(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.)
From the winner of last week’s contest:
WOW!!! I am so excited! I will take the book please!
I’ve actually been playing since the origination of the contest, under a different email address, so my first entry was actually all the way back in 2010. Since I started actively playing again with contest #402 (Crystal City, VA), I have missed the exact location twice, and this was my fourth correct window guess. WTH?!? I never had this kind of success before, so I hope whatever is going on keeps up, because the contest is extra fun when you figure it out every once in a while.
I really cannot wait to get my book. I bought many VFYW books as gifts for family and friends back in the day, but never bought one for myself, because I thought I would eventually win the contest. I did not think that it would take me close to 15 years to win.
BTW, you really outdid yourself with the results last week. The flight approach to Paro was incredible. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all the effort it takes to organize the contest — you rock \m/.
I am but a vessel for all the amazing sleuths! Many of you spend just as much, if not more, time and effort than I do each week. Boundless gratitude.
Regarding Bhutan, I was going to let this slide, but I think seeing all those dicks everywhere irritated me.
And to be clear, the “so Buddhist they don’t sell pesticides” Bhutanese do not permit hunting or fishing, but there’s plenty of meat on the menus and in traditional cuisine; they just import the meat from India and let the Indians do the dirty work.
Also, Bhutan’s leaders say they are concerned about their people’s happiness, but just don’t ask the ethnic Nepalese — who were booted out in the Bhutanification (i.e., ethnic chasing) efforts in the ‘80s-90s — how happy they are.
Also, they are “so Buddhist they don’t allow mountaineering to keep the land pristine,” but their electricity comes from hydro power from Himalayan runoff, so we’ll see how fast they open up their mountains to climbers once climate change dries up the snow pack and glaciers.
Going back to the Ile des Impressionistes: if any Dishhead has free money, there is a house for sale right now on the island:
The catch is that the sale is en viager, or “for life.” It is kind of a reverse mortgage where the buyer pays the owner a “rent” for as long as the owner is alive. The listing is for a house with an 80-y/o man and an 79-y/o woman. Before entering into an agreement, they might want to check out the story of Jeanne Calment.
Some well-wishes from our super-sleuth in Augusta, GA:
So sorry to hear that Andrew came down with the norovirus. I remember having it once while traveling and being convinced I was going to die right then and there in that hotel room and thus be stuck haunting the place forever. But it does give me the perfect excuse to share this:
Meet “Viral Gastroenteritis,” courtesy of the Taiwanese CDC, which ran a campaign a few years ago to raise awareness by hiring artists to draw diseases as anime characters, with accompanying info on symptoms and prevention. The artwork itself illustrates facets of each ailment and how it spreads. You can just spot the word “Noro” on the bottom of this character’s shoe, as he demonstrates with his sick dance moves exactly how your stomach and intestines will behave once you are infected with him.
If that’s not the disease for you, then how about these guys? They put the “cute” in “Acute Hepatitis” ... seriously:
Really, just look at them all. I think my favorite is “Syphilis”, portrayed as a shepherdess in reference to the Girolamo Fracastoro poem that gave syphilis its name, and whose outfit contains a design motif a tad more subtle than those encountered in the previous VFYW:
Here’s wishing great health to you both!
Looking to this week’s view, a sleuth in Boulder writes:
I’ve been reading the Dish since the George W days and have loved the VFYW contest from afar since its beginning. I’ve occasionally spent an hour or two searching for a view, but I’ve never come close to finding one before now. This one had such a blatant starting clue I couldn’t resist.
That clue wasn’t as apparent for this sleuth:
This one took a while. You’ve gone nuts with the Photoshop blurring tool. There’s that old school Texaco sign, so I started there but no joy (and once I finally figured it out, I had to laugh). One of my VFYW rules of thumb: “If in doubt, the hotel is near an airport” — and of course we are across the road from the local airport. If only I’d remembered that before I searched for every Texaco in several states!
After a good night’s sleep and a new look, I noticed a far better clue: a conspicuous “E” on the hillside.
Much more on that “E” later. The super-sleuth in San Mateo sends a non-blurred view: “Here’s my current thinking for a VFYW Reinterpreted”:
Our super-sleuth in Japan is struggling this week:
The buzz of being referred to as a super-sleuth in the VFYW never gets old! But this week’s photo is beyond me. I can’t get beyond “somewhere in North America.” Good luck to everyone else, and I look forward to reading how other people get the right answer, as always. (I loved all the stories from Thimphu last week.)
Our super-sleuth in Bend breaks down the scenery:
Aridity, juniper trees, and snowy mountains suggest the interior west of the USA. Chevron uses its “Texaco” gas-station brand mostly in the southeastern US through eastern Texas. There are states in the west that have some Texaco stations, but not Montana, Wyoming, or Colorado. Of the remaining states in the region, this looks more like eastern Washington to me, in or around Spokane, near the Idaho border, so I’ll go with Spokane as my guess.
From a sleuth in NYC:
Heartbreak! There’re so many clues this week but they all lead nowhere! The vintage Texaco sign; the mysterious brown-and-red mountain logo; stylized “S” on the partially visible sign off to the side; and of course the “E” in the mountain. That last one — a “hillside letter” common out west — should be a giveaway, but it’s not on any of the (many) public lists of these geoglyphs.
If I had another few hours I’m sure I could crack it. How I’d love to redeem myself after guessing the Lemon Tree over the Willows in last week’s contest. Alas, it’s not to be. Let’s throw a dart at one of the documented hillside letters out there and say Emmett, Idaho.
Here’s the Chini-eyed view:
The grand-champion adds:
Our last-chance clue comes straight from the Chief of the Acme Detective Agency (it seems Carmen was a bit under the weather and couldn’t take the case this week). The Chief advises as follows:
Our suspect was last seen entering a hotel in this western city wearing a pair of brand new Caribou boots. Word is he was in town to do a little deer hunting, but had to cancel after his truck hit a moose. Good luck, young sleuth; I know you want let me or Ms. Sandiego down!
A young sleuth guesses “somewhere to the east of Fort Collins, Colorado”:
The shadows are pointing in the north from the left side, so we are looking towards the west as we see the Front Range of the Rockies ahead of us. Fort Collins is the operator of the national US coverage NIST radio station WWV. This station uses a dipole of two tall AM antenna to broadcast the official US time standard. These broadcasts can be heard as a series of tones on one of the standard “Short Wave” ham radio bands. Many clock brands market clocks that self-reset upon the nightly broadcasts from NIST.
But I’m unable to find any hotel. I see a Texaco gas station, but Texaco is no longer an active gas station company. It was bought by Chevron, but I couldn’t find any Chevron stations a few miles to the east of the NIST towers. I hope to at least get a mention in the VFYW recap.
Another goes with “a shopping mall in Denver, Colorado, USA.” From our super-sleuth on the UWS:
I was heading to bed on Wednesday when I realized I’d forgotten to send in a guess. Then I remembered: Oh yeah, that’s because I haven’t the faintest idea. But I can’t imagine letting a week go by without participating, however poorly, so here I am suggesting Montrose, Colorado — a place I never heard of until just a few minutes ago. My rationale is vanishingly thin.
P.S. My sister was so delighted that you included the link to Rally for Rangers in last week’s roundup. Maybe a sleuth will be moved to check it out. Thanks!
From a sleuth who got to the right state:
Once I figured out the location, I googled what the town was known for. My initial reaction was:
Signed, What remains of the wasted youth of a Gen-Xer
Our super-sleuth in Providence is bummed:
This week’s view is bleak: the banal American strip landscape of budget hotels, chain restaurants, big-box stores, etc. It’s even more soul-destroying than the kind of moonscape-deserts one encounters out in that rather barren part of the country. Sigh. It looks like some of the worst armpits I ever encountered crossing the country, such as Amarillo, TX and Chappell, NE. But at least the distant view of mountains is pretty and rather haunting.
Returning to the main clue this week, “Jessica, the American in New Zealand” zooms in:
This next sleuth is miffed:
What does it say about Americans that we need to monogram the real estate? It isn’t as if Canadians or Mexicans are going to show up and say, “Why, no, that’s my hill. Prove that it’s yours!"
I haven’t had time to make a proper search, but I want it to be Utah, partly because I’ll be in Salt Lake City this weekend. Also, it would be fun to see what the mixologist creates for a state whose residents largely eschew alcohol. I rarely consume alcohol, as it leads to frogging the knitting in the morning. I’ve been delighted by a trend towards non-alcoholic cocktails in some upscale restaurants. I can have a fun “adult” drink with my special meal and still drive my 120-pound self home!
The musical sleuth in Indy is struggling this week:
I’ve scoured the landscape for the letter E on hillsides and just can’t find the right one. (Or could it possibly be an F??) Somewhere out west like Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, etc.
Since I can’t settle on a location, I’m just going to suggest everyone listen to the Decemberists’ new song:
The band is from Oregon, so maybe that damn hillside is there. Another tidbit about this song is that James Mercer from The Shins is doing backing vocals, and the Shins are from New Mexico. That’s two states that could possibly be it! This is the best I can do this week.
A previous winner is “looking all over the western US for towns with an E on the hillside”:
Wikipedia has an entry for hillside letters. So far my own list looks like this:
Yep, it’s one of those towns. From our super-sleuth in Ann Arbor:
Wikipedia continues to amaze me. Why is there an entry on hillside letters? Who are the people who think of these entries? Who goes out and adds the links to the letters, together with geolocation data and all?
But our sleuth-sleuth in Alexandria notes that it’s not just Wiki: “Someone bothered to make a survey of American towns with painted letters on hillsides!” This next sleuth picks Española from the list and gets salty:
Oof. After two weeks of successfully building my VFYW self-esteem, let’s just flush it down the shitter. I am once again a VFYW loser. Hello darkness my old friend. :)
It looks sooooo easy. Definitely western US. Just need to find the town with the “E” on the hillside. There is even a wiki page for those damn letters! Still couldn’t find it.
Texaco is no fucking help. Stupid red-white-and-blue windmill — also no help. Red truck? Just fuck off with your stupid little Fez wearing idiocy. RV park? Google has failed me. You cannot search successfully for “the 10 shittiest RV parks in the western US.” TripAdvisor always wants to tell me about the 10 best. What if I need an RV park with a pedophile manager, dump tanks that are always overflowing, and laundry facilities that ruin your clothes? Do better internet!
But I realize I should enter to at least be in the game. So, I went with Española because it’s the only listed town with an “E” but no actual location. And it’s near Oppenheimer’s crib, so ... you know ... reasons.
Another goes with simply “Ely, Nevada.” Nevada it is! From a sleuth who knows the right town:
I’m not currently a subscriber, but I can’t resist this contest. The Shoshoni word for this area is Natakkoa, meaning “Rocks Piled on One Another.” On a distant hill you can make out The Big “E”, which, according to a local historian, is … rocks piled on one another.
This sleuth finally reveals what the “E” stands for:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Weekly Dish to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
