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Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:27 pm
by zacmoretz
Maybe I missed it but I have not seen anyone mention the “middle C”. My beautiful Lisa who was a music major told me that all scales start at middle C. And there it was smack in the middle of the puzzle, the middle “sea”. That was the a-ha moment for us that pointed us to musical notes.

Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 10:30 pm
by BarbaraK
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 1:51 pm This was a holiday weekend blockbuster. We had 2587 entries, with about 86% correct. Reba McEntire (25) and Garth Brooks (21) led the wrong answers, Willie Nelson and BB King each had 3, and several others had one or two.

Great to see our friend Peter Gordon's byline on a contest puzzle. Peter publishes the WSJ crossword anthologies (available on Amazon) and his own brilliant subscription series, Fireball Crosswords.

Congrats to this week's winner: Rick Ciampa of Walpole, MA!
Wow! Looks like that's the second highest number of submissions and the third highest number of correct answers.

Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:27 pm
by LadyBird
sanmilton wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 2:22 pm
LadyBird wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 2:14 pm
flyingMoose wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 1:32 pm
All but Z (is for Zero). From a quote from her daughter, "... as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y."
I have read them all--through X. I haven't been able to bring myself to read Y, because I'm so sad that we won't learn how things wrap up for Kinsey.

I never noticed that bit with the client's name! Maybe if I had been doing metas then....
LadyBird, I'm right there with you. I am saving "'Y' Is for Yesterday" until tomorrow, at least. On the other hand, I finally read (Sunday was a week ago) the last of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee mysteries, "The Lonely Silver Rain." (Hmm, wonder if that rain was a lonely as I am!)
What do you like about the Travis McGee mysteries? And the detective?

Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:31 pm
by LadyBird
zacmoretz wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 10:27 pm Maybe I missed it but I have not seen anyone mention the “middle C”. My beautiful Lisa who was a music major told me that all scales start at middle C. And there it was smack in the middle of the puzzle, the middle “sea”. That was the a-ha moment for us that pointed us to musical notes.
Actually, that middle "sea" was one of my rabbit holes. I was trying to treat the other long answers as lines of the musical staff.

Other rabbit holes included that a singer intersected with the first/top long answer--with the letter K. Which brought to mind KD Lang (or is it Lange because I need 7 letters!). I finally noticed all of the past tense answers (ED) and some of the answers beginning with B and D. And then it finally clicked.

Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 5:34 pm
by DrTom
Wendy Walker wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 12:34 pm Friends, I did my best as a Muggle Ambassador at a small Memorial Day picnic. The local radio station was playing the Top 100 hits of all time. "Hey Jude" was ranked somewhere in the teens and so of course I explained the "na-na-na-na" meta. Little interest was shown. I think Dearest Partner was behind me making "warding off" gestures.
I have, over time, been able to develop a term for the odd look of feigned interest (or complete look of disinterest) that comes over people as the intricacies of solving and the AHA are explained - METAGLAZING.

It is much the same look I get from the cats when I try to explain why they can either not have more treats right now or why coughing up a hairball on the couch is considered undesirable.

Re: "One False Note" - May 22, 2020

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 8:55 pm
by sanmilton
LadyBird wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 11:27 pm
sanmilton wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 2:22 pm
LadyBird wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 2:14 pm
I have read them all--through X. I haven't been able to bring myself to read Y, because I'm so sad that we won't learn how things wrap up for Kinsey.

I never noticed that bit with the client's name! Maybe if I had been doing metas then....
LadyBird, I'm right there with you. I am saving "'Y' Is for Yesterday" until tomorrow, at least. On the other hand, I finally read (Sunday was a week ago) the last of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee mysteries, "The Lonely Silver Rain." (Hmm, wonder if that rain was a lonely as I am!)
What do you like about the Travis McGee mysteries? And the detective?
I was introduced to MacDonald and McGee by a close friend, and it was easy to take to him immediately. I admired the way he modeled masculinity, with his pragmatic approach to interpersonal relationships, including sexual ones, and his subliminal sensitivities. I was engaged by his philosophical musings and always eager for another scene of Travis sparring with his friend Meyer. Of course, it's easy to love his unconventional life-style, and we have to give him credit as the forerunner of many a Florida detective, including those created by Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, James W. Hall, and others. MacDonald as a stylist is very nearly flawless, his prose always lucid and never self-consciously literary, always superbly in support of his story-telling. If I sound as if I regret having read his last adventure, I do, but only because it was the last.