"Water You Looking For?" - June 17, 2022

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is COLD MOTION (1-Across and 43-Down). Each of the theme answers is an altered two-word body of water: one half is a synonym and the other half rhymes with the type of body. RAKE BETTER = Lake Superior; GIANTESS QUIVER = Amazon River; COMMUNIST SPREE = Red Sea; VERDANT HAY = Green Bay. The fifth candidate is COLD MOTION, for Arctic Ocean.

A robust turnout for this one--1525 entries, about 75% correct, which is right in line with our average rate. Lots of other MOTION submissions, starting with IDLE MOTION (28), evidently on the theory that IDLE is a synonym of PACIFIC which isn't quite right. Also LOKI MOTION (14), ROOT MOTION (6), YEMENI IDEA (6, alluding to Arabian Sea?), OPEN MOTION (4), and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner (her second mug!) -- Jill Palmer of Leverett, Mass.

[BarbaraK]

The contest answer is COLD MOTION (1-Across and 43-Down). Each of the theme answers is an altered two-word body of water: one half is a synonym and the other half rhymes with the type of body. RAKE BETTER = Lake Superior; GIANTESS QUIVER = Amazon River; COMMUNIST SPREE = Red Sea; VERDANT HAY = Green Bay. The fifth candidate is COLD MOTION, for Arctic Ocean.

A robust turnout for this one--1525 entries, about 75% correct, which is right in line with our average rate. Lots of other MOTION submissions, starting with IDLE MOTION (28), evidently on the theory that IDLE is a synonym of PACIFIC which isn't quite right. Also LOKI MOTION (14), ROOT MOTION (6), YEMENI IDEA (6, alluding to Arabian Sea?), OPEN MOTION (4), and many others.

Congrats to this week's winner (her second mug!) -- Jill Palmer of Leverett, Mass.

Thanks, Mike! And welcome back. Hope you had a wonderful vacation!

By any chance, do you happen to have the percent correct for the two previous puzzles?

[jrdad]

Thanks, Mike!

[MajordomoTom]

a second mug!

Mike - how many doubles, triples, etc have happened (roughly)?

both and

[femullen]

That and the fact that I spelled barbeCue and not barbeQue.

In fifth grade, we had a spelling bee during class. Nearly 3/4 of the class was lost to the word "Barbecue" until I spelled it correctly. I realize that "Barbeque" is a recognized variation and many companies spell things that way, but it always brings to mind that spelling bee when I see it spelled that way. (Fifth grade was a lonnnnnnng time ago it seems.)

Barbecue is pronounced "BAR-ba-kyoo." Barbeque is pronounced "bar-BEK." As my ESL teacher used to say, "Snot a word."

[Joe Ross]

[Tripod]

How did Nemo not factor in here?

[CromsFury]

How did Nemo not factor in here?

I suppose Nemo's a fish, just like a

[arecibo]

How did Nemo not factor in here?

He ought to have: Nemo == Indian, after all. In Chapter 16 of The Mysterious Island, Nemo identifies himself as an Indian prince:

And the captain, in a few concise sentences, ran over the events of his life.

His narrative was short, yet he was obliged to summon up his whole remaining energy to arrive at the end. He was evidently contending against extreme weakness. Several times Cyrus Harding entreated him to repose for a while, but he shook his head as a man to whom the morrow may never come, and when the reporter offered his assistance,—

“It is useless,” he said; “my hours are numbered.”

Captain Nemo was an Indian, the Prince Dakkar, son of a rajah of the then independent territory of Bundelkund. His father sent him, when ten years of age, to Europe, in order that he might receive an education in all respects complete, and in the hopes that by his talents and knowledge he might one day take a leading part in raising his long degraded and heathen country to a level with the nations of Europe.

NEMO MOTION = Indian Ocean

[Cruciverbalisticexpi]

But it's not a synonym for the clue for Nemo? So it doesn't quite fit really. And there are several Nemo's out there in popular culture, even American Dad.

How did Nemo not factor in here?

He ought to have: Nemo == Indian, after all. In Chapter 16 of The Mysterious Island, Nemo identifies himself as an Indian prince:

And the captain, in a few concise sentences, ran over the events of his life.

His narrative was short, yet he was obliged to summon up his whole remaining energy to arrive at the end. He was evidently contending against extreme weakness. Several times Cyrus Harding entreated him to repose for a while, but he shook his head as a man to whom the morrow may never come, and when the reporter offered his assistance,—

“It is useless,” he said; “my hours are numbered.”

Captain Nemo was an Indian, the Prince Dakkar, son of a rajah of the then independent territory of Bundelkund. His father sent him, when ten years of age, to Europe, in order that he might receive an education in all respects complete, and in the hopes that by his talents and knowledge he might one day take a leading part in raising his long degraded and heathen country to a level with the nations of Europe.

NEMO MOTION = Indian Ocean

[LittleGood]

KAS 4. That's all I have to say about that.