"The Play's The Thing" - April 9, 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.
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BethA
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#341

Post by BethA »

Liked yo-yo and Duncan, THING with a string!

Duncan and Romeo jumped out at me, set me on the right track!
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joequavis
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#342

Post by joequavis »

If this one seemed vaguely familiar to anyone, take a gander here...

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=98

My apologies for having posted this briefly on Thursday. I had forgotten how similar they were!!
RobM
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#343

Post by RobM »

Okay, be honest: Who recognized Berowne from LLL? Not me, but the other five letters were enough to extrapolate the last.
Franklin.Bluth
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#344

Post by Franklin.Bluth »

Good stuff from Master Shaxpear:

"To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause..."

A few notes on Hamlet:

- A very personal story to Shakespeare, it was based on a Swedish legend about the Prince Amleth, which apparently interested Will enough that he named his son Hamnet (Hamlet/Hamnet being considered essentially interchangeable, like Bob/Rob or John/Jack).

- Hamnet Shakespeare died at age 11, possibly of the plague, about three years before "Hamlet" was written. Will was thus left with no male heir; though he had two surviving daughters, he died the last of the Shakespeare line.

- "Hamlet" was the longest of his plays with a staggering 4000+ lines, a full 1500 of which are spoken by the prince. (Compare this to only 2400 lines in the full play of "Macbeth".) It is often abridged in performance to prevent it from running 3-4 hours.

- The title character was written for the great leading man Richard Burbage (who also tackled Lear, Othello, and Richard III). Will, prematurely balding and having a quieter voice, often played older characters, and it's assumed that he played the Ghost of Hamlet's father, speaking the immortal words: "If thou didst ever thy dear father love—revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."
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Joe Ross
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#345

Post by Joe Ross »

Bird Lives wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:39 pm
DannyWalter wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 5:46 pm
hissongcle wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 5:42 pm On shore. I do love the Bard.



Cole Porter Kiss Me Kate Act II, 1948
Did you ever try that? I started quoting Shakespeare once and wound up sitting alone at the end of the bar.
Did she say your behavior was heinous?
I once tried a pick-up line starting with, "You rip-ah dese pants off and we'll..." She said I was something that rhymed with that.
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
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sharkicicles
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#346

Post by sharkicicles »

I had to brute-force BEROWNE. That was a new name for me, never having read the play.
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ajk
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#347

Post by ajk »

RobM wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:21 am Okay, be honest: Who recognized Berowne from LLL? Not me, but the other five letters were enough to extrapolate the last.
Yeah, that was the wobble I referred to. Spent some time trying to force OBERON in there before realizing that would be two from Midsummer. After backsolving the L I looked up the LLL characters. Pretty sure I’ve seen it, but not for a long while.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
stmv
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#348

Post by stmv »

Tom Mueller wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:38 pm
There's at least one really nice Easter egg in this one. Hope everyone saw it.
One person's Easter egg is another person's rabbit hole ;)
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yourpalsal
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#349

Post by yourpalsal »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:01 am Image
Beautiful layout, Joe!
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Mister Squawk
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#350

Post by Mister Squawk »

joequavis wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:13 am If this one seemed vaguely familiar to anyone, take a gander here...

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=98

My apologies for having posted this briefly on Thursday. I had forgotten how similar they were!!
So was the previous iteration of this puzzle easier (the theme clues were identified, along with the name of the play) or harder (additional indirection: first letters -> character -> answer play name)?
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John77
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#351

Post by John77 »

Commodore wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:55 am
LadyBird wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:33 am
John77 wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 7:29 am

Or are going birding! My husband remarks that this time of year (spring migration) is the only time I am willingly getting up before 6am.
Or can get a good photo at daybreak.
IMG_2597.jpeg
I stand corrected. The Golden Hour arrives earlier each day this time of year.
Wir sind zu früh alt und zu spät schlau.
SewYoung
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#352

Post by SewYoung »

RobM wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:21 am Okay, be honest: Who recognized Berowne from LLL? Not me, but the other five letters were enough to extrapolate the last.
Not only did I not remember, I never knew it. I had to Google the list of plays and find one that started with "L", then look up the list of characters to know which of the letters in that grid entry were relevant. I had already determined that I needed the "L" to complete my answer. Even if I hadn't figured out the mechanism, I would have submitted "MORTAL" as a WAG.
flyingMoose
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#353

Post by flyingMoose »

SewYoung wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 8:17 am
RobM wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:21 am Okay, be honest: Who recognized Berowne from LLL? Not me, but the other five letters were enough to extrapolate the last.
Not only did I not remember, I never knew it. I had to Google the list of plays and find one that started with "L", then look up the list of characters to know which of the letters in that grid entry were relevant. I had already determined that I needed the "L" to complete my answer. Even if I hadn't figured out the mechanism, I would have submitted "MORTAL" as a WAG.
And I did just the opposite. I used Google to find a list of Shakespearean characters which told me which play they were in.
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Bob cruise director
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#354

Post by Bob cruise director »

BethA wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:09 am Liked yo-yo and Duncan, THING with a string!

Duncan and Romeo jumped out at me, set me on the right track!
Also Iago which is in a lot of crosswords
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Ergcat
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#355

Post by Ergcat »

RobM wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:21 am Okay, be honest: Who recognized Berowne from LLL? Not me, but the other five letters were enough to extrapolate the last.
The first name I saw in “memberowned” was “Ned”... a character from Henry IV. But that gave me “M-O-R-T-A-H”! So then I had to search characters from LLL because I was guessing that was the play that was going to work! I had to use google!!
And, I confess, the first rabbit hole I explored was looking for “play things” and saw yo-yo and the “Duncan”! Aha, was I on to something??!! Haha, no! Seeing “Romeo” shortly afterwards, set me on the right path to shore!
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Bird Lives
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#356

Post by Bird Lives »

Joe Ross wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:36 am
Bird Lives wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 11:39 pm
DannyWalter wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 5:46 pm

Did you ever try that? I started quoting Shakespeare once and wound up sitting alone at the end of the bar.
Did she say your behavior was heinous?
I once tried a pick-up line starting with, "You rip-ah dese pants off and we'll..." She said I was something that rhymed with that.
The way I heard it was, "Euripides, Eumenides."

The Cole Porter line from "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" uses your same heinous rhyme

If she fights when her clothes you are mussing,
What are clothes? "Much Ado About Nussing."
If she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the "Coriolanus."
Jay
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CPJohnson
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#357

Post by CPJohnson »

Bob cruise director wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:21 pm I did not realize the Matt has used this title before

On June 7, 2019, Matt had a meta with the same title. I don't remember it but the answer was The Tempest

I have a summary of all the contests and when I started entering the title, Excel filled in the rest of the title from the 2019 contest.

I assume that Matt was aware of this.
With apologies to Ben Franklin, don't you think a good title is none the worse for being twice used?
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whimsy
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#358

Post by whimsy »

I first noticed DUNCAN and vaguely thought "Oh, yeah, Macbeth."

Then my eye was caught by all the colors* (oooh, pretty colors!) that could be made from the themers; from top to bottom: DUN, INDIGO, CHROME (?), VIOLET, PURPLE (missing an L), and BROWN. Since HUES was in the soliloquy I tried to get something out of all that. Fortunately, I caught a better look at VIOLA and remembered DUNCAN.

*As usual, I blame the bunny --
Captureblamebunny.PNG
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jenirvin
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#359

Post by jenirvin »

joequavis wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:13 am If this one seemed vaguely familiar to anyone, take a gander here...

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=98

My apologies for having posted this briefly on Thursday. I had forgotten how similar they were!!
Glad I wasn't the only one with deja vu!
~ Jennifer/jenirvin
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jenirvin
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#360

Post by jenirvin »

Al Sisti wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:21 am
JetStream wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:18 pm
Wendy Walker wrote: Thu Apr 08, 2021 6:46 pm Must confess, I know the "What a piece of work is man" soliloquy by heart only because it was "sampled" in a song from the musical "Hair."
I have to say I think I know the entire album by heart. That and Jesus Christ Superstar. They were two of the albums I listened to over and over on my parents stereo way back when. Even now, I'm not sad I know either one. I saw Hair live at the local university a few years back - what a HOOT!
In 1992, our band and about 25 of our friends and girlfriends and wives did Jesus Christ Superstar... I might post an audio clip from it someday, but in the meantime, I highly recommend my friend Ryan Quinn (from the Voice and now with Postmodern Juke Box) doing his version of Gethsemane, here
Thank you for this. My favorite song from the musical... I get the chills every time, and this is a BEAUTIFUL rendition.
~ Jennifer/jenirvin
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