" WE’LL BE BACK SHORTLY" January 26, 2024

[billkatz]

I'm safely ashore (while riding the company bus home)

[Miki]

Grid was the hardest I've seen in a while. At least the meta was easy.

Kombucha for me.

[Schmeel]

Ashore!

[BigPear]

Ashore!

[C=64]

Ashore The grid gave me more trouble than usual; lots of short answers and proper names. Then after a few minutes of with the meta, I reread the title and saw the way. (I really don't think it's much of a spoiler, but better to play it safe.)

[dot]

Ashore. Had to sleep on it. Yay!

[woozy]

It's a really weird feeling when you are trying things and trying things and eventually one of the things you try just works. No fanfare. No AHA. No dope slap. Just... oh that one seems to work.


Weird thing though. I actually went hours before I realized I hadn't actually bothered to read the prompt.

[steveb]

Saw nothing at first, set it aside, came back shortly, and there it was! Onshore

[Googly]

[Berto]

On the beach!
Tough grid, quick solve.
Nervously awaiting MGWCC…

[Streroto]

Still LAS. It would appear I am overthinking this but can't get a toehold. Hate it when everyone is swimming quickly to shore and I am drawing blanks!!

Plenty of time until Sunday midnight.

Stay well all!

[Mirage]

Ashore. Dragged there by my husband. A fresh look this morning helped.

[cheekumbaldy]

I clawed my way onto the ship. Hardest grid for me in months. Still too out of breath to think about the meta …

[KscX]

Ashore.

[KayW]

Joining the crowd on the shore

In the "I cudda been a contenda" category, after I opened the topic, I took my snowblower over to have the chute mechanism fixed, hopefully before the next significant snowstorm. And then there was dinner. If it had not been for these real life events, I would have been on page 1 (LOL)

Bob - LOVE your avatar this week.


But you and Tom gotta work on getting your priorities straight

As it did for Cruise Director Bob, real life - in my case, four hours in the garage waiting for installation of a new radiator - kept me from Thursday afternoon's true priority. Nevertheless, here I am, finally on shore, cartwheeling that I no longer leave a puddle of coolant wherever I park. (Don't eat the green snow.)

Have a good weekend, all. I retired at mid-month and am enjoying suddenly having a weekful of Saturdays.

Congratulations on your retirement, Tom!

[Toby]

I needed to do some research to solve the grid. Baffled for a while on the meta--when I saw it, it was more a DUH than an AHA moment.

[ImOnToo]

Have a good weekend, all. I retired at mid-month and am enjoying suddenly having a weekful of Saturdays.

I join your ranks 6/30/2024!

[WDunbar]

On shore. Saw this one pretty much right away. Nice construction.

[PHOFER]

On the shore, and it looks like it will be crowded. After Sunday midnight I’d be interested in seeing proposals for the best clue for the contest answer words (that is, a clue like the clues for the other theme answers).

[MatthewL]

Finally ashore. Completed grid, stared at it, stared at it some more, looked at all the comments on the board claiming it was the E word, stared at it some more, came back to the board and saw 5 pages of solvers, stared at it some more, crumpled my paper and threw it in the trash, vowed never to do metas again, retrieved paper from trash, stared at it some more, went to bed thinking about it, dreamt about it (literally), woke up thinking about it, drove to work, looked at it again, said "hey, that looks promising", aha! moment, said to myself "aren't metas the best?" All this to say -- Beer me!