(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.)
Holy Christ on a pogo stick! Gobsmacked to win after staring cluelessly at 400+ views over the years. I feel like you’ve gone a little gentler on us the last couple months, finally giving me a toehold to enter.
Right now I’m in book-downsizing mode, including old coffee-table books (and we don’t even own a coffee table), so I’ll gratefully take the two-year subscription. Not to mention that I just got an email yesterday that my subscription was about to renew next week!
To join him in subscribership and see the full contest results every week (this week is especially great, I assure you), and to get the full Dish offerings, click here. We get about 20 new subs every week via the VFYW alone, according to Substack analytics, and getting off the fence this month would be especially appreciated, since it’s our annual renewal period, when there’s a natural attrition of subscribers based on expired credit cards and sleuths who can no longer justify the expense — a dollar a week, if you get the annual plan:
With that sales pitch out of the way, here’s a followup on the contest two weeks ago, from the super-sleuth in Clinton, CT:
So, this was totally unexpected. Having come off the heels of our view from Atlanta, I knew I would be down there for my uncle’s 90th birthday — but I never thought this coincidence would take me on a return visit to contest #426.
We arrived in Atlanta this past Friday to spend the weekend with my cousin and his husband and meet up with my brother and his wife to surprise my uncle. When my wife and I arrived, I asked where my brother was staying, my cousin said, “A place in mid-town where they always stay: the Georgian Terrace Hotel. We’re going out to dinner tonight, right next door, at Lyla Lila.”
“Where!?” I exclaimed. He repeated, “The Georgian Terrace Hotel.”
Well, I’ll be damned. Here we are last Friday:
It seems I have a completely unconscious habit of showing up in cities where the VFYW had recently been: Halifax, Nashua, Detroit, Kalamazoo, and now Atlanta, among several others. (Back in March, I had my friends take a shot of me in front of a Nicholas Wine Store in Paris, so I could send it in. But though I was convinced I had the correct shop, I discovered it was not, so I didn’t send it in.)
I’m dying to get to Norway next year. Perhaps you can get a View from there in, say, July … ?
On it. Next up, a followup on last week’s contest from a long-time sleuth who recalls one of the best moments of serendipity in the VFYW … and he ups the ante:
I have subscribed to the Dish since the earliest days. I am Australian, now Swiss too, and back in 2010 I managed to raise the bar in contest #8 by going to nearby Lausanne and finding the photo spot personally, and getting a photo with me in it:
Then the following year, 2011, I happened to be visiting Australia for the first time in years and realized the photo for contest #33 was in Sydney, so I went for a run and took a photo there as well — for which I won the VFYW book:
As you may expect, we have a very international family, and now my daughter lives and works in Dakar. Indeed, she’s just a street away from last week’s window. So just as the Dish has gone through some generations, we can also give you an onsite window pose from the next generation in our family!
Three onsite VFYW photos from three continents — not bad!
Not one bit! That entry made my week — after a particularly exhausting week. So fucking cool.
Here’s another followup, from the super-sleuth in Bethlum:
After reading the food portions of last week’s VFYW, I realized that Senegalese soup played a role in my earlier legal career, thanks to Seinfeld. In the 1990s, my county’s prison was under the supervision of the federal court in Philly, as the result of an overcrowding lawsuit. In 1996, Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which, among other things, allowed prisons to petition to terminate ongoing injunctions against them. We filed for relief, and as part of our prep for the case, we went to hear an argument in the 2nd Circuit on the same issue.
Because my boss was a huge Seinfeld fan, the trip to NYC included a stop at Al Yeganeh’s International Soup Kitchen, which was made famous (or infamous) in the “Soup Nazi” episode. I ordered the Senegalese soup and promptly spilled it all over the back of the county car we were driving. The distinct aroma of that soup was with us the entire drive home. I got grief over that for many years, but we did win our case and terminated the court’s supervision, so a happy ending.
From the super-champ in Berkeley:
I was a bit disappointed last week when the music maven from Indy went with Guinea instead of Senegal, because I’d been really looking forward to getting an in-depth report about the great Senegalese musician Youssou N’Dour. He was ranked by Rolling Stone at number 69 on its list of “The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time,” and as “perhaps the most famous singer alive” in Senegal and much of Africa. So, not to be sneezed at. Here’s a video of N’Dour from a 2008 concert in Paris:
Yet another followup from the super-sleuth in East End Toronto:
Dakar looks like it might be another location added to the bucket list. The VFYW is expanding my bucket list to an unfulfillable size — what a good problem to have! I suppose I’ll have to be satisfied with the weekly virtual globetrotting for much of it.
Lately I’ve barely had a chance to read your weekly write-ups, and I haven’t been able to find the time to look for windows, but it’s another good problem to have in this instance, since I’ve been travelling and visiting with friends. Nowhere exotic, I’m afraid, although I did get a handful of pics — just Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal though. Here’s one in Toronto:
Our super-sleuth in Sydney writes, “This week’s contest follows your usual pattern: after our journey to Dakar, an easier stroll through one of the bigger cities in the US.” From the NJ/CO super-champ:
Are the contests getting easier, or is the sleuth community getting better? I thought last week was tough, so I was surprised at how many correct entries you got. This week is going to be a flood, as it’s one of the easiest contests in a while.
This was a view that was instantly recognizable by me and, I suspect, many others. I have been there several times for business, including a couple scientific meetings at the convention center just around the corner, and I have walked across that skybridge more than once.
This sleuth has also been:
I have stayed there several times, typically for the Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association or the American Economic Association (first time was the AEA in early 2000, last time was APSA was before Covid, in 2019). These are very quiet affairs, but the VFYW did bring back memories of the APSA meeting in DC in 2014, when someone set fire to the main conference hotel on a Friday night and a ton of political scientists and hang-arounds, including me, had to spend the night in the parking lot. (I was chairing an 8 am panel on Saturday with, as it happened, zero attendants and only two of three presenters showing up.)
Another writes, “I wanted to do anything but read more Biden dropout news this week, so I gave this contest a shot while prepping my work notes for tomorrow, and it was not so bad!” From the beginning of the entry for Team Bellevue:
QUICK READS
Big city, lots of shopping
Moderate climate (outdoor heaters), vague sense this is NE of USA
Covered and enclosed bridge; weather is a thing here
Mystery: Curious food truck/retail shop hiding behind the bridge, and partially reflected in the curved windows
Another sleuth spots a key clue:
Re: last week’s contest, I’m ashamed that I missed the 17 goals plastered on the wall. I really need to stop looking at VFYW right after waking up. However, this week’s contest has a *major* giveaway, in my opinion. As a California native, I would recognize those faded yellow awnings anywhere. Despite having never been, California Pizza Kitchen’s branding is memorable, and I grew up near one that has the exact same awning style and logo. Frankly, there is nothing Californian about the place, except for the palm tree in the logo?
Berkeley writes, “Nice try, blurring those California Pizza Kitchen signs, but you’d’ve needed to completely obliterate them to prevent a Californian from recognizing what they were.” Next up, a “previous winner keeping my hand in the game” in Plano, TX:
The California Pizza Kitchen logo was insufficiently blurred. The skywalk crossing the street indicates either a very hot or often cold city, and it suggests a connection at one end to a convention center, mall, or parking garage. The mid-20th century architecture on the tall buildings suggested the Northeast or Midwest rather than the South. My initial thought was maybe downtown Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Buffalo.
Another guesses simply, “Minneapolis, MN, USA.” So does the super-sleuth in Alexandria:
Total guess: this place looks like it would get super cold in the winter, hence the investment in indoor walkways, so I’m guessing either Minneapolis or Rochester, MN. I didn’t have a ton of time to chase down all of the many clues you provided in this view ... sorry to offer a lazy guess. Have a great weekend!
You too! From our super-sleuth in Ann Arbor:
Kudos to the photographer for being in a rather unique city and finding an angle that is entirely nondescript and generic. It took the A2 team a while to figure out even what continent we were on, or which hemisphere, until it dawned on me that I had actually participated in a conference in this very hotel maybe 10 years ago.
In my defense, I should add that I didn’t stay there, and walking there I approached it from a different side, so I never got to even see the skybridge in our view. Moreover, I have been to quite a few of these hotels over the years, but this probably stands out as the ugliest.
In any case, that skybridge is what ultimately gave it away, because after a number of searches in various combinations of pedestrian + glass + skywalk/bridge, it popped up.
San Mateo used the skybridge for inspiration:
I decided to focus the Reimagined VFYW on the round corner and make it a separate building. And since we don’t see the actual endpoints of the skybridge in the view, I connected the skybridge to the round building. I also added more pedestrians and vehicles near the round building:
Our Burner sleuth in Seattle eliminates a coast:
I’m guessing this window will result in the most correct guesses ever. No Google Maps or Google Earth required this week. My late teens/early twenties were spent in this magnificent city. I’m a West Coaster now, but I love my romanticized memories of this place.
From the super-sleuth in Brookline, who nailed the right location:
Hello, Chris, it’s been a very long while — I hope you’ve been well. I’ve been away from sleuthing for what feels like forever ... it’s been hard to find the focus to do the contest properly. And it feels like a lot more intense competition than the old days. Maybe I’ll get back into the contest as a way to distract myself from the disheartening chaos of this bizarre election year!
Indeed, one of the roles of the VFYW is providing a brief escape from politics and the culture wars. Another sleuth points out, “The beagle this week is blocking the sign for Saks Fifth Ave.” Our super-sleuth in Bend reimagines the hidden sign:
When the sun hits that building just right, one can see that the beagle is actually translucent, revealing a clue:
The ghost of Dusty. A previous winner tackles the other obscured sign:
Well, it’s been a long time since my last entry (around this time last year when I won the Amsterdam contest), since I’ve been consistently behind on “current events,” often only getting to the contest well after the entry was past due. That’s life, I suppose!
Anyway, I’m finally “on the lead lap” and caught this contest on the day it was posted ... I instantly recognized “California Pizza Kitchen,” despite the blurring work (and I had no idea there are so many CPK locations):
I also noted the skyway and presumed a northern climate, and based on the scale of the buildings, I figured big city. I brute-forced my way from there, only needing to scan locations of about 20ish spots — starting on the best coast, naturally — before making my way across the country …
He landed in the right city, as did a reluctant local sleuth:
I’m going to be honest, I haven’t always understood this contest, nor its appeal, all the time. “Get a life, super-sleuths!” I sometimes think. I have only participated one other time, but this week was deeply cathartic ... and here I am, in need of a life, writing in rather than going out for a run.
I have attended more board meetings and benefit dinners at this hotel than I care to recall. I have stared out over this exact view more than once, trying to let my brain re-congeal after hours of either small talk or budget talk.
Last week’s winner names the right region:
Another week for brevity, since I’ve got goats to milk, zucchinis coming on in hordes, a deck to stain, a fallen maple to saw up, credentials to renew, a teenager to ferry to driver’s ed ... the to-do list is too imposing. I expect there are enough New England sleuths in the fellowship to provide ample local background.
A sleuth who’s no longer living in New England, Chini, provides ample scenery:
The grand-champion adds:
This week’s last-chance clue is easy; you just need to just remember which city Doug Chini lived in during his first three years as a lawyer, or the location of his local supermarket, which just so happens to be located in the dead center of this week’s view … which you’d think Doug would have noticed, having gone into that circular entrance a hundred times, but nooooooo, somehow he completely whiffed on recognizing it Friday night. What an idiot.
Next up, the recent winner who saw two purchased copies of the VFYW go missing from his guest room:
Thank you again for the two VFYW books. They arrived in good order and did not incinerate while spending a few hours in a sweltering Las Vegas mailbox. This week, it looks like we’re not all that far from the Dish’s summer home in Provincetown.
Another writes, “We just moved from this city to New Jersey, so I can’t get over to the hotel to check the right window, but there’s sure to be a million people triangulating the right window.” Our super-sleuth from College Park went on foot:
I recently sent you a note when we moved to Pittsburgh just when the most recent Pittsburgh contest was published — such a coincidence! This time I sent you a Harvard Square photo when — lo and behold! — I now see a [city redacted] image in this week’s VFYW. Let us see, my friend, how closely I can recreate the VFYW in person! Stay tuned …
His followup:
As threatened, I made it my task yesterday to try to recreate this week’s VFYW. Here’s my photo, taken in the morning:
My photo fails, mainly because I did not extend my camera far enough into the space between the railing I was propping my arm on, as well as the glass-curtain wall a meter away. But it’s serviceable, and my guiding point was to get the tip of the little glass pyramid atop the pavilion to line up with the lower-right corner of the Saks sign.
More than serviceable! And more coincidence comes from this sleuth, who names the right city and hotel:
I’ve been reading the Dish and observing the VFYW for about 13 years. Contest #395 was the first time I made a correct guess, and you featured it at the close of the contest’s roundup, noting how struck I was by the serendipity of it all. My correct guess was made easy by it being a window in my hometown, Traverse City — a small dot on the map with 15,000 full-time residents. The lesson there was that luck beats skill.
So, here I am again, dumbstruck by the serendipity of it all.
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