"The Play's The Thing" - June 7, 2019

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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Bob cruise director
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#141

Post by Bob cruise director »

A final report as the ship's bar has closed and there are 113 muggles on the shore. Since noon, the following have made their way to the tiki bar
Kris
phofer
Douglas
Arnold
Susan G

Good luck to all winning the mug. I suspect that the odds are pretty long.
Bob Stevens
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CandyB
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#142

Post by CandyB »

Spent way too much time overthinking this one. Finally on shore. I’ll take a gatorade. Need it after all the unnecessary extra work.
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Commodore
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#143

Post by Commodore »

Too much Falstaff Beer (but held back posting lest spoilage be done) led to:

Misery acquaints a man with strange mugfellows.

A clue! A clue! My kingdom for a clue!

Friends, Muggles, Countrymen, lend me your beers.

Et tu, Gaffney?

If meta be the food of love, play on.

Once more unto the beach, dear friends, once more.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle… This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this Tiki Bar.
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pddigi
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#144

Post by pddigi »

Bob cruise director wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:33 am
pddigi wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 7:02 am A quick solve, and it came out while Dom was driving to an ISI event in Philadelphia, so travel by him again allows me to beat him to shore! Now go Vanderbilt baseball - beat Duke and get to the College World Series!
Did Dom make it to the shore?
He sure did! He drove up to Philadelphia to attend an ISI conference, a group with which he has been active since college days. He had enough down time to respond to my question as to whether he had had a chance to look at the meta with "Yeah, I crushed it". https://isi.org/
MikeMillerwsj
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#145

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

This was a popular and successful one. We had 1756 entries, about 91% correct. Given 37 possible solutions to choose from, solvers ranged all over the canon, including the four plays mentioned in the theme entries but also HAMLET (15), ROMEO AND JULIET (11), MACBETH (7) and many others. (Were these just random guesses?)

Congrats to this week's winner, Gideon Fostick of Bergenfield, NJ!
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Richard
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#146

Post by Richard »

I got this one pretty early, forgot to post but I had it. So this must have been on the easier side for me to get it.

I wonder if it would have been better without the play names in the clues.

I am no Shakespeare buff but I saw Iago and Regan very quickly and I think I would have gotten it without the help of the plays, but may have taken longer.

Richard
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Bird Lives
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#147

Post by Bird Lives »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:16 pm This was a popular and successful one. We had 1756 entries, about 91% correct. Given 37 possible solutions to choose from, solvers ranged all over the canon, including the four plays mentioned in the theme entries but also HAMLET (15), ROMEO AND JULIET (11), MACBETH (7) and many others. (Were these just random guesses?)
I submitted THE LITTLE MERMAID. I didn't think WSJ would quibble about minor details like authorship.
Jay
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Janet
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#148

Post by Janet »

Bird Lives wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 4:05 pm
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:16 pm This was a popular and successful one. We had 1756 entries, about 91% correct. Given 37 possible solutions to choose from, solvers ranged all over the canon, including the four plays mentioned in the theme entries but also HAMLET (15), ROMEO AND JULIET (11), MACBETH (7) and many others. (Were these just random guesses?)
I submitted THE LITTLE MERMAID. I didn't think WSJ would quibble about minor details like authorship.
The Disney version did sing about buying a drink at the Tiki bar on the beach, didn't she? "What would I pay. to spend a day, warm on that sand?"
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Eric Porter
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#149

Post by Eric Porter »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:16 pm This was a popular and successful one. We had 1756 entries, about 91% correct. Given 37 possible solutions to choose from, solvers ranged all over the canon, including the four plays mentioned in the theme entries but also HAMLET (15), ROMEO AND JULIET (11), MACBETH (7) and many others. (Were these just random guesses?)
I always find it amusing to hear that people guess the plays that are specifically mentioned in the puzzle. Those were the only 4 that were guaranteed to NOT be the answer, but of course not everyone knows that rule.
I don't know how anyone could gotten those other plays without guessing. There's no way to know how many people got The Tempest by randomly guessing it. :)
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Joe Ross
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#150

Post by Joe Ross »

Interesting take on odds of getting mugged, but the play's the thing:

https://on.wsj.com/2ZePzvB
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
𝟯𝟬% 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰,
𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
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billkatz
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#151

Post by billkatz »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2019 3:16 pm This was a popular and successful one. We had 1756 entries, about 91% correct.
I remember when the contest started almost 4 years ago, and we would get a few hundred correct entries - I saw the possibility of getting to at least half as many correct weekly answers for me as correct answers in a week - thereby bringing my cumulative odds of winning a mug up to 50% or so. However the number of correct answers is now growing so quickly that my odds are going in the wrong direction.

I'll just enjoy using my MGWCC monthly pen to fill out my grids.
lyndonpeck
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#152

Post by lyndonpeck »

Did someone explain the answer to this week’s puzzle?
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BarbaraK
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#153

Post by BarbaraK »

lyndonpeck wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:32 pm Did someone explain the answer to this week’s puzzle?
Each of the theme answers had hidden in it the name of a character from the Shakespeare play from the clue:

chANGELOcations
driedoREGANo
dIAGOnalparking
mincEDGARlic
pulLAFEWstrings

The initial letters of those names are A R I E L, and Ariel is character in The Tempest, so that's the answer.
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BarbaraK
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#154

Post by BarbaraK »

Joe Ross wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:21 am Interesting take on odds of getting mugged, but the play's the thing:

https://on.wsj.com/2ZePzvB
I just happen (who me, a nerd? :) to have a spreadsheet with the results of the 163 contests since April 29, 2016.

The average number of correct answers is 747. That has been going up - 607 over the earliest 12 months, 913 over the latest.

If someone sent in the correct answer in all of those contests, their odds of winning a mug were 28.5%

For someone who got the easiest 65%, the odds were 11.7%
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FrankieHeck
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#155

Post by FrankieHeck »

BarbaraK wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:47 am
I just happen (who me, a nerd? :) to have a spreadsheet with the results of the 163 contests since April 29, 2016.

I think I love you :D
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Joe Ross
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#156

Post by Joe Ross »

Having learned a lesson, I submitted The Tempest.

Did anyone consider / go down this rabbit hole?:
  • The 3rd letter of each character in the play answers was "G", with the exception of "F" in "LAFEW" of All’s Well That Ends Well.
  • "F" is one letter before "G" alphabetically, so an answer to consider might have been A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Shakespeare play alphabetically before All’s Well That Ends Well.
  • Also consider alternatively Troilus and Cressida, the play chronologically before All’s Well That Ends Well.
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
𝟯𝟬% 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰,
𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
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Joe Ross
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Location: Cincinnati

#157

Post by Joe Ross »

BarbaraK wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 7:47 am I just happen (who me, a nerd? :) to have a spreadsheet with the results of the 163 contests since April 29, 2016.

The average number of correct answers is 747. That has been going up - 607 over the earliest 12 months, 913 over the latest.

If someone sent in the correct answer in all of those contests, their odds of winning a mug were 28.5%

For someone who got the easiest 65%, the odds were 11.7%
You go, Barbara! The power of the spreadsheet versus paper! :ugeek:
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
𝟯𝟬% 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰,
𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
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BrianMac
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#158

Post by BrianMac »

Just bumping this to maintain the thread order before the new puzzle comes out. :)
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gamera13
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#159

Post by gamera13 »

Bob cruise director wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:38 am
gamera13 wrote: Thu Jun 06, 2019 8:47 pmYAY! I got it!
Congratuilations. Is this the first time you have been on shore?
Thank you! It's not my first. I've made it to shore before but I think I'm getting the hang of these better. Although it also sounds like they've been easy lately.
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