"Chit Chat" Sept. 26, 2022

[Beth Tyrpin]

🏝

[DavyGravy]

OK I solved the grid and am working on the meta - but in the meantime I am admiring a GREAT CLUE at 57D. It needs to be nominated for clue of the year! Well done MS.

[Toby]

I had a sudden inspiration and then everything fell into place. Nice one.

[gdshort]

Same here, after a debacle last week!

[NebFaninCA]

Tricky, but I’m on shore

[boharr]

Ashore. The puzzle’s cleverness made me thirsty. Have to hit that Tiki bar.

[Scott M]

I've been tracking a new difficulty metric: TTCP1, or Time to Complete Page 1, which seems to be a pretty good proxy for the stats Mike Miller provides. At 59 minutes this week, this puts it in the top 30% of tough puzzles since I started tracking in late 2020. Based on this week's TTCP1, I'll estimate ~1300 entries with 74% correct.

And for the record, I have no beach in sight.

[Laura M]

On shore! Nice one, if slightly ambiguous. Had to backsolve a bit.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

At sea albeit a late start due to physical.

Update: Ashore. Didn't follow one of my "Always do this" rules and that added about 12 hours to solve. Good one!

[benchen71]

I've been tracking a new difficulty metric: TTCP1, or Time to Complete Page 1, which seems to be a pretty good proxy for the stats Mike Miller provides. At 59 minutes this week, this puts it in the top 30% of tough puzzles since I started tracking in late 2020. Based on this week's TTCP1, I'll estimate ~1300 entries with 74% correct.

And for the record, I have no beach in sight.

If the puzzle dropped at 6am, and the 20th post was at 7:59am, that's 1 hour 59 minutes. What's the TTCP1 of that? (Note: times relative to Melbourne, Australia.)

[Jace54]

On shore, second week in a row of enlightenment while walking home from the bus stop!

Took awhile to figure the last piece, then finally the aha moment came.

[LesY]

Solved. That did require two or three looks! Nice puzzle Mike.

[Dplass]

Hangin' out with Isaac. I see nothing, sadly.

[Dplass]

I've been tracking a new difficulty metric: TTCP1, or Time to Complete Page 1, which seems to be a pretty good proxy for the stats Mike Miller provides. At 59 minutes this week, this puts it in the top 30% of tough puzzles since I started tracking in late 2020. Based on this week's TTCP1, I'll estimate ~1300 entries with 74% correct.

And for the record, I have no beach in sight.

1300 entries with 74% correct doesn't smell like a tough puzzle... isn't that the average?

[M and M]

Very clever. Definitely a forehead slap.

[Joepickett]

Ok. I have step one and I hope the next step is in sight soon.

Have an answer now and I will take the rest of the night to figure out why it is right. Ashore!

[TeamDoubleTow]

Got this one fairly quickly for me but not 100% on the answer.

[oldjudge]

Guinness me. Was celebrating 40th birthday of my younger son and solved meta while driving home. Not recommended to drive and solve at the same time.

[kawaja]

Isaac ripped up my tab out of kindness, I suppose. Am having a brass plaque engraved for my regular seat- my version of Les Deux Magots. But the coffee here is not to be recommended.

[Scott M]

I've been tracking a new difficulty metric: TTCP1, or Time to Complete Page 1, which seems to be a pretty good proxy for the stats Mike Miller provides. At 59 minutes this week, this puts it in the top 30% of tough puzzles since I started tracking in late 2020. Based on this week's TTCP1, I'll estimate ~1300 entries with 74% correct.

And for the record, I have no beach in sight.

If the puzzle dropped at 6am, and the 20th post was at 7:59am, that's 1 hour 59 minutes. What's the TTCP1 of that? (Note: times relative to Melbourne, Australia.)

Whoops. I misread the time of entry #20. 119 minutes puts it in the top 15%. Revised estimate: 975 entries, 63% correct. And given that the TTCP2 is 401, that estimate may be high.