Falling Water
We have never seen Victoria Falls in person, but Brad Newsham’s evocative description of that spectacular place makes us feel as though we have. That’s the magic of first-class travel writing: it takes you where you haven’t been.
For those not familiar with Take Me With You, it offers a lot more than mere travelogue. The book reads more like a memoir of an adult on a quest to fulfill a youthful dream. We commend it to anyone with a sense of adventure.
As for our acrostic, we sought to include a range of words and phrases from East Africa, even one (“Knife Edge”) from the site of Victoria Falls itself. We recognize, of course, the folly of treating all of East Africa as a single part of the world, given the numerous nations, diverse ethnicities and multiple language groups found there.
Sadly, our knowledge of Zambia and Zimbabwe – on whose border Victoria Falls is found – proved too limited to generate enough clues and answers for a well-themed puzzle. So we did what armchair travelers do: we ventured out, in a more or less northerly direction, to find additional inspiration in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, etc.
Oh, and we finally found an opportunity to reference one of our favorite movies, Some Like It Hot:
What did you think of the acrostic?
Another wonderful acrostic! I have witnessed Victoria Falls in person and it is indeed spectacular. Brave souls can actually swim in eddies just above where the water plunges, though we chickened out on that opportunity.
I came within a hair of giving up thanks to mistakes like elephants for rhinoceri, herbivores for ungulates,
and train for yacht, as well as total cluelessness about many of the rest. But seeing the possible repetition of “falls” in the quote helped to ferret out those errors and lead to that wonderful rush when everything falls into place.
Thanks for delivering a nice one yet again!
Wow!! That one was definitely a challenge. It was one of those ones where I had to step away for a while and then suddenly it was easy. Thanks for the Friday fun!
I haven’t seen Victoria Falls, but I have seen and experienced Niagara Falls which are stunning. I’m also well acquainted with the Golden Gate Bridge, so the quotes comparisons made an impact on my imagination for Victoria Falls. My solve went fairly smoothly with a breakthrough when I recognized San Francisco Bay. I wasn’t familiar with the author and looked him up to see that he was part of the IMPEACH on Ocean Beach which I didn’t recall, although I do remember Pelosi saying impeachment was off the table, back then. Enjoyed the puzzle with its home town connections.
Barbara,
If you’re on Facebook, and if you friend me, and if you care to be in the next “human banner” at Ocean Beach (or elsewhere in the Bay Area) you’ll know when/where, etc — probably September or October, before the election. I’m glad you enjoyed the puzzle. Geez, I certainly am.
I’m the odd American (New Yorker, no less!) who’s been to Victoria Falls but not Niagara! In fact, I even got to visit Victoria Falls in the same year I first visited Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Argentina. Anyway, this was a fun solve, and one that wasn’t too hard for me for a change.
Breathtaking Acrostic that is as much a learning experience as an enjoyable pastime elevated to new heights. Well done.
I thought this was quite a challenge! Started it last night, but was able to finish this morning. I, too, have never witnessed Victoria Falls due to a trip to Africa canceled by the pandemic. Maybe one day…
This was a fun one! Recognizing it was about Africa early on, it threw me a bit when Mississippi began to take shape…Like another poster, I had elephants for a while…I just came across the Cox-Rathvon acrostic of August 2, 2020, whose quote contains the same collective noun for rhinos. But that author chooses “rhinoceros” for the plural of rhinoceros, not rhinoceri…I think I’ll stick with rhinoceroses…! That puzzle also contains tomcat as an answer word.
i look forward to the next one!
This one was particularly tough. Caught the Victoria Falls reference pretty early but had to throw out some really wild guesses into the quote area to help solve it. As you’ll see, the amount of time I struggled with the rhino clue was kind of embarrassing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQQFEzCk_j8
Another gem! I really made a mess of it, trying ruminants before UNGULATES, timothy before ALFALFA, and train before YACHT (can’t believe I misremembered a scene from Some Like It Hot, it in fairness I haven’t seen it in decades). It all became clear in the end and I broke it open when I recognized MISSISSIPPI and SAN FRANCISCO BAY in the quote.
To sit on my back deck with a cup of coffee on a cool early morning at age 72 and watch words that I wrote when I was 37 emerge as the solution to this puzzle… Several surreal, reality-bending moments, for sure… Trust me Dave, trust me Jane, as soon as the shock fades, I’m simply never going to forget the truckload of fun that this is turning out to be. Thank you.
— Brad Newsham, author, “Take Me With You: A Round-the-World Journey to Invite a Stranger Home”
Dear Friends, How fun to know we have such a well-traveled group of solvers! Jane lived in Venezuela for a time but failed to make it to Angel Falls. It’s always interesting for us to learn which puzzles turn out to be most challenging. While we do strive for an unusual word list, it’s also in the cluing that we manage the level of challenge. Our editors at the NYT as well, along with their beta testers, gauge the difficulty and adjust as they deem fit. Thank you for your input and insights!
This was a nice challenge: not too easy, and not too hard.
As always, my co-solver and I had a fine time solving this puzzle and enjoying the quote.
(But I am not a fan of nonexistent plurals like “rhinoceri”.)