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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If I may, I will add another rule to the main rule of no spoilers: Anything that will likely cause dissension will be deleted or redacted, period. There are any number of issues that fall into this category, but expressing political views, in particular, will not be tolerated, whether wrapped in a joke or any other rhetoric. This corner of the internet is somewhat unique in that it exists without trolling and divisiveness (beyond the use of the Oxford comma or the em dash versus the en dash). I'll do whatever it takes to keep it this way.
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Also amazing that there is little (at least that I see) political folderol posted here. And I'd bet Al Sisti's Guinness bill that we run the gamut (sometimes my own head does) as far a those type of views. Yet another testament to the fine work our fearless leaders perform.
I do remember feeling wrath here once for posting something not related to landing on shore on the first page (hint: it's only for announcing shore leave). I'm still stinging from the death stares I could feel over the interwebs. I'll remember to say hello on page 2+ in the future.
So it took me forever on Friday, but I got ashore. For the group's entertainment, though, I thought people might get a kick out of how I arrived at my first "answer" -- enter the mind of a madman:
Ok, JOHN PAUL was a pope, lets peruse his Wikipedia page for inspiration.. "he was the first pope to add the regnal number "I", designating himself "the First"." ....ok, hmm so he's actually JOHN PAUL I, is the roman numeral omission on purpose? ...So if I complete his full title by putting an "I" in the black square after the answer, I could call that a black "I" which is like "black eye"! hmmm.. there's also a "MACH" clue going down, close to HIGH SPEED and MPH... Mach *One* is the speed of sound and that's pretty HIGH SPEED.. so if I use a roman numeral for one, that's another "black eye"! Is the SMALL I answer trying to tell me that's right? Ok so we've got some "black eyes" in the grid... a synonym for "black eye" is "shiner" ...and diamonds are "SHINY" !!!
Thankfully I knew that was a bonkers "mechanism" and put the puzzle away for a while before coming back to it.
C=64 "Jewel Case. Ok, the parts of the meta will probably be encased in rectangles formed by other letters."
Wendy Walker- " My first thought was that "case" in the title indicated that the mechanism would involve some kind of "surrounding".
Yep. Me too, except WHAT letters am I looking for?
Thought there must be a word chain HOPE, HOPS. HYPE HELP... Ack! Going nowhere.
Even went to the clues citing countries. JAPAN, NETHERLANDS, CANADA, RUSSIA, INDIA.
Good grief. HOPE.
Another four day solve. (sigh)
Tom Shea wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:40 pm
I do remember feeling wrath here once for posting something not related to landing on shore on the first page (hint: it's only for announcing shore leave). I'm still stinging from the death stares I could feel over the interwebs. I'll remember to say hello on page 2+ in the future.
We blame @Wendy Walker for that Page One kerfuffle.../kerfuffle . . .
Tom Shea wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:40 pm
I do remember feeling wrath here once for posting something not related to landing on shore on the first page (hint: it's only for announcing shore leave). I'm still stinging from the death stares I could feel over the interwebs. I'll remember to say hello on page 2+ in the future.
We blame @Wendy Walker for that Page One kerfuffle.../kerfuffle . . .
Check your autocorrect, if you would, Joe -- I'm sure you meant to type "We thank Wendy Walker," not "We blame Wendy Walker."
iggystan wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 10:40 am
Originally I thought CDs as others did, but that wasn't going to pan out. Then I thought of a diamond shape but that didn't pan out. Finally, late Sunday I looked closer at the themers and noticed the H-P connection and got STNY. I went back to 40A and figured the O came from there and submitted STONY. I also noticed there was actually a H-PE connection with three of the four themers, but not John Paul. I also saw Hops. Did I go back to my diamond shape idea and see HOPE around the answer letters? Nope, but floated safely to shore anyway. This is why I suck at chess.
Glad to know that I'm not the only one who didn't notice the "O" and "E" above and below the other letters. I also didn't pick up on "HOPS" . I did submit the right answer, but without noticing those things, it was somewhat unsatisfying. Makes much more sense, now.
Last edited by SewYoung on Mon Aug 16, 2021 6:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tom Shea wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:40 pm
I do remember feeling wrath here once for posting something not related to landing on shore on the first page (hint: it's only for announcing shore leave). I'm still stinging from the death stares I could feel over the interwebs. I'll remember to say hello on page 2+ in the future.
We blame @Wendy Walker for that Page One kerfuffle.../kerfuffle . . .
I always get a chuckle out of 'kerfuffle'.
...and shenanigans.
...and harrumph. Especially when watching Blazing Saddles.
We thought this was quite a challenging one, but our solvers piled in with correct answers: 1251 entries, about 80% correct. A big showing for SHINY (close but...) with 42, plus CLEAR (12), ROUGH (6), TAWNY (3), HEIST (funny guess, 2) and many others.
Congrats to this week's winner: Tamara Brenner of Elmhurst, Ill.!
The other tip off on the Hope Diamond clue is the parentheses in the clue. Not sure if it always means it’s important to solving, but it’s the first rabbit hole that I would dive into.
Bill_Swerski_13 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:43 pm
So it took me forever on Friday, but I got ashore. For the group's entertainment, though, I thought people might get a kick out of how I arrived at my first "answer" -- enter the mind of a madman:
Ok, JOHN PAUL was a pope, lets peruse his Wikipedia page for inspiration.. "he was the first pope to add the regnal number "I", designating himself "the First"." ....ok, hmm so he's actually JOHN PAUL I, is the roman numeral omission on purpose? ...So if I complete his full title by putting an "I" in the black square after the answer, I could call that a black "I" which is like "black eye"! hmmm.. there's also a "MACH" clue going down, close to HIGH SPEED and MPH... Mach *One* is the speed of sound and that's pretty HIGH SPEED.. so if I use a roman numeral for one, that's another "black eye"! Is the SMALL I answer trying to tell me that's right? Ok so we've got some "black eyes" in the grid... a synonym for "black eye" is "shiner" ...and diamonds are "SHINY" !!!
Thankfully I knew that was a bonkers "mechanism" and put the puzzle away for a while before coming back to it.
Love it!! And, it sounds *very* similar (to me) to what's been involved with getting *at* some of these puzzles!
pookie wrote: ↑Mon Aug 16, 2021 2:45 pm
C=64 "Jewel Case. Ok, the parts of the meta will probably be encased in rectangles formed by other letters."
Wendy Walker- " My first thought was that "case" in the title indicated that the mechanism would involve some kind of "surrounding".
Yep. Me too, except WHAT letters am I looking for?
Thought there must be a word chain HOPE, HOPS. HYPE HELP... Ack! Going nowhere.
Even went to the clues citing countries. JAPAN, NETHERLANDS, CANADA, RUSSIA, INDIA.
Good grief. HOPE.
Another four day solve. (sigh)