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.
Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 8:41 am
Is there any connection between the puzzle title and the answer?
A process is a system?
I can't complain; chess pieces are common and well-known enough, and these were apparent enough to be noticeable, and in all this was an easy puzzle. But it sure doesn't seem tight nor strong.
My Rabbit Hole weekend. I found the word support in several clues, along with the answer to 69A being "Set" which led me down my hail mary answer of Splint... supporting pieces of broken bone. I felt like I knew the 6 theme answers were there... but I wasn't seeing the chess piece theme. I also spent far too long trying to find a link to pots and pans (12 piece set of cookware, or something along those lines). Reason being is the intersection of our center square of U, and I kept seeing Duck Sauce. LOL. Maybe I was hungry when trying to solve.
If you see me on the beach, feel free to pm for a nudge. After all the help I’ve got, I am happy to send it forward when I can!
Sorry I didn't get the chess connection on this one. Have just been reading good mystery The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Perez-Reverte, which involves murders clued by the 15th c. panel painting of a chess game being restored by art conservator Julia and current murders in Madrid surrounding the sale of the painting. If you play chess, you'll get even more fun from this than I did.
Mister Squawk wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 8:41 am
Is there any connection between the puzzle title and the answer?
There are many chess systems. System is a synonym for process. Title is a take on "Peace Process".
I think DB has it right. A "system" in chess refers to a series of moves of a player's pieces made at the beginning of a game, without regard to the opponent's moves. It is thus a "piece process."
The problems of playing pictionary is getting a partner not only your wavelength.
The challenge of was SOLAR SYSTEM (all play). All the other teams had partners who drew suns in the center and rings with round globes and when their partners said ATOM they would add flame rays, so in short order the other teams got it. But *my* partner... my partner had to draw a house, a house with squares on the roof and weird pipes going down from the squares. I did not get it as fast as the others.
That is my number one memory of frustrating pictionary. My number two memory is we got an all play and the challenge was PIG. I was drawing and I was thinking "Oh, god. It's an all play. And it's easy. I have to be really quick and really accurate and I have no time for errors or anything that can even remotely be considered extraneous or ambiguous." So I very quickly but carefully and extremely accurately drew the outline of a pig snout and ears. My partner got it and shouted: "Oh, it's a pork!" one half-second before another team got "it's a pig".
This puzzle’s title, prompt, and clues/entries (69A) all work together to guide us through the solve. The title’s play on words grabs us right away. Substituting “piece” for “peace” in the cliché puts the emphasis on “piece”, which is what this meta is all about. However, there is ambiguity. The phrase suggests that the solving process might involve looking at pieces of the theme entries – a fairly typical mechanism feature. But again, we want to fully understand what “piece” is trying to tell us. That is where 69A comes in. The clue catches our eye – probably while we’re still working the grid, since it links to the title. The Southeast corner is often a venue for a significant nudge, and this one is a doozy. First, the clue confirms that we’re looking for pieces. Well, that could be anything from songs, to game pieces, fudge, jigsaw puzzles, pies, sonatas – anything that has pieces or comes in pieces. However, the clue and entry further narrow the focus on pieces that come in a set, strongly suggesting game pieces. Some who had been studying the grid may have already gotten past this step, but for those still meandering, this is a boost. The prompt helps as well. As is typical, the inference is that there are six theme entries where we’ll find the goods, and we can identify those six if we haven’t already. In this case, there is a further inference: We might be looking for a game set comprised of six pieces. This would sideline games like mahjong and dominoes – at least temporarily, since a chess set has six types of pieces – a natural given what we’ve discovered up to this point. If you discern six theme entries and are looking for an embedded name of a chess piece in each one, you’re close to done. There are multiple routes to the solve, and some or all of these nudges may be superfluous, but it’s a very nice set of cues and they work well together. Hats off to Mr. Shenk for creating a meta that can challenge different experience levels with a smorgasbord of cues.
woozy wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 1:19 pm
The problems of playing pictionary is getting a partner not only your wavelength.
The challenge of was SOLAR SYSTEM (all play). All the other teams had partners who drew suns in the center and rings with round globes and when their partners said ATOM they would add flame rays, so in short order the other teams got it. But *my* partner... my partner had to draw a house, a house with squares on the roof and weird pipes going down from the squares. I did not get it as fast as the others.
That is my number one memory of frustrating pictionary. My number two memory is we got an all play and the challenge was PIG. I was drawing and I was thinking "Oh, god. It's an all play. And it's easy. I have to be really quick and really accurate and I have no time for errors or anything that can even remotely be considered extraneous or ambiguous." So I very quickly but carefully and extremely accurately drew the outline of a pig snout and ears. My partner got it and shouted: "Oh, it's a pork!" one half-second before another team got "it's a pig".
That brings back a great Pictionary memory. My friend and I are both nurses and she got the word "colon". So she is busy trying to draw the digestive tract system and our team is getting nowhere. The other team comes in to steal. He draws : and the other team got it right away.
Judging from the number of Muggles who had stories to tell, your Rabbit would call this week’s offering from Mr. Shenk
a “Ned Ryerson” puzzle. Don’t remember Ned? Well, maybe this will refresh your memory --
That first step was, indeed, a doozy. It involved six anchor across entries, each containing the name of a chess piece with a single letter changed. Those letters (prior to the change) spelled out the answer: SYSTEM. Easier said than done, apparently.
Time for your Rabbit to take a deep breath and announce THREE nominees this week.
To lacangah for a lovely jumping off point, finding four family-related 3-letter words in the puzzle on Mother’s Day. (Post #252) The ending was a bit out of left field (in PNC Park, no doubt), but what the heck.
It took your Rabbit multiple readings to fully understand Georgeall’s tale gone awry (Post #254), but he finally got it. A dizzying display of work.
And we have benchen71–- yes, him again -- who found six pieces (well, five actually and a homonym) then shoehorned the first letters to spell RUBRIC, creating a rather esoteric answer, but an answer nonetheless. (Post #253)
Thanks to all, especially Mr. Shenk who provided a particularly lovely puzzle that tripped up so many Muggles. After spending so many weeks, desperately searching for rabbit food it’s nice to have a buffet every once in a while. Until next time…
I eventually got there by staring at the grid and themers, which usually isn't a great strategy. Distractions: A mathematical set is made up of elements. But looking for two-letter element symbols in a grid is a path to madness. A piece of "Wesson", an oil brand, is "esso" another oil brand. "SPAWEEKEND" includes the pieces SPA PAW AWE WEE EEK EKE KEN and END, all legitimate crossword entries.
The contest answer is SYSTEM. Each theme answer contains the name of a chessman with one letter changed (DUQUESNE/QUEEN, HOBBY SHOPS/BISHOP, ATKINS DIET/KING, STICKTIGHT/KNIGHT, SPA WEEKEND/ PAWN, PROM KIDS/ROOK). The changed letters spell the contest answer.
This was a tough grid, as some solvers noted -- but most people who finished it figured out the trick. We had 1101 entries, with an impressive 95% correct. Incorrect guesses included JIGSAW (4), TETRIS (3), SPLINT, POSTER, BIKINI and a few others.
Still waiting to confirm the winner so stay tuned...
Instead of the KAS scale here’s the ELO scale:
1. Mr. Blue Sky
2. Don’t Bring Me Down
3. Strange Magic
4. Can’t Get It Out Of My Head
5. Showdown (it’s raining all over the world)
I happened to notice the near spelling of QUEEN but dismissed it quickly, thinking of the playing card theme from a semi-recent contest puzzle. Why would I even investigate a possible connection in the other perceived theme answers? Too logical, I think, that notion would have been. I also remember noticing that if one inserted an "N," one could form PAWNEE, but saw no relevance or continuity. How very silly of me. I must have had those thoughts at different times over the weekend. Surely, if I had had them around the same time, a connection would have formed! Alas, it was not to be.
