Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:39 am
Okay, who besides me searched on Google for an animal with five pairs of eyes?
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"Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Page 15 of 17
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:03 am
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.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:17 am
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 10:45 am
So no-one liked "Eye of newt"?
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:07 pm
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:17 pm
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:24 pm
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:45 pm
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.
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. . . . . . . . . . Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 1:06 pm
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:
This cute little fella was in my cutting garden a few years ago:
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: 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.
the "by" definitely threw me... thinking about last week's "as above so below" finally put me on the right track.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:16 pm
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:44 pm
I'm not averse to getting a mug for an easy one...just saying. (Standing by my inbox [cough, cough].)
Kas "Mugless" D.
Kas "Mugless" D.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 3:38 pm
Never heard of him either and looked him up.
Google aye-aye. (Barcelona daughter set me straight.)
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!
--- We would all have been aye ayed!)Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: 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.
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.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:50 pm
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!"
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 5:08 pm
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 2558MikeMillerwsj 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.
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.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 6:38 pm
Gotta love this fleet.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 11:02 pm
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.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.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 12:42 am
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.
Re: "Two by Two" - November 27, 2020
Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2020 5:42 am
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...)MaineMarge wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 2:16 pmLoved learning about this critter.
Definitely deserves credit as a correct submission.
Great new word for this seagoing Muggle.
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.