Re: "Where's The Rest?" - September 11, 2020
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:40 am
A place to discuss the WSJ Weekly Crossword Contest and other "meta"-style crosswords
https://www.xword-muggles.com/
This could be turned into a great meta in its own right. We've already got 12 steps, and we haven't even begun.LaceyK wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:14 am Well I might win the prize for the most rabbit holes and finding a solution that works in so many ways, but didn't leave me completely 100%.
Here's my initial observations:
1. Dime, Liter, Head or Mast, Cast.
These go many places: associations--five and dime, dime a dozen, heads or tails, liter/quart, head and shoulders (above the rest) (nod to shampoo); cast and crew, cast and reel, cast a spell, cast a web.
Cast is part of a PLAY. Dime is part of a PRICE.
Dime is 10 (or 5 or 12), Liter is 10 x 10 x 10 ml; Head first, Cast a die, 6 sides.
2. Dime and quarter, liter is about a quart, headquarters, quarter cast.
Also quarter rest in music. Baroque is the only Q on the page, and clue can form quartet.
3. Rest. It is hidden in the clues. Forest. Restaurant. Insertions, Silverstein. That gives you MOSS, PREP, STENTS, SHEL. Those letters don't spell anything, nor the Clue first letters. Where are those items: Tree, kitchen, vein, beach. Or their numbers: 4, 23, 44, 53. Divide by 10 and remainder 4, 3, 4, 3. Add them up 124. CXXIV.
4. WheRE'S The REST. Double rest. Music. Looks like a double blank space on the grid. Letter at end spells RING or GRIN. (Also WHE and HE are left over. Found a couple HEs in the grid and clues.)
5. Almost Rest in clues: wEST, Dest, theRE'S one, FiguRES co-star. W D O C
6. Take 10 is REST. Dime 10. sTENts. If sub TEN in for DIME, get the word Tension.
7. Ten is X. Add it to words in the grid. X-RAY, TRI-X.
8. Going back to quarter. Add 4 to words. Four dimensions. Four liters. Forehead. or Fore master (ship). Forecast (gust or snow in the grid). four dimes is 40, 40 winks which means a rest.
9. Add RE to words in the grid to form REST. RESTAB, RESTACKS, RESTILES, RESTIR, RESTENTS, RESTATUS (not a word).
10. Phrases with Rest. Not KNEE, but Arm REST.
11. Also can I add EST to a grid answer with an R ending? Searest, Pairest. Stirest. Choirest. Uberest.
Dearest, Fairest, but it seems to end there.
12. I also have tried to go beyond the grid answers to see if there's any other words (looking for the REST). Shel could be made into SHELF, to put something to rest.
I often wonder if puzzle constructors read the comments here looking for “rules” they can break in a meta.AnswerPfinder wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 6:31 pm Thank you all for the kind words and helpful feedback! I really loved reading these comments!
I will usually opt for the "# of letters" style prompt when there are X number of items in the puzzle that each lend a letter to the answer. For example, last week with Leonard's puzzle, I recommended this type of prompt because there were 4 "subthemers" that each provided a letter of the answer. Same sort of situation this week. However, I never considered "a 3-letter word" for Geography Quiz since there were not 3 theme entries that each lent a letter - you had to complete the group of terms with letters outside of the puzzle. I have no clue if Shenk or Gaffney use these guidelines, but I suspect they might, given last week's WSJ prompt. Please let me know what they say if they answer that question! I unfortunately cannot attend either webinar.
Cheers!
That there were five not four seems to have been an almost universal stumbling block.
Is it possible they're trying to HAY(S) the new guy? (jk - I'm sure it's a coincidence; just wanted to use the pun)BarbaraK wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:58 amI often wonder if puzzle constructors read the comments here looking for “rules” they can break in a meta.AnswerPfinder wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 6:31 pm Thank you all for the kind words and helpful feedback! I really loved reading these comments!
I will usually opt for the "# of letters" style prompt when there are X number of items in the puzzle that each lend a letter to the answer. For example, last week with Leonard's puzzle, I recommended this type of prompt because there were 4 "subthemers" that each provided a letter of the answer. Same sort of situation this week. However, I never considered "a 3-letter word" for Geography Quiz since there were not 3 theme entries that each lent a letter - you had to complete the group of terms with letters outside of the puzzle. I have no clue if Shenk or Gaffney use these guidelines, but I suspect they might, given last week's WSJ prompt. Please let me know what they say if they answer that question! I unfortunately cannot attend either webinar.
Cheers!
This comment was posted Wednesday on Will’s Weekly Meta topic, and then Thursday’s WSJ called for a 4 letter answer but had 5 theme entries! That has to be coincidence, right? I have no idea what the lead time is for publishing a puzzle in a newspaper, but it has to be more than one day?
Unless maybe it was just a small change to what was already planned?
Well, either way. Amazing how the universe works, or amazing how Matt & Mike work.
I followed the exact same logic and came up with the same solution! Including the BOO non-hint.
One man's "meanness" is another's ingenuity.MajordomoTom wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 10:54 am
I call this one "a mean 3". It's doable, but it's mean to have a 5 letter noun be the gateway to a 4 letter verb.
I posted on Saturday afternoon about doubt that developed for me after submitting due to a logical fallacy. It was that "doughs" isn't really a legitimate plural like "boos", "rays", etc. After someone responded, it occurred to me I was forgetting "bries", which is also not entirely a legitimate plural, so I let my worry subside.
You just kept fouling them off and fouling them off and then hit a dinger.Al Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:15 am I got the answer (DOZE), but wow, I totally backed into it. I saw DIMENSION - SIGH(S)/SIZE and OBLITERATE - RAY(S)/RAZE, then noticed that the clues for 2D and 34A also asked for plurals, so that got me BOOZE (HOOCH) and BREEZE (GUST)... and tried to do something with/about those four. Only later did I see the clue for 64D was also asking for a plural, and I went from SEAS to Seize and to USURP. So now I had all five, so it should have been clear sailing, right? Here's where it got weird. Not noticing the initials of those five, I went back to the clue for USURP and saw it was "Commandeer." So -- noticing that the whole puzzle had homophones -- I parse it as "Common Deer," and from there, I got Doe and from Doe (to get the plural and bring in the Z), I got DOZE. Sometimes it's enough just to be lucky.
I agree that the plural discrepancies jumped out, especially because of the number of them. One of the things I love most about crossword puzzles in general is the elegance of the coordination between each clue and its answer. When that was missing in this puzzle, it felt so awkward that it led me to the conclusion that it simply had to be part of the meta.Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 7:22 am I'm a copy editor, so the plural discrepancies struck me from the very first clue I answered -- the SEA/SEAS one. Matt does not make careless errors, so it primed my brain to see the others. I am amazed at the varied routes that people took to get the correct answer this week!
Yeah - the BRIE - BRIE(s) thing was another issue. As I said - I was never solving this one because I was never going to see the homonym thing but part of why I didn’t get the (s) thing was because of BRIE. I asked my GF who has a masters degree in English Lit and in French lit - if BRIE was plural and she said BRIE in English is the plural and that in French BRIE is generally the plural although you can use BRIES but everyone would give you a strange look. So when I got to RAY - I thought well Matt is either being inelegant or maybe he knows of the sports radio debate that occurred over whether they were Rays as in Devil Rays or just the Ray because their symbol is now just a Ray of light that looks like a star burst.
Sometimes they're 450 footers, sometimes they're like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QixQMUu4CKIJoepickett wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:08 amYou just kept fouling them off and fouling them off and then hit a dinger.Al Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:15 am I got the answer (DOZE), but wow, I totally backed into it. I saw DIMENSION - SIGH(S)/SIZE and OBLITERATE - RAY(S)/RAZE, then noticed that the clues for 2D and 34A also asked for plurals, so that got me BOOZE (HOOCH) and BREEZE (GUST)... and tried to do something with/about those four. Only later did I see the clue for 64D was also asking for a plural, and I went from SEAS to Seize and to USURP. So now I had all five, so it should have been clear sailing, right? Here's where it got weird. Not noticing the initials of those five, I went back to the clue for USURP and saw it was "Commandeer." So -- noticing that the whole puzzle had homophones -- I parse it as "Common Deer," and from there, I got Doe and from Doe (to get the plural and bring in the Z), I got DOZE. Sometimes it's enough just to be lucky.
There was also a singular "puzzle" in the print edition. This week - as usual - I looked only at Joe Ross' excel template and then later the print edition, so I never saw that "bonus" tip off. Was that an unfortunate editorial "correction" by Mike Shenk?sanmilton wrote: ↑Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:16 am I was bothered by the (deliberate?) agreement problem in the online prompt (or "hint"):
Hint: The answer to this week's contest crossword is a four-letter verb that I hope this puzzles doesn't make you want to do.
The plural "puzzles" is not in the .pdf (print) version.
But I loved that the entry for 1D could be read as ADD S. And that the clue for it began with "Does" -- a near-homophone of the meta answer.
Soooo clever, Mr. Gaffney, once again!