"Flight of Fancy" March 15, 2024

[RDaleHall]

And now--congrats to this week's winner, R. Dale Hall of Bloomington, Ill.!

Thanks Mike - a terrific surprise today upon landing in San Diego for a work trip to see the e-mail from WSJ in my inbox. Looking forward to the mug!

Thanks as well to all here on this forum for the amazing community support over the years. It’s fitting that the mug win comes from a WSJ puzzle with a number in it to match my love of math and my actuarial work.

[Ergcat]

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Given that this week’s “Flight of Fancy” puzzle is better explained visually (See hcbirker’s Post #231) let us proceed directly to today’s art history lesson:

It seems Mr. Duchamp was a tad obscure for some Muggles. It’s worth mentioning that the French painter has repeatedly been the subject of Jeopardy questions/answers as recently as last month when his name came up in a Daily Double: “Marcel’s kid sister Suzanne Duchamp caught the bug for his movement with works like “Accordion Masterpiece.” (Answer: Dada). Most notably, he stumped all three Jeopardy contestants (including Buzzy Cohen) in 2016 with this Final Jeopardy answer: “Escalier" is the original title of a work by this artist that scandalized NYC’s International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913.”

Duchamp was an answer in Jeopardy last Thursday or Friday in Tournament of Champions. Relating to his “urinal z” piece

[rjy]

After solving this, I think an equally valid answer for a famous artist (in our circles anyway) is Mike Shenk.

This was a thing of beauty!

[Joepickett]

Just wondering, is there any way to enter 2 when solving online? I could not see how to do it.

[BarbaraK]

Just wondering, is there any way to enter 2 when solving online? I could not see how to do it.

On the WSJ site, no. It's very annoying every time they have a rebus puzzle.

Using the .puz file, it depends on the program. For me, I can in Puzazz on my iPhone but not on AcrossLite in my iPad.

With the spreadsheet, yes, no problem.

[Cindy N]

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It seems Mr. Duchamp was a tad obscure for some Muggles. It’s worth mentioning that the French painter has repeatedly been the subject of Jeopardy questions/answers as recently as last month when his name came up in a Daily Double: “Marcel’s kid sister Suzanne Duchamp caught the bug for his movement with works like “Accordion Masterpiece.” (Answer: Dada). Most notably, he stumped all three Jeopardy contestants (including Buzzy Cohen) in 2016 with this Final Jeopardy answer: “Escalier" is the original title of a work by this artist that scandalized NYC’s International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913.” That was, of course, “Nude Descending a Staircase.”

He was also the answer even more recently in Double Jeopardy in this week's Tournament of Champions. Sadly, I didn't get the full clue, but it seems that the question writers do seem to be fans of Duchamp!

[lxpeterson]

And let’s not forget LHOOQ on the mustachioed and bearded Mona Lisa reproduction

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I started late on this one, but didn't help myself by reading "nitrous acid" as the more common "nitric acid" and filling in a '3' after HNO. I never bothered to look up IRS Schedule C, but assumed that LINE 3 as a grid answer must be important because it seemed arbitrary. I eventually found a "line of three" letters that could be found between capitalized words in four clues: Jessica Fletcher -> (F)GHI(J), Kensington Gardens -> (G)HIJ(K), August Wilson -> (W)XYZ(A), and Oscar... Spencer -> (O)PQR(S).

Yes, it's a stretch for many reasons, and there's no clear follow-up. But I got stuck on it and then got impatient and peeked at the answer. Nice construction! I'd like to think if I stared at it long enough with no rabbit holes, I might have seen it, but I also tell myself to stop just staring at the grid looking for hidden words.

[C=64]

Most notably, he stumped all three Jeopardy contestants (including Buzzy Cohen) in 2016 with this Final Jeopardy answer: “Escalier" is the original title of a work by this artist that scandalized NYC’s International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913.”

I'll just humblebrag that I lasted only two episodes on Jeopardy but to me, "scandalized + art + 1913" is obvious.

[Dickie_Dunn]

Did anyone else look for stairs and still not see them? I was going straight diagonal route and it turns out that UEECNIGSARAEO doesn't spell anything. Nor does NDDSEDNATICSNO. Otherwise I spent time trying to connect longer answers to different time periods of Art.

[HunterX]

Just wondering, is there any way to enter 2 when solving online? I could not see how to do it.

I know it's late to respond to this, but there is. With the cell selected, go to the Reveal menu/icon and select "Letter." That's what I had to do to get the '2'.