"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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John77
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#341

Post by John77 »

gatogato wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:26 am
LadyBird wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:24 am
gatogato wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 8:11 am I cannot find any way to measure Bonn, Germany, and Basel, Switzerland as 302 miles apart. Being unable to get beyond that I did not even get to the point of trying to find the next step.
I didn't get too caught up in the actual distances. I figured that Matt was using those so that people would realize that it was Rome, NY not Italy. Although I did pore over Google Maps at first trying to find an Italian city near Rome named Tica.
I probably would have done the same except all the rest were spot on with the tool I was using to look at the distances. I couldn't get past it being the only one which wasn't exact, especially when I couldn't find anything to put it within 10 miles of being correct.

In hindsight I wish I had just taken it for what it was, it's a really cool puzzle.
The distance from Basel to Bonn would be 302 mi traveling the Rhine, and not by air.
Wir sind zu früh alt und zu spät schlau.
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TeaJenny
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#342

Post by TeaJenny »

Interestingly, if you add up all of the miles in parentheses, you get 7,420, which is the distance in nautical miles from New York City to Honolulu via the Panama Canal. Made me wonder for a while if the answer was ALOHA.
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~C.S. Lewis
kamashdas
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#343

Post by kamashdas »

Joepickett wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:36 am I did get the mechanism and then the right answer by looking at the past puzzles as I had hoped. But it was a Mike Shenk creation that helped me out. Sound Investment from 2/22/2019 used the mechanism of sandwiching the final letters in pairs of letters from the previous step. That was my aha!
I had translated M Sea to EMCEE earlier and I was stuck there for a bit before my breakthrough.
Also similar to Matt's 5/24/2019 "Location, Location, Location". Of course, that was hindsight and didn't help at all this week as I had to rediscover the mechanism again...
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DrTom
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#344

Post by DrTom »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 10:03 am
Bob cruise director wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:02 am Having grown up in upstate NY and having four years of trekking to Syracuse with our daughter, I drove by Utica a lot and went with Mohawk River as it is natural. And there are canals associated with all the other bodies of water so I felt going with one canal when there was an option, was inconsistent. That added more than a little time to the search.
Maybe not having local knowledge helped, here.

Two things:
  • On interweb maps, Erie Canal seems the obvious choice, visually.
  • Having sung Low Bridge (15 Miles on the Erie Canal) too many times when a twerp, I couldn't fathom another answer.
Wow, the depths some people will go...Joe has gone plomb loco - but it is sound reasoning.
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!
Magistra
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#345

Post by Magistra »

DrTom wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:43 am
FuminCuban wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:20 am I said FJORD to complete the sequence of waterways. I like my answer better, but grant that I'm a sore loser.

There's always next week!
I'm Afjord that is incorrect, oh well, water ya gonna do...

Sorry couldn't let that flow by without making a pun.
I also went with fjord because I found Oslo within the grid. Although there was no second city, I reasoned that it didn't matter as the fjord appears to be the only water route out of Oslo.
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LadyBird
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#346

Post by LadyBird »

I'm not as Google Earth techy as some of you. I finally resorted to old school.
20210621_083611.jpg
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HunterX
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#347

Post by HunterX »

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.

I got a little held up when I looked on Google Maps and saw "Pools Brook Canal" between Utica and Rome. After finding RWR (and slapping my forehead), I knew it must be the Erie Canal, of which Pools Brook Canal is apparently a part(?).
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Cindy N
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#348

Post by Cindy N »

hcbirker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:58 am After finding all the different bodies of water, I saw "Panama" spaced out at 22 Across, and thought for sure I was on to something. Then found "Seine" at 16 across. So I deduced that I had to find another ocean, sea and lake. Nothing. ...
I've found that two is a coincidence, three becomes a pattern and worth a deeper work. Sometimes it's hard to let go of those really perfect "two" though.
Guy
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#349

Post by Guy »

Magistra wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:02 am
DrTom wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:43 am
FuminCuban wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:20 am I said FJORD to complete the sequence of waterways. I like my answer better, but grant that I'm a sore loser.

There's always next week!
I'm Afjord that is incorrect, oh well, water ya gonna do...

Sorry couldn't let that flow by without making a pun.
I also went with fjord because I found Oslo within the grid. Although there was no second city, I reasoned that it didn't matter as the fjord appears to be the only water route out of Oslo.
I went with fjord also thinking sequence was the path. I stranded on "Lem" at the bottom left, which is kinda near a fjord in Denmark, though I could not find a second city.
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mheberlingx100
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#350

Post by mheberlingx100 »

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 9:23 am I Googled cities and distances on the Rhine so much in the past few days that -- judging from what now pops up at the top of my Google searches -- Viking River Cruises has me down as an incandescently hot prospect. My WAG was going to be GENOA, a (1) sail that (2) also has a city name.
Also a delicious salami!
MikeMillerwsj
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#351

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

This contest was a Matt Gaffney special, taking solvers down an elegantly tangled trail with several steps. It appeared to be a bit tougher than usual--we had 952 entries and only about 56% correct. Lots and lots of incorrect watery 5-letter guesses including ROLLS (26) and ROILS (7) -- what was going on there? Also CANAL (18), OCEAN (10), ATLAS (6), SLOOP (6), FERRY (5), SHORE (4) and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Greg Roberts of Fayetteville, GA!
Nlobb
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#352

Post by Nlobb »

Oh, my! I thought sure the mug would come to my house this week!! When I got the answer, I called out to my husband, "I don't believe it. More water??" This exclamation was brought about by the fact that the river which we live by was currently flooding and we had a foot of water running under the house.
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BrianMac
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#353

Post by BrianMac »

Wow, best mug-winning odds we're likely to see for a while!
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:20 am Lots and lots of incorrect watery 5-letter guesses including ROLLS (26) and ROILS (7) -- what was going on there?
River
Ocean
[something... :x :x :x Spent some time here myself]
Lake
Sea
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Cindy
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#354

Post by Cindy »

BrianMac wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:26 am Wow, best mug-winning odds we're likely to see for a while!
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:20 am Lots and lots of incorrect watery 5-letter guesses including ROLLS (26) and ROILS (7) -- what was going on there?
River
Ocean
[something... :x :x :x Spent some time here myself]
Lake
Sea
And yet, we didn't win.......
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KscX
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#355

Post by KscX »

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.

I got a little held up when I looked on Google Maps and saw "Pools Brook Canal" between Utica and Rome. After finding RWR (and slapping my forehead), I knew it must be the Erie Canal, of which Pools Brook Canal is apparently a part(?).
I did ALL of that too. Maddening.
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Wendy Walker
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#356

Post by Wendy Walker »

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."
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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HunterX
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#357

Post by HunterX »

BrianMac wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:26 am Wow, best mug-winning odds we're likely to see for a while!
And yet, here I am drinking coffee out of an old mug I got from the company I've been working for these past 33 years...
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HunterX
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#358

Post by HunterX »

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."
Troublemaker, eh? ;)
rosiegirl
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#359

Post by rosiegirl »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 11:20 am This contest was a Matt Gaffney special, taking solvers down an elegantly tangled trail with several steps. It appeared to be a bit tougher than usual--we had 952 entries and only about 56% correct. Lots and lots of incorrect watery 5-letter guesses including ROLLS (26) and ROILS (7) -- what was going on there? Also CANAL (18), OCEAN (10), ATLAS (6), SLOOP (6), FERRY (5), SHORE (4) and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Greg Roberts of Fayetteville, GA!
I guess no one came up with my answer....WINDY...which I was sure was correct until I was told otherwise?
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mntlblok
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#360

Post by mntlblok »

This newbie is holding off on trying that "nudges" thing, yet. Was sitting here feeling guilty about how much time I'm wasting reading through this forum, but concluded that, since I'm thoroughly enjoying myself, I shall waste away.

*Plus*, I managed to figure out - all by myself! - the references to the drinks and Isaac! :-) My "Word document" notes are turning up *nothing* that really makes any sense relative to the puzzle title. Shall settle for reading through this til the midnight Sunday posts. Anyway, the wifey is still out of town and hasn't started, yet. Betting that being a former math professor will not help her with that mileage clue stuff. :-)
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