"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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jenirvin
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#401

Post by jenirvin »

Bird Lives wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:40 am
tim1217 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:16 am The solution explanation took me a longer time to read than the time it took me to solve the grid.
Is this any better?

WSJ.jpg
So much prettier than my scrawls. :)
Xword.jpg
~ Jennifer/jenirvin
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Gman
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#402

Post by Gman »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:09 pm We thought this puzzle was diabolically hard, but a lot of you cracked it!
We had 1595 entries, about 69% correct. A big turnout (100) for HISS (because of the missing S's?) and QUIT (71, just wild guesses?) plus SIGH (24), YAWN (20), CUSS (16), SNAP (7), MOAN (5) and sundry others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Leslie Owsley of Owings Mills, MD.
And look forward to seeing you at this special event behind the scenes of our crossword contest.
https://www.wsjplus.com/invites/wsj-crosswords-event
"It's inconceivable that 1100 people got this right," said Vizzini.
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boharr
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#403

Post by boharr »

Gman wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:51 pm
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:09 pm We thought this puzzle was diabolically hard, but a lot of you cracked it!
We had 1595 entries, about 69% correct. A big turnout (100) for HISS (because of the missing S's?) and QUIT (71, just wild guesses?) plus SIGH (24), YAWN (20), CUSS (16), SNAP (7), MOAN (5) and sundry others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Leslie Owsley of Owings Mills, MD.
And look forward to seeing you at this special event behind the scenes of our crossword contest.
https://www.wsjplus.com/invites/wsj-crosswords-event
"It's inconceivable that 1100 people got this right," said Vizzini.
Why that's probably over 1000 Hail Marys!
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TPS
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#404

Post by TPS »

I was just happy that 70 other people shared my answer - QUIT
wordsmith
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#405

Post by wordsmith »

I thought I was getting the hang of it, but walked the plank on this one.
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boharr
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#406

Post by boharr »

wordsmith wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:37 pm I thought I was getting the hang of it, but walked the plank on this one.
I don't think this one was indicative. It was tricky.
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LadyBird
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#407

Post by LadyBird »

Grover wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 8:40 am Got the answer but not before going down a rabbit hole that no one else has mentioned (or perhaps no one else fell for). Following the "REST" theme I saw 42A was CATNIP. Changing one letter made it CATNAP. Aha! Right on the theme. Went looking for others and conveniently found 21A was TAP and changing T to N gave me NAP. Then found 18D - NAH where changing the H to P gave me NAP. Now I had three changed letters I, T, and H. Couldn't find a fourth one. I went through the alphabet and only came up with two letters that would make anything close to a verb - C would give me ITCH, which isn't really a verb. The other letter was S, and we won't go there.
I fell for that too! Although I didn't go with the S-word angle. :lol:

Notbitter wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:17 am I initially had the singular/plural mechanism - and even Brie > bries. It went south for me when I found 4 other singular/plural words and then did a quick internet search for brie. According to the answer that popped up on the web (a site called “Word Hippo”), “the plural form of brie is also brie.” Once I read that, and “knowing” that it was a four-letter answer, I was lost. I spent an inordinate amount of time on another homonym: to me the missing four -eses SOUNDED like forests...and I focused on not seeing the forests for the trees, especially with rest in the title. Definitely lost in the woods.
That darn Word Hippo created a lot of unnecessary rabbit hole exploring over here!

I saw the missing plurals right away (well, 4 of them) and also noticed the homonyms and related clues right away (thank you BOOS/BOOZE/HOOCH). Although my initial homonym for RAYS was RAISE and I was having trouble finding that in the grid. Then I realized that the others were all "Zs" which led me to RAZE/OBLITERATE. It took me another 24 hours to realize that ZZZZ = snoring = rest.

Did anyone else notice that all of the theme answers had alliterative clues: haunted house, Tampa team, world-weary, Black/Bering. I spent a good bit of time playing with this, but couldn't make HTWB into a word (I was still not thinking BRIES). Then I looked at the word in the clue that was pointing to it being a plural:
Shouts = S
Team = T
Exhalation = E
Little harder with Black and Bering, but there is a "W" in two
A puzzle could certainly make you STEW!

A kind soul read through all of my rabbit hole ponderings--said there are 5 theme answers--and I had the answer in 2 minutes.
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Kaille
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#408

Post by Kaille »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:22 am I'm a copy editor, so the plural discrepancies struck me from the very first clue I answered -- the SEA/SEAS one. Matt does not make careless errors, so it primed my brain to see the others. I am amazed at the varied routes that people took to get the correct answer this week!
That's what caught my eye right off the bat as well, Wendy. Initially I stopped there, thinking the answer was HISS. (Looking at Mike's remarks, I see I was not alone). But after reading the comments, I did an answer check and found out I was wrong, so I took a closer look and figured it out. Really liked this one.
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Joe Ross
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#409

Post by Joe Ross »

Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:56 pm Image
Can you identify this plumage, LadyBird?
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
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𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
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LadyBird
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#410

Post by LadyBird »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:04 pm
Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:56 pm Image
Can you identify this plumage, LadyBird?
Feathers are not my forte! But it DOES remind me of when our daughter was doing her undergrad at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. Every fall (except this one, probably) they have this big deal called Art Prize. Artists have their art EVERYWHERE--from coffee shops to parks to the middle of the river. People vote for their favorites, which determines who is still in contention the second week and so on. We went twice, I think. There was an art piece very similar to this one (perhaps the same artist) and I have a lovely picture somewhere of Elizabeth standing in front of wings like this.
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#411

Post by Dplass »

TMart wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 1:35 am 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.
I had DOGH! And really thought he wanted "DOGH" as a homer simpsonism, but then I realized it must have been DOUGH -> DOUGHS -> DOZE.
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BethA
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#412

Post by BethA »

I had a different solving experience from many! Some the past couple of months that were easy for others, totally eluded me! This week was my turn, on the right wavelength I guess.

I wrote the following right after solving so wouldn’t have to dredge it up later —

Before starting the grid, my first guesses for a possible answer were: KILL, BARF, and PUKE. Not even close, as usual.

It was very funny to me that I initially parsed DOUGH as GO DUH, as that’s a valid and fairly frequent reaction to solving the meta! But is there a 4-letter word that means the same thing?

Finally got my letters in order, and it became apparent that I needed another S to finish! I really like metas like these, that are multiple steps, every step seems logical, and also nice getting to apply a similar mechanism used earlier, to get the final step!

Very enjoyable!
——
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Bob cruise director
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#413

Post by Bob cruise director »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:04 pm
Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:56 pm Image
Can you identify this plumage, LadyBird?
Are the feathers supposed to be full sized relative to the person or are they just an artistic rendering?
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Beth Tyrpin
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#414

Post by Beth Tyrpin »

Who else tried quires for (choir)? That section of grid didn’t yield anything. I even made sure quirze wasn’t a word when I realized the others ended in ‘Ze’.
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Bob cruise director
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#415

Post by Bob cruise director »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:22 am I'm a copy editor, so the plural discrepancies struck me from the very first clue I answered -- the SEA/SEAS one. Matt does not make careless errors, so it primed my brain to see the others. I am amazed at the varied routes that people took to get the correct answer this week!
I am not a copy editor but if you do crosswords you become attuned to tenses and plurals. I hit 23 across and knew it has to be a plural but could not think of a two letter haunted house shout. then I hit 55A and things started to fall into place. I had a problem with 55A because I thought it was RAISE and not RAZE at first. I also stopped at four but when that did not go anywhere, I already had a question mark by 64D and the rest fell into place quickly. I wrote the words breeze, booze, etc. on the back of my paper and realized that all five ended with ZE so the transition from DOUGH to DO and adding the ZE came quickly, especially when both the title and contest answer fit so well.
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boharr
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#416

Post by boharr »

I think the RAISE / RAZE part confused many. For a time at least.
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Kaille
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#417

Post by Kaille »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:04 pm
Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:56 pm Image
Can you identify this plumage, LadyBird?
Hi 🙂

This mural is in Denver and was painted by a local artist named Kelsey Monague. She has fabulous murals like this all over the country/world.

Oops, edited to say that I just realized you weren't talking to me, but rather a board member named LadyBird, lol.

Sorry!
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MarkL
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#418

Post by MarkL »

Well, the HISS beach had a decent contingent after all! To my 99 fellow HISSers, Cheers!!

On a positive note, found the correct beach for the bonus puzzle, "Variations on a Theme." So, I got that goin' for me.
'tis... A lovely day for a Guinness!
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Tom Shea
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#419

Post by Tom Shea »

first started with hiss (extra s's).

Then got to the z plurals.

Got all of the dough answers. but put them in order of the directional clues, so got a nonsense word. Didn't think to rearrange them, so DOH!s

Once again, bad penmanship contributed, but mostly I gave up.

shoulda, woulda, yada, yada...

but my deck is coming along!
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Bob cruise director
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#420

Post by Bob cruise director »

Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:09 pm
Joe Ross wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 3:04 pm
Kaille wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2020 2:56 pm Image
Can you identify this plumage, LadyBird?
Hi 🙂

This mural is in Denver and was painted by a local artist named Kelsey Monague. She has fabulous murals like this all over the country/world.

Oops, edited to say that I just realized you weren't talking to me, but rather a board member named LadyBird, lol.

Sorry!
My suspicion is that it is not an exact representation but a very nice artistic version.
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