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Puzzle #847
Blue was leftovers
I, also, had no clue on blue.
I knew all the Madonna songs immediately except Cherish.
Is it “ethical” to use Google? For example to Search “XXX YYY” to confirm that XXX is a type of YYY?
I find these very difficult. Even when I manage to get three quartets, and therefore know
that the remainder are a quartet, I usually do not know Why!
Ethics doesn’t come in to it. Do whatever is most fun for you.
When someone asked Will Shortz if he approved of “cheating” for crossword puzzles, e.g. looking up possible answers in the dictionary, he said the puzzle is supposed to be fun, so however you get the most enjoyment is fine.
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Puzzle #847
I do know some Madonna songs, but exactly zero of those four.
It’s Monday yet again. I had to make some educated guesses.
Puzzle #848
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Puzzle #848
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Puzzle #848
Well that was a horrific fail. Didn’t really get the chance to find any although close on yellow. I like my red herring, though.
Never heard of a preamp and thought they wouldn’t have both amp and preamp.
Red herring: things associated with a needle (thread, turntable, haystack, camel)
Only had one guess left and somehow muddled through. Had no idea what the purple was until I saw the answer.
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Puzzle #848
Made me work for it today. I had not heard of one of the green in that context.
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Puzzle #848
Turntable output levels are typically lower in amplitude than standard audio line level, and due to the nature of the stylus-in-groove signal generation require a bit of equalization in addition to amplification. In higher end stereos, back when people would have a whole equipment stack to play their music, it was common to have a pre-amp unit that would accept inputs from the tape deck, turntable, AM/FM tuner, etc, perform source selection, do any required signal processing (or possibly loop the signal through a specialty EQ/compression/limiter whatever), and send the output to a dedicated power amp. Even if you didn’t have a dedicated pre-amp, the PHONO input on a stereo receiver would perform the pre-amp functions. If you hook an simple power amp directly up to the output of a record player you don’t get good results.
True, and a good, informative post, but we didn’t know that the category was specific to turntables until after solving it.
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Puzzle #848
This one took a while. HELONIUM was definitely one of those “starts with” or “ends with” things, so I went from there.
I had inklings on the rest, but nothing really fell into place.
A good mental workout.
Tuesday’s game was tricky at first, but once I got one, the others just fell into place. The most satisfying way to play.
Puzzle #849
I got Monday’s with no mistakes, but purple was entirely process of elimination. I guess I’m still not enough used to that sort of connection.
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Puzzle #849
Back on track with a streak of one but solved them all easily.
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Puzzle #849
Easy enough, no notes.
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Puzzle #849
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Puzzle #849
Not too tough. I was sure I had yellow first, and was surprised when it turned out to be blue. Figured out purple only after everything else was gone.