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Crossword Puzzle Thread

Frayed Knot Oct 23 2005 10:30 PM

A couple of Met/baseball flavored answers in today's NYTimes: 123 Across - Jones of Miracle Mets: _ _ _ _ _ And ** spoiler warning to those yet to or still working on it ** the "theme" of today's puzzle is also in baseball mode [a man on a walk] FINDS A BOTTLE ON A BEACH [the genie says] I SHALL GRANT YOU ONE WISH [man answers; I want] PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST [then hands the genie] A MAP OF THE AREA [genie replies; that's impossible so] I GRANT YOU ANOTHER WISH [man says; I want to see] THE CUBS IN A WORLD SERIES [genie replies] LET ME SEE THAT MAP AGAIN

Willets Point Oct 23 2005 11:02 PM

I once was working on a crossword with a clue for a three-letter word that puzzled me for far too long: Queens Athlete. I was racking my brain for something that had to with sports and the monarchy before the obvious answer finally entered my tiny brain: MET.

MFS62 Oct 24 2005 07:22 AM

Beware the obvious. Many a crossword player has jumped at the clue "Stadium in Queens" (four letters) by entering "Shea" only to find out the proper answer is "Ashe". Later

cooby Oct 24 2005 07:35 AM

I used to do these every single day. But not for two or three months now.

sharpie Oct 24 2005 09:51 AM

Tom Seaver once said that he knew he had really made it when his name showed up in a NYT Crossword.

Willets Point Oct 24 2005 10:01 AM

MFS62 wrote: Many a crossword player has jumped at the clue "Stadium in Queens" (four letters) by entering "Shea" only to find out the proper answer is "Ashe". Sneaky. Same four letters too.

Frayed Knot Dec 05 2005 11:22 PM

Anyone try to tackle the 2nd puzzle in Sunday's NYTimes? How ya doin'? I'm up to 17 (out of 30) which is "excellent" according to them - although still well short of "suberb" (20), "brilliant" (25), or "genius" (all 30). I'll reproduce the puzzle here for anyone else who wants to join in. The trick is that they've removed 6 letters from a familiar phrase, name or title. Those 6 letters are actually only 2 letters which appear exactly 3 times each in the phrase. The remaining letters are shown in the correct order and the total number and length of the completed words in the answer is given in parentheses. So in the case of the first one for example; MECUARBIGY (9,7) the missing letters turn out to be O and L which, placed in their proper spots, turn that jumble into: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY - 3 Os added, 3 Ls added. The trick, obviously, is figuring out which 2 letters are missing and where they appear. I'm still missing the *'d ones: * 2) STLAWNCIV (2,8,5) 3) ILODTCKS (8,6) * 4) OCMNTRAL (2,3,4,5) 5) QUOFGLAD (5,2,7) 6) SUDNACHR (7,7) 7) SCHSPKBY (10,3) 8) HVDSQUE (7,6) * 9) MALDCOR (5,8) 10) MRICNGL (8,5) 11) PLIDFCY (5,3,5) 12) TLPHNBK (9,4) * 13) VOUSRLE (7,6) * 14) BRTHLE (7,5) 15) CHSNUR (8,4) * 16) COILTR (6,6) * 17) CYSITR (5,7) * 18) IRAMON (3,5,4) 19) MEINGAT (8,5) 20) RNCEHL (6,6) 21) SECPIL (5,7) 22) TAPCOD (4,8) 23) FZBUN (7,4) 24) CNDGS (6,5) * 25) HERCK (5,6) * 26) LSECA (5,6) 27)MEYDW (2,5,4) * 28) OEUSX (4,4,3) * 29) OWDGI (3,3,5) * 30) FABR (7,3)

Edgy DC Dec 06 2005 08:05 AM

30) FABR (7,3) FABERGE EGG

seawolf17 Dec 06 2005 08:36 AM

2) ST LAWRENCE RIVER

Johnny Dickshot Dec 06 2005 09:32 AM

8) HVDSQUE (7,6) HARVARD SQUARE

Johnny Dickshot Dec 06 2005 09:33 AM

12) TLPHNBK (9,4) TELEPHONE BOOK

seawolf17 Dec 06 2005 09:41 AM

I thought we were just trying to help with the ones FK couldn't get. Here are more: 5) QUEEN OF ENGLAND 7) CHESAPEAKE BAY (Is that S supposed to be there?) 10) AMERICAN EAGLE 11) PLAIN AND FANCY 17) NANCY SINATRA

Frayed Knot Dec 06 2005 10:05 AM Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Dec 07 2005 02:33 PM

You can do any ones you want -- The *'d ones are the ones I haven't gotten yet. And while I might solve a few more if I continued to stare at it for the next 5 days, I've pretty much run into a roadblock at this point. Answer Key (so far) below: 1) MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2) ST LAWRENCE RIVER 3) RAILROAD TRACKS 4) HO CHI MINH TRAIL 5) QUEEN OF ENGLAND 6) STUDENT TEACHER 7) CHESAPEAKE BAY 8) HARVARD SQUARE 9) 10) AMERICAN EAGLE 11) PLAIN AND FANCY 12) TELEPHONE BOOK 13) 14) 15) CHESTNUT TREE 16) 17) NANCY SINATRA 18) 19) SMELLING SALTS 20) PRINCE PHILLIP 21) STATE CAPITAL 22) TAPE RECORDER 23) FREEZER BURN 24) CANADA GEESE 25) HEART ATTACK 26) 27) NO MONEY DOWN 28) 29) 30 FABREGE EGG

cooby Dec 06 2005 11:15 PM

4) HO CHI MINH TRAIL

Frayed Knot Dec 07 2005 12:39 AM

Damn, very nice!!

cooby Dec 07 2005 10:17 AM

I was trying to get Imalda Marcos out of #9 but I just couldn't swing it

seawolf17 Dec 07 2005 10:31 AM

25) HEART ATTACK

Frayed Knot Dec 07 2005 02:31 PM

That one was driving me nuts. I couldn't figure out how to get a 6-letter 2nd word out of that.

cooby Dec 07 2005 02:34 PM

#28 Is intriguing

HahnSolo Dec 07 2005 03:02 PM

29) NOW AND AGAIN

seawolf17 Dec 07 2005 03:12 PM

Nice job, Hahn. I just want to condense the list of the missing ones: * 9) MALDCOR (5,8) * 13) VOUSRLE (7,6) * 14) BRTHLE (7,5) * 16) COILTR (6,6) * 18) IRAMON (3,5,4) * 26) LSECA (5,6) * 28) OEUSX (4,4,3)

HahnSolo Dec 08 2005 12:42 PM

9) METAL DETECTOR

Frayed Knot Dec 11 2005 10:01 PM

METAL DETECTOR is correct. Also; VISCIOUS CIRCLE BRITISH ISLES COFFEE FILTER ICE CREAM CONE LOOSE CANNON POPE PIUS XII (you could have given me 3 months and I wouldn't have come up with that last one)

cooby Dec 11 2005 10:09 PM

argh! Frayed Knot! I was just going to sit down and work on these again

Frayed Knot Dec 11 2005 10:11 PM

Hey I didn't force you to read them! Besides, the one week time limit is up.

cooby Dec 11 2005 10:12 PM

lol, I thought maybe you were just throwing one more answer there PS, me too on that last one, I thought it would end with an "x" I was working on six, and tax, etc...

Giant Squidlike Creature Jan 26 2006 01:57 PM

Bump.

cooby Jan 26 2006 08:17 PM

I thought we had all these figured out

Frayed Knot Jan 26 2006 11:28 PM

I guess Squidie didn't want the entire thread to fall into the great beyond. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART was this past week's key. It was kind of an obvious one.

cooby Jan 26 2006 11:30 PM

I miss doing these, I should subscribe again

Willets Point Jan 26 2006 11:31 PM

Isn't this an all-purpose thread for crossword puzzle discussion?

soupcan Jan 27 2006 09:33 AM

Well if it is I'd like to say that I found today's NYTImes puzzle incredibly difficult.

cooby Feb 12 2006 09:54 AM

Not a crossword, I know but look at this jigsaw puzzle! TITLE: Historic World Maps ARTIST: n/a SIZE: 75" x 108" PIECES: 18000 PRICE: $160 MADE BY: Ravensburger DESCRIPTION: Quite simply, this is the world largest jigsaw puzzle. Do you dare accept the challenge of putting this behemoth together Here's another one I like...