Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “You Better Shop Around”—Dave Sullivan’s write-up
WSJ Contest – “You Better Shop Around” – 11/27/15
- 31a. [Neighborhood business, or a hint to finding the contest answer], CORNER STORE
Funny digression here, until I was well into adult-hood, I thought the phrase was “next store” instead of “next door” when referring to your neighbor. (When telling a friend this, her malapropism was “doggie dog world” for “dog eat dog world.”) Back to the puzzle, taking this “hint” literally, I started to look for one or more stores lurking in the corners. Sure enough there were four common letters in each of the 2×2 corners of this one:
- EASTER and KIMONO crossed by EKBERG and AIRS AT (the latter with the somewhat tortured clue [Fills the time slot of, as a TV show]
- PAD THAI and ONE WEEK (the latter clued with the interesting trivia fact: [Barenaked Ladies hit, or how long it topped the charts in 1998] crossing AEROBES and IKEBANA
- PULASKI and SNOW PEA (the former featuring a bit of geographic trivia, [County in seven states, named for a Revolutionary War hero] crossing KEEP HOT and I ASSUME
- And finally, Mayim BIALIK and SUNDAE crossing CRANIA and STROKE
So the four common letters were IKEA, which indeed is a company well-known for Scandinavian inspired build-it-yourself furniture with often frustrating instructions. Not much else to add on this one–I struggled with just one crossing: the I shared by [America’s second-largest labor org.] for SEIU (I see here, it stands for Service Employees International Union) and Mayim BIALIK (someone I recognize, but not by name). See y’all next week!
Quick riddle. Why is IKEA like Matt’s cat OTIS?
Does MGWCC #136 ring a bell?
http://xwordcontest.com/2011/01/mgwcc-137-friday-january-14th-2011-mathletes.html
That MGWCC came to mind as well.
Correct, Evad. IKEA and OTIS are both curled up in the corner.
I learned something from this puzzle. Never knew that counties & roads named PULASKI were for a revolutionary war hero. Growing up in Howard County, MD (considered by many as part of the Greater Baltimore Metro area), I would frequently drive on Pulaski Highway, which is a portion of US 40 just east of Baltimore.
Anyone have any idea how many entries/how many correct answers these WSJ contests elicit?
They publish it in the Friday Puzzle Comments on their own website:
http://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/2015/11/26/you-better-shop-around-crossword-contest/
Here, for example, are this past Friday’s data:
12:09 pm November 30, 2015
Mike Miller, WSJ wrote:
Contest Report:
A torrent of entries during this holiday weekend, 930 in all.
About 90% were correct. Wrong guesses include: Bodegas, Bakery, Walgreen’s, Cargill, McDonalds, Fannie Farmer, Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Kia (so close!), Harrod’s, Macy’s, Nestle, 7-11, Banana Republic, Sears, Domino’s, Baskin-Robbins, Microsoft, K Mart (a few of those), Woolworth’s, Starbucks, Costco, Barnes & Noble, Circle K (nice idea), and Empire Crane. We can figure out how you get to Kia, K-Mart and Circle K, but the trail that led to the others is less clear. A meta-meta puzzle for you: where do all those other answers come from?