"Connect The Dots" - June 11, 2021

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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Natalie
Posts: 82
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 12:48 pm

#341

Post by Natalie »

On a beach but totally wrong beach. Hall of shame. Have a good week, all!
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femullen
Posts: 448
Joined: Fri Feb 28, 2020 1:02 pm
Location: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

#342

Post by femullen »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:06 am
femullen wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am
If my average improves, you Muggles will know why.
WOW! You two make a formidable team! Make sure she joins the Forum.
Thanks, Wendy. I've suggested to her that she join us. She's pretty smart and has a lively sense of humour, so she'd fit in well with this crowd. I think she has held back so far because she's tried a couple metas on her own and was completely stumped, as I was for a long while before my first solve. But there are a number of couples and families here that solve these things as a team, and I think she and I could make a good team...at least until she tires of propping me up.
For nudges, feel free to PM me. I won't have a clue how to help you, but you might shove me ashore.
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SReh26
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Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2021 10:48 pm

#343

Post by SReh26 »

Natalie wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 10:26 am On a beach but totally wrong beach. Hall of shame. Have a good week, all!
No shame! The only shame is in not trying or not doing your best. Re read The Man in the Arena (“it is not the critic who counts, but the man in the arena, who dares greatly, and if he fails, bruised and bloodied, at least did so in pursuit of a great cause...”).

Other beaches are nice too!
Last edited by SReh26 on Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
MatthewL
Posts: 742
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:57 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

#344

Post by MatthewL »

Enjoyed the puzzle this week, and got it with only 1 or 2 trips down rabbit holes. But I did have a bit of a nit -- the word "graph" is also a verb. And indeed, drawing a figure by connecting dots could be said to be "graphing". So, not sure why the hint was a five letter noun. Seems like that was a bit misleading, or, perhaps, just unnecessary. But, that small quibble aside, I thought the meta was quite enjoyable.
Matthew
Ergcat
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Location: Seneca SC

#345

Post by Ergcat »

femullen wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am I chased the diagonal O's, the dotted I's, and the two together. I was reviewing the clues for perhaps a mention of "DASH," so maybe I could make some Morse code word of the dots and dashes. That's when the Montreal daughter, who is a complete meta newbie, called me on the phone. She said she hadn't yet finished the grid, and she was finding it difficult. I told her that I'd done the grid, and I described to her my misadventures with O's, I's, and such. She asked, "Did you try connecting the E's?"

"Oh, that's brilliant," I said, "and that's just how Shenk thinks." Found the five E's, connected them, and told my young Canadienne that they made not quite a regular pentagon. She said, "What if you make a star? There's a clue about a star."

If my average improves, you Muggles will know why.
I got my daughter involved with the WSJCC too about 3 months ago... now we get on the phone every week to discuss. More often than not she is the one who figures it out after I make some lame remarks! 😂
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Gman
Posts: 349
Joined: Mon Apr 13, 2020 2:47 pm
Location: Encinitas CA

#346

Post by Gman »

My eyeballing led me initially to see the word GRAMS, which given the pentagram could have been the right answer. Fortunately, the plural bothered me enough to actually print the puzzle and draw with a ruler. Fingers crossed (making a NODE?) that this is THE WEEK to win the mug.
PJM
Posts: 75
Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:06 pm

#347

Post by PJM »

Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:23 am
cbarbee002 wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 11:29 pm Need Maine Marge. Why do I get two colors (pink / blue) of flowers on my hydrangea (same bush)? I could google this of course, but would prefer to hear from the resident expert!
@cbarbee002
Chris - the color of hydraneas like these are determined by the acidity of the soil. The more acid, the bluer. So if the soil under one part of the plant is more acidic than the other it means that the flowers will be bluer. Put pine needles or something similar around the base of the plant.
I often get half and half on the same bloom. One plant in my front yard has several beauties like this on right now, along with solid blues and solid pinks.
IMG_20210614_1031231~2.jpg
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DBMiller
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Location: New Hampshire

#348

Post by DBMiller »

So badly wanted to post my usual "Done and done" by adding that this was a 5-star construction, but for me it was literally [and figuratively] a 1-star meta.
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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Annabelle
Posts: 213
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2020 4:26 pm

#349

Post by Annabelle »

Great discussion; shows we are all having fun with this process. I also tried the o's and the i's, getting nowhere. Then last night c. 10:30 finally saw the five e's and made the star. But, but, that's only four letters long! Too late to think more, I went to bed without the final clue.

See you all next week back on the ship for more puzzle mayhem!
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boharr
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Location: Westchester, NY

#350

Post by boharr »

Deb F wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:10 am I “connected” with this week’s puzzle and knew exactly what to do. Then proceeded to draw the star wrong so there were no nodes! When I saw that was getting me nowhere, realized my lack of rudimentary star making skills, and redrew it. Voila. A graph!

Happy Monday, Muggles and good luck.
Me. I actually has to google to remind me how to draw a star. True story.
JetStream
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:56 pm

#351

Post by JetStream »

Once again, I'm glad I gave up early on this one. Kudos to those who figured it out!
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Wendy Walker
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Location: Unionville, PA

#352

Post by Wendy Walker »

boharr wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 11:04 am

Me. I actually has to google to remind me how to draw a star. True story.
Haha, I had to Google a few months ago to remember how to visualize the hidden image in those 3D Magic Eye pictures; viz., focus your eyes beyond the page. Apparently muscle memory doesn't apply to eyes.
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
rosiegirl
Posts: 158
Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:26 pm

#353

Post by rosiegirl »

Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am First pass through I was looking at the dots in the I's (in yellow). Then I missed/ignored the "star" and connected the E's so I had a five letter word "house" since pentagon had too many letters. Then I connected the E's in a star and was not particularly accurate so my nodes include the O above the R. (have you stopped laughing yet?)
This looks like my puzzle...before I printed the grid again! :lol:
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Deb F
Posts: 393
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:02 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island

#354

Post by Deb F »

Oh yea. I did feel a little silly when I realized what I had done/not done. I literally started at one dot and just drew straight lines to connect. So I had a rudimentary star, just not the right one! I am delighted to know I wasn't alone in my lapse. Thanks for that!!
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billkatz
Posts: 315
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:46 pm

#355

Post by billkatz »

Solved and submitted, but couldn't get to this forum while traveling this weekend. Luckily I found a printer, as this one seemed tough to finish on a screen.
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Deb F
Posts: 393
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2019 4:02 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island

#356

Post by Deb F »

Oh, and P.S.--the "node" clue went right over my head. Don't know that it would have helped my star drawing!
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ajk
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Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:22 pm
Location: Colorado

#357

Post by ajk »

Found the Es first, then got an unintentional nudge when someone mentioned that it would have been harder but for two clues, which caused me to re-scan the clues and quickly land on the STAR and NODE entries. From which point it was pretty simple.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
minimuggle
Posts: 553
Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:33 am

#358

Post by minimuggle »

femullen wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:46 am I chased the diagonal O's, the dotted I's, and the two together. I was reviewing the clues for perhaps a mention of "DASH," so maybe I could make some Morse code word of the dots and dashes. That's when the Montreal daughter, who is a complete meta newbie, called me on the phone. She said she hadn't yet finished the grid, and she was finding it difficult. I told her that I'd done the grid, and I described to her my misadventures with O's, I's, and such. She asked, "Did you try connecting the E's?"

"Oh, that's brilliant," I said, "and that's just how Shenk thinks." Found the five E's, connected them, and told my young Canadienne that they made not quite a regular pentagon. She said, "What if you make a star? There's a clue about a star."

If my average improves, you Muggles will know why.
I did the exact same thing with the Morse code....and trying to connect all the O's. I was frustrated with the lack of dashes too. Once I noticed that there were 5 E's in the puzzle I knew that could not be a coincidence. But even then I connected them to create a pentagon and thought maybe "penta" might be the answer. Wendy nudged me in the right direction to my "How did I not see that" moment. It really does help to bounce ideas off of others....Thanks to all of the nudgers and "helpers"
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SusieG
Posts: 431
Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2020 9:20 pm
Location: Arkansas

#359

Post by SusieG »

I initially missed the STAR and NODE clues, but did see the E clue. I extended the dots to I, S, H (also only dots), and had a real mess. I had a feeling I was overcomplicating things, since it must have been pretty difficult to only have 5 E’s in the entire puzzle. Glad I paid more attention to the clues. Really cool construction!
Last edited by SusieG on Mon Jun 14, 2021 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
dam123@charter.net
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2020 12:29 am

#360

Post by dam123@charter.net »

I was never close. I saw that there were only 5 e's, but couldn't figure out what to do with that. One path I pursued was to notice that there were exactly five clues that consisted of only two words, where each word started with the same letter, a letter that is expressed only in dots in Morse code. Those were 12A, 39A, 61A, 28D and 31D. Got me nowhere, of course.
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