"Horseplay" - October 18, 2019

A place to discuss the weekly Wall Street Journal Crossword Puzzle Contest, starting every Thursday around 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Please do not post any answers or hints before the contest deadline which is midnight Sunday Eastern time.
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jenirvin
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#181

Post by jenirvin »

Like many others, I saw three possibilities - A to Z; S to T (first to last square); and K to T. I was so disorganized in my thoughts, I kept bouncing back and forth between paths, and finally decided to stick with the KNIGHT route - the directions to solve being pretty obvious from the start, and a clear reference to that clue. Finally got it all together to reach the destination. It wasn't pretty and it was an unnecessary slog for me. Starting in the last square I worked back and found SUNSET, and thought for a hot minute we were talking westerns (riding off into the sunset) - could it be The Lone Ranger and Tonto? Butch and Sundance? - but that didn't make sense with all the kanigitty (Python) stuff I was struck by, nor were those answers the correct length. Lovely puzzle.
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FirstMax
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#182

Post by FirstMax »

I made all the same mistakes: black squares, upper left, A to Z. My big break through was that when you are knighted you become a Sir, so S is the first letter. So I quickly found Sir and the solve followed. Dumb luck!
Also, using the knight method, and allowing for backtracking over a letter twice, you can spell Kiki Dee (don’t go breaking my heart) and Han Solo (a space cowboy).
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Bird Lives
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#183

Post by Bird Lives »

There's a chess/math problem called The Knight's Tour. The challenge is to move a knight around the board so that it lands on each of the 64 squares once and only once. My guess was that this was Mike's inspiration for this one.
Jay
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DrTom
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#184

Post by DrTom »

Bird Lives wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:58 am There's a chess/math problem called The Knight's Tour. The challenge is to move a knight around the board so that it lands on each of the 64 squares once and only once. My guess was that this was Mike's inspiration for this one.
And do not think for a moment that I didn't see that and say Aha, GOT you Mike, then looked a a Knight's Tour example and said - "Not even Mike could be that devious!" That's not a pageant it's a week at Burning Man.
knights_tour.jpg
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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Tom Shea
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#185

Post by Tom Shea »

DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:18 am Well this was a crazy week! I first tried “backsolving” and looking for FLICKA, MR. ED, FURY, NATIONAL VELVET and of course that did not pan out. I tried MARTIN DYSART and ALAN STRANG (I mean really, Horse Play!) but they too were not in there. I finally realized that the long clue was WAY too specific and that the puzzle had to do with a KNIGHT and, luckily, knowing how they moved I figured would put me on the right track. But I got too complicated in deciphering the clue – Start at the first letter and finish at the last. Almost a Knight’s move away were 60 and 62A one starting with A the other with Z so I started the Camelot three step and got NOWHERE except, well nowhere. I thought, well maybe it is Kasparov or Fisher or Magnus Carlsen but those letters were also not there AND it seemed a real stretch to call them “well known”. I also tried starting at another A (the first one I found) and moving to the Z and going from Square 1 to the ends of the NYT – still nothing. Finally it hit me – do what Mike asks Tom - and I started at the first letter K and went for a knightly META do-si-do to land on I, one more move and I get N ….LIGHTBULB…..quickly I look at the last letter and it’s a T; a capital L away is an O and another L of a thing arrives at L. At that point I was pretty positive I had it, but went through the grid and, sure enough, 23 moves later I had KING ARTHUR and SIR LANCELOT. Now here is the question I have for all the other solvers, did anyone else think that connecting the squares yielded a rather suspiciously KNIGHT looking figure or was I just brainwashed at that point?

Anyway, I got I backwards but I got it and I’ll take it. The construction was amazing but I have to tell you were it not for that lucky first step to I and then to N I’d have been looking for a famous KSOHE and wondering what in the world that had to do with chess, knights or famous. Was ther anyone who tried all of the possible paths or figured out a more logical way to "frontsolve" it?
I didn't know whether to start in top left or with the K in Knight. Once I got to KING, it was all downhill. I did stop along the way with the characters from Equus.

The figure it draws looks like a rabbit to me!
Rufus T. Firefly
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DrTom
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#186

Post by DrTom »

DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:10 am
Bird Lives wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:58 am There's a chess/math problem called The Knight's Tour. The challenge is to move a knight around the board so that it lands on each of the 64 squares once and only once. My guess was that this was Mike's inspiration for this one.
And do not think for a moment that I didn't see that and say Aha, GOT you Mike, then looked a a Knight's Tour example and said - "Not even Mike could be that devious!" That's not a pageant it's a week at Burning Man.knights_tour.jpg
Besides, I think it spells something dirty....
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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DrTom
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#187

Post by DrTom »

Tom Shea wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:12 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:18 am Well this was a crazy week! I first tried “backsolving” and looking for FLICKA, MR. ED, FURY, NATIONAL VELVET and of course that did not pan out. I tried MARTIN DYSART and ALAN STRANG (I mean really, Horse Play!) but they too were not in there. I finally realized that the long clue was WAY too specific and that the puzzle had to do with a KNIGHT and, luckily, knowing how they moved I figured would put me on the right track. But I got too complicated in deciphering the clue – Start at the first letter and finish at the last. Almost a Knight’s move away were 60 and 62A one starting with A the other with Z so I started the Camelot three step and got NOWHERE except, well nowhere. I thought, well maybe it is Kasparov or Fisher or Magnus Carlsen but those letters were also not there AND it seemed a real stretch to call them “well known”. I also tried starting at another A (the first one I found) and moving to the Z and going from Square 1 to the ends of the NYT – still nothing. Finally it hit me – do what Mike asks Tom - and I started at the first letter K and went for a knightly META do-si-do to land on I, one more move and I get N ….LIGHTBULB…..quickly I look at the last letter and it’s a T; a capital L away is an O and another L of a thing arrives at L. At that point I was pretty positive I had it, but went through the grid and, sure enough, 23 moves later I had KING ARTHUR and SIR LANCELOT. Now here is the question I have for all the other solvers, did anyone else think that connecting the squares yielded a rather suspiciously KNIGHT looking figure or was I just brainwashed at that point?

Anyway, I got I backwards but I got it and I’ll take it. The construction was amazing but I have to tell you were it not for that lucky first step to I and then to N I’d have been looking for a famous KSOHE and wondering what in the world that had to do with chess, knights or famous. Was ther anyone who tried all of the possible paths or figured out a more logical way to "frontsolve" it?
I didn't know whether to start in top left or with the K in Knight. Once I got to KING, it was all downhill. I did stop along the way with the characters from Equus.

The figure it draws looks like a rabbit to me!
I shot a rabbit in my pajamas one time...what it was doing in my pajamas I have no idea!
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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DrTom
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#188

Post by DrTom »

DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:16 am
Tom Shea wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:12 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:18 am Well this was a crazy week! I first tried “backsolving” and looking for FLICKA, MR. ED, FURY, NATIONAL VELVET and of course that did not pan out. I tried MARTIN DYSART and ALAN STRANG (I mean really, Horse Play!) but they too were not in there. I finally realized that the long clue was WAY too specific and that the puzzle had to do with a KNIGHT and, luckily, knowing how they moved I figured would put me on the right track. But I got too complicated in deciphering the clue – Start at the first letter and finish at the last. Almost a Knight’s move away were 60 and 62A one starting with A the other with Z so I started the Camelot three step and got NOWHERE except, well nowhere. I thought, well maybe it is Kasparov or Fisher or Magnus Carlsen but those letters were also not there AND it seemed a real stretch to call them “well known”. I also tried starting at another A (the first one I found) and moving to the Z and going from Square 1 to the ends of the NYT – still nothing. Finally it hit me – do what Mike asks Tom - and I started at the first letter K and went for a knightly META do-si-do to land on I, one more move and I get N ….LIGHTBULB…..quickly I look at the last letter and it’s a T; a capital L away is an O and another L of a thing arrives at L. At that point I was pretty positive I had it, but went through the grid and, sure enough, 23 moves later I had KING ARTHUR and SIR LANCELOT. Now here is the question I have for all the other solvers, did anyone else think that connecting the squares yielded a rather suspiciously KNIGHT looking figure or was I just brainwashed at that point?

Anyway, I got I backwards but I got it and I’ll take it. The construction was amazing but I have to tell you were it not for that lucky first step to I and then to N I’d have been looking for a famous KSOHE and wondering what in the world that had to do with chess, knights or famous. Was ther anyone who tried all of the possible paths or figured out a more logical way to "frontsolve" it?
I didn't know whether to start in top left or with the K in Knight. Once I got to KING, it was all downhill. I did stop along the way with the characters from Equus.

The figure it draws looks like a rabbit to me!
I shot a rabbit in my pajamas one time...what it was doing in my pajamas I have no idea!
With your Avatar Tom I could simply not resist.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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Tom Shea
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#189

Post by Tom Shea »

DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:17 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:16 am
Tom Shea wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:12 am

I didn't know whether to start in top left or with the K in Knight. Once I got to KING, it was all downhill. I did stop along the way with the characters from Equus.

The figure it draws looks like a rabbit to me!
I shot a rabbit in my pajamas one time...what it was doing in my pajamas I have no idea!
With your Avatar Tom I could simply not resist.
Well, I'd never join a club that would have me as a member. Fortunately, there is no admission screening here!
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CPJohnson
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#190

Post by CPJohnson »

I mean moving across the black squares to get the answer...very crossword-no no.
[/quote]

I'm pretty sure we've had other metas using the black squares....can't think of which ones right now.
Cynthia
bobbydeee
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#191

Post by bobbydeee »

DrTom wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:57 am Down past the first row where the words got heavy
Sat in my desk seat with pencils ready
Workin' out those knight moves
Trying' to make some blog page contest news
Workin' out those knight moves in the autumn time
In the sweet autumn time
Workin’ on a mystery with across and down clues?
Jeanrosz
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#192

Post by Jeanrosz »

Where is Monday’s crossword online?
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Bird Lives
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#193

Post by Bird Lives »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:25 am I mean moving across the black squares to get the answer...very crossword-no no.
I'm pretty sure we've had other metas using the black squares....can't think of which ones right now.
[/quote]

A knight can jump across occupied squares. (In many chess openings, the second move has the knight jumping over the row of pawns in front of it.) Now if the meta had involved a bishop or rook . . . .
Jay
damefox
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#194

Post by damefox »

Jeanrosz wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:08 am Where is Monday’s crossword online?
https://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/category/crossword/

Click on the Monday one, then click on "Download PDF." The solution to Friday's meta is in the bottom-right corner of the PDF version.
damefox
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#195

Post by damefox »

tim1217 wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:30 am
I mean moving across the black squares to get the answer...very crossword-no no.
Yeah, that threw me off for a while. I kept looking for paths that didn't cross the black squares. Eventually my boyfriend back-solved it and figured it had to be KING ARTHUR AND SIR LANCELOT because the first three letters were easily KIN and all of LANCELOT can be found without crossing the black squares (also that's exactly 24 letters). It would've been a little more elegant if you never needed to cross the black squares. I would guess that Mike attempted to construct it that way and found it was either plain impossible or just impossible while still keeping the grid up to WSJ standard.
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hcbirker
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#196

Post by hcbirker »

BethA wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:12 am I broke through by starting at the end. Lancelot worked out pretty easily using the chess knight move. Had part of king and part of Arthur, but finally saw that the black squares could be used as the others. All came together.


Cincy moved up to #18!
That's exactly how I came up with it! (Heidi)
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Wendy Walker
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#197

Post by Wendy Walker »

Laura M wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:41 am 24 letters starting with K and ending with T seemed to be the parameters (though I did try other start/end points when those didn't seem to be working). The path started K-I-N, and KING seemed promising given the chess theme, but I couldn't get to a G. Finally I thought, I must have something really wrong in the grid, maybe I'll have better luck going the other way? Many wrong guesses later, I got most of the way backwards through LANCELOT before getting stuck again--and the penny finally dropped that I had been assuming that I couldn't move through the black parts of the grid. Of course, in chess you move on both black and white squares!

In conclusion, please enjoy (if this works) a picture of my daughter as an unnamed Knight of the Round Table in her high school Spamalot production a couple of years ago:

Edit: Didn't seem to work, but here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/Zt3 ... Y-K9-_0s_C
Great photo!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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Joe Ross
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#198

Post by Joe Ross »

Screenshot_20191021-100227.png

Brilliant puzzle! Its solution was beyond me. Congratulations to those who solved! I imagine that the AHA!s were satisfying.

Links were posted to the solution, but here is the visual. If you squint & forget the tail, you can almost imagine that it outlines a rearing horse, with its face turned away, no ears, legs a single stump, .... [EDIT: Seems I had the same thoughts about the possible appearance of a horse as LauraB, of Diary of a Crossword Fiend, which is coincidental.]
Last edited by Joe Ross on Mon Oct 21, 2019 11:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deb F
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#199

Post by Deb F »

I guess I can take some solace in knowing I got the KNIGHT and thought there might be something in how the knight moves. Had to go to Google to figure that part out but, even armed with that info, never came up with the starting point or how it worked in the puzzle. So I'll just pony up to the bar and wait for Friday. Good luck, all.
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Janet P
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#200

Post by Janet P »

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:42 am Like most others, I started with the upper left S , then tried the A-Z red herring, all the while forgetting that the knight can leap across any color squares on the board to get where he’s going. Finally I raised the white flag and got a nudge that sent me to the correct starting point. Quickly saw that the blacks had to be in play.
Did anyone else spend time looking for characters from Through the Looking Glass?
All chess, all the time for Alice there.
Great great meta. Way to go, Mike.
I did not submit the answer, to keep the mug odds fair for solo solvers.
Nice to know I wasn't the only one who spent some time with Alice this week!
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