I like those! I said something like "I didn't realize I was going to have to do math."TMart wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2019 6:06 pmHa! That makes three of us. I said 55+35=90 (which is about the number of votes Perot got in 1996!) I wonder how many solvers actually guessed and got the right answer.sharkicicles wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2019 4:31 pmHeh, my comment last week was literally just “55 + 35 = 90”.
One of my early (I thought) rabbit holes was looking up the dictionary definition of reconciliation (as somebody mentioned on CrosswordFiend), and being reminded that it could mean something like balancing a checkbook. Or more generally, math. But I couldn't see what to do with that information, so I dropped it and pursued the following productive trains of thought, and many more:
- Phrases containing the word "period," because I thought that Bill Clinton -> billing period couldn't be a coincidence
- Every period in the clues (there were 7 of them, or 8 if you count e.g. as 2)
- Trying to do something with "friends" of the first names of the Clinton rivals: George & Gracie (I was distracted by "grace period" here); Ross & Rachel; Jerry & Ben (or Tom); Ken & Barbie; Bob & Doug; Paul & Paula. No friend for poor Newt, so maybe he was the answer?
Eventually the reconciliation definition came back to me with an idea of how to use it. Probably not going to be so lucky this week, but I felt good for a while!