@clonefitz Very subtle new icon
(see post around #237 8:46 am)
"Position Statement" August 19, 2022
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Abide
- Moderator
- Posts: 1307
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:16 pm
- Location: Biloxi
- Contact:
The site is just a web page, a meeting place, a clubhouse - it's the group that's special.
—Brian MacDonald
—Brian MacDonald
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pookie
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:46 pm
I give up. What's it mean?
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pookie
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:46 pm
No one saw
MOR(E)/MOR(E) @ 23 A & D
CHI/CHI @ 25 A & D
DEM/DEM @ 52 A & D ?
I spent most of Saturday trying to find two letters in those three places.
Is EAU really pronounced "O"?
Don't know. I never studied French.
A great big round of applause for everyone who saw the mechanism. I read all of the clues at least 3 times and nothing clicked.
That 28 A was weird, but had no idea what to make of it.
MOR(E)/MOR(E) @ 23 A & D
CHI/CHI @ 25 A & D
DEM/DEM @ 52 A & D ?
I spent most of Saturday trying to find two letters in those three places.
Is EAU really pronounced "O"?
Don't know. I never studied French.
A great big round of applause for everyone who saw the mechanism. I read all of the clues at least 3 times and nothing clicked.
That 28 A was weird, but had no idea what to make of it.
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LittleGood
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:21 pm
- Location: Greater Pittsburgh
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JetStream
- Posts: 88
- Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:56 pm
Big kudo's to those who solved this one. Wow, that's something.
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DBMiller
- Posts: 546
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:59 pm
- Location: New Hampshire
The band REM
Noah's ARK
If I'm around, I am willing to join the Muggle Zoom room at other times to lend a hand to those in need.
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HunterX
- Posts: 1184
- Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:17 pm
- Location: Philadelphia, PA
I also usually fail to see (or hear) the phonetic-based metanisms. I think it must mean that I "read" words without "hearing" them in my head. Though I always thought the reason I was a slower reader than speed readers like my son and his mother was that I DID sound out words in my head. But for some reason, I found this one.
Wonder if I'm a faster reader now too....
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clonefitz
- Posts: 185
- Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2022 1:23 pm
- Location: Oakland County, Michigan
Last week's (Africa) was straightforward, had to get a little more creative this time. Trying to keep things fun!
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pookie
- Posts: 137
- Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:46 pm
Thanks, DB Miller and chart.
re: REM. Only know them from CROSSWORD PUZZLES!
re: REM. Only know them from CROSSWORD PUZZLES!
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Inca
- Posts: 828
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:55 pm
Congrats to all who solved; very nice!
I don't feel bad about this one because I never feel bad not solving when the clues are involved...that's just me. I did look at the instances of ON in the grid itself and when that obviously wasn't it, I halfheartedly tried doing something with the INs. After that, I thought I should go through the clues, but decided to skip it. And so, I wish a fellow muggle wins the mug.
I don't feel bad about this one because I never feel bad not solving when the clues are involved...that's just me. I did look at the instances of ON in the grid itself and when that obviously wasn't it, I halfheartedly tried doing something with the INs. After that, I thought I should go through the clues, but decided to skip it. And so, I wish a fellow muggle wins the mug.
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MikeMillerwsj
- Posts: 289
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:46 pm
The contest answer is REMARK. Five Across clues end with prepositional phrases that include homophones of letters of the alphabet directing you to six letters in the grid: 16: “on the eyes/I’s,” 28: “over eau/O,” 35: “over you/U,” 44: “on a pea/P,” 56: “under the sea/C.” The six letters in those positions spell the contest answer.
A tough contest this week (stumped us here at contest HQ). We had 707 entries, about 69% correct. As always, our view is that it's impressive so many WSJ solvers correctly decode a tricky one like this. Wrong guesses included FRANCE (37), STANCE (10), RESUME (4), MATURE (2), and many others in small numbers.
Congrats to this week's winner: Michelle Hill of St. Louis, Mo.!
A tough contest this week (stumped us here at contest HQ). We had 707 entries, about 69% correct. As always, our view is that it's impressive so many WSJ solvers correctly decode a tricky one like this. Wrong guesses included FRANCE (37), STANCE (10), RESUME (4), MATURE (2), and many others in small numbers.
Congrats to this week's winner: Michelle Hill of St. Louis, Mo.!
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Al Sisti
- Posts: 2067
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
Really unabashedly pleased with myself for a 13-minute solve this week. Yes, sometimes I do get burned by rashly submitting early ("Bowl Game" or "Grilled [Ham and] Cheese," for example), but sometimes it pays to submit without fully noticing the things that turn out to be red herrings, and/or really justifiable rabbit holes.
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steveb
- Posts: 383
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 5:25 pm
- Location: Silicon Valley, CA
I'm pleased with myself for getting it at all, which took me until Saturday night after coming home from a concert. One last look before going to bed, and there it was.Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:40 pm Really unabashedly pleased with myself for a 13-minute solve this week. Yes, sometimes I do get burned by rashly submitting early ("Bowl Game" or "Grilled [Ham and] Cheese," for example), but sometimes it pays to submit without fully noticing the things that turn out to be red herrings, and/or really justifiable rabbit holes.
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Dplass
- Posts: 1739
- Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:09 am
Al, I can't remember the last time you DIDN'T submit at 4:14...Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 1:40 pm Really unabashedly pleased with myself for a 13-minute solve this week. Yes, sometimes I do get burned by rashly submitting early ("Bowl Game" or "Grilled [Ham and] Cheese," for example), but sometimes it pays to submit without fully noticing the things that turn out to be red herrings, and/or really justifiable rabbit holes.
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The XWord Rabbit
- Posts: 149
- Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 12:00 pm
A juicy crop of homophones tripped up a number of Muggles in last week's "Position
Statement" puzzle from Mr. Shenk. Some worthy entries had to be eliminated for
using a similar - but very wrong - strategy. Still, good news for yours truly, as a couple
of excellent nominees for the Golden Rabbit Hole award remained.
The first is from Mister Squawk who lived up to his name with a tale of woe about the PRO's
and CON's of dealing with the meta. The XWord Rabbit was really taken by the beautifully
composed photograph of his struggles. Future entrants should take note: The XWord Rabbit
likes pictures, especially those with lots of highlighting and notations that lead nowhere.
Bravo, Mister Squawk!
My rabbit hole-derived wrong answer: look for synonyms in the grid.
Flying starts could also be "aero"
Carmen's "habenera" could also be "chili"
Sampler makeup could also be "demo"
rats could be "pests "
star could be "Elgort"
nice looking= hot= "stolen"
The first letters of the words in quotes spell "spaced" , an answer to a possible question "How should I write down these letters, or what positions should these letters be in?
There is so much wrong with my reasoning here even though some metas have been based on synonyms in the grid. Then there is the fact that the chili is a habenero and Carmen's aria is "Habernera" a dance. But habernero chilis are hot, and so, I guess, was Carmen and also Ansel Elgort, whom I had never heard of..
I should have known immediately that "spaced" was not the right answer because the letters did not appear in descending order in the grid and the process was anything but tidy. Guess I just wanted to be done.
Don't apologize for your faulty reasoning, Kris, as "spaced-out" as it was. Your entry defined what a rabbit hole is all about.
Until next week then, best of luck in your struggles, Muggles!
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higgysue
- Posts: 334
- Joined: Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:43 pm
- Location: Duluth, MN
I know this is late, but here is my rabbit hole:
There were only 6 one-word clues:
Close
Places
Rankles
Bro
Nuisances
Hot
14D Spacious apartments are places
24D on or about (approximately) is close
25A Picante pods are hot
35A They’ll walk all over you is (kind of) nuisances
Take the first letters of those clues spells LOCA, so I was looking for LOCATE, which would kind of relate to the title but I could not find a match for rankles or bro. Also, there was no reason that this would be the mechanism except that I’ve seen it before. Too busy enjoying summer to put much more thought into it. I like the real mechanism much better!
There were only 6 one-word clues:
Close
Places
Rankles
Bro
Nuisances
Hot
14D Spacious apartments are places
24D on or about (approximately) is close
25A Picante pods are hot
35A They’ll walk all over you is (kind of) nuisances
Take the first letters of those clues spells LOCA, so I was looking for LOCATE, which would kind of relate to the title but I could not find a match for rankles or bro. Also, there was no reason that this would be the mechanism except that I’ve seen it before. Too busy enjoying summer to put much more thought into it. I like the real mechanism much better!
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Kris Zacharias
- Posts: 221
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 2:05 pm
- Location: Reading, PA
The XWord Rabbit wrote: ↑Tue Aug 23, 2022 9:53 pm nominee25smaller.png
Thanks, I'm honored!
Greetings from The XWord Rabbit!
A juicy crop of homophones tripped up a number of Muggles in last week's "Position
Statement" puzzle from Mr. Shenk. Some worthy entries had to be eliminated for
using a similar - but very wrong - strategy. Still, good news for yours truly, as a couple
of excellent nominees for the Golden Rabbit Hole award remained.
The first is from Mister Squawk who lived up to his name with a tale of woe about the PRO's
and CON's of dealing with the meta. The XWord Rabbit was really taken by the beautifully
composed photograph of his struggles. Future entrants should take note: The XWord Rabbit
likes pictures, especially those with lots of highlighting and notations that lead nowhere.
Bravo, Mister Squawk!
resized.jpg
Second, your faithful rabbit was impressed by this late entry from Kris Zacharias:
My rabbit hole-derived wrong answer: look for synonyms in the grid.
Flying starts could also be "aero"
Carmen's "habenera" could also be "chili"
Sampler makeup could also be "demo"
rats could be "pests "
star could be "Elgort"
nice looking= hot= "stolen"
The first letters of the words in quotes spell "spaced" , an answer to a possible question "How should I write down these letters, or what positions should these letters be in?
There is so much wrong with my reasoning here even though some metas have been based on synonyms in the grid. Then there is the fact that the chili is a habenero and Carmen's aria is "Habernera" a dance. But habernero chilis are hot, and so, I guess, was Carmen and also Ansel Elgort, whom I had never heard of..
I should have known immediately that "spaced" was not the right answer because the letters did not appear in descending order in the grid and the process was anything but tidy. Guess I just wanted to be done.
Don't apologize for your faulty reasoning, Kris, as "spaced-out" as it was. Your entry defined what a rabbit hole is all about.
Until next week then, best of luck in your struggles, Muggles!