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.
kurtalert wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 12:37 pm
Hah, sorry - usually I'm a total dunce with the WSJ metas, so I was quite surprised that I hit page 1 here. Although, it might just be Mike Shenk's puzzles- I'm much more on Gaffney's wavelength, apparently, as nearly all of the WSJ ones that I manage to solve are his, and I rarely get Shenk's.
I was curious, so I looked at my data since I started doing the WSJ in late '22 and early '23. I average about 20 minutes on a Gaffney (average level: 2.1) and 25 on a Shenk (average level: 2.4), indicating that I might speak Gaffney's language a bit more! (I've had more time speaking it with MGWCC!).
Good luck to all those still working on cracking this conundrum, and congrats to those who have already!
PHOFER wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:26 am
On the shore, and it looks like it will be crowded. After Sunday midnight I’d be interested in seeing proposals for the best clue for the contest answer words (that is, a clue like the clues for the other theme answers).
Well, just concatenating the given clues for the entries (with a little allowance for grammar/syntax tweaking) is an acceptable clue.
But we're a creative bunch. We can do better.
I love this bunch of folks. I have learned, yet another new word. When I saw "concatenating" I thought surely it was a typo, but looked it up and Lo and Behold, it was a real word that I had never heard of.
Whoa.... just as Charles Schulz once assumed everyone knew what a ZAMBONI was (Snoopy as the WWI flying ace accidentally shot one and all the readers in the SF Bay area went "?????"), I assumed everyone knew what concatenate meant.
FWIW I didn't think this grid was particularly difficult (certainly within one degree of standard deviation) but I didn't think the meta was particularly easy either. Not a natural thing that leaps visually out at you. It took me well-past the time when I start to sink and figure that means I will never get it without a nudge. But, unusually, this is one that *can* be solved by chewing and tying all possibilitys the the hints could possibly mean. I wouldn't say it was a tough one but, for me, it seemed more comfortable hanging out with the tough kids and being a poseur.
Holy s***!!! People who said this was easy just have warped brains!!!
Having said that, I am VERY pleased with myself for my second pure solo solve in a row. I feel my brain warping. It must be the mid-day single-malt. (I don’t believe in the term “too early”). Ashore!!!
Well, just concatenating the given clues for the entries (with a little allowance for grammar/syntax tweaking) is an acceptable clue.
But we're a creative bunch. We can do better.
I love this bunch of folks. I have learned, yet another new word. When I saw "concatenating" I thought surely it was a typo, but looked it up and Lo and Behold, it was a real word that I had never heard of.
Whoa.... just as Charles Schulz once assumed everyone knew what a ZAMBONI was (Snoopy as the WWI flying ace accidentally shot one and all the readers in the SF Bay area went "?????"), I assumed everyone knew what concatenate meant.
CON=with or together
CATENA= chain
concatenate= to chain together.
I haven't followed hockey in years. As a kid, I thought driving the zamboni would be so much fun!
PHOFER wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:26 am
On the shore, and it looks like it will be crowded. After Sunday midnight I’d be interested in seeing proposals for the best clue for the contest answer words (that is, a clue like the clues for the other theme answers).
Well, just concatenating the given clues for the entries (with a little allowance for grammar/syntax tweaking) is an acceptable clue.
But we're a creative bunch. We can do better.
I love this bunch of folks. I have learned, yet another new word. When I saw "concatenating" I thought surely it was a typo, but looked it up and Lo and Behold, it was a real word that I had never heard of.
I think that was (and may still be) a function you could select on a copy machine.
Well, just concatenating the given clues for the entries (with a little allowance for grammar/syntax tweaking) is an acceptable clue.
But we're a creative bunch. We can do better.
I love this bunch of folks. I have learned, yet another new word. When I saw "concatenating" I thought surely it was a typo, but looked it up and Lo and Behold, it was a real word that I had never heard of.
I think that was (and may still be) a function you could select on a copy machine.
CONCATENATE is also a function in Excel for putting text strings together (of course).
Ashore!
Jane, my puzzle buddy, had it solved within 90 minutes of yesterday's release. I had to set it aside to attend other matters and couldn't solve until this morning. Sigh. Then 9 holes of golf and home to post. I think a pale ale is on the menu this afternoon.
What a fun ZOOM today! Great to see everyone! Have a wonderful weekend.
Don & Cynthia
We are always happy to get to know other muggles and help in any way! PM's are always welcome. The next best thing to winning a mug is helping a fellow muggle win a mug!
