(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.)
I will take the two years of the Dish subscription please, because I’m without a mailing address this summer (traveling in Canada). Thank you so much!
I was wondering what “co-winner” meant. I thought perhaps I got the right window but didn’t get credit because I said Kennebunkport and not Kennebunk — which wouldn’t be surprising, given how the Oakland vs Berkeley contest was ruled in March. Perhaps you’re getting soft over the summer, or just generous??
Both co-winners were on the Correct Guesser list; both had the same number of overall entries; and both wrote “Kennebunkport,” so I didn’t have a good way to break the tie. From the other victor:
I was thrilled to read that I was one of the co-winners of last week’s VFYW. (I didn’t know it was possible for there to be a tie.) For my prize, I’d like the VFYW book. I’m actually going to be visiting the southern coast of Maine in a couple weeks, so I will be sure to check out Federal Jack’s to see if their seafood and beer are as good as their view.
Send pics! The same for our architectural super-sleuth in NYC:
Next week my wife and I are traveling first to Oslo, staying in the Continental Hotel from contest #398, and then to Stockholm, staying wherever my wife booked us. Since both cities have recently been featured, there’s little chance of submitting a usable view to complete my VFYW trifecta. Maybe next vacation.
Our super-sleuth in Sydney is also on holiday:
At the small place in Fiji we stayed last week, there was a lovely couple on their way from England to Australia for the British & Irish Lions rugby tour. Though she is English, he is a proud Scot — kilt and all. Through a VPN, a wifi connection, and a projector, we watched the Scotland vs Fiji rugby game live from Suva.
What started with me, my South African friend, and this Scottish fan quickly became the hub of all activity for the resort in the afternoon. Watching rugby with Fijians is an incredibly fun experience, and even our Scottish friend took the loss with good grace, especially as he was heavily outnumbered. I’ve included a photo below — and we never did find what a Scot truly wears or does not wear under his kilt!
Our super-sleuth in Baltimore has also been traveling:
It’s been a minute since I submitted an entry. I spent a couple of weeks in Italy during the middle of June, so it’s been hard to get back into the contest (not to mention everything else) since I returned. Several of the recent views were solvable, but I never got around to picking a window. Still, I enjoyed reading how others figured them out.
Anyway, it feels good to take a stab once again. I did snap a few views from windows during the trip, but I didn’t really like any of them, so I’ll probably keep them in my pocket for now. How long before a view gets too stale to use? Seems like you’ve been keeping them fairly fresh since I began playing.
There’s no rule on staleness, and only about a third of the views I post are fresh. I try to strike a balance week to week with easier/harder, US/international, and not repeating the same foreign country or US city until a year or more has passed, so it’s hard to post fresh views. If you have one of your own — fresh or stale — please send! (contest@andrewsullivan.com) Be sure to include part of the window frame, and horizontal pics are preferred. If you can, please include a photo of the building with the window circled. If your submission is posted, you’ll get six free months of Dish.
On to this week’s view, here’s our super-sleuth in San Mateo:
This week, let’s break new ground and begin our VFYW ReimaginedTM with a haiku:
Turquoise bay ripples, Slate headlands embrace the shore— Dreamscape framed by glass.
As to the Reimagined itself, let’s emphasize the clouds, the bay, the promenade, and the banners:
Another sleuth writes:
I saw the red flags on the flag pools and thought about Switzerland. After searching around, however, I realized there is sand on the beaches, so that means it’s an ocean, not a lake.
Another writes simply, “I guess Nice.” Here’s the beginning of the entry from the Seville super-sleuth:
My immediate thought with this view was San Sebastían, Spain, given the curved promenade. But the cars on the other side of the road plus the stone architecture disabused me of that idea pretty quickly. So I went north to the British Isles and looked for coastal towns with similarly curved coastlines.
That’s the right region. Here’s a new sleuth on the UWS:
Clue #1) The red-and-white Victorian building in the background shouted British to me in a loud voice:
Clue #2) The car with the steering wheel on the left side (which is consistent with the location being British):
This was tricky, because at first it looked like the driver was on the right side, but then I saw it was a boy and his dog, and the steering wheel (without the driver) was on the left side.
He went on to circle the right window, landing him on the Correct Guesser list — which gives sleuths a big edge in future tiebreakers. Another writes:
Ugh!!! Well, it’s Wednesday night and I’m worn out and stuck. I really don’t have an idea. Looks like Right-Hand Drive Country. I went down a rabbit hole thinking the red flags were country flags, but I don’t think so.
So I’m going to guess Kent, UK, even though I’m pretty sure it’s not Kent. I’m looking forward to seeing who was able to figure out the words on the cliff … looks like Something Academy. If that’s right, then you would think it would be an English-speaking country, like the UK, or New Zealand.
The Brookland super-sleuth also saw “Academy” — at first:
This is the first time I just took in the scene, looked at a few vague clues (literal red flag, Euro-style license plates, possible English writing in the distance), and landed in essentially the correct spot when I plopped down in Google Maps Street View. The distinctive street lamps and the colorful banners were just there in front of me, and I was delighted to learn that the sign in the distance reads “Electric Railway” (I’d gotten “Elect” and thought the bottom word might be “Academy”).
A previous winner displays that sign:
After tracking down the window, I was curious to find out what the Hollywood-style sign was all about. I figured it must be some locally-famous Victorian or Edwardian landmark that had been preserved due to its significance. Nope! The “Electric Railway” sign was erected in 1993 to celebrate 100 years of the Manx Electric Railway. The new sign, installed a few years ago to address safety concerns with the original, will apparently last for 50 years:
From our super-sleuth on Park Avenue:
This one struck me immediately as a uniquely UK view. Once you have been to a few UK seaside towns, you instantly recognize the look — a little rundown beach only a Brit could love, but a great place to enjoy a proper fish and chips in winter!
But where exactly is this one? I looked around Brighton, Blackpool, and Cornwall before I focused on the castle-looking building in the background. From there it didn’t take long.
It also didn’t take long for Chini:
He adds:
It’s been a while since I’ve given out a clue, but I have to for this wonderful little gift, so here goes: This week’s view comes from, uh, me. Well not really; I mean I didn’t take the photo. But literally speaking, from me. Make of that what you will.
Giuseppe, our super-sleuth in Rome, is also enigmatic:
I found this window by googling “promenade beach fountain England”, yet it’s not in England — it’s not even in the United Kingdom. Yet the place is located in one of the British Isles, and the head of state is Charles III. Most confusing, isn’t it?
Our wine geek in San Francisco clears up the confusion by naming the right place:
Okay, I apologize for being a little too cavalier last week about the Kennebunk/Kennebunkport distinction. My bad. This week I am being extra careful not to fall into the trap of saying the Isle of Man is part of the UK, which was my initial flip conclusion. The Manx people would slap me silly for that faux pas. It is a crown dependency, and I will leave it to others to explicate the fine points of that distinction.
The Yakima super-sleuth throws a flag on the field:
This week’s license plates, and the general feel, point to Europe. The only visible driver has a left-hand steering wheel, but the prominent reddish centerline and the bus sign angle on the left suggest we’re on a two-way street somewhere in Europe that drives on the left. That list includes the UK, Cyprus, Malta, Ireland, as well as UK crown dependencies Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey.
The red flags may or may not be country flags, but using that as a tentative starting point rules out UK (not a Union Jack), Guernsey, and Jersey (both predominantly white flags.) So that narrows it down to Cyprus, Malta, Isle of Man, and Ireland:
The Isle of Man has the most red, with Malta coming in second.
More on the former comes from the A2 Team in Ann Arbor:
I am skeptical about flags, since I don’t want to be coopted into all kinds of national and regional identities. As a German, I have learned in history class what flag-waiving crowds are capable of.
In the VFYW contest, though, flags are your friend. Without the sliver of the blue flag of Maine, we would not have solved last week’s puzzle so quickly; and similarly this week, it might have taken a lot longer. But in addition to a very British Isles vibe, this week’s view features banners with Celtic knots and red flags, which are then — via a search for “Celtic flag” — quickly identified as those of the Isle of Man:
So, flags are helpful in identifying places, but more problematic when used to identify people. I’m looking forward to reading more about the curious motive of the three knight’s legs.
He went on to circle the right window, as did our super-sleuth in Brookline — who found the Isle of Man flag in a different part of the view:
The view this week took me on a pleasant tour of many picturesque seaside towns in the British Isles ... but I spent much of that time looking on the wrong isle. I finally got on the right track when I noticed the reddish hue on the left edges of several of the otherwise standard-looking UK license plates on the parked cars:
I soon learned that these red bands are used on number plates in the Isle of Man:
This also explained the several flags visible in the view lining the promenade: these are the red Manx flag with its distinctive triskelion.
From a previous winner:
I was amused to learn that “Manx” is the adjectival form of the Isle of Man. And here I thought Manx was just a portmanteau of “man” and “Spanx” as a description of “men’s shapewear”!
Our super-sleuth in Ridgewood tries for the right building — and names the right city:
This week’s view is taken from the Claremont Hotel — just like the recent Oakland contest!
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