"Connect Four" - December 4, 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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DrTom
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#341

Post by DrTom »

HunterX wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:20 am
DrTom wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 8:57 am
HunterX wrote: Sat Dec 05, 2020 11:28 pm

Is it time for "The Airing of Grievances"? That's my favorite part. (jk)

And Dr. Tom, if you're suggesting you're going to do a pole dance, that may be my first grievance. :lol:
Hmmm - I see you live in Philadelphia, I went to school there (Temple), so perhaps that is why you might file a grievance, you've already seen one!
Ah, indeed. That is true. The intricate Philly pole dance, which occurs after (insert local professional sports team) wins the (insert championship game) after years in the basement. It used to just involve the standard drunken revelers, demonstrating their prowess at ascending lamp-bearing fixtures. Then they were joined by a new partner, the men and women in blue, armed with tubs of slippery grease-like products, adding to the revelers' challenge. Not quite as formal as the ländler from the Sound of Music. But fun to watch anyway.

I commend you, Dr. Tom, for surviving the rigors of life on North Broad Street. Is that where you studied rigor mortis?
Well I studied rigorously that is for sure but mortis only came the next morning after either the aforementioned sports win OR, the other Philadelphia phenomena you MUST be describing, a Mummer's Day Parade.

Yep I survived North Broad and Germantown Avenue and all the fun little peccadillos (and probably peccaotas?) one can encounter North of Lehigh Avenue.
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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DrTom
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#342

Post by DrTom »

Bird Lives wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:59 am Color is very useful. I screenshot the grid, pasted it into Paint, and drew boxes of different colors around the two parts of each theme entry. Once I had done that, the links between them became obvious. Even better for this is the shading you can do in the Excel version that Joe Ross paints. Anyway, as somebody said, everything works worse in black and white, or something like that.
.

Solution.jpg
Luckily, Siamese Twins was some of the "crap I learned in high-school".
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!
Nlobb
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#343

Post by Nlobb »

Same here but I use different colors of highlighters.
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DrTom
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#344

Post by DrTom »

Bob cruise director wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:47 am
tigerfly222 wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 5:01 am Ashore! Realized the solution after Meta Mom described one of her rabbit holes.
How come meta mom does not join us here. We love MOMs
Bob, I believe Meta Mom is CPJohnson who is a member of our rag tag group.
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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Joe Ross
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#345

Post by Joe Ross »

Bird Lives wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 8:59 am ... the Excel version that Joe Ross paints.
As mentioned:
connect four solution 3 JPR.png
Last edited by Joe Ross on Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Bob cruise director
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#346

Post by Bob cruise director »

DrTom wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:06 am
Bob cruise director wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:47 am
tigerfly222 wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 5:01 am Ashore! Realized the solution after Meta Mom described one of her rabbit holes.
How come meta mom does not join us here. We love MOMs
Bob, I believe Meta Mom is CPJohnson who is a member of our rag tag group.
I must be the only one who did not know that Cynthia told me in a PM
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eagle1279
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#347

Post by eagle1279 »

Highlighting is good but I use paper and have only one color. My first rabbit hole was to look for the numeral 4 in the grid and then connections thereto. Here is one such effort:

B58B9082-4AD5-43C0-B2CC-1169C64C94D5 (Phone).jpg

Later I saw the "links" between the linked pairs, although it took me a while to get the triplets in the correct order.

I like any puzzle that I can solve. I'll be interested in why other Muggles thought this was "controversial."
SewYoung
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#348

Post by SewYoung »

I'll be interested in why other Muggles thought this was "controversial."
I think it's considered to be insensitive or "racist" to call them "Siamese" twins these days. The accepted (and I imagine, medically correct) term is now "conjoined".
Nlobb
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#349

Post by Nlobb »

I must be one of the few who waits for the WSJ to arrive in my mailbox on Friday, then tackles the grid with a pencil with a BIG eraser and a highlighter. Very old school... But it works ( at least some of the time). I am in amazement every week at the creators of the puzzles' ingenuity! How do they do that week after week??
SewYoung
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#350

Post by SewYoung »

For Cryptic fans: I was watching the first episode of Endeavour last night and there were two cryptic clues given which I have not yet been able to decipher, so I will put them out for others to try. Any hints will be appreciated. The first one, which was in a puzzle that a character was solving was:
"Running over a dune is an effort." 9 letters. The second was something the character said to Morse as a clue: "After beard tease an exclamation of surprise will bring you home."
Jeanrosz
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#351

Post by Jeanrosz »

Running...effort is endeavour.
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Joepickett
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#352

Post by Joepickett »

First one is endeavour (British spelling)
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Wendy Walker
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#353

Post by Wendy Walker »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:58 am I think it's considered to be insensitive or "racist" to call them "Siamese" twins these days. The accepted (and I imagine, medically correct) term is now "conjoined".
From the 1996 "Treehouse of Horror," where Dr. Hibbert reveals that Bart Simpson and Hugo were ...

Dr. Hibbert: Siamese Twins!
[dramatic music]
Lisa Simpson: I believe they prefer to be called "conjoined twins."
Dr. Hibbert: And hillbillies prefer to be called "sons of the soil," but it ain't ever gonna happen!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
SewYoung
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#354

Post by SewYoung »

Jeanrosz wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:05 pm Running...effort is endeavour.
I'm so embarrassed, I was trying to anagram the wrong phrase. Should have seen it right away.
Scraps
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#355

Post by Scraps »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:58 am
I'll be interested in why other Muggles thought this was "controversial."
I think it's considered to be insensitive or "racist" to call them "Siamese" twins these days. The accepted (and I imagine, medically correct) term is now "conjoined".
Sorry, but I can't abide the attempt to bowdlerize crossword puzzles.

Almost to the extent that lexicographers have license to include vulgar and other words not used in polite company, crossword puzzle authors have free range to develop their art.

This puzzle didn't call anybody anything.

The phrase is part of language, part of culture, part of history.

It's fair game for crosswords.
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tigerfly222
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#356

Post by tigerfly222 »

DrTom wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:06 am
Bob cruise director wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 9:47 am
tigerfly222 wrote: Sun Dec 06, 2020 5:01 am Ashore! Realized the solution after Meta Mom described one of her rabbit holes.
How come meta mom does not join us here. We love MOMs
Bob, I believe Meta Mom is CPJohnson who is a member of our rag tag group.
Indeed! You're spot on, Tom.
I'm so tickled that the Meta Mom moniker is catching on! (I hope she doesn't mind it.) After she started referring to me as "Puzzle-Working Daughter", I decided I could either go with "Puzzle-Working Mom" or come up with something a bit snappier. So, here we are ;)
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LadyBird
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#357

Post by LadyBird »

I had noticed the linked clues even before I got to 71A. I noticed STAPLES & AIR lining up vertically, as well as GUN & PISTOL. Tried to make something of the words linking them and got nowhere, especially since the horizontal grid answers didn't line up. Then I thought to look at the letters connecting each part of the pair, and there it was--once I figured out the correct order of the triads.

I listened to a fascinating podcast about Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins, last year. The podcast is Mobituaries (a mash-up of Mo Rocca and Obituaries) and the episode was " Chang and Eng: A Messy American Dream". The podcast started with Mo attending a Bunker family reunion in Mt. Airy, NC (I was thinking--is there a tie-in to Andy Griffith here--there wasn't). Then it went on to explore their lives. They were brought to the US to tour but eventually took control and went on their own tours (they were quite witty and engaging and athletic). Then they retired to Mt. Airy. Each got married and they had a slew of children between the two of them. They alternated back and forth living at the two households. They even alternated between who was "in charge" and making decisions about what they would do that day. The saddest part was hearing about their deaths--they died within a few hours of each other. How sad to have your beloved sibling die--and then knowing that your own death would be following rapidly.

Anyway, it was a great podcast with a lot more interesting info in it.
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#358

Post by DBMiller »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 12:49 pm For Cryptic fans: I was watching the first episode of Endeavour last night and there were two cryptic clues given which I have not yet been able to decipher, so I will put them out for others to try. Any hints will be appreciated. The first one, which was in a puzzle that a character was solving was:
"Running over a dune is an effort." 9 letters. The second was something the character said to Morse as a clue: "After beard tease an exclamation of surprise will bring you home."
The latter is breadcrumbs. beard teased (scrambled/mixed) and apparently "Crumbs!" is a British expression.
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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DrTom
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#359

Post by DrTom »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:07 pm
SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 10:58 am I think it's considered to be insensitive or "racist" to call them "Siamese" twins these days. The accepted (and I imagine, medically correct) term is now "conjoined".
From the 1996 "Treehouse of Horror," where Dr. Hibbert reveals that Bart Simpson and Hugo were ...

Dr. Hibbert: Siamese Twins!
[dramatic music]
Lisa Simpson: I believe they prefer to be called "conjoined twins."
Dr. Hibbert: And hillbillies prefer to be called "sons of the soil," but it ain't ever gonna happen!
Oh GREAT, now I have a conjoined cat..... :o
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!
MikeMillerwsj
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#360

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

Congrats to all on a very successful week! We had 1948 responses, with a way above average 93% correct. (Average as you may recall is closer to 75%, so either this one was a bit easier or the muggles are getting smarter or both.).

A wide range of other guesses with very few repeats, including NO CLUE (3), AS IS (2), DOMINO THEORY, DOUBLE DATE, SIMON SAYS, WORD PAIR, BIG SHOT, and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Matt Smercina of New York, NY!
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