"This Place Has Changed" August 12, 2022

[Dplass]

I'd be interested to learn which city was the first that folks "saw." For me it was Durban.

LAGOS, then PEZ.

PEZ was just on Jeopardy! (might have been a rerun though)

[hoover]

Did I miss the announcement of the mug winner again?

[The XWord Rabbit]

After finding three nominees for the Rabbit Hole Award last week The XWord Rabbit regrets to say
that he could find no entries equally as worthy this time around. Frustrated Muggles evoked memories
of a 1985 Meryl Streep film, as their letter substitutions were clearly "Out of Africa". Tulsa, Aspen, Dublin
and a few others.

The XWord Rabbit doesn't want you get discouraged though. A new week brings a new puzzle with which
you can go astray. He will leave you with a bit of an incentive. Keep your eyes on the prize, folks.

[Joe Ross]

Over on Crossword Fiend, Matt responded to a few comments, even barking back. He comments occasionally but not often.

And how do I do a hyperlink? In this case, a link hidden behind rather than following "Crossword Fiend." I tried some stuff but perhaps not the right stuff.


--------answer to @flyingMoose's coding question--------
Coding for the above hyperlink:

Code: Select all

[url=https://crosswordfiend.com/2022/08/14/wsj-contest-friday-august-12-2022/#more-140506]Crossword Fiend[/url]

Thanks!!

Another way to decipher coding of anything you see on this site is to quote the post, then look at the coding in the body of the post you've quoted.

The code for XWord Muggles site is phpBB, not HTML. It's similar enough to cause all sorts of trouble.

[MikeMillerwsj]

Sorry for the summer delay--we are still waiting to confirm a winner. We had 1357 entries with 815 correct. Stay tuned!

[joequavis]

Hear that? That's the sound of 815 people checking their spam folders

[Ann]

So many emails in the spam folder begin with “Congratulations!”

[Joe Ross]

Sorry for the summer delay--we are still waiting to confirm a winner. We had 1357 entries with 815 correct. Stay tuned!

From WSJ comments for this puzzle:

Mike Miller - 1 hour ago

Apologies for the summer delay this week! The contest answer is AFRICA. One word in each theme answer is the name of an African city with one letter changed: LAGOS, FEZ, ORAN, TUNIS, ACCRA and DURBAN. The changed letters spell the contest answer.

Solvers did quite a good job with this one! We had 1357 entries, 81% correct.

Incorrect answers included. ARABIA (34), EUROPE (8), AMAZON (5), BASQUE (2), and RUSSIA (2), among many others.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Sean Wright.

[Thurman8er]

There are no words for how much I despise Geography Metas.

No. Words.

But two in the same week???

Two math last week (WSJCC + MMM) and now two geography.
Must be Back to School time!

But I TEACH math!!!

[C=64]

815 ÷ 1357 = 60%

[KayW]

815 ÷ 1357 = 60%

Theory 1: Mike meant to type 81% instead of 815 in post 1.
Theory 2: Mike meant to type 815 instead of 81% in post 2.
Theory 3: I'm spending too much time thinking about this

[BarbaraK]

I emailed Mike and he replied that it was 81%.