"Jewel Case" - August 13, 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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dk letter
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#321

Post by dk letter »

Count me ashore!
Grdngrrl
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#322

Post by Grdngrrl »

On the beach just under the gun....with some very helpful nudges!
hoover
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#323

Post by hoover »

JaneGummy wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:45 am
hoover wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:58 am
JaneGummy wrote: Sat Aug 14, 2021 5:01 pm On shore tho needed a nudge, I'm pretending that I'm improving at solving these each week. 😍

And for today's cuteness, kitten Benny's life goal is to knock items off the counter so puppy Dora can destroy them. Never a dull moment

Peace (Mir)
Is kitten Benny a Turkish Angora perchance?
Benny is a flame point Siamese mix
I would respond with a picture of my probable-Angora George, but the MEOW forum is a couple doors down and I don't want to wear out my welcome here.
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Joe Ross
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#324

Post by Joe Ross »

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Joe Ross
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#325

Post by Joe Ross »

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SusieG
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#326

Post by SusieG »

I waited up for the solution…knew I was looking for diamonds, but missed the HOPE clue. I saw it, just didn’t use it. Good luck to those of you who solved!
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ajk
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#327

Post by ajk »

Spent so much time trying to make something out of HIGHSPEED/LIGHTPEN/JOHNPAUL/OVERHYPED. :lol:

Also tried to find various jewels in a diamond pattern in the grid. Wasn't until I was helpfully refocused on Hope DIAMOND that it finally clicked.
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
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BrianMac
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#328

Post by BrianMac »

DannyWalter wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:58 pm I REALLY want to know what that spoiler was. . .

The original comment was “You would have to have been high to miss this one!! LOL.” To be honest, that comment went over my head and I didn’t think much of it. Another poster also seemed to miss what fuggedaboudit was going for and commented “that’s harsh.” Fuggedaboudit replied to this poster, “I'm sorry. I should have said "really really high" LOL”.

By doubling down, fuggedaboudit made obvious he was intentionally hinting at the meta answer (i.e., being high = “stoned”). This forum literally has only one rule: do not post answers or hints before the deadline. Oblique references to the meta answer are always removed when they are clearly intentional.

This had nothing do to with the “use of humor,” the “completely uncontroversial subject matter” or the “staid views of the complainer(s) or moderator” (brother, if you only knew…). It simply broke the only rule we have.

Some spoilers are intentional and some are accidental. We try to remove them all to preserve the purest solving experience for everyone. People often question why their post was removed and they sometimes disagree with the decision. If this happens to you, you can always send me a PM, and I will be happy to discuss it. Or you can launch a public diatribe, but then you should really ask yourself who the “uptight” one is.
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escapeartist
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#329

Post by escapeartist »

I had HOPE that most of you got this one :D
* 2022 WSJ Mug Winner - I bask in its Glory *
rosiegirl
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#330

Post by rosiegirl »

I was fixated, also, on the four 2-word answers and needed a helpful push away from them. But 4 of the 5 letters in the puzzle answer were in those 2-word answers. I am hoping that someone can explain the significance (if any) of the last letter not being a part of a 2 word answer.
hoover
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#331

Post by hoover »

ajk wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:04 am Spent so much time trying to make something out of HIGHSPEED/LIGHTPEN/JOHNPAUL/OVERHYPED. :lol:

Also tried to find various jewels in a diamond pattern in the grid. Wasn't until I was helpfully refocused on Hope DIAMOND that it finally clicked.
I found and submitted STONY, but I had only seen the letters as being sandwiched between H and P, and I spent way too much time after submitting trying to figure out what HP (Harry Potter? Hewlett Packard?) had to do with diamonds. It wasn't until the next day that I went back and found the O and E, thus spelling HOPE, which made the click.
JeanneC
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#332

Post by JeanneC »

Congratulations to those who saw the solution. I did not see the mechanism. As always, had fun chasing those wabbits. It’s all good.
Thank you to those who give of their time to provide this forum and the resulting camaraderie.
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
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Eric Porter
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#333

Post by Eric Porter »

When I saw DIAMOND in the middle, I immediately thought of Squeeze Play from Sept 2019. My problem was that I was looking for diamonds that were too big and hadn't realized to look for HOPE. Next I noticed that there were an unusually large number of 'P's in the grid, including in all of the 'theme' answers. After looking some more, I was able to put 2 and 2 together.
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C=64
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#334

Post by C=64 »

Here's how it went for me. I hope you find this entertaining; it is NOT meant to be smug or self-congratulatory.

Looks at title: "Jewel Case. Ok, the parts of the meta will probably be encased in rectangles formed by other letters."
Starts completing grid...
Gets to 40A: "Well, that's a huge blinking sign telling me that the shapes will be diamonds instead."
Finishes grid.
"Now, what am I looking for, jewels? Maybe I can find OPAL -- does that count as a jewel? -- or RUBY in a diamond pattern."
Scans grid, strains eyes.
Eventually notices one of the HOPEs: "Or am I looking for different kinds of diamonds? Wait, there's another HOPE. Lemme find three more."

I did all this in the kitchen while making a late lunch (Pacific Time).
During lunch: "Hmm, I can't remember how 40A was clued. It wasn't a baseball diamond, it wasn't playing cards, it wasn't a girl's best friend."
Looks at clue for 40A again: "Oh, good grief. That would have been helpful."

I was a newbie a year ago, but doing lots of puzzles has helped me recognize the tricks. If you're new to this, you can get there!
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LadyBird
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#335

Post by LadyBird »

For those who print out the pdf, could that have been a huge hint in the answer to the previous days puzzle: an oval of circled letters (TABLES? STABLE?) surrounding pairs of letters.
20210815_211711.jpg
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hcbirker
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#336

Post by hcbirker »

I just saw the H and P and inserted the letters to get to "stony" assuming that a CD was inserted into an HP computer.
Heidi
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Joe Ross
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#337

Post by Joe Ross »

hcbirker wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:27 am I just saw the H and P and inserted the letters to get to "stony" assuming that a CD was inserted into an HP computer.
I had to ask someone how there was a second way to solve this (there were several posts referencing this) where the answer wasn't 100% and was told exactly this.
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Miki
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#338

Post by Miki »

I guessed a 5 letter word before started solving. My word was 3/5=60% correct
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DannyWalter
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#339

Post by DannyWalter »

BrianMac wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:07 am
DannyWalter wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 9:58 pm I REALLY want to know what that spoiler was. . .

The original comment was “You would have to have been high to miss this one!! LOL.” To be honest, that comment went over my head and I didn’t think much of it. Another poster also seemed to miss what fuggedaboudit was going for and commented “that’s harsh.” Fuggedaboudit replied to this poster, “I'm sorry. I should have said "really really high" LOL”.

By doubling down, fuggedaboudit made obvious he was intentionally hinting at the meta answer (i.e., being high = “stoned”). This forum literally has only one rule: do not post answers or hints before the deadline. Oblique references to the meta answer are always removed when they are clearly intentional.

This had nothing do to with the “use of humor,” the “completely uncontroversial subject matter” or the “staid views of the complainer(s) or moderator” (brother, if you only knew…). It simply broke the only rule we have.

Some spoilers are intentional and some are accidental. We try to remove them all to preserve the purest solving experience for everyone. People often question why their post was removed and they sometimes disagree with the decision. If this happens to you, you can always send me a PM, and I will be happy to discuss it. Or you can launch a public diatribe, but then you should really ask yourself who the “uptight” one is.
Thanks Brian. It probably wouldn't have helped me, but was clearly a reference to the answer. Here's HOPE-ing the poster reconsiders upon reflection and FUGETS about it. Peace out.
littlepigeon
Posts: 55
Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 7:14 pm

#340

Post by littlepigeon »

rosiegirl wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 12:13 am I was fixated, also, on the four 2-word answers and needed a helpful push away from them. But 4 of the 5 letters in the puzzle answer were in those 2-word answers. I am hoping that someone can explain the significance (if any) of the last letter not being a part of a 2 word answer.
I’m similarly interested in hearing about this. While I should obviously have noticed the HOPEs, it’s exactly this^ kind of . . . *inconsistency* isn’t the word I’m looking for, but I’m writing this on my way to bed, so it’s the best I can do for now . . . that has me feeling so frustrated with these metas sometimes. (Also, when the answer only loosely fits with the rest of the meta and/or when the answer’s definition conflicts with the way it’s presented/defined via the meta; I’m still a little bitter over “paragon” from earlier this summer.)
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