"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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FirstMax
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#321

Post by FirstMax »

hoover wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 12:35 am For those of you who are on Macs and were thinking you had to print this out so you could use a pen and paper, let me introduce you to the Annotation feature of the Preview application.

Greenshot 2021-06-13 23.32.01.png
I solve on my iPad with my Apple Pencil. The ruler function came in handy came in handy for this one.
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mheberlingx100
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#322

Post by mheberlingx100 »

SReh26 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:05 am
Obie J wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:16 am I didn't have a printer available, so I used a couple of pieces of string!
I took a single ply of a napkin and carefully laid it over my iphone, then, hunched over and squinting, draw the dots and the star!

As I was doing so, kinfolk walked in and saw me, discreetly keeping their conclusions to themselves!
I drew the lines freehand, and came up with GRRPH. That told me: 1) I was close, and 2) I needed a straight edge.
DMc
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#323

Post by DMc »

16236726026962494059414145826883.jpg
I saw 70A must be part of the mechanism, then noticed the puzzle started with a j, so I thought the idea was to connect the letters that have a dot, starring with that j. That led nowhere of course and I was done.
Can anyone explain why the answer to 50A letters above 6 is "MNO"? I was thinking 6 must be a "P" but that didn't make sense.
M and M
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#324

Post by M and M »

MNO are the letters above the six on a telephone dial. Or below the six, if you have an I Phone.
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CPJohnson
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#325

Post by CPJohnson »

SReh26 wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 7:05 am
Obie J wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:16 am I didn't have a printer available, so I used a couple of pieces of string!
I took a single ply of a napkin and carefully laid it over my iphone, then, hunched over and squinting, draw the dots and the star!

As I was doing so, kinfolk walked in and saw me, discreetly keeping their conclusions to themselves!
:lol:
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Joe Ross
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#326

Post by Joe Ross »

DMc wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:16 am Can anyone explain why the answer to 50A letters above 6 is "MNO"? I was thinking 6 must be a "P" but that didn't make sense.
M and M wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 8:19 am MNO are the letters above the six on a telephone dial. Or below the six, if you have an I Phone.
Image

An interweb image search showed most letters alongside or below the numbers!
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FrankieHeck
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#327

Post by FrankieHeck »

I was drawing my (wildly inaccurate) star freehand with the Web Paint extension. Fortunately my son was walking by and reminded me there is a "straight line" tool on there too!
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TeaJenny
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#328

Post by TeaJenny »

PXL_20210614_123345506.jpg
I initially thought the "dots" might be the O's, as they seemed to form a pattern, but highlighting them all led nowhere. Then 70A prompted me to look at E's, and I realized there were only 5 in the entire grid. I played around with various things using the across and down answers, but nothing worked. In desperation, I decided to try literally connecting the DOTs with a ruler: first with a pentagon, then with a STAR. (Not sure how visible my pencil lines are in the photo.) NODE gave me the final push to find GRAPH. It seemed an odd construction to me, but it was too much of a coincidence, so I went with it. Glad I did. :D
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Dplass
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#329

Post by Dplass »

boharr wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:55 pm
sanmilton wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:55 pm
Scott M wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 4:24 pm

I'm new to cryptics, and often have no clue where the answer came from even when I have it. Is there a good resource for breaking down how the annswer fits? Didn't see anything on Wordplay at NYT or on crossword fiend.
There are online resources for this, like this one: https://www.dummies.com/games/crossword ... n-edition/.

Clues almost always involve two parts: (1) a definition of the entry, and (2) a way to get to the entry involving wordplay.

The wordplay part of the clue is almost always one (or more) of several set types: anagrams, puns, rebuses, reversals, hidden (embedded) words, etc. It could even be a second definition.

But the resultant clue often reads like nonsense. The trick is to sort out the definition from the rest of it. To do that, you typically have to ignore punctuation (and sometimes even capitalization).

Feel free to bounce cryptic clues off me, and I'll happily parse them for you!
I'm convinced that the only way to learn to do cryptics is to get some tips from folks here about a few that are not impossible. Then wait until the solutions are available. Then go over each clue until you understand the answers. Then if you still don't understand a clue and answer, ask a friendly muggle to parse it. Then repeat this process for, say, 100 years. Then if you are still baffled, move to England to see what they are really like.
Ayup, British cryptics are more devious than American, because they don't always follow the "two definitions" rule. American cryptics almost always do (except when they end in an ! or ?, which is the commonly accepted way to indicate there's only one -- or one and a half -- definitions)
sf592000
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#330

Post by sf592000 »

I also thought maybe the O's were the dots and the filled squares dashes to spell out the answer via Morse Code. Alas, I found the E's and went to Excel to assist with the lines.
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Kas
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#331

Post by Kas »

Aaaaaauugh! KAS 3.

I had it…I WAS SOOO CLOSE. I got the “star” hint, was even circling around the “crossed lines” nudge…but I didn’t know “E” = “dot” in Morse Code.

My puzzle looks like a ven diagram done by a caffeinated squirrel, after trying 17 ways to draw a star through (first) all of the “i’s”, (then) all of the “o’s”, (and finally) trying to figure out how to balance a 5-Pointed Star in an even/symmetrical grid.

On the bright side, Isaac and I are gettin’ real friendly, these days…. 🙄
Dplass
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#332

Post by Dplass »

Kas wrote: Mon Jun 14, 2021 9:28 am Aaaaaauugh! KAS 3.

I had it…I WAS SOOO CLOSE. I got the “star” hint, was even circling around the “crossed lines” nudge…but I didn’t know “E” = “dot” in Morse Code.

My puzzle looks like a ven diagram done by a caffeinated squirrel, after trying 17 ways to draw a star through (first) all of the “i’s”, (then) all of the “o’s”, (and finally) trying to figure out how to balance a 5-Pointed Star in an even/symmetrical grid.

On the bright side, Isaac and I are gettin’ real friendly, these days…. 🙄
Um. "E" = "DOT" in Morse Code was the last clue...
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Bob cruise director
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#333

Post by Bob cruise director »

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?)
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femullen
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#334

Post by femullen »

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.
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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Cindy N
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#335

Post by Cindy N »

Like our Cruise Director, I also started with HOUSE. So glad I wasn't the only one! And yes, I was able to find the rest and avoided the ARBOR in the middle.
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TMart
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#336

Post by TMart »

I solved this on my phone, on the beach, three rum drinks deep. I’m shocked that my lines are so straight.
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Wendy Walker
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#337

Post by Wendy Walker »

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.
WOW! You two make a formidable team! Make sure she joins the Forum.
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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SReh26
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#338

Post by SReh26 »

Anyone else google the morse code alphabet first? I did but quickly abandoned it as it didn’t seem to lead anywhere.
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Bob cruise director
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#339

Post by Bob cruise director »

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.
And I am sure that your daughter had the normal eye roll with "do I have to teach my father everything?"
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Wendy Walker
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#340

Post by Wendy Walker »

I am finding this an especially entertaining postmortem this week!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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