Summer 2018

Scott Hardie | July 19, 2018
Congrats on another solo solution, Chris!

And kudos to Russ on a tough goo. When I saw it, I guessed the same wrong answer as most people, but I figured it was just me and so I left the goo rated medium. In hindsight I probably should have raised that difficulty. :-)

Chris Lemler | July 19, 2018
Russ that was a very good goo and clue. I was stumped until I read on her and figured that had to be it. Job well done on it.

Scott Hardie | July 20, 2018
I love it when this kind of thing happens: Russ has achieved his own solo solution just a day after Chris's. Way to go, Russ!

At least I predicted the correct difficulty this time. Good goo, Chris. :-)

Chris Lemler | July 20, 2018
Ty and kudos to Russ for finding it. :)

The other interesting thing is I got a solo on Russ' goo and he got one on my goo. Scott has this ever happened before?

Russ Wilhelm | July 20, 2018
Thanks. Apparently, I was way off the mark on the difficulty. I liked the clue very much, but didn't realize that it would bring anyone close to the answer and then lead them to a different person. I wish I had more submissions that I liked on par with that one. I've got quite a few in the wings that I have ideas for clues, but when I write them, I think to myself "What a crappy clue". And so I wait for enough inspiration to salvage them, in order to make them good enough for submission. This was not one of those. It went in immediately.

Chris, good one as well. I created a list of who I thought it might be, and then had to do additional reading as well to come to my solution.

Scott Hardie | July 21, 2018
Russ, I've been there! I think of what seems like a good clue and submit what I think will be a good goo, and then I watch the incorrect guesses roll in because the players are all thinking of some similar celebrity that it didn't even occur to me would be such a close match. I've gotten a little better at this over the years, sometimes researching the final clue to look for unintentional red herrings, but it's probably always going to be a problem. It's just a consequence of the nature of the game.

Chris, besides this week, there have been two other cases of consecutive solo solutions:

- Matthew Preston got three in a row in the summer of 1998, when the game was played weekly instead of daily: Marv Albert (goo #63), Lenny Kravitz (#64), and Janet Reno (#65).

- Amy Austin got two in a row in the fall of 2006: Jeremy "Passion" Manongdo (#826) and Alison Scott-Baumann (#827).

I counted those based on the publication order of the goos. If you count based on the day the players guessed, two happened on the same day:

- Steve West solved Blair Brown (#2123) and Justin Woods solved Freeman Dyson (#2126) within a few hours of each other on May 19, 2011. Each of those wound up becoming a solo solution.

Chris Lemler | July 21, 2018
Thanks for the info. What I was looking for as an example, if Steve West created a very hard goo and Samir was the only one to solve it, and then if Samir had a medium goo that was going out the next day and Steve was the only one to solve it, has this ever happened in goo history where the two creators ever got solo solutions on each others goo?

Scott Hardie | July 21, 2018
Not really, no. Ignoring the dates, here's the sequence of players getting solo solutions on other players' goos:

SOLVER -> CREATOR (GOO)
Dave Mitzman -> K. R. (Q-Tip)
Amy Austin -> Lori Lancaster (Miyû Sawai)
Amy Austin -> Lori Lancaster (Chris Gueffroy)
Jenee Williams -> Jason Lemler (Flo Rida)
Russ Wilhelm -> Lori Lancaster (Felix Batista)
LaVonne Lemler -> Chris Lemler (Judyann Elder)
Justin Woods -> Chris Lemler (Sting)
Justin Woods -> Lori Lancaster (Nate Richert)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Erik Ayala)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Tim Hightower)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Tamara Walker)
Justin Woods -> Russ Wilhelm (Rick Stoddard)
Chris Lemler -> Erik Bates (Nikka Costa)
Chris Lemler -> Erik Bates (Taz Bentley)
Samir Mehta -> Chris Lemler (Tom Stillman)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Jimmy Buffett)
Russ Wilhelm -> Steve West (Robert G. Heft)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Conrad Bluth)
Scott Hardie -> Samir Mehta (Frank Carlucci)
Russ Wilhelm -> Matthew Preston (Sofia Boutella)
Chris Lemler -> Russ Wilhelm (Christine McVie)
Russ Wilhelm -> Chris Lemler (Bob Orton Jr.)

So this week's symmetrical sequence of Chris->Russ then Russ->Chris was the first time that such a thing happened, and by coincidence, those two happened to occur within a day of each other.

As the number of players has shrunk, there have been a lot more solo solutions lately: Six in 2017 and five so far in 2018. But curiously, they've all been on player-created goos. Nobody has gotten a solo solution on one of my goos since 2013. I don't think it's any secret that I tend to make easier goos and players tend to make harder goos. :-P

Most of the data that we've been talking about has been on the Solo Solutions page. I just added goo numbers and creators to that list in case anybody else wants to review it for themselves.

Chris Lemler | July 21, 2018
Thank you so much that's exactly what I wanted to find out. Its also great to see Erik back on the site playing.

Chris Lemler | July 21, 2018
It looks like history has been started. Can history be beat again? Time will tell.

Erik Bates | July 21, 2018
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | September 1, 2018
Congrats on another well-earned victory, Chris! You pulled way ahead and never fell behind. Great job! You are as dominant in this era of the game as other players high on the winners list were in theirs.

LaVonne Lemler | September 1, 2018
Chris, congrats on victory #7! You're an outstanding player and contributor to the game. Keep up the great work! :-)

Matthew Preston | September 2, 2018
Hear hear! Well done Chris.

Chris Lemler | September 2, 2018
Thank you . I thought it was going to be a nail biter right at the end.

Scott Hardie | September 7, 2018
Congrats to Russ as well, on another perfect season! That's his eleventh, a new record! Astounding!

Chris Lemler | September 19, 2018
Scott I have a question for ya. Are you gonna be publishing created goo's every 15 days? Or has that changed?

Scott Hardie | September 19, 2018
It's the same now as in the badges system: At least 15 days must pass between two goos by the same player.