"Let's Move Beyond It" - August 7, 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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Gman
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#401

Post by Gman »

I ended up submitting REPLAY. The only letter following IT in the grid (found in PARKCITY, ALIT and PETIT) was the letter Y. By LOPPING (62D) off the Y in REY, and adding this to PLAY (I know this is a non-sequitur given I kept the Y in PLAY, but I was LAS) I arrived at REPLAY. Given how many times I've watched a football game wishing we could just move on from the call and resume play, I felt satisfied to have addressed the title of the puzzle. BLOCKS has nothing to do with "let's move beyond it" other than acting as the mechanism for the people familiar with the game of Monopoly. Ok, enough of my sour GRAPES. Onto Thursday!
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JAQT
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#402

Post by JAQT »

My rabbit hole was that 1D and 62D (POL & LOP) were the same letters backwards. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence, but of course it led nowhere.

For the Googlers, try searching with the words enclosed in quotes, as quotation marks signify to Google that the word must definitely be present in the search results. Try this, and Monopoly is the fourth entry for me, and on Friday it probably would have been the first as the three others are all references to the WSJ contest: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22LUXU ... LECTRIC%22

Best regards to all who made it ashore
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Gman
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#403

Post by Gman »

JAQT wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:04 pm My rabbit hole was that 1D and 62D (POL & LOP) were the same letters backwards. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence, but of course it led nowhere.

For the Googlers, try searching with the words enclosed in quotes, as quotation marks signify to Google that the word must definitely be present in the search results. Try this, and Monopoly is the fourth entry for me, and on Friday it probably would have been the first as the three others are all references to the WSJ contest: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22LUXU ... LECTRIC%22

Best regards to all who made it ashore
There were two other forward/backwards 3 letter combinations: LEE and EEL (as part of ELECTRICEEL) and AMI and LIMA. Try as I might, I couldn't make a word out of these. Rascally, rabbit!
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#404

Post by boharr »

JAQT wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:04 pm
For the Googlers, try searching with the words enclosed in quotes, as quotation marks signify to Google that the word must definitely be present in the search results.
For the toolbox.
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spotter
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#405

Post by spotter »

1. ELROPO
2. ELMIRA
3. YELPS
4. ELECTRIC
5. EEL
6. ELMO

I thought I was onto it at one point with those...
LaceyK
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#406

Post by LaceyK »

Thanks to everyone for posting the previous 3 puzzles with Monopoly themes. They are very creative, and I feel much harder. I am grateful to have solved this Monopoly one!
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norrin2
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#407

Post by norrin2 »

My problem is sometimes I can't let go of an answer even when I know it's wrong. When I realized it was about Monopoly I knew -- I just knew -- the six-letter word had to be CHANCE, and I hopscotched all over the board trying to make it make some kind of sense but of course it never did. But still my brain refused to let go and look for a different answer.
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#408

Post by RichA2 »

“It,” plus ROMA in the grid, led me to think of Italy (not a bad way to be distracted on another homebound weekend), but after finding nowhere to move beyond that country in the theme answers I switched to other approaches. SHORTANSWER implied that one or more of of the three letter answers might help. I eventually proceeded to LOP various letters off the themers, but only after a kind nudger suggested I lop off the second word in each did the Monopoly references jump out at me.

The principal “it” that a Monopoly player seeks to get beyond is of course the Go square, yielding $200. “Pass Go,” is six letters, but two words. No dice. I tried unsuccessfully to link each of the six properties to a letter that would spell something relating to “beyond it,” to no avail.

Never left the ship, but a fun trip nonetheless. Thanks to those who offered help, and congrats to those making it to shore.
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C=64
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#409

Post by C=64 »

You folks are doing a fine job reminding me of all the rabbit holes I explored: LEE/EEL POL/LOP, ELROPO ELMIRA etc.

My favorite idea that went nowhere: moving beyond LUXURYLINER to VIA spells INERVIA, and changing one letter makes INERTIA, which can be hard to move beyond! So the V or the T is the first letter of the meta, and, um, well, crap.
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Bob cruise director
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#410

Post by Bob cruise director »

eagle1279 wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:28 am
Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 6:28 am I was totally lost until the Monopoly connection jumped out at me at lunch on Friday and the rest fell into place as the title told me what to do.
Well, I need to know what was for lunch on the ship that day, I must have missed it, as well as spending too much time in the ship's lounge working a jigsaw puzzle (someone had stolen the Monopoly game for some reason, maybe they took it to shore).

I took the title too literally. I tried "moving beyond" the theme answers and discovered that LUXURYLINER --> VIA formed NERVIA, which is a river and province in Italy sharing a watershed or something with France. Aha, IT is the country code for Italy, so maybe we are moving beyond IT to find other country codes! Confirmed by the references to Roma and Paris in the grid! Whereupon began long, somewhat educational, and eventually bourbon-soaked online searches of various systems for same, learning en route that RE is the country code for something called Reunion, and SH is Saint Helena. Once stuck on the IT=Italy (or Italia) route, I could not get beyond it. I'm impressed by those who saw the Monopoly connection.

Next time I see C.D. Bob eating lunch on the ship, I will say to Isaac, "I'll have what he's having." :lol:
I have one grid with IT and TI and T(any other letter) I and I (any other letter) highlighted. And I was dead in the water. And then the light went off

And it was a ham and cheese sandwich
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#411

Post by Bob cruise director »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 1:19 pm
Bob cruise director wrote: Thu Aug 06, 2020 5:30 pm
Meg wrote: Thu Aug 06, 2020 5:27 pm I’m on the beach. Thanks, Bob, for a picture where I’m smiling! For all of you Zoom chickens, you don’t even have to talk!!
I take a bunch of screenshots and combined the best of each person.
Oh Lord! If that's the best shot of me, I will try to look better tomorrow.
The intent is not to put pressure on anyone. You look great.
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#412

Post by Bob cruise director »

JAQT wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:04 pm My rabbit hole was that 1D and 62D (POL & LOP) were the same letters backwards. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence, but of course it led nowhere.

For the Googlers, try searching with the words enclosed in quotes, as quotation marks signify to Google that the word must definitely be present in the search results. Try this, and Monopoly is the fourth entry for me, and on Friday it probably would have been the first as the three others are all references to the WSJ contest: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22LUXU ... LECTRIC%22

Best regards to all who made it ashore
I went down the POL/LOP rabbit hole also got nowhere
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DrTom
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#413

Post by DrTom »

JAQT wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:04 pm My rabbit hole was that 1D and 62D (POL & LOP) were the same letters backwards. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence, but of course it led nowhere.

For the Googlers, try searching with the words enclosed in quotes, as quotation marks signify to Google that the word must definitely be present in the search results. Try this, and Monopoly is the fourth entry for me, and on Friday it probably would have been the first as the three others are all references to the WSJ contest: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22LUXU ... LECTRIC%22

Best regards to all who made it ashore
See, I ALWAYS learn something. Add that to the stuff about "second places" posted earlier and this was a net positive gain week!!!
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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KscX
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#414

Post by KscX »

C=64 wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 6:20 pm You folks are doing a fine job reminding me of all the rabbit holes I explored: LEE/EEL POL/LOP, ELROPO ELMIRA etc.

My favorite idea that went nowhere: moving beyond LUXURYLINER to VIA spells INERVIA, and changing one letter makes INERTIA, which can be hard to move beyond! So the V or the T is the first letter of the meta, and, um, well, crap.
AND don't forget all the sets of EE. It was fun to stare at them for awhile and have it go absolutely nowhere.
APS
NEE
CEEL
ELMO
SEEP

Plus several others
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TPS
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#415

Post by TPS »

LadyBird wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 4:34 pm The first one I solved was PARKCITY. There's an IT in there
I almost went down that same rabbit hole - I saw that IT and was like that going to be important. Fortunately, I went back to the process and LOP saved me! But yes, that IT in PARKCITY was tempting!
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whimsy
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#416

Post by whimsy »

I did the Stephen King IT thing also.
As well as:
JAQT wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 5:04 pm My rabbit hole was that 1D and 62D (POL & LOP) were the same letters backwards. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence.
Plus 49D was PILOT --- those 3 letters with IT added in.

I was never on the shore, despite Bob's having apparently smuggled me on inadvertently --- (I suddenly feel like the fellow who sneaked into the lifeboats with the women and children in Titanic.)

I received a nudge from Big Brother (really, my brother who put me on to metas, not the totalitarian big whig) of "board game" so I immediately saw what I should have seen earlier. I tried the various permutations: grid order, appearance on the game board order, first letter, last letter, one letter beyond. Eventually went the one property beyond route, but by this time I was so confused as to what mechanism I was using at that moment that I somehow came up with BLOPKS. (That's obviously Blopkies -- those delectable, puffy treats your babushka-wearing Grandma makes, right?) I think the lack of consonants, as well as the lack of "tightness" regarding BLOCKS as the answer, led me to not recognize it as being close to a real word, and to dismiss it as just more of the gibberish I'd been coming up with. I was "initially" excited about the starting letter of B because I had already thought that BALTIC, a property located very soon after GO and one that you would have to move beyond to get to all the rest involved, would be a good answer -- finally gave up when the letters I was looking for to make that didn't show.

In the future you may remember this as the Monopoly puzzle (or one of the Monopoly puzzles.)
But for me, I'll always have Blopkies.
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#417

Post by FKelly »

KayW wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:49 am This one brought to mind Matt's Resource Management WSJ meta. I solved that one despite never having heard of SETTLERS OF CATAN, because googling the five resources brought up the game title at the top of the search list.

I haven't played Monopoly in decades (and I also searched my closets unsuccessfully for a copy - had to resort to Google image for the board). But thanks to years of play in early life, LUXURY and READING brought the game to mind very quickly. When the second words of the themers (TAX, PLACE, RAILROAD LINE-RAILROAD PARKING COMPANY) didn't generate an English word, I looked one space beyond each of the themers and found BLOCKS.

Out of curiousity as to how easy this meta would be for someone not familiar with Monopoly, I also googled the six theme answer first words (LUXURY PARK READING SHORT FREE ELECTRIC). At that time I did not see anything Monopoly related on the first page of search results. After reading Bird Lives' post this morning, I tried again and there it was at the bottom of the first page. I don't know if I was inattentive earlier, or if all the muggle activity this weekend bumped Monopoly higher up in the Google rankings.

And if 13D (roll the dice, say - PLAY) was an intended indicator clue, I admit it weakens the meta construction a bit because with two dice as used in the game, there is no way to roll a "one". Unless you take just the first step of a move. BTW I did not notice 13D at all prior to solving. I happened to re-work the blank grid in the paper later (why? because it was there) at which point it jumped up and bit me.
At post #100 I expressed doubt that this puzzle is fair to people not familiar with Monopoly, or at minimum 'American' Monopoly: "A bit concerned about the 'specialized knowledge' required to solve this puzzle. If you don't have it to begin with, there is really no way of getting it since nothing else even hints at this knowledge." This is a valid criticism of this puzzle.
A subscriber at the WSJ puzzle blog, MICHAEL THREAPLETON, posted "The only times I've played Monopoly the "railway" stations were Fenchurch St, Kings Cross, Liverpool St., and Marylebone. So SHORT and READING didn't get me anywhere. Also Mayfair is the next block after luxury tax, free parking is followed by Whitehall, electric company by Trafalgar Square.
This is what you get for being a British expat."

Dice are used in many games, so 13-D isn't much help. I also didn't notice it until after solving. Google results in this case are unreliable because they depend on your search history and what is trending in a complex way.
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#418

Post by FKelly »

Al Sisti wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:06 pm
howardl wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 11:43 am I reported "on shore" on Sunday afternoon, and I had submitted BLOCKS using exactly the process in the answer. But I expressed some doubt because I had missed the "Aha" feeling. I think others felt this way, and I've been thinking a little about what would have provided the Aha. A clue like: "How to collect $200" (pass go) or "they give out yellow cards" (community chest) or even "do not...." (pass go) or "get out of .... card" (Jail free). If I had found any of these clues hinting at Monopoly, I would have been 100% sure of my answer. Also, I don't make any clear connection between the Monopoly game and "blocks". A meta answer like "deeds" "hotels" "rent" probably would also have given me an aha.
I had a little trouble making the connection between BLOCKS and Monopoly until I realized that each of these spaces on a Monopoly board represent a city block. Well, the streets, anyway.
BLOCKS made perfect sense to me, because the spaces on board games are usually called squares (even if they're not square) and in keeping with the title LET'S MOVE BEYOND IT we were incrementing the location by one, so if we increment the dimension of a square by one we get a BLOCK.

I see your reasoning, but I wasn't sure what a BLOCK was on a Monopoly board: Is LUXURY Tax a street? Is there a BLOCK between PARK Place and LUXURY Tax and another between LUXURY Tax and Boardwalk? Or do BLOCKS refer to houses and hotels?
I suppose we could make like Elon Musk and smoke some weed and say "It's all good. We'll have level 4 Autonomous Vehicles by 2019. No wait ... make that level 5. Why ... we'll even be able to solve meta contests!"
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#419

Post by Abide »

Here’s an interesting puzzle: can you come up with a better six letter Monopoly-ish meta answer than BLOCKS, using the workable letters BCFGIKLMNOPRSV ? (the P is a little iffy)

After some time I came up with a decent answer, which I’ll share at tomorrow’s Zoom.
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ReB
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#420

Post by ReB »

norrin2 wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 6:10 pm My problem is sometimes I can't let go of an answer even when I know it's wrong. When I realized it was about Monopoly I knew -- I just knew -- the six-letter word had to be CHANCE, and I hopscotched all over the board trying to make it make some kind of sense but of course it never did. But still my brain refused to let go and look for a different answer.
You raise here an interesting meta-issue (so to speak) regarding the nature of meta-puzzles themselves.

There were several other six letter words on the board itself, including AVENUE and INCOME. The reason one should reject them all is that you could just as easily find them from five theme answers or any other arbitrary number of theme answers if all you needed to figure out was that the answer involved Monopoly - and moreover you would have no way to choose among them. This would violate the economy of meta puzzles.

Or to phrase it differently, you would have evaded the necessity of identifying and employing a second step mechanism that specifically enlisted precisely six theme answers.

To maintain economy, since you had six theme answers and a six letter answer word, the second step almost surely must involve each theme answer generating one of the answer letters (and usually the answer letters are in the order of the theme words).
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