(For the View From Your Window contest, the results below exceed the content limit for Substack’s email service, so to ensure that you see the full results, click the headline above.)
WHOA! This made my day! I’ll take the famous book and display it with pride.
If I may join the super-chef and others in making a plug for a wonderful Asheville institution that is temporarily closed, I’d like to call some attention to Vivian, a fantastic restaurant in the River Arts District (but thankfully just above Helene’s waterline). Many of us fans think it’s one of the best restaurants in the Southeast, but somehow it never seems to get noticed broadly. It’s a tiny little place with a tiny team, putting out food and drink that is broadly European-inspired but brilliantly creative. I have shamelessly wowed my own guests with at least half-dozen cocktail ideas borrowed from them (most recently one consisting of bourbon, crème de banane, lemon juice, and walnut orgeat).
Vivian restaurant is still closed, waiting on potable water and necessary repairs. I’m sure they’d appreciate all the support they can get at their GoFundMe while they’re closed, and hopefully from guests coming to the restaurant again soon.
And finally, with respect to the Biltmore Estate, I’m surprised nobody mentioned how expertly the architect Richard Morris Hunt set up the views from the house’s windows. Not only does almost every guest room have a window onto the mountains, but so do the bathrooms — and down below, in the servants’ wing, so even those doing the dishes got to share the multimillion-dollar view:
The Dish — and thus your subscription support — just made a donation to Vivian restaurant. Here’s another followup on last week’s contest from the super-sleuth in Chattanooga:
Thanks for sharing the fundraising link for Beloved Asheville. I was also glad that someone wrote up the Cúrate restaurant. I just read this morning they reopened last week and hosted Jose Andres, whose World Central Kitchen deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for their work to feed people in the wake of disasters of all kinds..
Here’s a followup from a sleuth on the Correct Guesser list:
Far be it from me to tell Berkeley how to do his job with the cinema report, but I was surprised to see that Being There with the inimitable Peter Sellers didn’t get at least a passing mention as one of the movies filmed at the Biltmore Estate:
I had a chance to further discuss the Israel contest with my sister-in-law, from whose safe room I took the photo. She was astonished that anyone found the exact address and window ... and fascinated by the breadth and depth of the contributions. You underestimate the sleuths at your peril!
The town for this week’s contest has vibes very similar to Burning Man, so here’s our super-sleuth “way out west”:
Here are a couple of photos of me from Burning Man 2009:
Also, are you interested in any more VFYW submissions? Here’s a shot from one of the windows of the Seattle Flagship REI store:
Great view, but the contest was in Seattle not too long ago. The following view also looks great but too easy for the contest:
Earlier this week I was able to fulfill a lifelong goal: touring the White House on a family visit to DC. I snapped this picture in the Blue Room and thought it might be fun to pass it along to the Dish crew:
Despite all the turmoil in the weeks leading up to the election, it's been an inspiring trip to DC. I got goosebumps several times while walking through “The People’s House” and thinking about all the history that was made in those rooms.
On to this week’s view, a sleuth in Oakland writes:
This one with the “wagon wheels” is a real doozy — it looks to be next to impossible! No idea where it is, but based on the terrain and the vegetation, I’ll guess its somewhere in Mexico. The Southwestern US is another possibility — but then again, I might even be in the wrong hemisphere!
Right hemisphere, and continent. From a new sleuth:
I have never entered before — I am generally no match for the VFYW sleuths — but this photo rang out. I am retired in Mexico, and this looked to me very much like the countryside near the city of Oaxaca (capital of Oaxaca state), where I live.
But no internet sleuthing for me. I went straight to a human source, Ana Maria, the 78-year-old matriarch of the well-established Oaxacan family I live with. First, she tells me that the tree in the foreground is an izote, which is native to Oaxaca.
An example of this plant can be found in El Llano, a Oaxaca city park that is currently a site for the Día de Los Muertos (“Day of the Dead” celebrations that the Oaxacans will be carrying on for the next week. Is this a coincidence, or deliberate timing for this week’s contest?
Ana also tells me that the metal wagon wheel beside a driveway is a typical adornment for a Oaxacan home. In fact, the family hacienda where I live has wagon wheels hanging on the outside walls — a remembrance of the family business, carrying commodities arriving at the nearby train station to the center of town. The business was founded by her paternal grandfather, who began with wagons pulled by oxen over 100 years ago and carried on by her much beloved father, Roberto, who switched to trucks in the 1930s.
Finally, Ana tells me that this looks like the view of the mountains from Tlacolula, a nearby market town known for its many food stalls serving traditional Oaxacan cuisine — which is, as we say in Spanish, muy rico. I hope you will tell me that I won this week’s contest, so I can share my good fortune at the dinner on Saturday, commemorating Muertos.
Not this week, but please stick with the contest! The super-sleuth in Bend also focuses on the flora:
The Yucca faxoniana plant is found mostly in western Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico, and a bit in southern New Mexico. So perhaps somewhere around El Paso, Texas, or Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Having no further insight, I’m going with Ciudad Juárez.
Our super-sleuth in Alexandria:
I’m guessing that this week’s VFYW is Edwards, California — on maybe Falcon Way? I’m only basing this on how the scenery and school in the distance look like the area around Desert Junior-Senior High School on Edwards Air Force Base. Thanks for tolerating my shot in the dark.
Such shots always welcome. Another shot for California:
Our answer this week, being a venerable W.A.G. (shot in the dark, gut call, stab in the fog, ballpark estimate, informed instinct, calculated hunch, etc.) is Desert Hot Springs, CA. If we can stretch the bounds by submitting a second chance guess, I’ll say we really wanted to believe the iron tortoise was a giveaway for the National Tortoise Preserve in Mojave, CA (Mojave National Preserve), but we had no luck finding a match for the mesas or buildings.
The super-sleuth in San Mateo was stumped this week but still got creative:
The range of the Yucca faxoniana is something on the order of 140,000 square miles, so a brute-force search appears hopeless. So to be successful, one would have to identify some distinctive features in the image that point in the right direction.
Can I make the VFYW Reimagined without knowing exactly where we are? Let’s try. There’s that Yucca faxoniana shrub in the foreground, hazy mountains in the background, and a large plain in between. So here’s what that looks like Reimagined:
Alternatively, we could elide many of the annoying clues from the VFYW that should have but didn’t lead me to identifying the location. Remove the long building:
Erase the tall towers (wind turbines?):
Cut out the electrical:
Delete the stonework and roof detail:
And here’s what we’re left with — clearly not enough to solve the VFYW:
So is next week going to be easier?
Yep. From the Yakima super-sleuth:
This was a hard one. We’re looking southeast at basin-and-range geology at sunrise. I had a preliminary search for wagon wheel railings, plate metal tortoise sculptures, and yuccas on shale ridges, but came up empty. A bunch of stadium light poles in the distance suggest a school sports field, and there are a lot of buildings hiding on the left of the view, hence a town.
Here’s the ranges for soaptree yuccas and ocotillos:
He eventually narrowed it down to the right state, town, and building. This next sleuth goes with Nevada:
Area 51 — or more precisely, Alamo, NV. That’s my guess for the VFYW. The landscape works! And it would be a very cool answer if correct.
Another bid for Nevada:
Oh man, Christopher! These middle-of-nowhere views from a window in some godforsaken building just kill me.
That said, what looks like a tortoise-shaped metal sign near the entrance ramp of the building leads me to guess that we’re somewhere near Las Vegas, looking out at the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. Seems there’s a lot of tortoises native to the area, considering all the online photos of yellow “Tortoise Crossing” warning road signs. So, maybe?
I can’t Google-slog past an hour or so. I’ve got a pretend-life to pretend-live, you know. So that’s all I got, and I will again hope proximity will end up counting.
I’ve been to many of the National Parks out west over the years. Most fun story: decades ago getting buzzed by a fighter jet while hiking in CA’s Joshua Tree NP in the late fall. It was probably an aircraft from nearby Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms. It scared the holy crap out of us, as the pilot boomed by low and directly overhead out of nowhere and disappeared between blinks. It was so low we could see the rivets in the jet’s undercarriage during the few seconds we flinched down and looked up. No way it wasn’t deliberate, because we were the only human beings along that particular trail in the middle of miles of nowhere. We jumped and whooped, screaming into the empty sky for him to come back.
And he did! We got buzzed not once, but twice. What a thrill — and so glad he wasn’t live-ammo target practicing or something.
This week’s view is indeed near a National Park, but not in Nevada. From another sleuth who brings up Joshua Tree:
Landers, California, USA? My wife and I stayed in Landers this past June so we could spend a few days in Joshua Tree National Park. This photo could almost have been taken from our AirBnB, but alas, I don’t see any Joshua trees, so maybe I’m off by thousands of miles. But why not submit anyway.
One more bid for Josh Tree:
Hi Chris! In case I ever get a correct window (unlikely — not enough patience), I know it’s helpful to have more guesses under your belt if you want to win! This week’s view reminds me of a very cool AirBnB I stayed at with my family in 2016 on a trip to Joshua Tree National Park:
So I’ll guess Pioneertown, CA, and hope for the best!
Another state: “Somewhere just north of Albuquerque, let’s say Placitas, New Mexico.” And another:
“Snotsdale”, Arizona, view of Camelback Mountain. Yet the snobbiest of Scottsdale are still more chill and legit than the most “normie” person I’ve ever encountered on the UES of Manhattan. All is relative …
From a long-time sleuth in Pheonix:
Great challenge this week! I’ll venture “somewhere in AZ,” but I’m not going any farther than that! Are there ANY decent clues??? I guess we’ll find out from the super-sleuths!
Here’s the right state — and desert — from a previous winner:
I’ll have to say Marfa, Texas, in the Chihuahuan Desert, with its mysterious lights and Thompsoniana cactus. And maybe we’ll stay at the Thunderbird Hotel.
The right area — not 51 — is named by our super-sleuth in Bethlum, PA:
Big Bend area, Texas? NGL, I’ve been swamped with work heading into the election. And public art is probably not as prevalent as gorgeous scenery here, with the exception of the wagon wheels in the shot. I’m sure there are more than rustic pieces, but I am not in a position to search at the moment. I’ve been busy getting a petition together to allow a one-day extension of early voting, which was scheduled to end Tuesday, because the street closures made access to our government center very difficult for those with mobility issues. I’m taking this week off — and we will see about the next, depending on Tuesday.
Chini knows the spot:
Our Burner super-sleuth names the right National Park near our location:
This week’s window was brilliantly frustrating. Could be anywhere! I look forward to seeing where this is. My guess — and purely a guess as I couldn’t confirm any of the visual clues — is a place I’ve always wanted to visit: Big Bend National Park.
A previous winner takes a stab at the right town and nails it:
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