Plan B Forum

Does anyone work the WSJ daily puzzles? Friday's (07/15) weekly contest puzzle "Host Of Possibilities" question is (what is) "the missing member of a set." You don't need to tell me what the answer is but I'm curious if anyone has figured it out.

Contest clues with asterisks are:
Across:
22 One venerated by ancient Egyptians = IBIS
46 More prudent = SAGER
Down:
.7 Suffer defeat = FAIL
37 Unites, with "together" = BINDS
56 Inattentive state = DAZE

I think that your answer for 22 Across — "One venerated by ancient Egyptians" — should be ISIS, not IBIS (an ibis is a wading bird).  Maybe this helps?

Other than that, I got nuthin'.

-"BB"-

Venerated by ancient Egyptians: related: Bast, Cats

Inatentive state: ultimate and penultimate examples: dead, coma

Bicycle Bill wrote:... "One venerated by ancient Egyptians" — should be ISIS, not IBIS... Other than that, I got nuthin'.

BB, I'm sticking with IBIS. Why? It fits with 11 Down: carBondate.

Oh, well, there goes my coffee mug for not having this week's answer.

No, I don't normally do this crossword (and I didn't even see this thread until about an hour ago). But since the deadline's passed I'm sure your curiosity has gotten the better of you, Ray (as mine got the better of me, after I found, downloaded, and completed the puzzle from the WSJ website), and you've probably already found the answer the same sneaky way I just did.

And it turns out that Bill was sorta kinda right after all...or at least he had part of a clue to part of the solution. From the (after-midnight) comments on the WSJ crossword puzzle web page:

• The possibilities are that each of the starred clues can be answered in two different ways. For example, 22 A, the ancient Egyptians venerated both the Ibis and Isis. Etc. If you change it to the other possibility, you get a Tonight Show host's last name within the crossing answer.

Clever...but not my cuppa. I never would have figured it out, so I'm glad I didn't try too hard.













P.S. The answer to the particular example mentioned in that comment was CARSON. The other members of the "set" are ALLEN, PAAR, FALLON, and LENO. The "missing member" was, apparently, O'BRIEN.) <--(The way to read the preceding text is to select the text with your cursor (so that it shows up light on a dark background), or to hit the "QUOTE" button and read it in the "POST A REPLY" box.