"Two's Company" - September 27, 2019

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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sharkicicles
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#241

Post by sharkicicles »

CPJohnson wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:42 pm BarbaraK and sharkicicles, please tell why the meta was elegant. Cynthia J
It was a nice extra thing that the duplicated name was in the same place for each theme entry.
GlennG
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#242

Post by GlennG »

Some recording fun, because I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8RU_zqj3XA

Probably need to stop and get the project done that was the excuse for being able to record crossword stuff.
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KayW
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#243

Post by KayW »

sharkicicles wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:25 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:42 pm BarbaraK and sharkicicles, please tell why the meta was elegant. Cynthia J
It was a nice extra thing that the duplicated name was in the same place for each theme entry.
Sorry I'm slow on the uptake here... what is the duplicated name? Of the names to be replaced - if that's what you mean - three were the first and two were the second... I did not see a consistency there and that was another confusion for me on top of the missing Goldman. I ended up deciding that some half of each two-word name was not in the grid and that was enough for me.
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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billkatz
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#244

Post by billkatz »

As a former Hewlett-Packard employee (back when the test equipment that is now Keysight was still labelled HP) I was happy to see it as part of the solution. And my cousin worked for Sherwin-Williams.
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FrankH
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#245

Post by FrankH »

Colin wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:02 am
Commodore wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:24 am Funny, but the early days computing talk spurred by the Commodore 64 reference, was coincident to another puzzle thought about Fairchild Semiconductor, a Silicon Valley legend and progenitor of VC funded tech. I’m sure my fellow card punchers saw that, too.
Ahhh.... memories! Schlumberger acquired Fairchild Semiconductor in an interesting diversification era. Fairchild’s Automatic Test Equipment division merged with that of Schlumberger and I spent an amazing 11 years in high-tech sales, product marketing and business development all over the world. Back then, we had to go to the Print Room to collect reams of email printouts!
That brings back some memories of my stints at National Semiconductor. In 1980's Fairchild was about to be sold to a Japanese company when National and other companies objected, raising national security concerns (at that time, Japan was trying to overtake America for semiconductor supremacy and was making major inroads). Eventually National ended up buying Fairchild (there were some whispers then that the National CEO who was once an executive at Fairchild would like to be CEO of Fairchild). I had worked with a number of colleagues for many years afterwards who came over to National from Fairchild through that merger. But in a case of be careful of what you wish for, this ended up nearly bankrupting National, and stock tanked. Eventually that problem was overcome and after some years, National decided to concentrate in certain areas, and divested the other businesses into another entity, to be called Fairchild Semiconductor again. So the name got to live on a second time, but not as a silicon valley company, as the new CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor was living in the east coast and moved the headquarters there until he retired. As for National, after a number of years, the business and headcount started to shrink, and was eventually bought by Texas Instruments.
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Colin
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#246

Post by Colin »

FrankH wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:12 pm
Colin wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:02 am
Commodore wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:24 am Funny, but the early days computing talk spurred by the Commodore 64 reference, was coincident to another puzzle thought about Fairchild Semiconductor...
Ahhh.... memories! Schlumberger acquired Fairchild Semiconductor in an interesting diversification era...
That brings back some memories of my stints at National Semiconductor. ...
What a small world!!
One world. One planet. One future.
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billkatz
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#247

Post by billkatz »

FrankH wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:12 pm
Colin wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:02 am
Commodore wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 8:24 am Funny, but the early days computing talk spurred by the Commodore 64 reference, was coincident to another puzzle thought about Fairchild Semiconductor, a Silicon Valley legend and progenitor of VC funded tech. I’m sure my fellow card punchers saw that, too.
Ahhh.... memories! Schlumberger acquired Fairchild Semiconductor in an interesting diversification era. Fairchild’s Automatic Test Equipment division merged with that of Schlumberger and I spent an amazing 11 years in high-tech sales, product marketing and business development all over the world. Back then, we had to go to the Print Room to collect reams of email printouts!
That brings back some memories of my stints at National Semiconductor. In 1980's Fairchild was about to be sold to a Japanese company when National and other companies objected, raising national security concerns (at that time, Japan was trying to overtake America for semiconductor supremacy and was making major inroads). Eventually National ended up buying Fairchild (there were some whispers then that the National CEO who was once an executive at Fairchild would like to be CEO of Fairchild). I had worked with a number of colleagues for many years afterwards who came over to National from Fairchild through that merger. But in a case of be careful of what you wish for, this ended up nearly bankrupting National, and stock tanked. Eventually that problem was overcome and after some years, National decided to concentrate in certain areas, and divested the other businesses into another entity, to be called Fairchild Semiconductor again. So the name got to live on a second time, but not as a silicon valley company, as the new CEO of Fairchild Semiconductor was living in the east coast and moved the headquarters there until he retired. As for National, after a number of years, the business and headcount started to shrink, and was eventually bought by Texas Instruments.
Then the new Fairchild was bought by ON semi, which itself was a former piece of Motorola Semi. I've designed in parts from all of them.
MikeMillerwsj
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#248

Post by MikeMillerwsj »

This was such a Wall Street Journal-y puzzle! With names right out of our pages. Perhaps that's one reason we had a huge response: 2033 entries, about 88% correct. Many entries had SACHS alone (too many to count by hand and impossible to disaggregate from the correct GOLDMAN SACHS entries), plus SAKS (5) and a large grab bag of other companies: APPLE (6), Kodak (4), many others.

Congratulations to this week's winner: Philip Han of Villa Park, Ill.!
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Bob cruise director
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#249

Post by Bob cruise director »

MikeMillerwsj wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:46 pm This was such a Wall Street Journal-y puzzle! With names right out of our pages. Perhaps that's one reason we had a huge response: 2033 entries, about 88% correct. Many entries had SACHS alone (too many to count by hand and impossible to disaggregate from the correct GOLDMAN SACHS entries), plus SAKS (5) and a large grab bag of other companies: APPLE (6), Kodak (4), many others.

Congratulations to this week's winner: Philip Han of Villa Park, Ill.!
When I opened the Saturday print copy of the WSJ and on the front page of the second section, there was a big article about Goldman Sachs, I almost fell off the chair laughing. I am sure that the writers had no idea that they had a spoiler in big print.
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Wendy Walker
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#250

Post by Wendy Walker »

Bob cruise director wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:59 pm
MikeMillerwsj wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:46 pm This was such a Wall Street Journal-y puzzle! With names right out of our pages. Perhaps that's one reason we had a huge response: 2033 entries, about 88% correct. Many entries had SACHS alone (too many to count by hand and impossible to disaggregate from the correct GOLDMAN SACHS entries), plus SAKS (5) and a large grab bag of other companies: APPLE (6), Kodak (4), many others.

Congratulations to this week's winner: Philip Han of Villa Park, Ill.!
When I opened the Saturday print copy of the WSJ and on the front page of the second section, there was a big article about Goldman Sachs, I almost fell off the chair laughing. I am sure that the writers had no idea that they had a spoiler in big print.
Bob, I didn't see the weekend paper until yesterday but had the same reaction!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
jclee
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#251

Post by jclee »

KayW wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:24 pm
sharkicicles wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:25 pm
CPJohnson wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 1:42 pm BarbaraK and sharkicicles, please tell why the meta was elegant. Cynthia J
It was a nice extra thing that the duplicated name was in the same place for each theme entry.
Sorry I'm slow on the uptake here... what is the duplicated name? Of the names to be replaced - if that's what you mean - three were the first and two were the second... I did not see a consistency there and that was another confusion for me on top of the missing Goldman. I ended up deciding that some half of each two-word name was not in the grid and that was enough for me.
I think what they're pointing out is that if the word appeared at the beginning of the company name, it also appeared at the beginning of the grid answer, and vice versa.
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DBMiller
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#252

Post by DBMiller »

jclee wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:21 pm
KayW wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 6:24 pm
sharkicicles wrote: Mon Sep 30, 2019 3:25 pm

It was a nice extra thing that the duplicated name was in the same place for each theme entry.
Sorry I'm slow on the uptake here... what is the duplicated name? Of the names to be replaced - if that's what you mean - three were the first and two were the second... I did not see a consistency there and that was another confusion for me on top of the missing Goldman. I ended up deciding that some half of each two-word name was not in the grid and that was enough for me.
I think what they're pointing out is that if the word appeared at the beginning of the company name, it also appeared at the beginning of the grid answer, and vice versa.
Correct.

Vanessa/Sherman Williams
Demitri/Aston Martin
Kimberly Schmidt/Clark
Edward/Hewlitt Packard
Morgan Fairchild/Stanley
If I'm around, I am willing to join the Muggle Zoom room at other times to lend a hand to those in need.
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