"Left Up In The Air" May 24, 2024

[Cap'n Rick]

Just got back from a quick trip to PA and finally got a chance to work on this one. It was another "quick trip" (and actually kinda familiar...)

Count me "Ashore", @Bob cruise director!

[Bob cruise director]

Good evening muggles

Our final count is 16 on the ship and 162 on the shore

Good luck winning the mug and have a safe Memorial Day

[VanVeen]

Solved on Thursday, but submitting now in the hopes a last minute email ups may chances of winning.

[Libbypibby]

Ashore! Under the wire and no nudges. Just a lot of looking! Phew

[woozy]

Yeep! I forgot to submit and ... *oh* phew. 6 minutes to spare.

[hcbirker]

[Bill Bovard]

I had a few four-letter words in mind but I restrained myself.

[Damaged]

[Colin]

I was on the wrong cruise ship and (literally) on the wrong shore. But it was gorgeous here in Cornwall, England.
Well done solvers!

[RST]

As an alternative, I submitted "drib." As the inverse of "bird," this answer matches the left to right form of the theme answers which "tern" fails to do. As a synonym of driblet or drop, I suggest that it is a better fit for "what's left up in the air" than "tern."

[Flying_Burrito]

As a synonym of driblet or drop, I suggest that it is a better fit for "what's left up in the air" than "tern."

Certainly creative. The tern is another bird so from a fitness standpoint the answer is solid. I saw Hawk pretty quickly, but I wished - like probably others did as well - that the 1st step would have included a left AND up mechanism.

[flepper]

I thought this puzzle was a nice tip of the hat to the muggles in that I knew I was ashore when I saw the tern!

[Sleepy]

Loved this puzzle. Anyone else think this answer was kind of punny? Can’t wait to read @mikeB’s take on solving this one!

[Joe Ross]

As an alternative, I submitted "drib." As the inverse of "bird," this answer matches the left to right form of the theme answers which "tern" fails to do. As a synonym of driblet or drop, I suggest that it is a better fit for "what's left up in the air" than "tern."

TERN is a homophone of TURN. All birds noted in the Theme Entries had their letters TURNed 180°.

Patrick Berry doesn't create these details by chance.

[ship4u]

Brings to mind the song:

To everything, TERN, TERN, TERN,
There is a season, TERN, TERN, TERN,
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.

Of course, it was a song by the Byrds!

[damefox]

Patrick Berry doesn't create these details by chance.

Speaking of... what's up with FASTENUP, INHERENT, and AIREDALES? This was so distracting. The only purpose they seem to serve is to make you realize NOSTALGIC is an outlier, and then the clue for NOSTALGIC tells you what to do. But... why? This actually seems pretty haphazard and inelegant to me, two words I don't usually associate with Patrick Berry puzzles. There is just no way those three entries are an accident, but there also doesn't seem to be a good reason for them to be there. There are a million other routes he could've gone to get people to think along the "look backwards" line. And also, what's up with the clue for INN?? [Airbnb alternative] - why??? I don't understand why he included all these distractions. They don't seem to add anything to the puzzle, which once you see the actual mechanism is very straightforward. What am I missing about this?

[Yoda66]

Patrick Berry doesn't create these details by chance.

There are a million other routes he could've gone to get people to think along the "look backwards" line.

I mean, the title did say "left" which indicates 'go backwards'. There were plenty of 'INs' embedded in the answers, but that's the case with many other grids. I thought it was the typical elegant PB.

[Joe Ross]

Patrick Berry doesn't create these details by chance.

Speaking of... what's up with FASTENUP, INHERENT, and AIREDALES? This was so distracting. The only purpose they seem to serve is to make you realize NOSTALGIC is an outlier, and then the clue for NOSTALGIC tells you what to do. But... why? This actually seems pretty haphazard and inelegant to me, two words I don't usually associate with Patrick Berry puzzles. There is just no way those three entries are an accident, but there also doesn't seem to be a good reason for them to be there. There are a million other routes he could've gone to get people to think along the "look backwards" line. And also, what's up with the clue for INN?? [Airbnb alternative] - why??? I don't understand why he included all these distractions. They don't seem to add anything to the puzzle, which once you see the actual mechanism is very straightforward. What am I missing about this?

Maybe the key is that Pat Berry's puzzles of all stripes are simple, at heart. Simple And Difficult, sometimes, but straightforward.

I'm stuck tugging similar mind-bending, frustrating spaghetti trails on MGWCC #834. Unfortunately, they're all well-past al dente & snap when tested.

[Zobo3737]

Patrick Berry doesn't create these details by chance.

Speaking of... what's up with FASTENUP, INHERENT, and AIREDALES? This was so distracting. The only purpose they seem to serve is to make you realize NOSTALGIC is an outlier, and then the clue for NOSTALGIC tells you what to do. But... why? This actually seems pretty haphazard and inelegant to me, two words I don't usually associate with Patrick Berry puzzles. There is just no way those three entries are an accident, but there also doesn't seem to be a good reason for them to be there. There are a million other routes he could've gone to get people to think along the "look backwards" line. And also, what's up with the clue for INN?? [Airbnb alternative] - why??? I don't understand why he included all these distractions. They don't seem to add anything to the puzzle, which once you see the actual mechanism is very straightforward. What am I missing about this?

This is when being simple-minded helps. Four letters in the Meta, 4 horizontal themers. Go there first. I never gave any of those distractions a thought. I probably should have, esp
Airedales, but once I saw crow…

[Lyman]

Here's my not-very-long rabbit hole:

The title is "Left Up IN the Air." So perhaps "IN" is important.

There are four grid entries with "IN" as part of the entry: 44A (sIN), 47D (reINed), 63D (INn) and 5D (tIN). The letters adjacent to the IN in each case (in the case of reINed, on both sides of the IN) spell "SENT." Something that's been SENT, but not yet received, is "Up In the Air."

Of course, the letters forming SENT aren't in any order that I can discern, but sometimes an anagram is present. So I continued on to find the correct answer.