The kicker that made me like this one even more was including camel-case words like pH and iMac. Made it obvious towards the end of the solve we were looking for only capital letters in my opinion.
@Bob cruise director sorry for the Pats game outcome tonight but Mac Jones looked *really* good.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:24 am
by ZooAnimalsOnWheels
I was wondering if anyone else thought about a gearshift and then saw 'irREVerent', and 'photoDRama' in two long answers and started looking for more. I saw 'gaLOre' and thought I might be onto something, but when I couldn't find 'neutral' or 'park', I realized it was a rabbit hole fairly quickly.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 4:16 am
by ADS
joequavis wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:31 am
At first, I had thought it was the capital letters found not at the beginning of words. I had S-O-C-H and thought for sure it would be SOCHI but iMac didn't fit. Stared for a few more minutes and found the rest. Glad I didn't jump the gun in submitting.
Exactly the same for me! But because Sochi is not the capital, I kept looking. Very happy I did. Nice puzzle.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:35 am
by Mister Squawk
This puzzle started badly for me. I drew the obvious -- and incorrect -- conclusion that CAPITAL referred to capital cities, based on the puzzle answer ("major world city") and title ("Urban Shift"). I quickly determined that there were a number of capital cities hidden in the grid using the same mechanism -- a rearrangement of letters ("SHIFT" from the title) followed by a one-character substitution:
At some point it occurred to me to try the other sense of CAPITAL (which kind of made sense with SHIFT). So I looked at the first letters of all the proper nouns (DESADE TAFT KOREA LAVER IMAC). Then after a fruitless return to searching for embedded city names, including in the clues, I thought about clues that contained embedded capital letters (DESADE TYPEO MIDDLEC PHLEVEL IMAC). That's when I thought I had it: SOCHI. Except for the pesky M in IMAC.
When I finally came to the answer, I felt like a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
I am filled with rueful admiration for the puzzle author. The deft feint of laying CAPITAL in plain sight next to a puzzle title and contest answer that screamed "CAPITAL CITY" instead of "CAPITAL LETTERS". The sly clueing of OPS as "Goddess of abundance" instead of the obvious "Black ___". The reliance upon the semantics of the answers, not the letters in the grid. The masking of the significance of the letter case by the convention that crosswords are executed in block capitals.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 6:54 am
by Dplass
joequavis wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:31 am
At first, I had thought it was the capital letters found not at the beginning of words. I had S-O-C-H and thought for sure it would be SOCHI but iMac didn't fit. Stared for a few more minutes and found the rest. Glad I didn't jump the gun in submitting.
I submitted SOCHI because in metas there are no rules!
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:15 am
by Heddafish
Anyone else see SEOU (l) on the diagonal missing the L so I went down that rabbit hole and got stuck looking for how the Ls connected somehow.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:31 am
by SReh26
I saw the two Swiss crosses in the grid and felt sure they were relevant. CH in Char, near one of the crosses, seemed to reaffirm that Switzerland was involved. Capital (and not Capitol) made me think of money, so I figured Zurich - a major Swiss banking center - or even Basel, Switzerland’s capital I think (Basel 2 Capital Rule?) could be the answer.
I also noticed some religious references, such as ordain. So now I’m thinking money and religion: Vatican, Holy See, Florence and even Siena for Banca Monte dei Paschi.
Then I found Sochi and realized I needed a nudge. And a coffee.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:38 am
by mlvilv
Never got there but I love it. Really clever.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:44 am
by femullen
Doh! Wrong shore.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:56 am
by JJD
My first rabbit hole seemed so promising: capital city names chopped off: banGALORE, warSAW, bratisLAVA.
Also, the awkward PHOTODRAMA is certainly hinting towards Montevideo Uruguay, right?
And I spent way to much time trying to find which answers had UR “banned” and would create a new word.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:59 am
by femullen
ZooAnimalsOnWheels wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:24 am
I was wondering if anyone else thought about a gearshift and then saw 'irREVerent', and 'photoDRama' in two long answers and started looking for more. I saw 'gaLOre' and thought I might be onto something, but when I couldn't find 'neutral' or 'park', I realized it was a rabbit hole fairly quickly.
I sure am glad this wasn't the mechanism: I've always driven a stick.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:04 am
by LesY
ZooAnimalsOnWheels wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 1:24 am
I was wondering if anyone else thought about a gearshift and then saw 'irREVerent', and 'photoDRama' in two long answers and started looking for more. I saw 'gaLOre' and thought I might be onto something, but when I couldn't find 'neutral' or 'park', I realized it was a rabbit hole fairly quickly.
Creative idea! File this one away - could pop up later.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:06 am
by Ergcat
Nope, didn’t get it. Even with a nudge! I thought of capital letters and gave a cursory look but, for some reason, just didn’t pursue it fully!
Very clever meta, Mr. Shenk!
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:09 am
by MikeM000
Heddafish wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:15 am
Anyone else see SEOU (l) on the diagonal missing the L so I went down that rabbit hole and got stuck looking for how the Ls connected somehow.
I thought they may get a lot of SEOULs from casual solvers as KOREA was the only thing in the grid that would have a CAPITAL. Although, now that I think about it, there's actually 2 Korean capitals and the puzzle doesn't specify North or South....
After the "no proper nouns in the clues" element that was mentioned a few posts back, the other thing that got me on the right path quickly was the vertical alignment of TYPEO and MIDDLEC. Everything else clicked after I noticed that....
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:11 am
by minimuggle
Oh duhhh. I actually had that idea and wrote down all the capitals I found but obviously didn't find them all.....haha. great job to those who got it.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:44 am
by eagle1279
DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:20 am
By the way, how many people struggled with ORDain and PHLevel looking for Airport codes?
Me too, soon to discover a plethora of airport codes. Airports in cities that are neither capitals nor major, but possibly a step toward the answer? Nope.
My cheat sheet had separate lists of proper nouns and words with caps in them, but it took me too long to merge them (and to realize that it’s de Sade, not DeSade). Sheer torture?
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:55 am
by Kris Zacharias
When 47A suggested how to solve the puzzle, given the two meanings of "capital" as a seat of government and an uppercase letter, I got to thinking of other ways in which "capital" is used both as a noun and an adjective:
--in various economic ways, such as investment capital, capital goods, etc.
--architectural, the top of a column
--the leading ship in a naval fleet: a capital ship, immortalized in the song
--punishable by death: capital crime
--excellent: a capital idea
--just plain marvelous: in Pride and Prejudice:
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 8:59 am
by mntlblok
Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 5:35 am
This puzzle started badly for me. I drew the obvious -- and incorrect -- conclusion that CAPITAL referred to capital cities, based on the puzzle answer ("major world city") and title ("Urban Shift"). I quickly determined that there were a number of capital cities hidden in the grid using the same mechanism -- a rearrangement of letters ("SHIFT" from the title) followed by a one-character substitution:
At some point it occurred to me to try the other sense of CAPITAL (which kind of made sense with SHIFT). So I looked at the first letters of all the proper nouns (DESADE TAFT KOREA LAVER IMAC). Then after a fruitless return to searching for embedded city names, including in the clues, I thought about clues that contained embedded capital letters (DESADE TYPEO MIDDLEC PHLEVEL IMAC). That's when I thought I had it: SOCHI. Except for the pesky M in IMAC.
When I finally came to the answer, I felt like a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
I am filled with rueful admiration for the puzzle author. The deft feint of laying CAPITAL in plain sight next to a puzzle title and contest answer that screamed "CAPITAL CITY" instead of "CAPITAL LETTERS". The sly clueing of OPS as "Goddess of abundance" instead of the obvious "Black ___". The reliance upon the semantics of the answers, not the letters in the grid. The masking of the significance of the letter case by the convention that crosswords are executed in block capitals.
That, to me, is incredible. The talent (and perseverance) in this group blows my mind. Gotta find a way to just sit back and enjoy watching you guys work - instead of trying to decide whether I'm more pissed whilst trying to figure it out or after reading the answer. At least I now know *precisely* what "capitol" refers to, *and* to what "shift" was referring in the title. Oh, and now "camelCase". Knowing about the negative log of the hydrogen ion concentration was of no value.
joequavis wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:31 am
At first, I had thought it was the capital letters found not at the beginning of words. I had S-O-C-H and thought for sure it would be SOCHI but iMac didn't fit. Stared for a few more minutes and found the rest. Glad I didn't jump the gun in submitting.
I submitted SOCHI because in metas there are no rules!
Same. SOCHI on Thursday. But... 26.2 on Sunday. And took the old geezer division. Don't show me any stairs today.
Re: "Urban Shift" - October 1, 2021
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:15 am
by mattythewsjpuzzler
DrTom wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 12:20 am
By the way, how many people struggled with ORDain and PHLevel looking for Airport codes? I KNEW PHLEVEL had to be important because it was such an odd crossword word. I was right, but for the wrong reason....like that has never happened before.
Totally agree. Was obsessed with airport codes. In fact never realized how many there are! Virtually every word in grid (other than deSade and two) starts with a valid airport code.
At least I now know *precisely* what "capitol" refers to, *and* to what "shift" was referring in the title. Oh, and now "camelCase".