"We'll Have Waters All Around" - March 26, 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.
Locked
User avatar
TPS
Posts: 721
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2020 2:19 pm
Location: Florida

#441

Post by TPS »

sanmilton wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:13 am But the elegant Russian Tea Room was not one of them.
That was the first place I ever had caviar!
User avatar
Tom Shea
Posts: 598
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 6:37 am
Location: Freedonia, NH/VT/HI/Earth

#442

Post by Tom Shea »

Reminder of https://crosswordfiend.com/ for those looking for further explanation of the mechanism for WSJ meta and many other popular puzzles.

Mr. Gaffney sometimes comments there, usually to deny deliberate red herrings, but sometimes with more intricate explanations.
Rufus T. Firefly
User avatar
Mister Squawk
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 9:15 am
Location: Boston

#443

Post by Mister Squawk »

Did anyone else get stuck on the coincidence that the title "WE'LL HAVE WATERS ALL AROUND" has 23 letters?

Also, if you prepend and postpend "SEAS" to all the answers ("waters all around"), each answer yields another novel word (or two).

Much arithmetic was done at my house, but pairwise.
User avatar
HunterX
Posts: 1163
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:17 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

#444

Post by HunterX »

hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:05 am
hcbirker wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:34 pm I stopped myself from those calculations based on the short explanation needed for the meta on the Monday post.

Always keep that in mind.
I'm new here, so I'm not quite catching your drift. Which Monday post are you referring to? This forum, or elsewhere? I haven't read the whole 22 pages of this thread, so...
I believe hcbirker is merely indicating that the answer to the meta puzzle is given/shown on the Monday puzzle, using only a short explanation, as there is only so much room to explain the meta there. Long, complex explanations just don't fit.
User avatar
hunkra
Posts: 265
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:35 pm
Location: Hudson Valley, NY

#445

Post by hunkra »

Billy M wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:06 am A few notes/observations on this one:

Like many other muggles, I struggled with the idea of simply appending the word "dressing" to solve the meta. I wanted it to be revealed in the grid. But I also remembered that this is not the first time that the answer was not explicitly spelled out with the grid (and as others have noted "the rules are ARE THERE ARE NO RULES"). Most recently, TRIAL JUDGE from last month, was entirely derived via the rhyming of theme answers.

That being said, and this was in the back of my mind for most of the weekend, 1A could've been worded slightly differently to suggest that a third word would be found by adding. As written the clue reads
Put smaller numbers together to get a larger number, as you'll do with 23 answers here
An alternate wording could have been something like this
Combine that which is smaller to get that which is larger, as you'll do 23 times with 23 answers here
It would have implied that you were looking for 23 answers that had something in common and that you would be adding 23 times. In adding 23 integers, you'd perform the operation of addition 22 times, the 23rd time would be "adding" the word dressing. That being said, not my puzzle, and plenty of people still made their way to the shore. And somebody (once again not me) will be receiving a mug in the mail in the near future.
I agree 100% with your second point here about phrasing. “Smaller numbers” implies comparison to me, so I spent days trying to determine which clue numbers needed to be added to what. It never occurred to me to add up all the numbers, because 1 and 73 don’t seem to be comparable. Overthinking it as usual, I suppose.
Channeling Molly Weasley on a good day.
User avatar
Billy M
Posts: 52
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2020 5:23 pm
Location: Virginia

#446

Post by Billy M »

hunkra wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 8:56 am
Billy M wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:06 am A few notes/observations on this one:

Like many other muggles, I struggled with the idea of simply appending the word "dressing" to solve the meta. I wanted it to be revealed in the grid. But I also remembered that this is not the first time that the answer was not explicitly spelled out with the grid (and as others have noted "the rules are ARE THERE ARE NO RULES"). Most recently, TRIAL JUDGE from last month, was entirely derived via the rhyming of theme answers.

That being said, and this was in the back of my mind for most of the weekend, 1A could've been worded slightly differently to suggest that a third word would be found by adding. As written the clue reads
Put smaller numbers together to get a larger number, as you'll do with 23 answers here
An alternate wording could have been something like this
Combine that which is smaller to get that which is larger, as you'll do 23 times with 23 answers here
It would have implied that you were looking for 23 answers that had something in common and that you would be adding 23 times. In adding 23 integers, you'd perform the operation of addition 22 times, the 23rd time would be "adding" the word dressing. That being said, not my puzzle, and plenty of people still made their way to the shore. And somebody (once again not me) will be receiving a mug in the mail in the near future.
I agree 100% with your second point here about phrasing. “Smaller numbers” implies comparison to me, so I spent days trying to determine which clue numbers needed to be added to what. It never occurred to me to add up all the numbers, because 1 and 73 don’t seem to be comparable. Overthinking it as usual, I suppose.
I spent a few hours doing that with both the island clues and combinations of the three, four, and five letter clues. But to play devil's advocate to my own point, 73 is smaller than 1000.
User avatar
BarbaraK
Posts: 2590
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:37 pm
Location: Virginia

#447

Post by BarbaraK »

hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:02 am
KayW wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:01 am
Al Sisti wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:04 am
2. My hail mary should have counted, had I sent it in: "Java To Go." (Java and Togo are islands)
Brilliant!! That will have to become a meta answer on its own one day.
Except that Togo isn't an island; it's a coastal country of western Africa between Ghana and Benin. Perhaps you were thinking of Tonga?
Ya know, there's just nothing as heartbreakingly sad as the sight of a beautiful, elegant, lovingly crafted theory being brutally torn to pieces by one cold heartless fact.
;)
User avatar
hcbirker
Posts: 1985
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm
Location: Studio City, CA

#448

Post by hcbirker »

hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:05 am
hcbirker wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:34 pm I stopped myself from those calculations based on the short explanation needed for the meta on the Monday post.

Always keep that in mind.
I'm new here, so I'm not quite catching your drift. Which Monday post are you referring to? This forum, or elsewhere? I haven't read the whole 22 pages of this thread, so...
The WSJ Monday puzzle has a short explanation of the meta contest.
Heidi
hoover
Posts: 1220
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:26 pm

#449

Post by hoover »

HunterX wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 8:08 am
hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:05 am
hcbirker wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:34 pm I stopped myself from those calculations based on the short explanation needed for the meta on the Monday post.

Always keep that in mind.
I'm new here, so I'm not quite catching your drift. Which Monday post are you referring to? This forum, or elsewhere? I haven't read the whole 22 pages of this thread, so...
I believe hcbirker is merely indicating that the answer to the meta puzzle is given/shown on the Monday puzzle, using only a short explanation, as there is only so much room to explain the meta there. Long, complex explanations just don't fit.
I haven't looked at a Monday puzzle since I started doing these, so I didn't realize the contest puzzle answer would be there. Thanks!
User avatar
Richard
Posts: 348
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:06 pm

#450

Post by Richard »

I did not get the meta.

I will blame my love of college basketball. Went down some rabbit holes of combining islands etc and even got a nudge but really spent more time watching games than on the puzzle.

I wish I had seen the addition to 1000. Would hope that I could have seen 1000 island.
I guess that I would have added "dressing."

Nice meta.
User avatar
CPJohnson
Posts: 1078
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:38 pm
Location: Kingsport, TN

#451

Post by CPJohnson »

I did not get the meta. My fault was in interpreting "smaller numbers." I assumed smaller meant numbers less than 10, not 2-digit (mostly) numbers that added up to a much larger number. Had 1A read, "Put numbers together....", I would have thought to add up the clue numbers immediately. I did add the digits in each clue number, plus the number of words in the clue, plus the number of letters in each grid answer, and several other things, but never came up with anything but gibberish.
Cynthia
User avatar
Al Sisti
Posts: 2037
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
Location: Whitesboro NY

#452

Post by Al Sisti »

hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:02 am
KayW wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:01 am
Al Sisti wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:04 am
2. My hail mary should have counted, had I sent it in: "Java To Go." (Java and Togo are islands)
Brilliant!! That will have to become a meta answer on its own one day.
Except that Togo isn't an island; it's a coastal country of western Africa between Ghana and Benin. Perhaps you were thinking of Tonga?
No... I did a quick search and this showed up. It was supposed to be a joke.
User avatar
Al Sisti
Posts: 2037
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
Location: Whitesboro NY

#453

Post by Al Sisti »

BarbaraK wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:40 am
hoover wrote: Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:02 am
KayW wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:01 am

Brilliant!! That will have to become a meta answer on its own one day.
Except that Togo isn't an island; it's a coastal country of western Africa between Ghana and Benin. Perhaps you were thinking of Tonga?
Ya know, there's just nothing as heartbreakingly sad as the sight of a beautiful, elegant, lovingly crafted theory being brutally torn to pieces by one cold heartless fact.
;)
Hey, all wrong answers are the right answer to a different question. I remember I was briefing a General (George Harrison; can't imagine why that would've stuck in my head) on our Modeling and Simulation work. Anyway, he asked me a question about how we found a balance between detailed modeling of, say, an aircraft flying undetected to a target, and getting answers as quickly as possible; i.e., accuracy vs timeliness. I gave him a long theoretical answer about the research we were doing in mixed-resolution modeling, and when I was done, I -- proudly -- asked him "So, does that answer your question?" He paused and said "Well, not exactly, but that was a good answer." Did I cow? Did I shrink? Nope. I said "Well let me know when you ask *that* question." Laughs all around, including from Gen George Harrison.
User avatar
Powers2020
Posts: 94
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 6:05 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

#454

Post by Powers2020 »

Did anyone else spend a ton of time trying to add up all the I's, V's, X's, L's, C's, D's, and M's? Wasted a ton of time on that rabbit hole before Occam's Razor kicked in! :lol:
Locked