"Leading Men" - October 4, 2019

[Deb F]

[quote=Saxerbrau post_id=7578 time=1570204302 user_id=460]
Statistics for the last 200 Puzzles!

As a celebration for the 200th Contest Crossword (started tracking online for the puzzle: "You Better Shop Around" on 12/11/15 by Matt Gaffney), I thought I would share some interesting statistics regarding winners, states, and more! If you would like more information about any of the stats below, let me know in a reply.

By the way, I am on shore this week, and looking forward to another 200 contests.

Top 5 states for Winners

• California – 22
  Massachusetts – 19
  New York – 17
  Ohio – 12
  Texas – 12

Top 5 Cities for Winners

• Portland, Oregon – 3
  Colorado Springs, Colorado – 3
  Berkeley, California – 3
  Cotuit, Massachusetts – 3
  Palo Alto, California – 2

Winners with more than one win

• Laurie Dings, Cotuit, MA – 3 Mugs Won
  Kurt Huddleston, Lisle, IL – 2 Mugs Won
  Melanie Frost, Colorado Springs, CO – 2 Mugs Won
  Yossi Fendel, Berkeley, CA – 2 Mugs Won

States that have yet to win a contest crossword
Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Duplicate titles

• City Folk – 2 Times it has been used
  Secret Ingredients - 2 Times it has been used
  Marking Time - 2 Times it has been used

Number of Titles by Author

• Gaffney, Matt 100
  Kelly, Marie 63
  Shenk, Mike 16
  Berry, Patrick 13
  Gordon, Peter 6
  Muller, Pete 1
  McClary, Todd 1
  Grand Total 200

Thank you for the analysis. Seems I should be moving up in the mug stats, being in the SE which has been woefully neglected! This represents hope for many, I think--however, it's said--Lies, damn lies, and statistics! And do be careful, you could be in line as the assistant cruise director!!

[BarbaraK]

Statistics for the last 200 Puzzles!

As a celebration for the 200th Contest Crossword (started tracking online for the puzzle: "You Better Shop Around" on 12/11/15 by Matt Gaffney), I thought I would share some interesting statistics regarding winners, states, and more! If you would like more information about any of the stats below, let me know in a reply.

By the way, I am on shore this week, and looking forward to another 200 contests.

Top 5 states for Winners

• California – 22
  Massachusetts – 19
  New York – 17
  Ohio – 12
  Texas – 12

This is great! As a fellow nerd, I love the reminder that I've found my tribe:)

I'm surprised that California has more winners than New York. I'd have guessed that the highest density of WSJ subscribers is in New York, then the northeast, then the rest of the country.

[31 Down]

Didn't break a sweat on this one. Oh, the next time I play Scrabble, Saxerbrau can keep score!

[FrankieHeck]

States that have yet to win a contest crossword
Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

I'm kind of surprised there's been a West Virginia winner. I was hoping that when I win, I'd be the first.

[tim1217]

On shore quickly!

[pddigi]

I beat Dom to shore - that might be the first time in over a month. 100%er! He says he is still working on it, so I will have to update with my son's status later. Have a good weekend all!

Dom has made it to shore. He needed to Google to confirm some of his guesses; he's a tad young for some of the references (but I shall say no more, lest I let an unintended spoiler slip).

[Commodore]

Isaac, old boy, you've done it again. Splendid pick-me up.
Presently, I am strolling on a sunstruck beach, and what's this?
Tiki torches? A tavern on the sand?
What ho! Such luck!

[Bob cruise director]

An explanation for having the three time winner from Cotuit,MA which is not a town in MA

For those who don't understand Massachusetts, we have strange naming for villages within towns. Cotuit is a village of about 3500 residents within the town of Barnstable on Cape Cod. Villages in general have no legal standing and may or may not have their own post office. Some towns have no villages and some towns have seven or eight villages. There are historic reasons for this - usually going back a few hundred years. The villages were separated but since then the population has grown so these villages merge and soon or later get incorporated into bigger towns or cities.

However natives refer to their addresses by these villages which in many cases do not appear on a map. Newer GPS's may or may not recognize the village names.

Boston is like that with 22 neighborhoods/villages in the city https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhoods_in_Boston. When Boston incorporated these neighborhoods, no one thought to change the road names so you have things like having four Washington Streets in the city of Boston (and you would have to get a true native to tell you where they are). It drives GPS's nuts and it requires the city to send out multiple ambulances when someone calls 911 and says that they are at XXX Washington Street and can not tell which which neighborhood they are in.

I have only been here 50 years and I still don't know the locations of the seven villages in the next town over.

All of this is to totally confuse invaders from the other 48 states. Mainers are not invaders as they were once part of Massachusetts.

[Scott M]

Back from a three week hiatus while touring South Africa. Unforgettable trip - I can't rave enough about the sights, the friendly people, the amazing food and wine, and the incredible safaris near Kruger.

So now that I've (mostly) recovered from the 36 hour return trip, I'm happy to be ashore. Any Chenin Blanc or Pinotage at the tiki bar?

[Bob cruise director]

When you open the thread on Friday morning and it's already to page 5, you know you should get it! This was one I actually got before finishing it--that is so rare for me that I may have an early Bloody Mary!! On the beach, happily.

Deb
After I open topic I print out the contest and update my excel spreadsheet for the week. By the time I had done that this week there were already several answers so I knew the shore was going to be crowded

[Bob cruise director]

Fairly straightforward, though there was one brief sleeping policeman (I’d call it a speed bump, but the forum seems only to have a choice for British English when signing up, so...).

Long-time lurker, first-time poster, happy to be ashore. I’ve had a decent run lately, so I am sure that failure looms large in the near future. Oh well; I shall take my good fortune where I find it.

Welcome to the party. We are always glad to have more muggles. I am sure you have seen the links to the background and to the suggestions for solving these.

And we have a problem - now we have two bunnies (Devilbunny and Bunny/bunella) and we all know that you don't have two bunnies for long.

[Bob cruise director]

A quick update given that the contest has been out almost 24 hours. We have 89 muggles already on the shore so we could break the all time record of 132. The full listing will come out tomorrow at noon as usual.

If you have not seen Saxerbrau's data for the last 200 weeks, read it. Very interesting.

[Tom Wilson]

Statistics for the last 200 Puzzles!

As a celebration for the 200th Contest Crossword (started tracking online for the puzzle: "You Better Shop Around" on 12/11/15 by Matt Gaffney), I thought I would share some interesting statistics regarding winners, states, and more! If you would like more information about any of the stats below, let me know in a reply.

By the way, I am on shore this week, and looking forward to another 200 contests.

Top 5 states for Winners

• California – 22
  Massachusetts – 19
  New York – 17
  Ohio – 12
  Texas – 12

This is great! As a fellow nerd, I love the reminder that I've found my tribe:)

I'm surprised that California has more winners than New York. I'd have guessed that the highest density of WSJ subscribers is in New York, then the northeast, then the rest of the country.

Time for Pennsylvania to represent!

[sharkicicles]

An explanation for having the three time winner from Cotuit,MA which is not a town in MA

Bob, this is fascinating.

Much less confusing, but we have a minor version of this in my neighborhood of Chicago. Many older buildings look like they have two addresses, because in 1909 the city changed its street numbering system.

https://forgottenchicago.com/articles/old-addresses/

[Joe Ross]

Taking advantage of the Save Draft feature as I read through posts the past 24 hours, since most of my comments demand to be spoiler-ish. The post mortems should be fun, this week.

"Find me somebunny to love... Find me..."

Welcome to all new & old muggles!

Heading to watch the BEARCATS take on UCF, tonight. Tailgate? Why, thank you! I believe that I will!

[Horsesense]

Statistics for the last 200 Puzzles!

As a celebration for the 200th Contest Crossword (started tracking online for the puzzle: "You Better Shop Around" on 12/11/15 by Matt Gaffney), I thought I would share some interesting statistics regarding winners, states, and more! If you would like more information about any of the stats below, let me know in a reply.

By the way, I am on shore this week, and looking forward to another 200 contests.

Top 5 states for Winners

• California – 22
  Massachusetts – 19
  New York – 17
  Ohio – 12
  Texas – 12

Top 5 Cities for Winners

• Portland, Oregon – 3
  Colorado Springs, Colorado – 3
  Berkeley, California – 3
  Cotuit, Massachusetts – 3
  Palo Alto, California – 2

Winners with more than one win

• Laurie Dings, Cotuit, MA – 3 Mugs Won
  Kurt Huddleston, Lisle, IL – 2 Mugs Won
  Melanie Frost, Colorado Springs, CO – 2 Mugs Won
  Yossi Fendel, Berkeley, CA – 2 Mugs Won

States that have yet to win a contest crossword
Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

Duplicate titles

• City Folk – 2 Times it has been used
  Secret Ingredients - 2 Times it has been used
  Marking Time - 2 Times it has been used

Number of Titles by Author

• Gaffney, Matt 100
  Kelly, Marie 63
  Shenk, Mike 16
  Berry, Patrick 13
  Gordon, Peter 6
  Muller, Pete 1
  McClary, Todd 1
  Grand Total 200

CORRECTION TO YOUR STATS:
Tim Maness, Mt. Pleasant, MI - 2 Mugs Won

[Horsesense]

Ashore, Fun puzzle this week.

[Guy]

chilling with Isaac, taking a break tonight to enjoy Abbey Road @ 50 with the local symphony, perhaps the meta will "come together" for me (groan, meta apologies...)

[Natalie]

On shore ... some shore! LOL May my meta be the right meta. Works really well, but then so have a lot of my wrong answers. To Guy at #118 ... here comes the sun. : ) ) ) Monkey 47-and-tonic, with an orange slice, please. YUM.

[Geoduck]

Looked at it a few times over the past few hours, in total puzzlement, not even a glimmer of 6A in the distance.

And then: Aha!

Safely on shore.