"Where's The Rest?" - September 11, 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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cbarbee002
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#341

Post by cbarbee002 »

TPS wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:03 am There were several reasons why I didn’t solve this puzzle and perhaps the easiest way for me to explain it is by following up on a comment I made about how I would never use this as a puzzle as an introductory puzzle.

First, right from rip there is a mislead. A high percentage of the time if a Hint is given about the number of letters in the answer it correlates to the number of theme clues. While this is not always the case if I am trying to introduce someone to a puzzle I’m going to start with one where: 1+1=2 not X+Y=2.

Second, it involves homonyms. Many people with learning disabilities and/or hearing issues struggle with homonyms. Since there was no hint in the puzzle itself or title that clues you to turn the theme clues into homonyms – you had to recognize this on your own. Someone new to these type of puzzles is not going to think to do this and probably not going to think – “Oh, gee that’s fun” but more likely to think “Yikes, I’d never think to do that.

Third, the puzzle involved numerous steps where any error could derail the whole effort. Only come up with 4 theme answers, don’t know one of the homonyms, aren’t able to match one of the homonym to its synonym, don’t add the “s” to the final clue, don’t realize you have to turn DOUGHS to DOZE…Any of which dooms your effort.

If I am going to teach someone something I’m going to start with something basic. Something that they have a chance to solve or at least don’t feel over whelmed. A puzzle like KT OLSIN or JEFFERSON AIRPLANE does that – even if they don’t solve it they can most likely identify the theme answers because there is no misdirect right at the beginning of the puzzle. By that same token I wouldn’t give them WIRES (the morse code one) right from the beginning either.

I could have been doing these for 15 years and I never would have solved this – it was above my ceiling. When I was younger I got straight A’s in math classes all the way through Calc 3 in college – then I hit Differential Equations and that class was just beyond me. This puzzle was like Differential Equations for me.
What you said . . . . .
LaceyK
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#342

Post by LaceyK »

Well I might win the prize for the most rabbit holes and finding a solution that works in so many ways, but didn't leave me completely 100%.

Here's my initial observations:
1. Dime, Liter, Head or Mast, Cast.
These go many places: associations--five and dime, dime a dozen, heads or tails, liter/quart, head and shoulders (above the rest) (nod to shampoo); cast and crew, cast and reel, cast a spell, cast a web.
Cast is part of a PLAY. Dime is part of a PRICE.
Dime is 10 (or 5 or 12), Liter is 10 x 10 x 10 ml; Head first, Cast a die, 6 sides.

2. Dime and quarter, liter is about a quart, headquarters, quarter cast.
Also quarter rest in music. Baroque is the only Q on the page, and clue can form quartet.

3. Rest. It is hidden in the clues. Forest. Restaurant. Insertions, Silverstein. That gives you MOSS, PREP, STENTS, SHEL. Those letters don't spell anything, nor the Clue first letters. Where are those items: Tree, kitchen, vein, beach. Or their numbers: 4, 23, 44, 53. Divide by 10 and remainder 4, 3, 4, 3. Add them up 124. CXXIV.

4. WheRE'S The REST. Double rest. Music. Looks like a double blank space on the grid. Letter at end spells RING or GRIN. (Also WHE and HE are left over. Found a couple HEs in the grid and clues.)

5. Almost Rest in clues: wEST, Dest, theRE'S one, FiguRES co-star. W D O C

6. Take 10 is REST. Dime 10. sTENts. If sub TEN in for DIME, get the word Tension.

7. Ten is X. Add it to words in the grid. X-RAY, TRI-X.

8. Going back to quarter. Add 4 to words. Four dimensions. Four liters. Forehead. or Fore master (ship). Forecast (gust or snow in the grid). four dimes is 40, 40 winks which means a rest.

9. Add RE to words in the grid to form REST. RESTAB, RESTACKS, RESTILES, RESTIR, RESTENTS, RESTATUS (not a word).

10. Phrases with Rest. Not KNEE, but Arm REST.

11. Also can I add EST to a grid answer with an R ending? Searest, Pairest. Stirest. Choirest. Uberest.
Dearest, Fairest, but it seems to end there.

12. I also have tried to go beyond the grid answers to see if there's any other words (looking for the REST). Shel could be made into SHELF, to put something to rest.
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ImOnToo
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#343

Post by ImOnToo »

Doh!!!
I saw “sea” and dismisses it because I had 4 words already!

Well done!
Last edited by ImOnToo on Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Al Sisti
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#344

Post by Al Sisti »

I got the answer (DOZE), but wow, I totally backed into it. I saw DIMENSION - SIGH(S)/SIZE and OBLITERATE - RAY(S)/RAZE, then noticed that the clues for 2D and 34A also asked for plurals, so that got me BOOZE (HOOCH) and BREEZE (GUST)... and tried to do something with/about those four. Only later did I see the clue for 64D was also asking for a plural, and I went from SEAS to Seize and to USURP. So now I had all five, so it should have been clear sailing, right? Here's where it got weird. Not noticing the initials of those five, I went back to the clue for USURP and saw it was "Commandeer." So -- noticing that the whole puzzle had homophones -- I parse it as "Common Deer," and from there, I got Doe and from Doe (to get the plural and bring in the Z), I got DOZE. Sometimes it's enough just to be lucky.
Jace54
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#345

Post by Jace54 »

I liked how “Rest” had a double meaning, first in completing the rest of the five answers and second with the answer “doze”.

I got a little stuck by first converting “ray” to “raise” Instead of “raze”, but then noticed all of the other conversions had a “z”.

Overall, I enjoyed this meta!
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sanmilton
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#346

Post by sanmilton »

I was bothered by the (deliberate?) agreement problem in the online prompt (or "hint"):

Hint: The answer to this week's contest crossword is a four-letter verb that I hope this puzzles doesn't make you want to do.

The plural "puzzles" is not in the .pdf (print) version.

But I loved that the entry for 1D could be read as ADD S. And that the clue for it began with "Does" -- a near-homophone of the meta answer.

Soooo clever, Mr. Gaffney, once again!
SewYoung
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#347

Post by SewYoung »

In the words of Maxwell Smart; "Missed it by THAT much." Absolutely kicking myself. I can't believe I didn't get the last step. I had all the right letters but I guess I was thrown off by there being 5. For some reason, I just couldn't see it.
Last edited by SewYoung on Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
LaceyK
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#348

Post by LaceyK »

I had noticed the words deer and bison in the clues. This led me to my "solution." Finding 2 related words hidden in the clues, and the third item (the rest) in the grid, with an extra letter. (elk leads me to KLEE)
So I found: gal, her & she(l); deer, bison, & (e)elk; bore, punch & pit(s) and amp, alt & (s)tab.
Giving me LESS, a verb meaning doing less. And joining with the title for RestLESS.

This puzzle definitely left me RESTLESS!

I didn't like that I kept finding other hidden duos (gin & rum, herr & ein) that I couldn't connect to the grid.

Regarding the real solution: I remember being concerned about the singular BOO and BRIE but didn't think anything of it.
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ImOnToo
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#349

Post by ImOnToo »

I even had all of the “ze”s
Well, 4 of them at least. 😄
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Richard
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#350

Post by Richard »

I think the key to solving any meta is keeping an open mind. When I fail to get one usually I started down the wrong path and just could not get off it.

I have been trying to do these for only a few years and think this one clearly forces you to keep that open mind.

I quickly found four words entered as singular that should be plural. Later found the next step for the four words but was stumped. Could not make any sense of the letters. Waking early and lying in bed it hit me. Found the 5th word and went from there.

So just because it says a 4 letter verb does not mean step 1 is four letters, etc.

I think I had 3 aha moments solving this one. Many of these involve knowing someone or something that is not well to all. KT Oslin for example.
This one requires no specialize knowledge.

The first meta I got on my own was Double Eagle - Arnold Palmer - which in retrospect was pretty easy. This one is from the comments quite hard. Bookend them together to teach solving metas.

Kudos to Matt. In my opinion, a great meta.
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TPS
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#351

Post by TPS »

Richard wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:27 am I think I had 3 aha moments solving this one. Many of these involve knowing someone or something that is not well to all. KT Oslin for example.
This one requires no specialize knowledge.
For me the only specialized knowledge for KT OLSIN or WIRES was how to use Google. In both those cases NOTE/CODE was in the title - once I figured out the theme clues and followed the hint in the grid - I knew I was probably going to need to look at musical notes (which I knew nothing about) or morse code (which I knew a little about but still had to google to be sure).

This one - required a significant amount of mental gymnastics and there was no way Google was going to save you. I don't dispute there is a fair amount of elegance to this puzzle. It was just an insanely difficult solve - I'd put it up there with the harder puzzles I've seen from PGW. If I think back to if it was tougher than maybe ADOBE or MULTIMEDIA or some other multi-step puzzles this year - I am not sure but I think it is the first puzzle in a long time where I had 4-5 different rabbit holes and none of them were even remotely close to being the right start but even if I had - I never would have found the 5 clue and I never would have recognized to turn them into homonyms.
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DrTom
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#352

Post by DrTom »

Well this is not my week, I did not get this and just submitted what I KNOW is the incorrect answer to the MGWCC because I have a case to argue.

This one threw me for a loop because I saw 8 possible letters. I started with something I inferred from the puzzle. Chimeras, particularly to those of us in medicine (or for that matter mythology) is the combination of two different things to come up with a new entity. It is such an odd word (and used for its lesser known meaning) that I felt it had to have relevance. Take that along with "Where's The Rest" and it seemed I was looking to combine something that was missing to form a new entity. Immediately I saw BOO + K across the way from it, RAG + U across the way, and SEAR + S across the way. I then saw LIBRARY SECTION, SAUCE, and THERE IS ONE IN SAO PAULO (yes surprisingly enough there is a Sears in Sao Paulo) and now I have 3 letters K U S, hmmm maybe I missed an L connection in there and I can get SULK?

But wait I also noticed that there were several clues that were plural but had singular answers BOO, SIGH, SEA, RAY and BRIE, Well gosh all of those have an S at the end and that doesn't help me, nor does their beginning letter - RATS! Then with a gigantic nudge I finally saw the BOOS > BOOZE, SIGHS > SIZE, etc. and did the "OK, what is their clue" to get letters BUT took the letters in GRID order with eh As first followed by the Ds to get HOGDU???? I added the extra letters I had (was supposed ot get 4 so maybe 8 gives me some subtraction strategy) to end up with HOGDUKUS???? Well that is not a real word, but sounds like a rude thing to call someone. Finally I got another one or two nudges (FAR too many to even claim a spot on the overcrowded shore) and made it to DOUGH and then added the S for DOZE. A clever puzzle but BOY my initial rabbit hole was soooo attractive when there were three that fit other clues (and including a Sears in Sao Paulo!!) that i could not let it go.

So, got last week, whiffed this week and the same will go for the MGWCC. Gosh I get to start with a clean slate.....
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!
JRS51
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#353

Post by JRS51 »

I saw quickly the 4 words that should be plural, BOO, RAY, SIGH and SEA. I struggled with BRIE because I already had what I assumed were the requisite 4 theme answers.
I thought it should be plural but decided maybe correct usage would be plural without adding an S. Unfortunately it ended for me right there, I didn't make that next step from the plural to the homonyms etc. So I guess accepting BRIE as a fifth theme answer wouldn’t have helped me.
JeanneC
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#354

Post by JeanneC »

Wow...uh...wow...!
Did not see the second part of the mechanism and chased a Castilian rabbit all weekend.
Glad I saw the first part of the mechanism. I’m learning! 🖖 until the next puzzle.
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
Gpiggies
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#355

Post by Gpiggies »

When I first saw the puzzle title and clue, I guessed it was doze. And then I thought, no!
Went on to spot the 5 words missing the 's', but I stumbled on rays. Not sure why, except that when I googled the tampa bay rays, it turns out that the ray for some time has referred to a ray of light. So I thought, oh, maybe it's rays like stingrays. I looked up chimeras, and what do you know, there's a type of stingray-like creature called a chimera.
That led me nowhere, and I went down many other rabbit holes until I got some nudges to return to rays... doh!!!
FKelly
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#356

Post by FKelly »

Partition the title into W[HEREST] [HEREST] which suggests final step is to drop a letter from the previous step's result.
Use title mechanism on four long across entries.
DIMENSION -> D, abbr. and 1st letter
OBLITERATE -> O, 1st letter
HEADMASTER -> Z, 1st letter of ZENMASTER
CASTILIAN -> E, 1st letter of ESPANOL
The dropped letters in order are DOZE which also satisfies the hint. A bit of a stretch?

Being a life-long HOMOPHONE-phobe, I lost the trail of the published mechanism quickly. Homophones are like Kryptonite. Worse actually. Since we actually live in a BIZARRO universe, it's hard to tell which solution is least/more bizarre.

Thanks for indirect hints from Wendy Walker, Joe Ross and Inca to confirm!
Dow Jones
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#357

Post by Dow Jones »

The only ONE WORD CLUES (across and down) in the puzzle were:

17A Magnitude/Dimension (sigh/size)
30A Destroy/Obliterate (ray/raze)
41A Commandeer/Usurp (sea/seize)
51A Wind/Gust (brie/breeze)
61A Sauce/Hooch (boo/booze)

Coincidence or genius ??
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#358

Post by Abide »

I’d go with genius.
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TMart
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#359

Post by TMart »

Since the answer was a 4 letter word, I initially stopped after I found four of the plural mismatches and ended up with DOUH. Huh???

Then, as I slapped my head and said “D’oh!” in my best Homer Simpson voice, I realized I was missing a G, and found the right answer.
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Joe Ross
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#360

Post by Joe Ross »

LaceyK wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:14 am Well I might win the prize for the most rabbit holes and finding a solution that works in so many ways, but didn't leave me completely 100%.

Here's my initial observations:
1. Dime, Liter, Head or Mast, Cast.
These go many places: associations--five and dime, dime a dozen, heads or tails, liter/quart, head and shoulders (above the rest) (nod to shampoo); cast and crew, cast and reel, cast a spell, cast a web.
Cast is part of a PLAY. Dime is part of a PRICE.
Dime is 10 (or 5 or 12), Liter is 10 x 10 x 10 ml; Head first, Cast a die, 6 sides.

2. Dime and quarter, liter is about a quart, headquarters, quarter cast.
Also quarter rest in music. Baroque is the only Q on the page, and clue can form quartet.

3. Rest. It is hidden in the clues. Forest. Restaurant. Insertions, Silverstein. That gives you MOSS, PREP, STENTS, SHEL. Those letters don't spell anything, nor the Clue first letters. Where are those items: Tree, kitchen, vein, beach. Or their numbers: 4, 23, 44, 53. Divide by 10 and remainder 4, 3, 4, 3. Add them up 124. CXXIV.

4. WheRE'S The REST. Double rest. Music. Looks like a double blank space on the grid. Letter at end spells RING or GRIN. (Also WHE and HE are left over. Found a couple HEs in the grid and clues.)

5. Almost Rest in clues: wEST, Dest, theRE'S one, FiguRES co-star. W D O C

6. Take 10 is REST. Dime 10. sTENts. If sub TEN in for DIME, get the word Tension.

7. Ten is X. Add it to words in the grid. X-RAY, TRI-X.

8. Going back to quarter. Add 4 to words. Four dimensions. Four liters. Forehead. or Fore master (ship). Forecast (gust or snow in the grid). four dimes is 40, 40 winks which means a rest.

9. Add RE to words in the grid to form REST. RESTAB, RESTACKS, RESTILES, RESTIR, RESTENTS, RESTATUS (not a word).

10. Phrases with Rest. Not KNEE, but Arm REST.

11. Also can I add EST to a grid answer with an R ending? Searest, Pairest. Stirest. Choirest. Uberest.
Dearest, Fairest, but it seems to end there.

12. I also have tried to go beyond the grid answers to see if there's any other words (looking for the REST). Shel could be made into SHELF, to put something to rest.
"Initial"?

Yeeps.

It ain't just you, DrTom...
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