"Missing Links" - July 10, 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.
Locked
EmilyW
Posts: 238
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:03 pm

#421

Post by EmilyW »

I did not find the missing link. I started out convinced it was golf related with par at the beginning of the puzzle, and thought I was screwed since that's about the extent of my golf knowledge. I also chased the ONE, NINE, TEN rabbit and words with one letter differences. I ended up submitting an answer I knew was wrong right before the deadline but I got a kick out of it anyway. I saw TACOMAN/OMAN and EMANATE/ATE. If you take the extra letters in the first words and spell them backwards, you get CAT NAME. My cat's name is Cleo which isn't enough letters, and I couldn't think of any famous cats with 5 letters. I considered tabby, but thought that was too close to recent meta answer tally. "Links" made me think of lynx, so I moved on to big cats and submitted TIGER.
User avatar
FrankieHeck
Posts: 839
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
Location: West Virginia

#422

Post by FrankieHeck »

DrTom wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:40 am
Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:17 am I was distracted for a while by SEA-TAC in the bottom right and thought the strategy might be airport acronyms.
And TACOMAN reminded me of the time when my brother and I, with our usual overinflated sense of agency, wrote to Frito-Lay suggesting they use the Village People song "Macho Man" to advertise Nacho Cheese Doritos ("Nacho, nacho man! I wanna be a nacho man"). They said thanks but no thanks and sent us some coupons.
Darn, I like Fritos, wonder if I could send them a jingle done to the tune of Born Free, "Born Frito, Frito as cheese flows..."?

Was thinking of you this week-end because there was a piece on TV about a man in Uniontown, PA who has been harassed by the Police many times but ran to the site of a bad police car crash to pull an officer out of a burning vehicle that would definitely have taken his life. It was a very nice story (well as nice as one with a car wreck in it can be) and was very much appreciated during all of the negative reporting that abounds.

I always do a double take when I see Uniontown because I am from near Unionville, PA - MUCH smaller.
I live about 25 miles from Uniontown, and it is quite small. Unionville must be microscopic.
User avatar
DrTom
Posts: 3765
Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
Location: Jacksonville, FL

#423

Post by DrTom »

FrankieHeck wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:15 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:40 am
Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:17 am I was distracted for a while by SEA-TAC in the bottom right and thought the strategy might be airport acronyms.
And TACOMAN reminded me of the time when my brother and I, with our usual overinflated sense of agency, wrote to Frito-Lay suggesting they use the Village People song "Macho Man" to advertise Nacho Cheese Doritos ("Nacho, nacho man! I wanna be a nacho man"). They said thanks but no thanks and sent us some coupons.
Darn, I like Fritos, wonder if I could send them a jingle done to the tune of Born Free, "Born Frito, Frito as cheese flows..."?

Was thinking of you this week-end because there was a piece on TV about a man in Uniontown, PA who has been harassed by the Police many times but ran to the site of a bad police car crash to pull an officer out of a burning vehicle that would definitely have taken his life. It was a very nice story (well as nice as one with a car wreck in it can be) and was very much appreciated during all of the negative reporting that abounds.

I always do a double take when I see Uniontown because I am from near Unionville, PA - MUCH smaller.
I live about 25 miles from Uniontown, and it is quite small. Unionville must be microscopic.
Wow, I must have been asleep at the keys, I didn't see I wrote Unionville, not Uniondale. No that it makes much difference, Uniondale is so small that I sneezed once while going through town and was 20 yards outside the village limits by the time I recovered. It's biggest claim to fame right now is that it is a nice stopping point on the PA-NY Rail Trail.
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!
User avatar
Joe Ross
Moderator
Posts: 4999
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:46 am
Location: Cincinnati

#424

Post by Joe Ross »

I've got your warren...


20200710 WSJCC Missing Links RHs.gif
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!
ClayD
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:38 am

#425

Post by ClayD »

Did anyone go down the APEX rabbit trail? Once I found the APEs and MANs, I noticed that an alternate answer for ACME was APEX. It has APE and also follows the same pattern as MANy with a single letter after the theme word. Thought perhaps that was part of what was "missing", but I abandoned it pretty quickly after it went nowhere

ClayD
zacmoretz
Posts: 101
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:50 pm

#426

Post by zacmoretz »

Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:21 am To make sure everyone knows, we have been having zoom telecconferences Tuesday evening

Yourpalsal will put the link and time here later Monday
Would love to join in but I threw my phone out the window when I saw the answer to this one! 😀
User avatar
boharr
Moderator
Posts: 3182
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:57 am
Location: Westchester, NY

#427

Post by boharr »

MajordomoTom wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:05 am On my later review of the grid, I suddenly noted - "there are a LOT of APEs in this grid".

I then went ... how many? 5 - ok, what else? Then saw the "MAN" and went - 5 of them, ok what connects?

And it just fell into place.
I did the same except saw MAN then APE.
User avatar
boharr
Moderator
Posts: 3182
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:57 am
Location: Westchester, NY

#428

Post by boharr »

MaineMarge wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 6:57 am Had I HIGHLIGHTED each of them, I might have joined that elusive group of first page solvers.
Exactly. Something to remember. I reprinted, highlighted, and got on shore early.
User avatar
Bird Lives
Posts: 2607
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:43 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

#429

Post by Bird Lives »

FrankieHeck wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:15 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:40 am

Was thinking of you this week-end because there was a piece on TV about a man in Uniontown, PA who has been harassed by the Police many times but ran to the site of a bad police car crash to pull an officer out of a burning vehicle that would definitely have taken his life. It was a very nice story (well as nice as one with a car wreck in it can be) and was very much appreciated during all of the negative reporting that abounds.

I always do a double take when I see Uniontown because I am from near Unionville, PA - MUCH smaller.
I live about 25 miles from Uniontown, and it is quite small. Unionville must be microscopic.
[/quote]
I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, 50 miles north of Uniontown, but Uniontown was often on our football schedule. I was in the band, and it was a long bus trip.
Jay
Tony S
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:14 pm

#430

Post by Tony S »

MatthewB wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:54 am I was lost among the rabbit holes until my sister - in - law became obsessed with Louis Leakey and Lucy, the missing link. Once I saw there were 5 apes, I knew that was the correct path... With little more than an hour to spare.
There was a clue, 26d, that read "Anthropologist Leakey" with the answer being LOUIS. I think that may have been a gift from Mike Shenk.
LesY
Posts: 678
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:21 pm

#431

Post by LesY »

Love the word PAPEETE so much this one clicked fairly quickly, esp. once I saw the two "APE" words in similar positioning further down. And then I had Southern Cross playing pleasantly in my head for much of the weekend. Win win!

If the Louis Leakey clue was the nudge then the subtlety was excellent.
User avatar
whimsy
Posts: 2718
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
Location: Hopkinton MA

#432

Post by whimsy »

Rad26 wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:35 am Saw the APES right away and played with them all weekend. Never found the men. Makes me a monkey’s uncle. Oh well.
Dang! You used my punchline already! :) So I'll have to go with plan B:

After trying to make PARAPET into PARAKEET as well as EMANATE into MANATEE, I finally saw the correct animal, and eventually the MAN, so I ended up considering this puzzle more fun than a barrel of......

I'm wondering which of us saw APE first (or only) and who saw MAN first (or only) and what that might say about us! :D
User avatar
whimsy
Posts: 2718
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
Location: Hopkinton MA

#433

Post by whimsy »

Tony S wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:23 am
MatthewB wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 8:54 am I was lost among the rabbit holes until my sister - in - law became obsessed with Louis Leakey and Lucy, the missing link. Once I saw there were 5 apes, I knew that was the correct path... With little more than an hour to spare.
There was a clue, 26d, that read "Anthropologist Leakey" with the answer being LOUIS. I think that may have been a gift from Mike Shenk.
And that's the trouble, isn't it? You're never quite sure which are the gifts and which the purposely placed misdirections!
I always think of those scenes with Charlie Brown and Lucy and the football. :roll:
Laura M
Posts: 1384
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:49 am

#434

Post by Laura M »

whimsy wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:15 am
Rad26 wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 12:35 am Saw the APES right away and played with them all weekend. Never found the men. Makes me a monkey’s uncle. Oh well.
Dang! You used my punchline already! :) So I'll have to go with plan B:

After trying to make PARAPET into PARAKEET as well as EMANATE into MANATEE, I finally saw the correct animal, and eventually the MAN, so I ended up considering this puzzle more fun than a barrel of......

I'm wondering which of us saw APE first (or only) and who saw MAN first (or only) and what that might say about us! :D
I was wondering that too! I'm another one who saw APE first, and MAN a few hours later when redoing the grid (which often helps!).
User avatar
Wendy Walker
Posts: 1700
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
Location: Unionville, PA

#435

Post by Wendy Walker »

I suggest we have a show of hands on the Tuesday evening Zoom meet-up about who saw MAN first (that would be me) and who saw APE first!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
User avatar
Hector
Posts: 1297
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:15 pm
Location: San Francisco
Contact:

#436

Post by Hector »

oldjudge wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:11 am Does anyone remember the St James Infirmery, the Oasis, and Rozzotti’s?
Antonio's Nuthouse, The Dutch Goose, Old Pro, Edinburgh Castle . . .
User avatar
boharr
Moderator
Posts: 3182
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:57 am
Location: Westchester, NY

#437

Post by boharr »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 11:35 am I suggest we have a show of hands on the Tuesday evening Zoom meet-up about who saw MAN first (that would be me) and who saw APE first!
Might there be a correlation to those who do and don't like pineapple on their pizza?
MikeMillerwsj
Posts: 286
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:46 pm

#438

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

Judging from the response this week, this was a tougher contest than usual. We had 1185 responses, about 87% correct. The others were scattered across a very wide range of guesses, including CHAIN (7), VOWEL (7), CHIMP (3), CANDY, SPORE, DIGIT, TIPPY, THREE, many many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Yve Lepkowski of Teaneck, NJ!Judging from the response this week, this was a tougher contest than usual. We had 1185 responses, about 87% correct. The others were scattered across a very wide range of guesses, including CHAIN (7), VOWEL (7), CHIMP (3), CANDY, SPORE, DIGIT, TIPPY, THREE, many many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Yve Lepkowski of Teaneck, NJ!
User avatar
BarbaraK
Posts: 2592
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:37 pm
Location: Virginia

#439

Post by BarbaraK »

oldjudge wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 2:20 am Between first and second year of business school I worked for Exxon’s systems group and built the Treasury Departments first cash management model. That was over a thousand punch cards (does anyone remember key punch girls?).
The fastest I ever quit a job was key punching. 3 hours and I was ready to go to the mall and be a salesclerk.
User avatar
Eric Porter
Posts: 466
Joined: Sun May 05, 2019 2:19 am
Location: Nashville, TN

#440

Post by Eric Porter »

KayW wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2020 9:03 am I got diverted into a rabbit hole trying to "link" several of the 7-letter entries that were anagrams of each other with a two-letter difference:

paRApet - papeEtE
actEDon - tacoMAn
aCTedon - oneadAY
GeRmane - emanATe - enameLS

All of course a side-effect of working so many APE-MANs into close proximity in the grid. What an amazing construction!
This is what got me too. There's also
cROatoan - tacoMan
Capers - Tapers

I'd thought it was words evolving into one another. If there only weren't so many words off by one or two letters I would have probably focused on MAN and then found APE sooner.
Locked