(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.)
Ha! Finally, after all these years decades! I’ll take the book, please.
I often take pictures of my window views but rarely get around to sending them (at least travel windows). I’m finally pulling it together and sending some while traveling through Portugal and Spain for several weeks. This is also my first post-retirement trip! My last day of work was right before Labor Day. I’ll adjust to my post-work life when we return to Seattle next week.
The friends I’m traveling with are the ones who introduced me to Burning Man way back in 2002. Now that we’ve been in Seattle for three years, I think I’m ready to return to Black Rock City. I gave away my swamp cooler, yurt, and bike, so it’s a bit like starting over.
Even more excited was a sleuth who circled the right window and is now on the Correct Guesser list (which gives her a big edge in future tiebreakers):
Yay!! I finally got the window right :-) Thanks, this made my day!
Another writes, “I can tell the VFYW is helping the sanity and mental health of many people during these contentious times.” That’s certainly the case for the super-sleuth in Sydney:
Sometimes this contest is a mental health tonic. I’ve just come back after a trip to Melbourne, where I watched my beloved Sydney Swans get smashed in the AFL Grand Final by the Brisbane Lions. At least we had good seats:
This is the second time in three years we’ve been thrashed in a grand final, a game played in front of 100,000 people at the MCG. Thankfully Katy Perry was good in her 15 minute pre-game show, where clearly her contract said, “Play all the bangers or else.” Here’s a brief video of her performance, given that you’re going to struggle for a music section this week!
Here’s a quick followup on last week’s results:
I enjoyed the Geoguesser YouTube video sent by one of your sleuths. I’d be willing to put up a few bucks if you would organize a VFYW smackdown between Chini and Blinky. My money is on Chini.
Here’s Blinky in action:
“Your average super-sleuth in NYC” has another suggestion:
I’d like to propose a next-level VFYW distinction. It is called the VFYW Trifecta. You have to win the coffee table book; you have to attain super-sleuth status; and you have to be the submitter of a view that is used for the contest. I have the first two, but despite having several window views published over the years in the body of the write-up, I’ve never had one selected for the contest. I’ll keep trying.
Any chance that you know how many people have hit the VFYW Trifecta?
No idea, but sleuths should feel free to let me know if they have. On to this week’s view, a sleuth soaks in the scene:
Well, my shocking run of four not-quite-in-a-row correct guesses comes to a screeching halt this week. The Chicago convention center stumped me, although I was pretty certain it was somewhere in the USA. This week I’m not even sure of the continent, much less country, city, structure or window! Is there even a window? Are you playing fast ‘n loose with both window and its frame VFYW requirements? That blue-green pole to the right seems pretty window-pane-free, as does the overhanging roof above.
Anyway. Googling queries on coastal demolished bridges, yellow buoys, and solar-powered lights did me no good, nor could I locate any foreign park-ranger uniforms or badges that might match up with the standing boatman who seems unbothered by the downpour, unlike the soggy seated tourists looking miserable and possibly already seasick prior to launch! Their sun hats and SPF 50+ long-sleeve shirts suggest they packed for different weather.
We have a splintered palm-tree frond in the foreground. The clothing seems tropical-sun proof. There’s a rusted corrugated roof and hand-hewn carpentry. A partly demolished and crumbling bridge supports — contrasting with the massive newly-poured concrete dock — indicates a place of structural extremes. And the boat guide looks Indian, maybe, so I’m just gonna guess we’re somewhere coastal in India, perhaps at the start or end of monsoon season.
I mean, you need so-wrong guesses for the start of the VFYW results, right? Happy to oblige!
Very much obliged. Speaking of bending the VFYW rules, here’s a view without a frame of any kind, plus a rainbow:
This is Miami Beach in the wake of Hurricane Helene:
Beauty arises from one of the most disturbing deluges of the year that flooded most of the local streets.
Over the weekend I checked in with our super-chef, who’s based in Tucson but bought and renovated a second home in Asheville last year to be next to his family:
Thanks Chris. We are all fine. My wife and I were in Chicago all last week while the flooding was happening and we went straight back to Tucson. My daughter and her family evacuated today and are safe and sound in Arlington, VA. Our houses were not damaged.
But it’s going to be a long road back for Asheville. Power and cell service will start coming back this week, but some of the water stations were damaged and some roads have to be rebuilt to get to them, so water is unreliable. We don’t know when we will be able to move back in. A true disaster. Many beautiful places have been destroyed.
Here’s a photo showing that my favorite wine store, the Appalachian Vintner, survived the flooding:
However, the way we used to get there was by driving along Swannanoa River Road, in the foreground, which I’m pretty sure is washed out. When I sent this photo to daughter no. 1 showing the non-flooded store, she said, “Well, thank god for that.” And my favorite butcher, the Chop Shop, is up on a hill. So when we do get back, we will have the essentials.
Unfortunately I won’t get a chance this week to do a food report.
Also stymied was the super-sleuth in Augusta, GA:
Greetings! I didn’t actually have a chance to search for this week’s window at all, since Hurricane Helene hit Augusta early Friday morning and knocked everything out. I’ve never seen destruction like it here before (thankfully my home wasn’t too badly damaged). It seems like every third house has a tree beside it or on top of it, and many roads are inaccessible. Our neighborhood finally got power back, but everything else (like water) is dicey. I’ve only just now been able to access my email; the network has been too overloaded to connect.
I hope to be able to get back to the contest soon, as it would be a welcome distraction; I’m quite overwhelmed at the moment. Here’s wishing a speedy(er) recovery to all Dish readers caught up in this disaster!
Seconded! The super-sleuth in Milwaukee revisits an old contest, IRL, and thankfully that coastal place was spared:
I went down to Nags Head and did my best to recreate the original photo, but not being able to go up into the hotel really cramped my style:
Back to this week’s view, the super-sleuth in Brookline is flummoxed:
Yeesh, this one is a bona fide stumper. My first impression is somewhere tropical, maybe the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean. The folks in the inflatable boat look like tourists, and since they are wearing light clothes, it would make sense that this is a warm climate during a rainstorm.
The ruined structures are puzzling. They look old (but not that old) and weathered compared to the modern concrete boat landing. I thought that they might be the remnants of a bridge, as what could be piers seem to get taller leading from left to right. But their double pyramid shapes look unusual. I would’ve thought that there would be photos of such unusual structures somewhere online, but I tried various permutations of terms involving ruined bridges, piers, causeways, etc., and I didn't find anything that looked right.
Since the VFYW had been known to refer to recent events, I started grinding through Google Maps in the Caribbean, focusing on spots that may have seen heavy rain because of Hurricane Helene and the less discussed Hurricane John that formed around the same time off the coast of southern Mexico. Nothing.
Then I followed some coastlines near tourist destinations in Central and South America for a while — nada.
Then I shifted gears to try coastal areas around touristy parts of South and Southeast Asia — nope.
Sub-Saharan Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, etc. — no dice.
If this turns out to be Texas or Florida or something, I’ll kick myself. The best I can do this week is hazard a Hail Mary guess and say Kingstown, Saint Vincent, because the boat landing seems to be carved into dark volcanic rock, and Saint Vincent is one of the most volcanically active islands in the Caribbean. But that doesn’t account for the weird structures, so who knows. I’ll be eager to see what folks come up with.
Another stumped sleuth is this previous winner:
Seriously! WTF! Chris, this is by far the most impossible VFYW in the three years I’ve been around.
I can’t wait to know what the giveaway clue was. Is that a group of rebels, or tourists with a guide? What type of concrete bulwarks are these? Does the color of the water give it away? Or the iPhone image? Where the fuck are we?
It’s so ironic that last week I felt that guessing is a must, but this one stumped me so bad I didn’t even want to guess! You did this to spite me :) I’ll look forward to another Oddfellows-type view next week, I suppose.
He adds, “I’m literally predicting that fewer than five sleuths will find this one.” Much more than five (specifically 39) — not including the “Georgetown sleuth-in-training”:
Fukushima, Japan? Total wild guess. Looks desolate enough to be the ruins of the Fukushima nuclear plant — but why would anyone want to visit?!
The Berkeley super-champ imagines the conversation on the small boat in view:
“Why are we waiting? What the hell is he doing up there?”
“Fuck if I know. He jumped off the boat and ran back to the waiting room. Said he needed to take a photo for Chris.”
“Who the fuck is Chris?”
The super-sleuth in San Mateo names the type of landmass we’re on:
For this week’s VFYW Reimagined, I wondered how this island might have looked if the clock was turned back to its days of mining. Back then, the island’s population was many times what it is today; the port facilities were much larger; and boats were calling to load material for transportation to customers in far-off countries. It might have looked something like this:
Our previous winner in Yakima has more questions than answers — and he nearly guesses the right latitude:
Wow! A stumper.
Somewhere coastal, an ocean, or a large lake with a mix of new and decrepit infrastructure. Wet, but not cold/wet enough that the boat passengers think to wear heavy rain gear. Solar panel at a low angle, so roughly ~15N latitude if looking north, 15S latitude if looking south. Apparently it’s not a country that rigidly enforces life-jacket requirements (six of the seven people have them.) Not much visible shipping out on the water. Not much natural topography — has the look of artificial filled-in land.
Low concrete walls and built structures say there’s not a lot of tidal variation or heavy surf. Compared to the boat passengers, those concrete piers in the background are tall — say, at least 30 feet, more than breakwaters. They and the pyramids are roughly in a line. Are those pyramid things wave barriers, or some odd type of bridge or causeway footing? Where did the structure they supported go? The crumbling pillar top suggests rough demolition — earthquake, war, or interrupted waterfront redevelopment efforts.
Rings to tie up many small boats at once — why are there only two there? Why so many people in one boat? Is it a boat taxi, transporting people to a larger boat, or tourists with a guide? Why are they all looking at our window, which is too wet and probably too shiny for them to see into? Whoever is peacefully holding that phone might be a seated passenger looking out a train/boat window, and what’s that winged roof sticking out — are the boat folk watching an arrival at a ferry or train terminal?
Is there a drivable area for folks to access what appears to be a boat ramp? Is that a river flowing in the right of the boat ramp, or just low-resolution sand and debris? Does the buoyed channel have a current, or is that the boat’s motor outwash and its wake breaking on the far bank, since the boat is not tied off? The channel must be bigger/deeper than it looks, to require buoys and accommodate boats with high and wide enough gunwales to require the wrapping on the lamppost. Or is that to protect against vehicles backing up? There’s a complete lack of signs one might expect at a public dock.
There are so many items I feel I could mount Google searches for, like those pyramids, if only I could find the correct noun to label them. But I expect they will be instantly nameable by the marine construction cognoscenti. (“Oh, that’s a ... ”)
Now that I’ve wasted eight unsuccessful hours poring over coastlines in Maracaibo, Kobe, and India, I think I’ll just throw a random 15-degree dart and guess somewhere in the Philippines. Manila?
It’s roughly on the 15S latitude, not the N equivalent. The super-sleuth in San Francisco reasons his way into naming the right part of the world:
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