XWord Muggles Forum

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:15 pm

Limerick Savant wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:07 pm Thanks for the history Joe and I get the lost at sea metaphor but how does it translate to the couch? Have I been on the psychoanalysist’s couch because of my neurosis brought on by meta envy? And now I am cured! Or continuing the lost theme, have I been searching for that lost change (or tv remote or cell phone) that always seems to disappear between the cushions and now I’ve found it? BTW, OTC for me means I’m making a trip to CVS because my OA is acting up.

You'll have to ask Peter Abide. It was his idea, which was adopted by MMM solvers.

Oh! For Pete’s sake. Now I get it!

I'm off the couch and late to the party....even after BarbaraK and Cap'n Rick saying, "Look at what you've got!" Unconfirmed, but pretty sure it's right.

Edit: now confirmed.

Spoiler 1a did it for me. I get it, and I get it.

Off the couch now, delayed due to sloppiness that threw me off the track. The nudges were helpful to confirm, but mostly it was going back to my earlier thought and seeing what I had missed.

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:15 pm

Limerick Savant wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:07 pm Thanks for the history Joe and I get the lost at sea metaphor but how does it translate to the couch? Have I been on the psychoanalysist’s couch because of my neurosis brought on by meta envy? And now I am cured! Or continuing the lost theme, have I been searching for that lost change (or tv remote or cell phone) that always seems to disappear between the cushions and now I’ve found it? BTW, OTC for me means I’m making a trip to CVS because my OA is acting up.

You'll have to ask Peter Abide. It was his idea, which was adopted by MMM solvers.

Not really wanting to speak for Peter (and I'm sure as a lawyer he would not appreciate that anyway) but to me "Off the couch" was an indication that I had been sitting on the couch solving the puzzle and once I got the solve and the META I left the couch so "Off the Couch". The MEOW and "cat out of the bag" is fairly straightforward since once the cat is out of the bag all is revealed (and the cat is free to deposit hairballs anywhere). Beam me up, well I suppose that is just the opposite of the WSJ where you want to leave the Ship for shore, but with the MGWCC you want to leave the planet for the safety of the Enterprise.

By the way OTC means the same for me, but I hope that if you are on your way to CVS for something for OA that it is APAP (preferably SR) as NSAIDS (though distinctly better PGE2 Inhibitors) can cause an increase in SCR/decrease in CCL and affect RF if you are over 65! (I've got more abbreviations than PUNS!)

And yes Joe should be heartily commended for his ongoing contributions, even if he is out to launch.

Oops, in my haste to explain Off The Couch, I did not declare Off The Couch and after what tool way too long and I tried to complicate more than you can imagine, I believe I am currently roaming the living room (or flitting around really thinking I solved).

Opposite of (on the couch at sea).

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:42 pm Opposite of (on the couch at sea).

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Gives new meaning to channel surfing.

Late to the party, confirmed off the couch sans spoilers. Enjoyed the grid but needed Mr. G on a few of the answers. Thanks Jay!

DrTom wrote: ↑Thu Mar 25, 2021 1:37 pm


You'll have to ask Peter Abide. It was his idea, which was adopted by MMM solvers.

Not really wanting to speak for Peter (and I'm sure as a lawyer he would not appreciate that anyway) but to me "Off the couch" was an indication that I had been sitting on the couch solving the puzzle and once I got the solve and the META I left the couch so "Off the Couch".

That sounds right, sorta like the couch is a metaphor for the WSJ boat. Here is the thread from Week 3 of MMM (by a newbie constructor named Alex Sisti):

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=414

Due to Covid last Spring, there was no ACPT but a "Crossword Tournament From Your Couch". That's likely where I got it from.

The answer is SPRING BREAK — letters of SPRING in order, broken up by other letters. A Slinky is a spring (though as one solver specified, only the newer type made from plastic is technically a spring. The old metal ones are just stretchy things; I’m not sure I understand why, but I’ll take his word for it. So the proper title of the puzzle should have been Plastic Slinky Interruptions. My apologies to those who were misled.)
. .
This was not exactly a MGWCC Week 4. At closing time, the count of solvers off the couch and presumably floating about the room was 53.
. .
Some solvers noticed that the letter U is common to all the theme entries. That was inadvertent. It’s hard enough to come up with four phrases that don’t repeat the SPRING letters. I mean, look at the ridiculousness of the theme entries; and those were the best I could come up with. To do so without having one of the four remaining vowels in common was beyond me.

The history of this puzzle is this. Two weeks ago, when Brian announced that there would be no Monday Meta, someone (boharr?) commented that the MMM was on Spring Break. That gave me the idea, and I threw this one together fairly quickly and sent it to Brian at 11:00 pm that evening. But by then Schmeel had already checked in with a much better puzzle (“Kitty Corner”). So “Spring Break” was postponed, and in the one-week interim, spring break itself, unfortunately, became newsworthy.

Uh oh, looks like my goateed evil twin has found me on the leaderboard!

Or did I submit my answer broken into pieces?