"Grid Daring" - February 14, 2020

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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Al Sisti
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#261

Post by Al Sisti »

howardl wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:24 pm Replying to Eagle who spent time "trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN". I have a rule in solving these (attempting to solve): if there is an anagram necessary to the answer it is very short and obvious, so looking for anagrams to a 10 letter sequence means you are barking up the wrong rabbit hole.
I caught FERKNSNAAN at Lollapalooza a couple years back... they rocked!
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MarkL
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#262

Post by MarkL »

.
Last edited by MarkL on Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:36 pm, edited 5 times in total.
'tis... A lovely day for a Guinness!
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MarkL
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#263

Post by MarkL »

Al Sisti wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:21 pm
howardl wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 1:24 pm Replying to Eagle who spent time "trying to anagram FERKNSNAAN". I have a rule in solving these (attempting to solve): if there is an anagram necessary to the answer it is very short and obvious, so looking for anagrams to a 10 letter sequence means you are barking up the wrong rabbit hole.
I caught FERKNSNAAN at Lollapalooza a couple years back... they rocked!
That's weird. A new Indian restaurant just opened here with that name.
'tis... A lovely day for a Guinness!
Tom Wilson
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#264

Post by Tom Wilson »

Oh, to be as cultured as Al. Here in rural Pennsylvania, we have to settle for biennial visits from a FERKNSNAAN cover band.
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Janet
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#265

Post by Janet »

Tom Wilson wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 2:58 pm Oh, to be as cultured as Al. Here in rural Pennsylvania, we have to settle for biennial visits from a FERKNSNAAN cover band.
Have you seen the FERKNSNAAN impersonators in Las Vegas? Their show is great! I hear they may even be booked onto the Love Boat's next cruise.
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MajordomoTom
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#266

Post by MajordomoTom »

I think Isaac might have a case of the 1984 vintage FERKNSNAAN in the back room.

or is that an Indian cuisine I've not yet tried? FERKNS NAAN?
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Al Sisti
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#267

Post by Al Sisti »

howardl: Dude, see what you started??
Dplass
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#268

Post by Dplass »

Geoduck wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:40 am I'm still unclear on how some people got part 2 but not part 1.

How did people get OPERAS out of the puzzle?
Acha. This is the first of my three complaints about this puzzle. As promised:

a. There was no mechanism to get "ER" at all. This is the fatal flaw.
2. The description was a "ten letter entertainment category". This is disingenuous, because the answer, while it *totals* to 10 letters, is made up of a 4 letter and a 6 letter word; it's not a 10-letter word. I'll admit this is a bit of poetic license but it still bugged me.
iii. The title, while it followed the pattern, contributed zero to the letters of the answer. Red herring? Maybe.

Rant over.
DaveWa
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#269

Post by DaveWa »

Dplass wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:14 pm
Geoduck wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:40 am I'm still unclear on how some people got part 2 but not part 1.

How did people get OPERAS out of the puzzle?
Acha. This is the first of my three complaints about this puzzle. As promised:

a. There was no mechanism to get "ER" at all. This is the fatal flaw.
2. The description was a "ten letter entertainment category". This is disingenuous, because the answer, while it *totals* to 10 letters, is made up of a 4 letter and a 6 letter word; it's not a 10-letter word. I'll admit this is a bit of poetic license but it still bugged me.
iii. The title, while it followed the pattern, contributed zero to the letters of the answer. Red herring? Maybe.

Rant over.
I had a fourth. Who knew that soap operas were an entertainment category? ;)
Geoduck
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#270

Post by Geoduck »

Dplass wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 6:14 pm
Geoduck wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 9:40 am I'm still unclear on how some people got part 2 but not part 1.

How did people get OPERAS out of the puzzle?
Acha. This is the first of my three complaints about this puzzle. As promised:

a. There was no mechanism to get "ER" at all. This is the fatal flaw.
2. The description was a "ten letter entertainment category". This is disingenuous, because the answer, while it *totals* to 10 letters, is made up of a 4 letter and a 6 letter word; it's not a 10-letter word. I'll admit this is a bit of poetic license but it still bugged me.
iii. The title, while it followed the pattern, contributed zero to the letters of the answer. Red herring? Maybe.

Rant over.
a. Yes, there was. All four theme entries and the title provided the key, which is a pattern. Sure, they didn't give you the letters you needed to add to "SOAP to get the answer, but it was pretty easy to figure them out.

2. The description said it was a category. It didn't say it was a word. Categories need not be single words.

iii. The title wasn't a red herring. It provided a piece of the puzzle. No red herring.

IV (for DaveWa): Agreed. Although my mother seemed to become addicted to them.

ℇ: None of what you wrote explains how some people claim to have figured out the second part but couldn't get the first, which is what I asked. I interpret their claim to mean they got OPERAS but had no idea how to get SOAP. I'm open to correction on this, if they meant something else.
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FrankieHeck
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#271

Post by FrankieHeck »

Did anyone actually say they got the second part and not the first? I've seen lots of post asking how it's possible, but I don't remember seeing anyone actually claim that.
Nlobb
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#272

Post by Nlobb »

Well, I have a novel but wrong solution!! I used the 4 theme entries and the title and came up with the leftover 10 letters to spell Nerf arenas. This does fit the 4 letter, 6 letter idea... Anyway I wouldn't have gotten it from soap. What does grid daring have to do with the answer?????
In my behalf, I had almost no time to think about the puzzle as I was busy planning a trip and drinking Guinness... Better luck next time.
Nlobb
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#273

Post by Nlobb »

Plus Nerf arenas sound much more entertaining than soap operas...
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Jacksull
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#274

Post by Jacksull »

Each of the four theme entries consists of a four letter and a six letter word. The format of the entries is: add two letters to the first word to get an anagram of the second word. The title shares this format. The added letters from the entries lead to SOAP. Add ER to SOAP and anagram to OPERAS.

But... Where did the ER come from? And does the title have any significance other than the format?

I am going to wait until the official solution is published before complaining about this one.
Jack Sullivan
Nlobb
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#275

Post by Nlobb »

A great answer to grid daring would have been meta puzzle!!
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CPJohnson
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#276

Post by CPJohnson »

I spent a lot of time looking for instances of AN in the grid, since those were extra letters from DARING. I especially looked for the pattern AN[letter] to match the 3-letter grid words. And, I really tried to find AN next to, or including, the letters in OPERAS. I found them, but there was no consistent pattern. So I went with soap operas, even though I couldn’t deduce operas. I agree with #274 Jacksull.
Cynthia
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#277

Post by Geoduck »

MajordomoTom wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:06 pm
Inca wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 1:06 pm I'm quite sure I have the correct solution (it's too perfect to be otherwise) but some have posted that they got the 2nd half but can't find the first and that has me wondering how that's possible.
agreed
Yes, at least one person claimed to have the second part first, and these two other posters, like me, would like to know how that is possible.
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MajordomoTom
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#278

Post by MajordomoTom »

I also wanted, badly, for there to be a path to an "ER" in the puzzle.

But his book is full of "the answer to this meta would be an excellent 5th theme answer", so ... he has done this before (and will do it again).

Title should have been

DIVA VARIED

That would have provided the "ER" and also the "opera" theme.
Last edited by MajordomoTom on Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Bob cruise director
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#279

Post by Bob cruise director »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2020 7:35 pm I spent a lot of time looking for instances of AN in the grid, since those were extra letters from DARING. I especially looked for the pattern AN[letter] to match the 3-letter grid words. And, I really tried to find AN next to, or including, the letters in OPERAS. I found them, but there was no consistent pattern. So I went with soap operas, even though I couldn’t deduce operas. I agree with #274 Jacksull.
The only AN in the grid was 27A CAAN. I tried all combinations of SOAPAN and could not make any words from them. I tried going backwards to make sense of ER and that did not get me anywhere either.
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MajordomoTom
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#280

Post by MajordomoTom »

or, and why hasn't anyone seen this already ...

GRID GIRDER?
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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