"Sound Off" - May 29, 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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Devilbunny
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#341

Post by Devilbunny »

TPS wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:10 am I remember being in kindergarten and getting into an argument with my teacher that there is no difference in the pronunciation of “pin” and “pen”.
Depending on your accent, this can be quite true (and in kindergarten, that's still very much a function of your parents). Much of the South makes no distinction between the two, but retains the distinction between "cot" and "caught" that has disappeared from much of the country. I'm from one of those odd little areas that retains a distinction between "white" and "wight", "what" and "watt", "when" and "wen" (and with the pin/pen merger, "win").

Phonetic linguistics is interesting, and I don't just say that because I've been binging back episodes of the Lexicon Valley podcast (with the entertaining but rather old-musical-theater-obsessed John McWhorter as host).
Bill Bovard
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#342

Post by Bill Bovard »

When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
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BarbaraK
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#343

Post by BarbaraK »

Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:03 pm When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
Usually Tuesday morning, but sometimes late Monday afternoon and I think occasionally not til Wednesday. It probably depends on how long it takes the winner to respond to the email and how much else is going on in the world news-wise.

The dude is Mike Miller. His screen name here is MikeMillerwsj. And an easy way to find the winners is to go to his profile and look at his posts:

forums/search.php?author_id=56&sr=posts
SewYoung
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#344

Post by SewYoung »

Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:03 pm When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
Usually midday to early afternoon on Monday. He told us a long time ago that they email the winner and then publish the name after the winner replies to WSJ.
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TPS
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#345

Post by TPS »

Anyone looking for something kind of fun to try. It’s the SpaceX docking sim.

https://iss-sim.spacex.com/
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Al Sisti
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#346

Post by Al Sisti »

TPS wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:57 pm Anyone looking for something kind of fun to try. It’s the SpaceX docking sim.

https://iss-sim.spacex.com/
That was fun. I had it sitting in position pretty good (eventually) but didn't know how to dock. Way too much pressure for me, even in a sim. Plus now everything around me is kind of floating...
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Bob cruise director
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#347

Post by Bob cruise director »

As we wait for this week's winner, we have for your amusement something for everyone who has fed the birds and has had squirrels raid their feeders

https://www.facebook.com/MarkRoberYouTu ... 361391817/
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LadyBird
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#348

Post by LadyBird »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:18 pm
Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:03 pm When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
Usually midday to early afternoon on Monday. He told us a long time ago that they email the winner and then publish the name after the winner replies to WSJ.
I had been checking my junk mail folder hoping that I was the one!
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tim1217
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#349

Post by tim1217 »

Only quickly zoomed through the post deadline posts, but I thought for sure MUTED would be a good 'guess'. We'll see when Mike posts results.
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tigerfly222
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#350

Post by tigerfly222 »

Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:03 pm When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
How I now picture Mike Miller:
Image
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Bob cruise director
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#351

Post by Bob cruise director »

Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:03 pm When does the dude (said with total respect) post the winner's name, count of correct answers, etc. and how can one find it without reading through 100's of other comments?
To find out, you can do one of three things 1) go to the WSJ comments on the contest as there are fewer comments there, 2) come here and start looking on Tuesday or 3) wait until next Friday's contest comes out

When is currently sometime on Tuesday these days. Usually the comments here are fewer at that time.
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Joe Ross
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#352

Post by Joe Ross »

I'm taking advice from Marge, Nlobb, & devilbunny posts regarding reading each grid entry out loud & phonetic linguistics, from now on.

(In fact, it may work with a current meta puzzle. If anyone has any luck with it, PM me & I'll cheerfully check the group solve box!)
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yourpalsal
Posts: 177
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#353

Post by yourpalsal »

tim1217 wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 12:30 am Only quickly zoomed through the post deadline posts, but I thought for sure MUTED would be a good 'guess'. We'll see when Mike posts results.
See my post earlier. Not only is MUTED a good answer, it’s in the grid, in words that work as other whole words when your remove the last letters to spell MUTED!

realM
menU
sohoT
nilE
hateD
MikeMillerwsj
Posts: 286
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:46 pm

#354

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

The dude is here! Sorry for the delay!
A tricky puzzle with an unusually wide range of answers this week.
We had 934 entries, about 2/3 correct. Plus a cataract of 5-letter words, too many to enumerate, including VOWEL (36), MUTED (33), DRONE (19), OPERA (8), QUIET (4), and many many others. Any explanations for these?

Congrats to this week's winner: Jeremy Horwitz of San Francisco! Stay safe, solvers!
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Hector
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#355

Post by Hector »

When the Sound is Off, it's QUIET and MUTED. WORKERBEES are also called DRONES. BEES-A, HIGH-DEE, SIGN-I, BOWS-O, and MEN-U use all five long VOWEL sounds. Not sure about OPERA.
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TPS
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#356

Post by TPS »

My guess for OPERA is that it is a five level word that includes Horns, Oboes, and Violins. - Well the orchestra does anyway.
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DrTom
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#357

Post by DrTom »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:33 pm The dude is here! Sorry for the delay!
A tricky puzzle with an unusually wide range of answers this week.
We had 934 entries, about 2/3 correct. Plus a cataract of 5-letter words, too many to enumerate, including VOWEL (36), MUTED (33), DRONE (19), OPERA (8), QUIET (4), and many many others. Any explanations for these?

Congrats to this week's winner: Jeremy Horwitz of San Francisco! Stay safe, solvers!
DRONE was my Hail Mary: WORKERBEES HANS (sounds like HANDS, D is missing
ROADSIGN ROUT (sounds like ROUTE E is missing)

One can postulate any number of way to get to DRONE that way, plus the 1st clue is WORKERBEES (drones) the middle clue is SKYHIGH (DRONES are SKYHIGH) and the title, SOUND OFF, well if someone id DRONing on you turn them off. That is how I was going to justify DRONE if I had to....
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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BethA
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#358

Post by BethA »

I was thrilled and surprised to be the first to report to the beach this week! That never happened before! Maybe never again.

I think that dabbling in cryptics over the past year helped. With their use of homophones and the puzzle title, I was on the lookout for the sounds of things as I was solving the grid. Being on high alert, and luckily one of the first things I thought of, led me quickly to the answer!

☮️ ✌🏻
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OGuyDave
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#359

Post by OGuyDave »

TPS wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2020 8:57 pm Anyone looking for something kind of fun to try. It’s the SpaceX docking sim.

https://iss-sim.spacex.com/
Thanks for turning me on to this, TPS.

After three dismal failures, I decided to attempt to absorb more of the instructions, and that resulted in two successful dockings.

Super simulation!
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TPS
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#360

Post by TPS »

OGuyDave wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:15 pm
After three dismal failures, I decided to attempt to absorb more of the instructions, and that resulted in two successful dockings.
You're welcome! And I too failed on my first two attempts - and then I decided to more fully read the directions,
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