XWord Muggles Forum

The contest answer is THE DEAD SEA. As suggested by the title and the clue for CHEM (“Subj. in which water is H2 O”), 10 three-word clues have initials HHO, like 4-Across’s “Hanoi holiday observance.” The first letters of the answers to those clues spell the contest answer.

The answer to this one was sitting in plain sight, in all those HHO clues, but it was deviously well hidden nonetheless. We had a strong turnout of 1,377 entries, and an exceptionally good success rate of 93%, well above our usual rate around 75%.

Other guesses included GREAT SALT LAKE (17), GULF OF MEXICO (4), THE RED SEA (4), CAPE COD BAY (2), THE PACIFIC OCEAN, CHAIN OF LAKES, and a few others.

Congrats to this week's winner: JoEllen Way of Abingdon, Ill.!

I submitted GULF OF MEXICO just because it's been in the news lately, and to annoy someone, if he's reading this.

But I don't feel that "the" is part of the name. It's not even capitalized.

What are 5 facts about the Dead Sea?
What does the Bible say about the Dead Sea?
Why is the Dead Sea floating?

Before I'd looked at a single clue, GREAT SALT LAKE was my guess, because of the undrinkability. I was on the right track, but I was actually glad the real answer wasn't my uninformed guess.

I feel like the "three-word" part was to prevent someone from finding some but not all of the relevant clues, and guessing DEAD SEA? That would take some highly selective clue missing, but I did miss a couple on my first pass through the clues, after I cottoned on to the metanism.

When I solved the puzzle, I was in Jerusalem. Only 72 miles from the Dead Sea.

Do you know how hard it was for me to contain my excitement? I could have easily created a spoiler.

I wrote a song about the puzzle, which I can share now when no one will ever read this.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTjkGX7y3/