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Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 1:17 am
by madhatter5
This collaborative cryptic between myself and Al Sisti contains perhaps the easiest meta in Muggle history.


The answer to the meta will tell you what the fisherman said to the one that got away.


Kindly direct all obloquy, gripes, restraining orders, and voodoo hexes to my distinguished co-constructor, while any and all compliments, donations, and/or autograph requests should please be addressed to your humble correspondent. Submissions to the meta can be sent to either of us.

Good luck!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
http://crossword.info/madhatter5/Aljo

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:42 pm
by Richard B.
Finished the grid but needed one nudge from Al for one of the entries.
Got the meta. Nicely done guys.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:37 pm
by Hector
Tough and satisfying cryptic. The meta proved helpful in solving it. Thanks!

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:52 pm
by Meg
I completely forgot there’s a meta!! I’m lacking one grid entry.
Edit: I got the entry with help and have submitted the meta answer. Some funny clueing and some funny clueing. This is a puzzle that ages well. Look at it. Put it down. Take the dog out. Pick it up. Repeat as needed.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:38 am
by Al Sisti
One more quick correction, sorry. The enumeration for 14D should be (3,4). With that, now all the correct entries can come streaming in!

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 12:33 pm
by boharr
I have at best 10 answers (!), but now I'm sure I'll breeze right home.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:54 pm
by Dannyvee
Spent lots of time on and off over the past couple of days but quite satisfying to finally crack it. Hope to see more of these!

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2021 8:45 pm
by LesY
Excellent puzzle! Needed the same nudge as others on one of the answers but got the meta.

I hope we see more cryptics from Aljo.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2021 5:09 pm
by Beth Tyrpin
Almost finished. One empty square.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:53 pm
by Wendy Walker
OK, thanks to peer pressure (from, ahem, Meg) and this week's easy WSJ puzzle, I am taking a crack at a cryptic for the first time in years. Dear Lord, talk about humbling. I have maybe a dozen answers -- but I did get one of the long ones!

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2021 9:59 pm
by boharr
I have 16 answers, but no long ones.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:59 pm
by Al Sisti
Depending on who has contacted Josh (madhatter5) that I don't know about, here is our leaderboard:

1. Richard B.
2. Hector
3. Meg
4. RPardoe
5. FrankieHeck
6. Dannyvee
7. LesY
8. Beth Tyrpin

If you think your name/nom should be on this list, please let Josh or me know.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 11:00 am
by Homer Buckle
This was a really fun puzzle to do! Thanks to the creators!!!!

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:34 pm
by boharr
I DNF. But do you know when you'll post the solution?

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2021 2:29 am
by madhatter5
The meta answer is spelled out on the left and right columns: I'll catch you later.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:40 pm
by SewYoung
Wendy Walker wrote: Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:53 pm OK, thanks to peer pressure (from, ahem, Meg) and this week's easy WSJ puzzle, I am taking a crack at a cryptic for the first time in years. Dear Lord, talk about humbling. I have maybe a dozen answers -- but I did get one of the long ones!
This was really a tough one to start with. I am about half way through and it took me a long time to get a toehold. Check out the "National Post Cryptic: by Cox and Rathvon Saturday" puzzles under the Cryptic category on the "Other Puzzles" page. Richard B. posts those and the answer in a subsequent post the same day so if you really get stuck, you don't have to wait a long time. And feel free to ask for nudges.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:03 pm
by KayW
Clever! But DNF for me. I didn't start until this morning, and didn't look at the posted answer until I gave it my best shot. I got all of the answers needed for the answer except 1A and 17A but failed to read the outer columns. I was able to suss all the answers post-mortem except 2D which I still don't get???

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:15 pm
by Hector
KayW wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:03 pm Clever! But DNF for me. I didn't start until this morning, and didn't look at the posted answer until I gave it my best shot. I got all of the answers needed for the answer except 1A and 17A but failed to read the outer columns. I was able to suss all the answers post-mortem except 2D which I still don't get???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark = SWAI, and the "unknown number" is the variable Z.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:10 pm
by madhatter5
Hector wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:15 pm
KayW wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:03 pm Clever! But DNF for me. I didn't start until this morning, and didn't look at the posted answer until I gave it my best shot. I got all of the answers needed for the answer except 1A and 17A but failed to read the outer columns. I was able to suss all the answers post-mortem except 2D which I still don't get???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark = SWAI, and the "unknown number" is the variable Z.
If I were a pretentious snob I would say that a better parsing would be "Iridescent shark" = SWAI, "unknown" = Z, and "number of Africans" is the definition, because your version has a definition indicator of "of" which reads a bit strange. But of course I am not a pretentious snob.

Re: Aljo Cryptic Special

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:26 pm
by KayW
madhatter5 wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:10 pm
Hector wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:15 pm
KayW wrote: Thu Feb 25, 2021 2:03 pm Clever! But DNF for me. I didn't start until this morning, and didn't look at the posted answer until I gave it my best shot. I got all of the answers needed for the answer except 1A and 17A but failed to read the outer columns. I was able to suss all the answers post-mortem except 2D which I still don't get???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark = SWAI, and the "unknown number" is the variable Z.
If I were a pretentious snob I would say that a better parsing would be "Iridescent shark" = SWAI, "unknown" = Z, and "number of Africans" is the definition, because your version has a definition indicator of "of" which reads a bit strange. But of course I am not a pretentious snob.
Thank you both!! This fish was the "unknown" to me :lol: and even looking at the answer I couldn't make sense of it.