"A Sail of Two Cities" - June 18, 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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mntlblok
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#401

Post by mntlblok »

SReh26 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:59 pm
mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:22 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:49 pm

I don't think the mechanism is all that common. Maybe it is if you do LOTS of metas.
Might there be a list if mechanisms extant??
yes- under Come Aboard! Meta Solving etc.
Ahhh! Much better than having to slog through all the other puzzles - I *think*. Thank you!
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SReh26
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#402

Post by SReh26 »

mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:58 pm
HunterX wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:07 am Before I finally figured out the correct second step, I got caught up in the "Find an anagram of the [word] in other clues with one letter extra/off" rabbit hole. I noticed that there are anagrams of 'SEA' and 'LAKE' with one letter to change, and 3 for 'OCEAN'. Kept searching for 'CANAL' and 'RIVER' until my eyes went blurry.

Then tried looking for alternate bodies of water for each of the types. 'APIAN ANTICLIMAX' kept making me see 'ATLANTIC' as well as a broken up 'PANAMA'.

Also found the SE(L)INE river, NILE backwards, Lake (Loch) NESS.... And so much more.

One can expect these things to go to those kinds of bizarre lengths???
AH ha ha ha ha ha! :lol: :twisted:
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#403

Post by mntlblok »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:13 pm
mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:22 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Sun Jun 20, 2021 2:49 pm

I don't think the mechanism is all that common. Maybe it is if you do LOTS of metas.
Might there be a list if mechanisms extant??
Only my personal list, as far as I know. I haven't fully explored all the posts in the Come Aboard/FAQs/Hints for Solving section. Here are some of the entries in my list:
Complete the theme (or a set)
* in clues
(1,2,3, etc.) Some variation of numbers in parentheses after some clues
Center grid word or some other grid word is a clue
Commonality in theme answers
Hidden words in theme answers
[First or last] [words or syllables] of theme answers
Parts of meta are positional in grid
Something similar in many clues
meaningful words all over the grid
Change one letter or drop one letter or add one letter
Anagramming needed
Meaningful words cross each other in grid, leading to meta answer
"Sounds like"
Missing things
That's somewhere between very helpful (thank you) and enough to make me give up. Afraid my mind *automatically* looks for such things on its own even when *not* doing puzzles! I'm a walking red herring! It's that same "thinking in puns" thing. I now finally see that it's the same mechanism that has me constantly wise-cracking (or seeking out things on which to crack wise). Just a sick puppy. . .
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SReh26
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#404

Post by SReh26 »

Enter the nudge...

The Nudge and Its Discontents
by SReh

The Ego and the Nudge
by Siegmund Reh

The Art of the Nudge...

War and Nudge

The Triumph and the Nudge
Last edited by SReh26 on Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:57 am, edited 3 times in total.
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#405

Post by mntlblok »

SReh26 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:25 pm
mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:20 pm
SReh26 wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 2:27 pm To some nudgees I mentioned a yen for Chinese food, since PAO was my aha moment.

This may have been too subtle of a nudge for some and or caused a sudden steep decline in my credibility with them. 🍚🥟🥡🥢

However I consider myself redeemed
Not a fancy eater so didn't remember that dish's name. Sadly also figgered "treats" could be "scores". :-) WOTER might not've worked. :-) Oh, and poo sorta rhymes with fu. :-)
You are catching on quickly! Much quicker than I did btw.

The above is exactly the sort of -reasoning- that makes sense in this Alice in Wonderland illogical metaverse we have energized into.

One more thing— there’s no escape, ah ha ha...!
(Ive tried)
This is "catching on"??! Was born without the patience gene. . . :-(
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#406

Post by Joe Ross »

NEW LINK TO TUESDAY MUGGLE MEET UP

PLEASE JOIN IN, TONIGHT!

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#407

Post by John77 »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:35 am I move that in addition to the usual matters on the Zoom agenda we add a discussion point: "Omitting the mileage information would have simplified/complicated the puzzle."
The Basel-Bonn mileage was the one that forced me to realize that the travel route was the Rhine River, and not plane/train/automobile. The segments of the Erie Canal between Utica and Rome pretty straight and the distance short, so the waterway distance isn't far off the straight-line distance.

The other three are great circle routes.
Wir sind zu früh alt und zu spät schlau.
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#408

Post by John77 »

hoover wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:44 pm Looking at the answer and how it was obtained ... I had all of the cities correct, and I had gone as far as writing out the body of water that connected each, but didn't get to step 3 of finding their initials in the 3LW. Even if I had, I may not have gotten to the answer because I had Mohawk River connecting Utica and Rome.

Rabbit holes:
- I tried playing with the directions (N, E, NW, NNW, NE) and that went nowhere.
- I found a sort of a word ladder in SCARFS SCARES SCALES SCALP (missing its S)
I did the same, and even wrote the list RR, PO, ... And STILL didn't notice their appearance in the 3LW.

Maddening. Much like my golf game.
Wir sind zu früh alt und zu spät schlau.
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#409

Post by mntlblok »

Well, the wifey got home from her long drive. After her little nap, she blew through the grid and immediately found the cities and got all over the distances between them. Google quickly got her to Apia and Oran, too. Properly noted the names of the bodies of water. She's slept on it, now, without success, and refuses any hints, whatsoever. Liable to figure it out before she returns from her 4 mile run. All I got was a sneer when I pointed out that 81 is 9 squared and that seventeen squared came sorta close to one of the distances. Same with all my other simpleton rabbit hole scrambles. Guess I'll remain the junior solver. :-( Wait, she *did* stub her toe on "sml" possibly suggesting "ordering" the bodies of water by size.
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#410

Post by CPJohnson »

mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:35 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:13 pm
mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:22 pm

Might there be a list if mechanisms extant??
Only my personal list, as far as I know. I haven't fully explored all the posts in the Come Aboard/FAQs/Hints for Solving section. Here are some of the entries in my list:
Complete the theme (or a set)
* in clues
(1,2,3, etc.) Some variation of numbers in parentheses after some clues
Center grid word or some other grid word is a clue
Commonality in theme answers
Hidden words in theme answers
[First or last] [words or syllables] of theme answers
Parts of meta are positional in grid
Something similar in many clues
meaningful words all over the grid
Change one letter or drop one letter or add one letter
Anagramming needed
Meaningful words cross each other in grid, leading to meta answer
"Sounds like"
Missing things
That's somewhere between very helpful (thank you) and enough to make me give up. Afraid my mind *automatically* looks for such things on its own even when *not* doing puzzles! I'm a walking red herring! It's that same "thinking in puns" thing. I now finally see that it's the same mechanism that has me constantly wise-cracking (or seeking out things on which to crack wise). Just a sick puppy. . .
You will fit right in to the Muggles community.
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#411

Post by Ergcat »

Joe Ross wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:56 am NEW LINK TO TUESDAY MUGGLE MEET UP

PLEASE JOIN IN, TONIGHT!

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Great cartoon!!! Anybody have a WSJ mug I could put on my shelves ??? sure to impress and make a great Zoom background! 😂 but wait, who would believe it?
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#412

Post by Bob cruise director »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:35 am I move that in addition to the usual matters on the Zoom agenda we add a discussion point: "Omitting the mileage information would have simplified/complicated the puzzle."
Complicated it by a lot - NIce, Rome, Oran(ge), probably a few others.
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sharkicicles
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#413

Post by sharkicicles »

Yeah, I probably don’t get this one without the mileage. It was a nice check to know I was 100% on which hidden things to look at in the theme answers.
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#414

Post by femullen »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:35 am I move that in addition to the usual matters on the Zoom agenda we add a discussion point: "Omitting the mileage information would have simplified/complicated the puzzle."
Complicated, I think. I used the milage for disambiguation. For example, Orange, California to Nice, California was same order of magnitude as Oran to Nice, so could have derailed me.

I was surprised, though, that the numbers came identified as distances right off the bat. I'm more used to getting just the raw numbers and having to figger out what they mean.
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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#415

Post by Bob cruise director »

Hello all

The Matt Gaffney Q&A is coming along nicely. In the link Come Aboard/FAQ-community/Solving Resources/ Q&Q with Matt Gaffney, there is one of Matt's MGWCC's from 2010 for everyone to do and be a focus to ask Matt about any aspect of it.
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#416

Post by Bob cruise director »

A few clarifications and some guidance for the Q&A with Matt Gaffney on June 29

1) I do not know how many people will be attending. The Zoom system can handle 300 users. However I want to make sure that Matt Gaffney, Mike Shenk and Mike Miller are among the 300.
2) You do not have to download anything from Zoom to participate however if you download the free Zoom app it seems to work better. Zoom works on all platforms.
3) I will be opening the Zoom site at 7:20 pm EDT.
4) My preference is to have everyone enable your video so we can see you but this is not mandatory
5) My preference is to have everyone give their real name and their blog name on the screen. To change your name in the upper right hand corner of your picture when you are on line, there is a little blue box with three dots. In that box you can change your name.
6) When you come in, I will have you muted. If you are not muted, please mute yourself.
7) I will be recording our session when we start so you will get a box that pops up to tell you that it is being recorded and you have to confirm that.
8) The day after the Q&A, I will be posting a link to the recording on my Dropbox account. You may have to download the recording to play it. I don’t know. The recording will typically use up about 600 Mbytes of memory if you download.
9) At the beginning I will introduce Matt and he may make some comments and then we will start the Q&A
10) To ask a question, we will do it three ways. Zoom has a feature where you can electronically raise your hand or you can ask a question in the chat or you can send me a question via a PM beforehand. I will explain electronically raising your hand and the chat below. I will be alternating between the three question methods.
11) A typical Zoom computer screen shows 25 participants. Other platforms show either smaller pictures or fewer pictures. The rest are not shown but you can scroll to them.
12) The “Raise your hand” feature (on a PC, I am not sure about phones or tablets), is under “Reactions” which is at the bottom of the screen WHEN YOU MOVE YOUR CURSOR TO THE BOTTOM OF YOUR SCREEN. When you electronically raise your hand, you go to the first screen at the upper right on my host screen. That way, I know who has raised your hand. Waving your hand on your camera will not work as unless you are among the 25 on my screen, I won’t be able to see you.
13) When I call on you to ask your question, YOU WILL HAVE TO UNMUTE YOURSELF.
14) The Chat box is also at the bottom of the screen. When you click on it a window will open and you can type your question. You can either send your question to “everyone” or only to me.
15) Matt has sent a meta from 2010 for us to solve and we can use to talk about. To get to the meta, start at the Board Index, go to Come Aboard, then to FAQs-Community/Solving Resources and go to posting #19. The meta is downloadable in either pdf or puz formats. This meta is both for our enjoyment and a learning experience. So we won’t post any spoilers until after Friday (Saturday 12 am) and then we will open it up to comments.
16) We have two hours for the Q&A. If we don’t get to your question, put it in a PM to me and I will consolidate them and forward them to Matt.
17) If you are uncertain about Zoom and want a test run, please, please, contact me and we can set up a one on one training session.
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SReh26
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#417

Post by SReh26 »

Thank god it‘s Thursday!
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#418

Post by JetStream »

I figured out that the cities were on the same body of water and thought maybe 'water' was the answer but it didn't seem right. I missed the part about the 3-letter answers. Anywho, I was on vacation with limited internet access so no harm done. Best luck to all this week.
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#419

Post by mntlblok »

mntlblok wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:45 pm
hcbirker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:00 am And did anyone else research types and names of sails? That took me down some interesting holes.
We actually saw some big, ocean racing boats heading south off the coast a few weeks back. Nautical daughter - who is currently sewing sails in Wilmington, NC - informed me that the huge, front sails on them that seemed a cross (to me) of a spinnaker and a jib, was, in fact, a GENOA. :-)
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#420

Post by Annabelle »

otlaolap wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:42 pm
Annabelle wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:41 pm Still on the boat, [spoiler redacted]? Only need five letters for the meta, [spoiler redacted], please bring me a Jamison's neat for some inspiration.
In Post 41 this week I wrote "On Shore" followed by a one-sentence attempt at casual humor regarding this status. Sixty or so seconds later It hit me that my casual comment contained -- gasp! gasp! gasp! -- a completely inadvertent spoiler (or two?) and luckily I was able immediately to delete the added comment. I think one person may have seen it (since someone "liked" it and there is nothing in "On Shore" worth a like). It would be interesting on Monday to see what was redacted from your post.
Sorry for the late reply. I think I said the boat might be sailing to a city, then said there were too many cities and too many numbers. Cities was in the title and the numbers were there to see in the clues, so I didn't think I was giving anything away. Never did get it, sigh.
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