Re: "Where's The Rest?" - September 11, 2020
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:30 pm
So much prettier than my scrawls.
A place to discuss the WSJ Weekly Crossword Contest and other "meta"-style crosswords
https://www.xword-muggles.com/
So much prettier than my scrawls.
"It's inconceivable that 1100 people got this right," said Vizzini.MikeMillerwsj wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:09 pm We thought this puzzle was diabolically hard, but a lot of you cracked it!
We had 1595 entries, about 69% correct. A big turnout (100) for HISS (because of the missing S's?) and QUIT (71, just wild guesses?) plus SIGH (24), YAWN (20), CUSS (16), SNAP (7), MOAN (5) and sundry others.
Congrats to this week's winner: Leslie Owsley of Owings Mills, MD.
And look forward to seeing you at this special event behind the scenes of our crossword contest.
https://www.wsjplus.com/invites/wsj-crosswords-event
Why that's probably over 1000 Hail Marys!Gman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:51 pm"It's inconceivable that 1100 people got this right," said Vizzini.MikeMillerwsj wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:09 pm We thought this puzzle was diabolically hard, but a lot of you cracked it!
We had 1595 entries, about 69% correct. A big turnout (100) for HISS (because of the missing S's?) and QUIT (71, just wild guesses?) plus SIGH (24), YAWN (20), CUSS (16), SNAP (7), MOAN (5) and sundry others.
Congrats to this week's winner: Leslie Owsley of Owings Mills, MD.
And look forward to seeing you at this special event behind the scenes of our crossword contest.
https://www.wsjplus.com/invites/wsj-crosswords-event
I fell for that too! Although I didn't go with the S-word angle.Grover wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:40 am Got the answer but not before going down a rabbit hole that no one else has mentioned (or perhaps no one else fell for). Following the "REST" theme I saw 42A was CATNIP. Changing one letter made it CATNAP. Aha! Right on the theme. Went looking for others and conveniently found 21A was TAP and changing T to N gave me NAP. Then found 18D - NAH where changing the H to P gave me NAP. Now I had three changed letters I, T, and H. Couldn't find a fourth one. I went through the alphabet and only came up with two letters that would make anything close to a verb - C would give me ITCH, which isn't really a verb. The other letter was S, and we won't go there.
That darn Word Hippo created a lot of unnecessary rabbit hole exploring over here!Notbitter wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:17 am I initially had the singular/plural mechanism - and even Brie > bries. It went south for me when I found 4 other singular/plural words and then did a quick internet search for brie. According to the answer that popped up on the web (a site called “Word Hippo”), “the plural form of brie is also brie.” Once I read that, and “knowing” that it was a four-letter answer, I was lost. I spent an inordinate amount of time on another homonym: to me the missing four -eses SOUNDED like forests...and I focused on not seeing the forests for the trees, especially with rest in the title. Definitely lost in the woods.
That's what caught my eye right off the bat as well, Wendy. Initially I stopped there, thinking the answer was HISS. (Looking at Mike's remarks, I see I was not alone). But after reading the comments, I did an answer check and found out I was wrong, so I took a closer look and figured it out. Really liked this one.Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:22 am I'm a copy editor, so the plural discrepancies struck me from the very first clue I answered -- the SEA/SEAS one. Matt does not make careless errors, so it primed my brain to see the others. I am amazed at the varied routes that people took to get the correct answer this week!
Feathers are not my forte! But it DOES remind me of when our daughter was doing her undergrad at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Every fall (except this one, probably) they have this big deal called Art Prize. Artists have their art EVERYWHERE--from coffee shops to parks to the middle of the river. People vote for their favorites, which determines who is still in contention the second week and so on. We went twice, I think. There was an art piece very similar to this one (perhaps the same artist) and I have a lovely picture somewhere of Elizabeth standing in front of wings like this.
I had DOGH! And really thought he wanted "DOGH" as a homer simpsonism, but then I realized it must have been DOUGH -> DOUGHS -> DOZE.TMart wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:35 am Since the answer was a 4 letter word, I initially stopped after I found four of the plural mismatches and ended up with DOUH. Huh???
Then, as I slapped my head and said “D’oh!” in my best Homer Simpson voice, I realized I was missing a G, and found the right answer.
I am not a copy editor but if you do crosswords you become attuned to tenses and plurals. I hit 23 across and knew it has to be a plural but could not think of a two letter haunted house shout. then I hit 55A and things started to fall into place. I had a problem with 55A because I thought it was RAISE and not RAZE at first. I also stopped at four but when that did not go anywhere, I already had a question mark by 64D and the rest fell into place quickly. I wrote the words breeze, booze, etc. on the back of my paper and realized that all five ended with ZE so the transition from DOUGH to DO and adding the ZE came quickly, especially when both the title and contest answer fit so well.Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:22 am I'm a copy editor, so the plural discrepancies struck me from the very first clue I answered -- the SEA/SEAS one. Matt does not make careless errors, so it primed my brain to see the others. I am amazed at the varied routes that people took to get the correct answer this week!
Hi
My suspicion is that it is not an exact representation but a very nice artistic version.Kaille wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:09 pmHi
This mural is in Denver and was painted by a local artist named Kelsey Monague. She has fabulous murals like this all over the country/world.
Oops, edited to say that I just realized you weren't talking to me, but rather a board member named LadyBird, lol.
Sorry!