Thursday, May 16, 2024

Friday, May 17 2024, Hemant Mehta

Here we are in the middle of "the Turn", with a somewhat surprisingly easy Friday themeless.  Ordinarily when reviewing a puzzle, I spend some time on my miscues (the more humourous ones, at least), but I can't do that today because I have none to report - I just went top to bottom, left to right and 5 minutes later it was done.  The only clue giving any pause was "Arm raisers, informally" near the top, which was revealed as DELTS by the crossers.

I did like "Long rows?" (FEUDS) and "Get a rise out of?" (BAKE).  Nice to learn a new word - "Catadromous" - describing the fresh/salt water proclivities of the EEL.  I don't know how, but I'm going to work that into one of my meetings tomorrow.


Is it just me, by the way, when encountering a singer-related clue with a five-letter answer, to just automatically write in ADELE?  I know none of her songs by name, but she sure does show up a lot in crossword-land..

Sorry - I don't have a lot to say about this crossword.  Instead, let me give you my take on the Monte Hall problem.  The scenario is, you're presented with three DOORs, with a prize behind one of them.  You pick one door, and then Monte Hall opens one of the two *other* doors, with no prize behind it.  What gives you the best chance of winning the prize - staying with the door you chose, or switching to the other, unopened door?  I remember debates raging about this back in my Uni days.  Should you switch?  Should you "stay"?  Are the odds the same either way?

Here's one way to look at it.  Right off the bat, the door you choose has a 1/3 chance of the prize being behind it.  When Monte Hall opens the other door, that of course doesn't change those original odds - they're still 1/3.  So 1 time out of 3 you have the right door.  The other 2 times out of 3, the prize is going to be behind the other unopened door.  Thus, you should switch doors; you're twice as likely to win the prize if you do.

And there you have it - longest digression ever.  Hoping for a more challenging puzzle tomorrow.  Cheerio!

-philbo




1 comment:

  1. Beautifully constructed puzzle with super-easy clues. No complaints from me -- I like easy -- but I can see how it might chafe super-solvers like you, Philbo. :-)

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