,4). Hey, they are nearly paired one-to-one with the across answers, except we have two paired with HOT WING.

So then we have SCALE UP/DEFER TO, SEA FLOORS/NEW POTATO, MOON SEEDS/DIET PEPSI, and HOT WING/TEA SETS/REC ROOM. I was sure this couldn't be a coincidence, but looking for common letters, crossing letters, second letters did nothing, and I even tried every other letter like I should have with the original four answers. I tried mixing and matching words to see if I could get alternate answers. Combos like HOT SETS and NEW FLOORS could have made sense, but MOON PEPSI or DIET SEEDS was a non-starter. But I was stuck in this rabbit hole.

The only other avenue that I thought might bear fruit was "crunching" TIME to get "second" answers to clues: LIME was a Mai Tai ingredient, and TIDE was a Sailor's worry, but other variations like TOME,TAME or TIMS had no matches. And as to how that would have mated with the starred clues, who knows?

Anyway, it broke my brain enough that I never reset to try looking at the original four starred answers.

[Tom Shea]

@Susan Goldberg


I’m thinking that the Taylor Swift showings will be an actual bet. People bet on everything these days!


They could make it a bet and people would bet on it, but how many times she is shown is strictly at the discretion of the TV director who could be influenced by several factors including making a bet himself.

But you can bet on all sorts of things associated with the half time show - first song, last song.

Or bet on the length of the national anthem

Or the temperature of the field when the game starts

Get your bets in early.

https://www.sportsbookreview.com/picks/ ... rops-2024/

[SingleMalt]

Whoops! I submitted UNCLE. I thought it fit the title nicely; if the Aunt wasn't available ask the Uncle..... Should have kept my wits about me and followed the mechanic all the way through.

[batfella]

I went down a deep rabbit hole. I focused on using the five theme answers to find Time Crunch words one to two letters off the needed word(s).

SCALEUP ASAP A
SEAFLOORS SOON N
MOONSEEDS NEED NOW NW SUDDEN UD SUMMON MU
HOTWING RIGHTNOW R

[Scott M]

My rabbit hole was to count every second letter in the starred clues, which gave me 3,4,4,3. Those squares in the grid contained NOON, which fit nicely with the time theme, but ultimately led nowhere.

[Commodore]

Swept out with the late evening tide by REGATTAS & RUM.
And Joni Mitchell.

[Joepickett]

Whoops! I submitted UNCLE. I thought it fit the title nicely; if the Aunt wasn't available ask the Uncle..... Should have kept my wits about me and followed the mechanic all the way through.

Same. It wasn't a great fit but I figured unc was in crunch...anyway.

[Notbitter]

I eventually found the answer but I spent an enormous amount of time on what looked like it would be involved: there were 5 abbreviations ending in the letter “p” (UTEP, tsp, insp, esp, asap). I was certain that for a five-letter solve those five would play a role. In a time crunch, people use abbreviations; they all end in the same letter — so there had to be SOMETHING there…

[hunkra]

Arrgh - I had the answer and didn't submit because I thought I wasn't on the last step. Should've checked with another Muggle. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...

[michaelm]

Whoops! I submitted UNCLE. I thought it fit the title nicely; if the Aunt wasn't available ask the Uncle..... Should have kept my wits about me and followed the mechanic all the way through.

I was about to submit UNCLE too, but had a hasty last second course correction.