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.
KscX wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:25 am
GRAZIE is an anagram of ZAIRE + G. I was convinced there would be 7 more with the extra letters spelling the country! But then realized 1. What would the “cross” mean there and 2. THERE WERE NO OTHERS.
Clever, too, for the answer to be 4 letters. Prevented reverse engineering from an 8- letter country.
Finally saw GREECE around 9:30 last night, after working on the puzzle all weekend and spending time in most of the aforementioned rabbit holes.
And then I mistyped my submission as PERI. I immediately sent a correction, with an explanation, but I assume that takes me out of the running for the mug.
EmilyW wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:23 am
Several words that just made me think of countries: GREENE: Greece or Greenland; HANGRY: Hungary; ARDENT: Argentina? ; DENSE/NORDIQUE: Denmark/Norway; UNITES: United States
Grenade = Grenada (swap e for a), and Hangry = Hungary right next to each other in the grid was a blinking neon light. Unfortunately, the light was above Isaac's bar, where i stayed for 2 days.
All the country rabbit holes noted by my fellow muggles were ones I saw as well. Add to them Germany for Ulm, Austria for Wien, Canada for Quebec and US for Denver in 47A. I also tried Egypt for 60D when I saw the reference to the Nile.
Hubby suggested I look at the grid black squares again and that’s when I finally saw import and gal and got the mechanism.
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 7:54 am
worksheet (2).jpg
Perfectly illustrates why I said these can just take more time than (to me) they are worth. I’m sure if you solve them, it probably does feel worth it, but I assure you, if you don’t, it doesn’t.
Even after I got part of the mechanism (CY[P]RUS jumped out at me for some reason), I got waylaid by the mythical country of ANG[O]RA just to the left of it - somehow conflating Angola and Andorra. And Nauru... I had to go googling for that once I eventually noticed Iraq.
This, Globle and Worldle have exposed my geographical ignorance. The list of things about which I'm ignorant seems to be growing.
Sometimes you just see it. Given the title of the puzzle, I was looking for country names that jumped over a black square (I've seen that mechanism of jumping over a black square used countless times in regular crossword puzzles). For me, GREECE just jumped out at me. And then PORTUGAL and quickly ECUADOR, and then I realized that there was a crossing thing going on with a missing letter. Found the rest pretty quickly. But, I feel the pain of those who went down deep rabbit holes. Had I not seen GREECE so quickly, I likely would've been lost in the bunny warren for days.
EmilyW wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:23 am
Dang it! I spent a lot of time looking for crossing countries but never thought to use the black squares. I also went down some other rabbit holes:
8 non-English words: DONAU, NORDIQUE, GRAZIE, DUCATI, MADRAS, CERO, OLE, ETE
River through Ulm and Wien and Quebec player before the team relocated to Denver: Cross Country?
Several words that just made me think of countries: GREENE: Greece or Greenland; HANGRY: Hungary; ARDENT: Argentina? ; DENSE/NORDIQUE: Denmark/Norway; UNITES: United States
Congrats to all the solvers and good luck winning the mug!
I got up this morning and went down every one of these rabbit holes, including all the way down the Danube river before ditching it all to look at the solution. Very clever meta. I'm sorry I missed the Friday zoom; always so much fun! But I was on my way to the ballet. Looking forward to Thursday again, as always! Congratulations to the clever Muggles who solved - hope one of you gets that mug!!!
Did anyone else get hung up for the longest time trying to work in the O in ANGORA at 19-20 across until finally realizing that angora is a sweater and AngoLa is the country? So just me? Okay then.
vandono wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 10:04 am
Even after I got part of the mechanism (CY[P]RUS jumped out at me for some reason), I got waylaid by the mythical country of ANG[O]RA just to the left of it - somehow conflating Angola and Andorra. And Nauru... I had to go googling for that once I eventually noticed Iraq.
This, Globle and Worldle have exposed my geographical ignorance. The list of things about which I'm ignorant seems to be growing.
I fell into so many rabbit holes. The most stubborn was the paired countries in clues that border each other: Germany and Austria at 47a, Canada and USA at 58a, Egypt and Israel at 60a, and (really stretching it here to find a fourth) France and Italy for 8D. But having found those matches, I couldn't do anything with them.
Scott Lindholm wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:16 am
Yes, I got it! Somehow missed the DOWN countries, got the across. Well, four out of eight, good enough for government work...
I first heard the phrase “close enough for government work” on a summer job while in college and during a long career with the VA I tended to see it as an insult to the largely dedicated and patriotic workforce that I was proud to be a part of. It was only later that I began to realize that it says less about government employees and much more about those who do contract work for the government.
I think what makes the metas so much fun is how one can be easy for you and hard for others and then the next one you do not get and others get right away.
After a couple of rabbit holes I saw Portugal then Ecuador and figured out the mechanism from there. Had a little trouble finding all the countries but did in a few minutes, so I thought this is an easy one. Then I saw that some on this Board who usually have the meta hours or days ahead of me were having trouble.
Abide wrote: ↑Sun Mar 06, 2022 7:46 pm
That tag expired in 2012. We're gonna need an updated photo
When my left knee started to go bad, I had to give up the stick shift. A 435i Beemer hardtop convertible custom built "Individual" with nutmeg Merino leather and Citrus Black exterior seemed a logical choice.
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!
VanVeen wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 10:27 am
Did anyone else get hung up for the longest time trying to work in the O in ANGORA at 19-20 across until finally realizing that angora is a sweater and AngoLa is the country? So just me? Okay then.
Angora is a rabbit! A literal rabbit! Coincidence? I think not!
This was a most interesting meta. I did not get it--got overly focused on the countries I could see on the board, not the invisible ones. Also the first time I've encountered a meta that used the blank spaces--a learning lesson that hopefully improves my skills going forward. Very creative!
vandono wrote: ↑Mon Mar 07, 2022 10:04 am
Even after I got part of the mechanism (CY[P]RUS jumped out at me for some reason), I got waylaid by the mythical country of ANG[O]RA just to the left of it - somehow conflating Angola and Andorra. And Nauru... I had to go googling for that once I eventually noticed Iraq.
This, Globle and Worldle have exposed my geographical ignorance. The list of things about which I'm ignorant seems to be growing.
Have you tried today's Worldle?
yeah it just looked like a partial thumbprint to me.
I spent time in most of the rabbit holes already mentioned, but I found another. The title “Cross Country” led me to Malta (Maltese Cross). I thought the eight countries would somehow uncover Valletta, the capital.
