"Two by Two" - November 27, 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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RobM
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#281

Post by RobM »

Okay, who besides me searched on Google for an animal with five pairs of eyes?
Tony S
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#282

Post by Tony S »

One of the easier metas in awhile. While solving the grid I did underline the animals in the clues --- turned out to be a rabbit hole I never entered.
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DBMiller
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#283

Post by DBMiller »

RobM wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:39 am Okay, who besides me searched on Google for an animal with five pairs of eyes?
Me - Either ten eyes, or five pairs. Found horseshoe crabs and leeches. Further research wasn't definitive, so I kept pondering and finally noticed the Roman numeral connection.
If I'm around, I am willing to join the Muggle Zoom room at other times to lend a hand to those in need.
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Al Sisti
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#284

Post by Al Sisti »

So no-one liked "Eye of newt"?
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BrianMac
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#285

Post by BrianMac »

Rob A wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:19 am Did anyone else get Aye Aye (pronounced eye eye) for the answer? Five words in the grid had a double I, seemed like a logical solution, maybe it was just me.
It's a good thought, and the right track, but the prompt told us that the answer is an animal.
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CPJohnson
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#286

Post by CPJohnson »

BrianMac wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:07 pm
Rob A wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:19 am Did anyone else get Aye Aye (pronounced eye eye) for the answer? Five words in the grid had a double I, seemed like a logical solution, maybe it was just me.
It's a good thought, and the right track, but the prompt told us that the answer is an animal.
Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
Cynthia
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BrianMac
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#287

Post by BrianMac »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:17 pm
BrianMac wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:07 pm
Rob A wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 7:19 am Did anyone else get Aye Aye (pronounced eye eye) for the answer? Five words in the grid had a double I, seemed like a logical solution, maybe it was just me.
It's a good thought, and the right track, but the prompt told us that the answer is an animal.
Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
Aye-aye

Never heard of it, but there you go! OK then!
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Cindy N
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#288

Post by Cindy N »

Writing it out was key. When I first started looking at the pairs, I was going top down, left to right and had LA MA (pronouncing it like llama) and the rest was gibberish. When I went to write it down, I started by position in the grid. SA LA. After I had it all down, I realized I needed to start the pronunciation of the word like this . . . . . . . . . . . not that.

Image . . . . . . . . . . Image
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Wendy Walker
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#289

Post by Wendy Walker »

Possibly the only time salamanders have ever appeared in rock lyrics? "A salamander scurries into fame." From Genesis, "Carpet Crawlers."
This cute little fella was in my cutting garden a few years ago:
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newt1.jpg
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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haari
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#290

Post by haari »

Two by Two. so here's one from left field... i caught The two II's a long time after chasing down all the other animal clues... but kept looking at what was "by" the two II's... those being AD from RADII, AL from ETALII, NS from INSIST, WA from HAWAII, and couldn't quite decide between SH or TE from SHIITE... all those put together, ADALNSWASHTHE, could almost be transformed into LEDA AND THE SWAN... and swans was in one of the clues...

the "by" definitely threw me... thinking about last week's "as above so below" finally put me on the right track.
an it harm none, do as thou wilt... :D :D :D
MaineMarge
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#291

Post by MaineMarge »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:17 pm Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
Loved learning about this critter.
Definitely deserves credit as a correct submission.
Great new word for this seagoing Muggle.
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Kas
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#292

Post by Kas »

I'm not averse to getting a mug for an easy one...just saying. (Standing by my inbox [cough, cough].)
Kas "Mugless" D.
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whimsy
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#293

Post by whimsy »


Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
Never heard of him either and looked him up.
So it could have been that the letters for SALAMANDER were just a coincidence and that the intended answer was aye aye ---especially since one of the traits of the little guy is a "special middle finger!"
(Nah, Mike wouldn't do that to us, would he? Not at this festive time of year! :D --- We would all have been aye ayed!)
MikeMillerwsj
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#294

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

A huge contest this week! 2,532 entries, not far from our record (right Barbara?). 92% correct, way above our typical rate around 75%.

See discussion above for why AYE-AYE got 55 votes. Plus SPIDER (18), WHALE (and variants, 7), TURKEY (7, a wild guess for the weekend, right?). 2 votes for OPABINIA! (an extinct arthropod).

Congrats to this week's winner: Charles Smith of Arlington, VA.
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Gman
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#295

Post by Gman »

As a former sailor, the lemur named "aye aye" could have been an answer, but it would have required a title like, "Sir, yes, sir!" or to "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"
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Bob cruise director
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#296

Post by Bob cruise director »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:27 pm A huge contest this week! 2,532 entries, not far from our record (right Barbara?). 92% correct, way above our typical rate around 75%.

See discussion above for why AYE-AYE got 55 votes. Plus SPIDER (18), WHALE (and variants, 7), TURKEY (7, a wild guess for the weekend, right?). 2 votes for OPABINIA! (an extinct arthropod).

Congrats to this week's winner: Charles Smith of Arlington, VA.
The record is 2844 from February 1, 2019 with Matt's contest Just Say The Word. It also had the record for most correct with 2782 (98%). This contest was in fifth place behind City Blocks (Sept 4, 2020) with 2626, One False Note (May 22, 2020) with 2587 and Capitalized Words (April 24, 2020) with 2558


From a muggle standpoint we had 207 on the shore which approached the record of 219 for City Blocks and second place of 209 for One False Note.
Bob Stevens
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Commodore
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#297

Post by Commodore »

Gotta love this fleet.
Screen Shot 2020-11-30 at 6.33.12 PM.png
Franklin.Bluth
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#298

Post by Franklin.Bluth »

haari wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:42 pm Two by Two. so here's one from left field... i caught The two II's a long time after chasing down all the other animal clues... but kept looking at what was "by" the two II's... those being AD from RADII, AL from ETALII, NS from INSIST, WA from HAWAII, and couldn't quite decide between SH or TE from SHIITE... all those put together, ADALNSWASHTHE, could almost be transformed into LEDA AND THE SWAN... and swans was in one of the clues...

the "by" definitely threw me... thinking about last week's "as above so below" finally put me on the right track.
I started the same way, and if you don't use the SH in SHIITE it anagrams to "wasteland". So then I started worrying about animals that are found in wastelands.
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C=64
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#299

Post by C=64 »

Although anagramming may be involved in an earlier step, it seems that you rarely (never?) need to anagram as your final step on a WSJ puzzle. If I get alphabet soup, I backtrack and rethink my previous step.
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tigerfly222
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#300

Post by tigerfly222 »

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:16 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:17 pm Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
Loved learning about this critter.
Definitely deserves credit as a correct submission.
Great new word for this seagoing Muggle.
Yes, aye-aye was my "logical though incorrect" first submission. Although perhaps obscure, be honest, it wouldn't be the first time that solving the meta required knowledge of something not well known by all of the meta-solving world. (*cough cough* Margaret Cho...)
For the record, as I told Meta Mom, I learned about aye-ayes in the fifth grade, and it was just one of those random things that stuck with me.
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