5/4/05 | 11:02 am | Solution: You Sank My Battleships!
Unfortunately, as I suspected this clue has already been noted before. This was the reason I stopped the clue early. Sorry…egg on my face. I did search the pearljam site for “ships” but for some reason it didn’t come up. Greg J notes:
This is a link off of pearljam’s Interesting Google Maps Page. Under Virginia (Mothball Fleet). Took less than a minute to solve this one.
It was only a matter of time before there was duplication. But, PLEASE check your clue submissions on the various googlemap sites to see if they are already found, especially if they are famous places. I can’t always catch them… this one slipped through the cracks.
Well, so this wasn’t the hardest of clues for many. I actually thought it might be tougher because since I live on the West Coast and am not so familiar with East Coast geography… I actually had no idea where the James River was until it was pointed out to me. I suspect this is like someone saying they don’t know where the Grand Canyon is. Duh again I guess!
This was also a sort of experiment to see how much easier a clue is to find when it is visible from very far out, as in 8/15 or so. I believe it is MUCH easier, and if you have gotten the word clues mostly right I think it is almost inevitable to stumble across it, unlike clues at 14/15. Shawn D. echoes this thought:
Got this in about ten minutes. Pure luck. I still don’t get the clue but when I put ships and James together I thought of Jamestown Virginia. Keep up the good work.
I have gotten many decent clue submissions that are zoomed out 8/15 or farther so I wanted to see how one of them fared. Seems like I might stay away from them for now, unless they are spectacular. Although, I would REALLY like to use some non-U.S. clues someday (some of you have also mentioned this) and other countries are definitely not zoomed all the way in. We’ll just have to wait until Google gets more maps. =)
I didn’t know so many people would pick up that “R” meant “river”. Michael W speaks for many:
Once I saw the clue I just assumed that James R. meant the James river in Virginia. Took about 5 minutes to find.
I’d be curious to know how many non East Coast people knew right away that James R. was the James River in Virginia. Eric W. writes:
Got it! I just saw water and James R and guessed the James River. I don’t have a clue what the Tormentor bit means, could we get an explanation?
“Tormentor” was supposed to be “Lake Tormentor” which is due south of the ships location. I liked the name of the lake so I included it, and also thought it might help in locating where on the James. But most didn’t even use it!
Other people got a little tangled with my mentioning of synonyms and homonyms and other goodies. (I do love me some puns!) I meant in GENERAL that’s a good idea… not for this specific clue. =) Andy K:
the whole synonym thing threw me off. replaced ‘tormentor’ with ‘pirate’ and searched ‘james’ and ‘pirate’. obviously wrong. very clever combining lake and river names. took approximately 30 min.
We are set for around 9 a.m. PDT. tomorrow again. But please check the notice at the top of the site at least once to make sure. Sometimes there’s some last minute stuff I need to fix before launching it up. Shiver me timbers…
