"Flight of Fancy" March 15, 2024

[Joe Ross]

This was a puzzle solve for me.

I noted FLIGHT in the title & thought STAIRS (I've been in construction for decades), FLYING, and MICROBREWERY/WINE SAMPLES. I didn't give FANCY much thought.

A first look of the physical grid didn't seem to have obvious typical Theme Entry options in long-across answers, so I was open for something else.

I burned through the grid in 11 or 12 minutes starting with Downs (shorter entries are easier for me to solve, on balance) and only had to interweb one or two entries.

I spent 10 seconds trying to force "2" into LINE2 & HNO2 entries in the WSJ online form, but realized it was simply "2" and I had to move on.

"2" reminded me of TWO-STEP, which reminded me of FLIGHT being STAIRS & I immediately read the name of the work of art cascading down the grid. A 15-second interwebbing & I had the artist/meta answer.

After solving & starting on the reveal to be posted Sunday, midnight, I noticed GET DOWN symmetrical to TWO-STEP.

[Adajeo]

For the XWord Rabbit’s consideration:

I started with, an earworm: the song Fancy by Reba McEntire:
TwoStep, Get Down, Dungaree, choir, Cash (as in Johnny) all country references - no luck

Next up, what I thought was a hint: Line2 - Hidey Move Waco - okay, let's hid all the "y"s and move all the waco's - no luck

Let us look to the clues - an equal number of Ys and Ws to be found - no luck

Time to retreat back to the four, 9 letter answers in the grid - no luck

Back to Line 2 - hum, maybe the number two referred back to 8D "twostep" - or double letters? LL, EE, SS, etc. - no luck
Double clues? 2 references to Egypt, 2 sculpting mediums, no luck

Let's look at words that bothered me: Hidey, Dungaree GetDown (I thought it was going to be CutARug) and Homein (I thought Honedin) - no luck

Let's look up "flight of fancy" and hum the song again - one defination lead me to think "outside the box" - okay, let's try running around the borders and adding letters - no luck

Flight - as in flight of stairs? Great another earworm - Stairway to heavean?maybe, let's start at the top, no luck, start at the bottom, no luck

Let's print out a clean sheet and while filling in evaDE and SCiences think OMG the word "descending" - go back to old, tattered sheet and highlight the stairstep.

[ship4u]

The formation of the word NU DE in the upper left of the grid stood out to me (perhaps it's a "guy" thing ). I noticed that it formed a two "step" down, so I continued to follow the "flight" of stairs landing on the number 2 at the bottom right square. It was a wonderful AHA moment and it all fit together. It helped that I had a double major of Psychology and Art in college.

[BarbaraK]

Holy cow - this was 100% in my wheelhouse and I absolutely whiffed on it! Completely embarrassed by missing it!

If it had turned out to be flights as in airplanes, that would have been me.

[C=64]

I got very lucky with this one. I looked at the title and thought "Hmm, flight... a flight of stairs... Duchamp's nude descending... Oh look, the words SCIENCES, END, and HINDI look like they're giving us DESCENDING. Aha, yes, there's the entire staircase." I had left the intersection of 56D & 68A blank because I wasn't sure whether it was a number or a letter, but afterwards I Googled nitrous acid to make sure.

[KRM]

Thanks to all who responded to my request for sharing your thought process. It will be helpful to me when trying to solve for the meta in the future.

As for me, I did notice the "2" as well as the "Two Step" and realized they were hints. But never realized "Get down" was also a hint; and was thrown off by "Flight of fancy" to mean something about pipe dreams. Should have focused on flight instead of fancy, I suppose.

[Homer Buckle]

I was so sure that the staircase should start in LINE2 that I couldn't get it to work. Finally tried something different.

[chart]

I was thrown off by the aviation alphabet that pilots often use (officially known as the NATO alphabet, apparently).

Clues contained OSCAR and FOXTROT
and reasonable substitute grid answers were SIERRA, UNIFORM, XRAY, TANGO, and almost LIMA.

But I couldn't make any progress and eventually had to start over.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is MARCEL DUCHAMP. As hinted at by the answers TWO-STEP and GET DOWN, a staircase of two-box steps reads down the grid from top left to bottom right, spelling NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE, NO. 2, the name of a famous painting by the contest answer.

This was a ridiculously clever puzzle, and a challenging one too. We had 609 entries, with about 69% correct. Lots of incorrect answers seemed to be shots in the dark based on "flights" in the title, including ESCHER (41), AUDUBON (8) and DA VINCI (6). Also DALI (17), WARHOL (11), PICASSO (9), BANKSY (4), and many others.

Still waiting to confirm the winner--stay tuned...

[chart]

Thanks to all who responded to my request for sharing your thought process. It will be helpful to me when trying to solve for the meta in the future.

As for me, I did notice the "2" as well as the "Two Step" and realized they were hints. But never realized "Get down" was also a hint; and was thrown off by "Flight of fancy" to mean something about pipe dreams. Should have focused on flight instead of fancy, I suppose.

Yeah, the titles can be anything from a direct clue to get you started, to a post-solve confirmation (like last week's JOYCE). Sometimes every word is important/connected, and sometimes it is just a catchy phrase that includes one key word. This is the challenge!

Responding to your original question, I never noticed the in-grid clues until they were posted here.

[MikeyG]

I typically go in at 5 ET for my Thursday night shift, and so this usually gives me about a 30-minute window when the WSJ drops at 4 pm to try to play around with anything I could.

At first glance, I got nothing (I did look up Form 1040, nonetheless). I start solving online, but if I spend more than an hour or so, I'll typically print the PDF and go from there.

And I have two questions that I always try to guide me during the process, especially when nothing is dropping - well, more a question and an imperative.

"What is escaping me?"
"Always, always go back to the title."

There is a third phenomenon that could happen - and did with this one - when I see at least two disparate things that aren't connecting but have to somehow: 1. the title "Flight of Fancy" (I was thinking airplanes and never even considered stairs at first) and 2. the fact that the lone number "2" is conspicuously in the grid.

I thought, for sure, it was LINE TWO of the grid: HIDEY MOVE WACO - and that gave me absolutely nothing. And, again, there's no titular connection. Other failed pursuits included two-word clues and the letters F, A, N, C, and Y in the grid (there were plenty).

And I was expecting a long evening, so after work, I printed out the grid, refilled it in, and wasn't really trying for anything. I did not even consider that TWO-STEP and GET DOWN could be hints, so my epiphany was more random as a result. I tip my hat to people who saw the signposts! It didn't happen with me.

So, what unlocked it? Honestly, it was just one of those "stare-and-ponder" things, where I hover over the grid and see if anything can pop out of me from the grid.

And I really don't know how it happened, but it was in the NW. Perhaps curious by NIVEA and UDALL, both clued in a somewhat lengthier way, I was wondering if something was going on up there. And just casually, NUDE / DESC emerged, about 10 or 15 minutes after printing it out (total solving time a bit under 45 minutes, counting earlier spinning wheels). That was enough, and I was off to the races. That finally made the title click, and I would've guessed Duchamp if it were a Jeopardy! question, but I did a quick confirmation, just to be sure. Then, the title made perfect sense, also explaining the "2" - but I didn't get the TWOSTEP/GETDOWN hints until a day or so later.

Sometimes, I don't know how we see the things we do - but it's wonderful, incredible realization when they appear out of the ether.

Thankful for all of you - and for the genius creations of Shenk and Gaffney! May you have as pleasant of a Monday as a Monday can be, haha.



I'm taking the elevator.

[ship4u]

Still waiting to confirm the winner--stay tuned...

If you're looking for me, I'm right here!

[Joe]

I solved this one quickly because “flight” suggested stairs for me. I saw the STAIR part of the solution really quickly and knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. I then went looking for other STAIRs in the grid. Not seeing any, I went back to the one I found and followed the steps until I got the answer. I had to look up Duchamp, though I knew the painting. I never saw the “hints”.

[LadyBird]

I had the right idea with flight of stairs, but didn't have the time this weekend to figure it out (okay, okay...and I didn't have the brainpower!). I did think it rather cruel that there were 2 clues referencing sculpting mediums--and it wasn't a sculptor. I did try to backsolve Rodin because of this.

[Gman]

Since I have seen a space occupied by a word, per a lot of Thursday puzzles, but I have never seen a Friday WSJ puzzle with a non-letter, I knew there was a rabbit! After all, meta puzzles almost always build off some "aberration" from the norm. Ah, but what next????

I was convinced 56D was supposed to be HN0(TW0). This was confirmed by the fact that IRS schedule C for returns and allowances is definitely LINE TWO (not 0 or zero). Now what??? Of course, I tried putting TWO or an extra TW, etc. all over the place. I also tried to make words from the double letters (almost always a BAD rabbit to chase). Then, there was the "confirmation" of the number two, from the TWOSTEP in 8D.

Dastardly rabbit had a Romulan cloaking device (Invisibility shawl?). It was only after a kind Muggle informed me to also consider GETDOWN, and to rethink the title (ALWAYS important) that I noticed the DESCEND part of the rabbit's full puzzle length body.

[arecibo]

I had the right idea with flight of stairs, but didn't have the time this weekend to figure it out (okay, okay...and I didn't have the brainpower!). I did think it rather cruel that there were 2 clues referencing sculpting mediums--and it wasn't a sculptor. I did try to backsolve Rodin because of this.

It's fair to say Duchamp was a sculptor. I think many people would recognize a certain one of his physical pieces before identifying any painting as his.

[MikeMillerwsj]

And now--congrats to this week's winner, R. Dale Hall of Bloomington, Ill.!

[Wendy Walker]

And now--congrats to this week's winner, R. Dale Hall of Bloomington, Ill.!

WHOO-HOO! Congrats to one of our long-time Muggles!!

[The XWord Rabbit]

Given that this week’s “Flight of Fancy” puzzle is better explained visually (See hcbirker’s Post #231) let us proceed directly to today’s art history lesson:

It seems Mr. Duchamp was a tad obscure for some Muggles. It’s worth mentioning that the French painter has repeatedly been the subject of Jeopardy questions/answers as recently as last month when his name came up in a Daily Double: “Marcel’s kid sister Suzanne Duchamp caught the bug for his movement with works like “Accordion Masterpiece.” (Answer: Dada). Most notably, he stumped all three Jeopardy contestants (including Buzzy Cohen) in 2016 with this Final Jeopardy answer: “Escalier" is the original title of a work by this artist that scandalized NYC’s International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913.” That was, of course, “Nude Descending a Staircase.”

In 1917 Duchamp went to a plumbing supply store in New York City and bought a Bedfordshire urinal. He signed it “R. Mutt”, named it “The Fountain” and submitted it for exhibition at “The Society of Independent Artists.” It caused a ruckus, of course, which goes to show you that just evoking his name was a pisser* long before Mr. Shenk’s puzzle appeared.

On to this week’s nominees, then – and unsurprisingly, competition was fierce.

A couple of dandy tales that veered off course and made forced landings in the same place. First, there was clonefitz who parsed entries like no one has ever parsed before (Post #244) and found Picasso. Then there was BigPear who found the names of a bunch of lesser-known artists hiding in the grid (thanks, Google), anagrammed their first letters -- and voila! – also arrived at Picasso (Post #252).

Lastly, we have lacangah who took the word “FLIGHT” in the title of the puzzle to mean “airlines” (as many of us did), found pieces in the long across entries that would make acronyms of old air carriers with a changed letter and used those changed letters to spell PITT, as in “Brad …“ (Post #232).

Before your Rabbit departs, a few loose ends. Thanks to mikeB for coining the phrase “rabbit repellant” and not “rabbit repugnant”. You can run, but you can’t hide, Mike. And kudos to schmidzy for posting a panel from a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that the Rabbit would certainly have used this week, if he hadn’t found it first. Until next week, then.

*Sorry. A bit of vulgarity for the sake of humor.

[Ben B]

Rats. I had the stair idea and must have looked at a million ways to count two steps to get down but never got the solution. My WAG was MC Escher. I really wish I would have gotten this one. Rats again!