"Never Forget" March 22, 2024

[chart]

I’m a newbie, I am clueless as to how one is supposed to know which letters to pick to look at. The pattern was ABC…. But large words were left out. Trying to swim ashore, but lost at sea.

You are right that it often (but not always) helps to look at
- long entries, particularly horizontal, particularly symmetric locations, and particularly similar structures
- the central entry, particularly horizontal
- the upper left and bottom right entries (first and last across, first and last down)
- any clues with asterisks
- any clues, often the last across, that have a parenthetical or extra comment/instruction ("the number that would be 11 if converted to binary" is an odd cluing for THREE that suggests converting to binary is important)
- all of the entries along each row (spanning black boxes)

In this case, the long entries didn't seem similar in structure (different parts of speech and word counts and some were vertical). There were no asterisks. FUNERAL at the center seemed to possible align with NEVER FORGET and CHURCH YARD. So I was juggling all these things when I noticed the first three entries started with ABC, and then had ZYX. That seemed forced , and it led to the solution.

But getting back to the other advice someone gave, practice and experience really help give you a basis for what is truly unusual (CXI? JQA?) and what is general creativity you see in a lot of puzzles (3 clues about blue, 3 clues about movies, 2 clues about school locations, etc). But after about 75 weeks (1.5 years) of me doing this, each meta is unique, so in a way every week is a new experience that previous experience may not help. Frustrating but fun. As others have pointed out, these past two weeks have been very unique and don't follow a lot of general rules.

[woozy]

I’m a newbie, I am clueless as to how one is supposed to know which letters to pick to look at. The pattern was ABC…. But large words were left out. Trying to swim ashore, but lost at sea.

The F(r)U(strati)N(g) thing is there are no set rules. You are only supposed to recognize odd patterns and hints that can be *anywhere*. And what to *do* with them can be anything.

I got a hint to look at some of the early entries and I noticed the first three AZul (nothing weird except Z is an unusual letter) and BYname (weird entry) and CXii (usually these "I had to connect letters that didn't fit with roman numerals or obscure acronyms occur in the middle of the grid) and after two *days* I notice the AZ, BY, CX pattern. Then I just looked for the other *specifically*

[hoover]

One thing that helped with this week's meta was this Mechapuzzle thing that someone mentioned in a thread long ago. It might also be on the "Start Here" forum. One thing it surfaced was that the puzzle is a pangram, as someone mentioned above. In other weeks, it might reveal oddities such as no letter E, unusually high number of letter C, etc.

[Deb F]

I was convinced it had to do with remembering important dates i.e. 7D--Dress to the NINES and 11A--CXI hence 9/11. Figured this was the beginning of step 1 and the word would start with SC... That was the end of that thread but it doesn't mean I didn't keep trying to find something there.

Never would have solved without ZooMuggles so I didn't submit. But I sure appreciate the help from that clever group and not spending my weekend laboring over it.

Have a good week, Muggles.

[KWStein]

We thought we had it! My wife made a legitimate guess that the answer was "VETERANS". The central word going down is VET, and it is the only other grid answer that belongs in the pattern. Agree that you have to skip M through U to get there. But the title "Never Forget" is also appropriate for this answer.

We thought of MNEMONICS, but figured VETERANS was a better answer. It got us mentally onshore and we enjoyed the beverages!


Cheers,

Kerry

[Janet]

This one was tough! I thought it had to be memorial or something similar.
Ah well, Thursday is only 3 days away.

[woozy]

Screenshot 2024-03-23 4.15.28 PM.png

I would say that I am now a little less concerned about generative AI taking all our jobs...

Well, I, for one have just become more concerned!

[Bob cruise director]

@femullen Your book arrived today and it was much, much better than listening to the news with the possible exception of the weather. Great job and I am looking forward to a birthday posting of 2024 (and repeating 2023 since that was after the book was published). My plan is to print and staple each year's missive.

Thanks for bringing a smile to the day.

Bob

p.s. I read my wife Age and Contributing Factors and we both had tears in our eyes. She said as she has many times since I started doing metas "you hang around with some strange people" and she love it when I do.

[Craven_Mug_Craver]

Terrific! Well done!!

[Craven_Mug_Craver]

It's my lucky week. I won the Mug! woot woot

Terrific! Well done!!

[RDaleHall]

Spent a lot of time on this one looking for a pattern concerning DWELLING ON; CLOGGING UP; and ON UP. Thought maybe that IN ON and ON UP would have us all looking for an 8-letter word that could precede "IN". But a definite herring there.

It's almost as if previous Gaffney fills had me looking at some of the stranger entries and thinking "Yep, that's just a standard fill here..." Why bother with CXI and JQA when it feels so... normal (?) Very fun puzzle overall and love the creativity.

[Colin]

Bought Frank Mullen’s book,
Is the t-shirt coming soon?
Or docudrama?

[Joe Ross]

CLOGGING UP
CHURCH YARD
DWELLING ON
DAYS TO COME
ERNIE'S/EMMA/EARL EULOGY
EVIL E __ __ __ __ __ __ __

Unfortunately, interwebbing "CLOGGING UP CHURCH YARD DWELLING ON DAYS TO COME" yielded nothing useful.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Sometimes tougher-than-usual puzzles make for good rabbit hole stories, like last week’s “Flight of Fancy”, but sometimes not. Such was the case with this week’s “Never Forget” puzzle.

Amazingly, Mr. Gaffney packed a dozen continuous across entries with “alphabetically symmetrical letter pairs”, inviting the solver to find a word beginning with the missing pair M&N. That would be MNEMONIC and we’re off to the races.

A couple of serious distractions, most notably one that gave Muggles the blues. AZUL, ANIL and AQUA entries led nowhere, as did FUNERAL, CHURCH YARD, DAYS TO COME etc., providing another dead end.

As much as your Rabbit wishes he could nominate the tale from ChatGPT as explained in Mister Squawk’s Post #236, he has no intention of going down that rabbit hole.

So, how to end this nominee-less week?

Once again you Muggles are faster than this hare, finding most of the easy pickings regarding mnemonics on the web. (A special shout out to chart (Post #239) for providing the one regarding the names of the Great Lakes.)

So, instead, your Rabbit will go in a different direction. Ever heard of “The Penske Games?” It’s a competition in the broadest sense, asking racing car drivers from around the globe to compete in various challenges like “Pictionary”, “Cup Stacking” and “Chubby Bunny” (your Rabbit’s favorite).

He will leave you with the game of “The Backwards Alphabet”, which this week’s puzzle brought to mind. Enjoy and see you next time.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is MNEMONIC. 12 grid answers start with alphabetically symmetrical letter pairs, forming a pattern that begins with AZUL, BYNAME and CXI . The rest are DWELLING ON, EVIL, FUNERAL, GTE, HSN, IRON, JQA, KPDUTY and LOOT. The final two letters to complete the pattern are MN, suggesting (in conjunction with the title) the contest answer.

We thought this was quite a tricky one--it certainly stumped us at puzzle HQ. We were impressed by the success rate: 737 entries (a little lower than usual), about 76% correct (right in line with usual). Other guesses (more than one self-identified as a Hail Mary) included REMEMBER (28), MEMORIAL (27), OBITUARY (16), and MOURNING (4).

Congrats to this week's winner: John Streitz of Duluth, Minn.!

[flepper]

Wait a minute, I thought the winner was selected at random? I smell a conspiracy given the winner is from MN this week!

[femullen]

@femullen Your book arrived today and it was much, much better than listening to the news with the possible exception of the weather. Great job and I am looking forward to a birthday posting of 2024 (and repeating 2023 since that was after the book was published). My plan is to print and staple each year's missive.

Thanks for bringing a smile to the day.

Bob

p.s. I read my wife Age and Contributing Factors and we both had tears in our eyes. She said as she has many times since I started doing metas "you hang around with some strange people" and she love it when I do.

@Bob cruise director, you are very kind, and I thank you for the favourable review. Even if my next quarterly royalties don't exceed a dollar, I feel well rewarded.

In threatening to publish my annual birthday doggerel, however, you are compounding the pressure I suffer from the publisher, who wants another and better book. And here I thought retirement would be a chance to relax! But since you mentioned it, and because I hold you (and all Muggles) in high esteem, and also simply for completeness, this was 2023's birthday doggerel:
~~

Running Out the Calendar

I used to run five-minute miles when I was young and lean.
Most recently I finished in a blazing nine-fifteen.

I've given up the protein powder--muscles up and went.
The powder in my glass these days? A fiber supplement.

I've given up the shot of Scotch before I go to bed.
The doctor says my health demands I drink warm milk instead.

I fall asleep too early now; I cannot stay up late.
I haven't been out partying since nineteen-ninety-eight.

I used to go out every night for dinner or for wining.
The early-bird at Denny's now is what I call fine dining.

These symptoms seem to indicate a general decay,
And could, in weaker men than me, be cause for deep dismay.

But I can face them bravely, for I have a stratagem:
A few more years, and I am sure I won't remember them.

[Bob cruise director]

@femullen Your book arrived today and it was much, much better than listening to the news with the possible exception of the weather. Great job and I am looking forward to a birthday posting of 2024 (and repeating 2023 since that was after the book was published). My plan is to print and staple each year's missive.

Thanks for bringing a smile to the day.

Bob

p.s. I read my wife Age and Contributing Factors and we both had tears in our eyes. She said as she has many times since I started doing metas "you hang around with some strange people" and she love it when I do.

@Bob cruise director, you are very kind, and I thank you for the favourable review. Even if my next quarterly royalties don't exceed a dollar, I feel well rewarded.

In threatening to publish my annual birthday doggerel, however, you are compounding the pressure I suffer from the publisher, who wants another and better book. And here I thought retirement would be a chance to relax! But since you mentioned it, and because I hold you (and all Muggles) in high esteem, and also simply for completeness, this was 2023's birthday doggerel:
~~

Running Out the Calendar

I used to run five-minute miles when I was young and lean.
Most recently I finished in a blazing nine-fifteen.

I've given up the protein powder--muscles up and went.
The powder in my glass these days? A fiber supplement.

I've given up the shot of Scotch before I go to bed.
The doctor says my health demands I drink warm milk instead.

I fall asleep too early now; I cannot stay up late.
I haven't been out partying since nineteen-ninety-eight.

I used to go out every night for dinner or for wining.
The early-bird at Denny's now is what I call fine dining.

These symptoms seem to indicate a general decay,
And could, in weaker men than me, be cause for deep dismay.

But I can face them bravely, for I have a stratagem:
A few more years, and I am sure I won't remember them.

ROTFL - I have printed this out and added it to the book.

[straffin]

...I noticed the first three entries started with ABC, and then had ZYX.

I had given up. This small of a hint got me to the answer. Not soon enough for a mug, but before the answer was revealed. I'll call that a "win".