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.
Like everyone else, I saw the 23 Island entries right away. It took a while for me to try adding the entry numbers of each (made much easier by using excel, thanks for the jillionth time to Joe Ross!). I KNEW what the answer was going to be but had to do it just to confirm to myself that Matt could actually finagle that construction marvel.
Like many others, I scratched my head for a while about the reasoning for DRESSING, but given the instruction that’s the only thing it could be.
Otherwise I might have been tempted to submit a phrase much more familiar to me - THOUSAND ISLAND LAKE (in the UP), where I spent most of my childhood summer vacations.
I added up the clue numbers on Friday but didn't get 1000, even tho I used a calculator. Doh. Then I made two reubens sandwiches at work on Saturday with, yup, thousand island dressing, still no click. I needed Boharr to wrench me out of the fruitless rabbit holes, and to remind me about 45 acoss answer, occams razor, keep it simple, and to frankly tell me what to do to finally get the DOH! moment.
LIke KayW, I went to Excel (thanks Joe). When I noted the clue for ADD, I thought, Nothing will come of it, but I may as well try. I mean, these numbers that are practically random aren't going to add up to anything significant. I put all the numbers in a column so that I could check to make sure the last one was Row 23. When I clicked on the sigma and saw the1000. I couldn't believe it.
First time poster who’s been enjoying this site immensely. I’m compelled to share something that helped confirm for me the right answer. Early on, I noticed there are exactly 7 “C’s” in the completed grid. Although that led to some frustrating rabbit holes before adding up the answer numbers, the fact that “Seven Seas” is a brand of salad dressing ultimately helped me justify the word “Dressing”. I can’t imagine that there being exactly 7 “C’s” was accidental?
rosiegirl wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:44 am
Well, this was a disastrous week. Leaving 19 across off and using 60 across instead gave me 23 answers, but not the correct ones, so did not add up to 1,000! I was done after that. Apologies to those who tried to help me with nudges!
I made the same mistake with 60A at first. Then I discovered it's landlocked.
Last edited by boharr on Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Bonnibel wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:53 am
The turning point for me in solving this was "OCCAM."
Less is more, look for the most direct pathway, don't over think it.
I wondered if Matt stuck this in to tell us something.
I was so lucky to get this one quickly before hitting Google! I'm amazed at the length to which other Muggles went, researching things like the islands' population, surrounding bodies of water, language spoken, history, and GDP.
I think what might have helped me along was the fact that I put little horizontal dashes next to the island clues to make sure there were 23 of them. Then I circled the islands in the grid and made little vertical dashes next to the clues to make sure I got them all. You can see that they ended up looking like plus signs!
Ha.. When I started doing this puzzle and began seeing the islands I thought of "thousand island dressing" but then needed to prove it. it took awhile but I got there. My only doubt was "dressing". I love the idea of ADD + DRESSING. I think I was happier getting this one than any other.
pookie wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:41 am
Oh, no...no, no, no
DRESSING is IMPLIED? Every answer I can remember since doing these is found somewhere in the grid or the clues or the title.
If they're accepting IMPLIED answers, then you can accept mine that was implied by all those islands surrounded by water...SURF AND TURF.
Gimme a break.
LIke many others, it seems, I search for confirmation of "DRESSING" for quite a while after figuring out the addition and 1000 Island part quite quickly. In the end, I remembered at least one other where part of the answer was implied, so hit send on THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING, without feeling great about not getting the "aha" confirmation. Glad to know that that piece was never going to happen and I wasn't missing some major clue.
Abide wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:24 am
My shore leave was delayed for 2 days because I had added the numbers by hand, and came up with 998. I discarded that as another rabbit hole. This morning I thought about using a calculator and it all “added up”.
My most common nudge to baffled Muggles was "check your math." Several came SO CLOSE!
Matt did this to us once before and I did not like it any better then. You did not have to fill in the grid to get the meta. In fact, for most of us, the grid was just one big rabbit hole. It is one thing to have the clues interact with the grid but quite another to have the grid mean absolutely nothing in solving the meta
Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:09 am
When I clicked on the sigma and saw the1000. I couldn't believe it.
I was thinking "what foods have a number in them?" and TID came to mind. My mental process was as follows: "Yeah, but the clue numbers couldn't possibly add up to that much, could they?! ... Well, let me estimate by rounding ... OMG, that could actually work!"
My first paper-and-pencil sum was 990. I got out the calculator and ... just like Bird, there it was.
Last edited by Wendy Walker on Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
Abide wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:24 am
My shore leave was delayed for 2 days because I had added the numbers by hand, and came up with 998. I discarded that as another rabbit hole. This morning I thought about using a calculator and it all “added up”.
My most common nudge to baffled Muggles was "check your math." Several came SO CLOSE!
Sometimes that guy Joe Ross has a point with the spreadsheet thing.
Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Mar 29, 2021 8:09 am
When I clicked on the sigma and saw the1000. I couldn't believe it.
I was thinking "what foods have a number in them?" and TID came to mind. My mental process was as follows: "Yeah, but the clue numbers couldn't possibly add up to that much, could they?! ... Well, let me estimate by rounding ... OMG, that could actually work!"
My first paper-and-pencil sum was 990. I got out the calculator and ... just like Joe, there it was.
It could have been one of those Chinese dish translations like Seven Happiness Pork or (per Firesign Theater -- anyone remember them?) Thrice Humiliated Chicken. Thank God it wasn't that 7-layer salad my sister-in-law makes at family get-togethers. (Her daughter, a woman not a kid, added the numbers by hand and also got 990. And when she said that at our Zoom on Saturday, I told her, Do the math.)