"Executive Search" - June 5, 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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Joepickett
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#181

Post by Joepickett »

No rules. Well great
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hcbirker
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#182

Post by hcbirker »

boharr wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:34 pm
hcbirker wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:49 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:36 pm Since I am going no where on the meta and to add to the discussion on made up words, almost 50 years ago, my wife and I were playing Scrabble. We did not have a scrabble dictionary and I am not even sure we had a dictionary. I put down the word EGGMAN. I argued that we had a milkman who delivered milk and a breadman who delivered bread, so what did you call the guy who delivered eggs. To this day, my wife refuses to acknowledge the word.

What sayeth our sage panel? thumbs up or down?
Thumbs up! My husband still doesn't forgive me for "cakey".
Eggman is good. But you got away with cakey?
I did! Look it up!
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VanVeen
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#183

Post by VanVeen »

Chiming in:

One space after a period. Two spaces will create what are referred to as "rivers" in your document. It's an optical illusion of sorts that looks like there's a continuous stream of white space running down the page and is generally avoided by typographers and printers.

NO Oxford comma. Most of the time it is unnecessary and does nothing to clarify a sentence. For example, if you write "I bought eggs and milk," you don't need a comma. It's perfectly understandable. But then you're going to tell me if you add a third item, all of a sudden the sentence is unclear? "I bought cereal, eggs and milk." Oh wait, it's perfectly fine without the superfluous comma.

And if you've written a sentence that is unclear without an Oxford comma, then you've probably written a bad sentence. Take another look and rewrite it.

Also, you can probably take the word "that" out of your sentence and it will read just fine.
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Joe Ross
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#184

Post by Joe Ross »

VanVeen wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:22 pm "I bought cereal, eggs and milk."
Why would eggs and milk care that you bought cereal? They are inanimate. Further, why would anyone speak to them?
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ky-mike
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#185

Post by ky-mike »

I guess I'll spend the evening at the bar with Isaac. I've been searching for executives for some time now and not one to be found.

As for the period and space discussion, just be consistent with whichever method you decide to use. Prior to retirement, I was part of a team responsible for writing and reviewing financial reports for SEC filings (10-Q and 10-K). Our convention was two spaces after a period and one space after a comma. It was amazing the amount of time spent on normalizing language and punctuation in order for the documents to look like they were completely written by one person.
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tim1217
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#186

Post by tim1217 »

Totally disagree with the clue for 19A. Being careful of flying too close to the sun (aka, giving spoilers), I can think of many situations where that clue would not define the grid answer.
Jace54
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#187

Post by Jace54 »

On shore! Stuck for awhile and then tried something I should have tried earlier, but always easier in hindsight.
SewYoung
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#188

Post by SewYoung »

"One space after a period. Two spaces will create what are referred to as "rivers" in your document. " Ah, rivers. I didn't know there was a word for that. Makes sense, though. I have noticed that in some older books. It hadn't dawned on me that I haven't seen them in more recent publications. Sometimes they made nice patterns.
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Bird Lives
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#189

Post by Bird Lives »

hcbirker wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:49 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:36 pm . . . I put down the word EGGMAN. . . To this day, my wife refuses to acknowledge the word.

What sayeth our sage panel? thumbs up or down?
Thumbs up! My husband still doesn't forgive me for "cakey".
John Lennon agrees with you. In fact he claims to be one.
Louis Armstrong agrees with you, though he throws in butter as well.
Jay
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Cindy N
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#190

Post by Cindy N »

TPS wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:58 pm Thank you - someone beat you to it. I was wrong but there is an amazing coincidence in the puzzle.
Uh oh, now that makes ME worry!
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boharr
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#191

Post by boharr »

VanVeen wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:22 pm Chiming in:

One space after a period. Two spaces will create what are referred to as "rivers" in your document. It's an optical illusion of sorts that looks like there's a continuous stream of white space running down the page and is generally avoided by typographers and printers.

NO Oxford comma. Most of the time it is unnecessary and does nothing to clarify a sentence. For example, if you write "I bought eggs and milk," you don't need a comma. It's perfectly understandable. But then you're going to tell me if you add a third item, all of a sudden the sentence is unclear? "I bought cereal, eggs and milk." Oh wait, it's perfectly fine without the superfluous comma.

And if you've written a sentence that is unclear without an Oxford comma, then you've probably written a bad sentence. Take another look and rewrite it.

Also, you can probably take the word "that" out of your sentence and it will read just fine.
You are right when you say “most of the time.” There are exceptions. As others have noted. But I’m puzzled by having eggs in one’s cereal.
UTHfan
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#192

Post by UTHfan »

First things first, I always use two spaces after a period. see?

I guess I'm still new to this, because this meta is not looking elegant yet (and then there are the folks who are on shore minutes after the puzzle is posted!). I also see the questions about the correlation between puzzle's title and the answers in the grid. That's not a good sign for my search to the solution.

Still on the boat.

Long live the oxford comma!
steveb
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#193

Post by steveb »

tim1217 wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:40 pm Totally disagree with the clue for 19A. Being careful of flying too close to the sun (aka, giving spoilers), I can think of many situations where that clue would not define the grid answer.
Since the clue includes ",say" it doesn't have to cover every instance of the answer. It only has to be an example of one.
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tim1217
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#194

Post by tim1217 »

I was just waiting for this reply, totally irrelevant. That clue does not equal that answer...ever, full stop.
steveb
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#195

Post by steveb »

tim1217 wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 8:32 pm I was just waiting for this reply, totally irrelevant. That clue does not equal that answer...ever, full stop.
"Ever"? I'll give you an example on Monday.
Dow Jones
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#196

Post by Dow Jones »

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-v ... cyqGR1/url]

When in doubt, just ask Weird Al.

I'm still stuck on the ship
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hcbirker
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#197

Post by hcbirker »

Another one for Dr. Tom. Two ants talking: why don’t we get the Coronavirus? Answer: because we have anty bodies.
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KayW
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#198

Post by KayW »

I'm enjoying the grammar debates this week because I'm getting nowhere with the meta. I expect to be with Isaac all weekend.

I learned to type using two spaces after a period but gave up the second space when I got rid of my manual typewriter.

Somewhat inconsistently, I was always spaces over tabs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=SsoOG6ZeyUI
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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Bob cruise director
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#199

Post by Bob cruise director »

Bird Lives wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:49 pm
boharr wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:46 am As we digress (and since I'm still with Isaac), here's another bit of journalism legend.

When I first went to work for a newspaper (only in print back then), I was told that the elimination of the Oxford comma as a policy was put in place because of the ink that would be saved over the course of a year by having so many fewer commas.

Apocryphal? Maybe. But fun.
I feel that way now given the cost of those cartridges for my ink-jet printer. Before I print the pdf of the WSJ puzzle, I delete the previous day's solution and the "E-mail your answer" block below the clues. (OK, not really to save ink but to have space to make notes in. But still . . .)
I have found that second source cartridges from Amazon work perfectly well. I get a box of GPC Image cartridges for my Canon MG6820 for $12 and they work perfectly. I use Epson for my 3880 for photography.
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Beth C
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#200

Post by Beth C »

Harder grid than usual, tough meta too but I am ashore and enjoying a glass of chardonnay.
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