"Rename That Tune" - July 17,2020

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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Jeremy Smith
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#361

Post by Jeremy Smith »

FrancesY wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:19 pm Sent in MISHEARD. Convinced myself that “Are We Clear” suggested I was looking for the misheard lyrics to a song—somehow involving Iamb, Anjou, Isle, Wilbur Suede, Egg Spec, etc.—whose misheard title would be the answer. Couldn’t get off that track.

The rated difficulty of the puzzle also through me off. Initially it showed up as a two-star puzzle.

Congrats to all who solved it!
My Hail Mary was MISHEARD, as well. I suspected that the answer had something to do with mondegreens.
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Janet
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#362

Post by Janet »

I didn't get this one -- too puzzling for me!
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DBMiller
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#363

Post by DBMiller »

Other rabbit holes before making the connection with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:

Looking for musical tunes in the answers. Tush, by Fleetwood Mac; DOA, by Bloodrock; Mr Blue Sky, by ELO. Blue Suede Shoes, by Elvis.

Renaming answers into a tune. SOTHERE becomes "The Rose". ADO becomes "DOA". IWONTDOIT becomes "TOWN IDIOT"??? Hmmm... try mentioning THAT factoid to someone who refuses to wear a mask when out in public! ;) :roll: :lol:
If I'm around, I am willing to join the Muggle Zoom room at other times to lend a hand to those in need.
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jenirvin
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#364

Post by jenirvin »

LOL - I use the catchphrase in normal conversation, even at my age.
~ Jennifer/jenirvin
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whimsy
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#365

Post by whimsy »

Reading all the entries since post-midnite has been at least as much fun as working on the puzzle --- which I did not get.
I was like so many of you, getting the Twinkle business and the lyric bits and doing every single blasted thing to them except the correct one.

But my Walk of Shame (and I knew it would be so as I was futilely working on it) comes from the fact that I worked in childcare with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers for eons, and if I had a nickel for every time I've sung ABC, Twinkle,Twinkle, or Baa Baa..............talk about pressure! :D
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LadyBird
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#366

Post by LadyBird »

I had many of the same rabbit holes. I was really focused on searching for stars in numerous ways. Stars=G=7th letter. The 7th letter in every answer was LEBEWOHA. I was pretty sure that was wrong. And there is no anagram.

The 2 instances of SKY really intrigued me. If there was one letter from each answer, then using that word twice meant it must be KK or KY or YK or YY. I used a site trying to find 8 letter words with those--nope.

I had the 8 answers and Twinkle but still felt lost. Once someone confirmed that these 2 steps were correct, it was like the mindblock disappeared. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I realized all the answers started with Twinkle words. We're on vacation so I couldn't just go to the living room and ponder. So I'm using my flashlight app to look at the grid so I don't wake my husband because (1) I'm nice like that and (2) and more importantly, I don't want to elicit the eyeroll!
Laura M
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#367

Post by Laura M »

Meg wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 7:34 am I got this one pretty fast. I don’t know why. Maybe musical training. Or the Twinkle variations my daughter played during her Suzuki piano lessons. My first reaction when I saw the mechanism was to laugh. Literally out loud. It seemed......so.......diabolical. Using children's songs as a cipher. I absolutely loved the process of singing those songs over and over on the sofa. I think it made me feel like a kid.
Love it! I forgot, I'd been meaning to say something about Suzuki Twinkle variations too; my daughter did both piano and violin so I'm very familiar. If it were more general knowledge (and if the replacement lyrics were more standard), I would definitely have been down a rabbit hole with things like "Miss-iss-ip-pi pop-corn"!
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Streroto
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#368

Post by Streroto »

Forgive me if I missed it, but anybody notice that you can spell twinkle twinkle and baa baa and row row from the themers? I was sure Matt was going down this route, creating an alternate title like row row twinkle twinkle baa baa and I was able to get the eight letter word CHORUSED out of it in my convoluted attempt to solve this. Sadly, that too fell short. Major hats off to those who solved.

And yes I got very excited when I first saw BLUE SUEDE....

Also thought maybe changing TUSH (ZZ Top) to HUSH (Deep Purple) was a good renaming start...and wow did I go down some rabbit holes there... At least I had some good tunes in my head!
EmilyW
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#369

Post by EmilyW »

Alan H wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:00 pm i misread/jumped to a conclusion on 74A and thought the two songs were the ABCs and "ABC" by the Jackson 5 (who are famous children). i thought it was 2 songs with the same title, not tune. dumb mistake which led to a weekend of false starts.
Glad I'm not the only one who did this!
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boharr
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#370

Post by boharr »

Just glanced at Matt's new puzzle in New York Magazine, and this clue caught my eye: "The Love Boat bartender."
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Tom Shea
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#371

Post by Tom Shea »

Glad I didn't spend too much time this weekend. Never would have happened for me. However......... I do need to snap my streak of weekly dates with Isaac. People are starting to talk.
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norrin2
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#372

Post by norrin2 »

I couldn't solve the meta but I do know who the Wonder Twins are.
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ImOnToo
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#373

Post by ImOnToo »

If I had another week, I STILL wouldn’t have figured out this one! 😄
Congratulations, you smart ones who did! 👏🏼👍🏼
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LittleGood
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#374

Post by LittleGood »

I am super impressed with everybody who solved this one.

This was brilliantly constructed but very challenging.

I would neither rate it a KAS-4 (I would not say I "should have" gotten this one) nor a KAS-5 (I unfortunately could not solve it before the deadline, given my current skill level, but maybe this time next year i could get one like this!) KAS-4.5?

I will be grateful for another Thursday.
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Bob cruise director
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#375

Post by Bob cruise director »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:24 am
Al Sisti wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:22 am Matt provided a link to Joe Ross' post#260 in his reveal in Fiend.
Thank you, Al.

Matt referenced a temporary post holding the spot for the official WSJ solution. I replied on crosswordfiend with the permanent location of that original, temporary post:

forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=135&start=140#p26694

It is also here:


20200717 WSJCC RNTT grid.gif


20200717 ABCs TTLS sheet music.gif
So if you did not look at the sheet music, you would conclude that Twinkle, Twinkle had four lines of seven syllables each and the ABC song had 26 syllables and go off to another rabbit hole!!

I don't think we ever sang the song to our kids trying to pronounce W as "dou ble U".
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Abide
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#376

Post by Abide »

For those in need of a less challenging fix. And there will be a pop quiz on this meta at tomorrow's Zoom meet-up.
Abide wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:52 am Good morning and welcome to the latest installment of Muggle Meta Monday!

The meta answer is a current U.S. Senator.

PDF FILE
Political Machine.pdf

PUZ FILE
Political Machine.puz

Feel free to PM me with your answer. Hope to see you off the couch soon!

-Peter :P
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Dplass
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#377

Post by Dplass »

Abide wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:57 pm For those in need of a less challenging fix. And there will be a pop quiz on this meta at tomorrow's Zoom meet-up.
Abide wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:52 am Good morning and welcome to the latest installment of Muggle Meta Monday!

The meta answer is a current U.S. Senator.

PDF FILE
Political Machine.pdf

PUZ FILE
Political Machine.puz

Feel free to PM me with your answer. Hope to see you off the couch soon!

-Peter :P
Ftr I'm not finding this week's MMM less challenging than the WSJ...
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TPS
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#378

Post by TPS »

Dplass wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:18 pm Ftr I'm not finding this week's MMM less challenging than the WSJ...
Yeah - after 20 minutes and only having 1/3 of the grid done - I gave up!
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Joe Ross
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#379

Post by Joe Ross »

Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:51 pm So if you did not look at the sheet music, you would conclude that Twinkle, Twinkle had four lines of seven syllables each and the ABC song had 26 syllables and go off to another rabbit hole!!

I don't think we ever sang the song to our kids trying to pronounce W as "dou ble U".
My biggest issue was finding lyrics in the Theme answers. Once I found them, it was a matter of making the connections to the ABCs Song. That was relatively easy, even searching for sheet music.

Yes, I did look at the sheet music & needed to. My issue wasn't syllabic, it was impatience & lack of skill. Matt made necessary choices on which words & letters to match. Personally, I didn't feel it was too much effort. W is definitely 3 syllables & notes, IMO.

I discussed the solution with a couple of other muggles who solved it exactly as Matt expected us to do, by writing down the lyrics of both songs and matching them side-by-side. Made a bet with one that this puzzle was going to rate as one of the hardest ever. I think I'm owed $1.13, or something. Maybe a scoop of Graeter's ice cream...

Is it Thursday, yet?
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MajordomoTom
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#380

Post by MajordomoTom »

the syllables in those three songs (including the Sheep one) don't all quite align, because Mozart wrote a number of variations on the original source tune and different ones were used for different poems.
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