"Herd Mentality"

A weekly meta crossword created by members of the forum. Difficulty levels will vary. Hints are usually available starting Wednesday, and solutions are posted on Sunday.
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norrin2
Posts: 175
Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2020 5:41 pm
Location: Charleston SC

#41

Post by norrin2 »

Confirmed off the couch. Fun puzzle.
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whimsy
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Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
Location: Hopkinton MA

#42

Post by whimsy »

Solution confirmed --good thing --- I'm running out of couch pictures.

Pleasant day here earlier -- worked on the puzzle out on the porch in the hammock.

For a while things were taking a bad turn ..........
Capturelizzard.JPG
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FrankH
Posts: 242
Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 4:15 am

#43

Post by FrankH »

OTC. Waiting for confirmation.
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BrianMac
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Location: Connecticut

#44

Post by BrianMac »

Mid-week update:

21. Dplass
22. Schmeel
23. hashbrown
24. Abide
25. sps (please welcome our 1,000th member)
26. KayW
27. Bird Lives
28. norrin2
29. whimsy
30. FrankH
31. Djquimby

Also, here is the first of three hints for Wednesday Nudgeday:


This puzzle is too easy for three hints, so here is a joke:

A man doing a crossword puzzle asks his wife, "what seven-letter word has three U's in it?"
His wife replied, "I don't know, but I'm sure it's unusual."


[This is really just a joke - it has nothing to do with the puzzle]



I will provide another hint later in the day. Maybe. :twisted:
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DrTom
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Location: Jacksonville, FL

#45

Post by DrTom »

COUCHLESS! Fun puzzle and a bit of a earning experience, Perhaps a bit easier than some of Brian's others but a novel mechanism and a nice AHA. Liked it lots.

By the way, muggling on an IPhone is just not for an early Boomer. I have to type 3 times as much just to correct mistakes. Be glad when I get back to my PC.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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Dannyvee
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Location: Jamaica Plain, MA

#46

Post by Dannyvee »

New to the board but have been enjoying these Monday Metas. Quite sure Iโ€™m off the couch.
I can be found in Sheridan, NY, veejaying. (8)
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BrianMac
Site Admin
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2019 11:45 pm
Location: Connecticut

#47

Post by BrianMac »

Final additions to the leaderboard:

32. DrTom
33. Cindy N
34. Dannyvee
35. markhr

Thanks everyone for solving. The answer to the puzzle is GIRAFFE, which I think everyone figured out without too much trouble. Pretty standard mechanism. The title, along with the clues and answers at 1-Across and 71-Across, is intended to help you notice that the ends of each of the theme entries is the collective noun (or I should probably say "a" collective noun) for a group of animals. Some are more well known than others, and some are outright obscure (I know no one calls a group of owls a STARE, it's a parliament - sorry about that). Taking the initials of the animals represented by the collective nouns (and hopefully without too much Googling) gives you T O W E R, which is the collective noun for a group of giraffes.

The winner of the NYT book of Thursday puzzles is randomly drawn from the 35 correct entries is: BarbaraK!

Congrats, Barbara, and thanks again everyone who solved. New puzzle tomorrow from TMart!
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ReB
Posts: 667
Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:34 pm
Location: East Tennessee

#48

Post by ReB »

Oh well, I never heard of any of these collective animal groups (including TOWER), and so the mechanism eluded me, especially as I was led astray by thinking homonyms (DEAR for DEER, HEARD for HERD) - which of course led me into many dead ends. Ironically, giraffe was at the top of my wild-guess list of 7-letter animals.
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Hector
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Location: San Francisco
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#49

Post by Hector »

I've always wondered where these nouns come from. Surely they are not organically-evolved. Some wit(s) must have sat around dreaming them up.
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KayW
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Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
Location: Chicago

#50

Post by KayW »

I actually knew "wisdom of wombats" and that was the one to tip me off (especially once posters here started mentioning the need to google). I liked the alliteration when I first heard the phrase and thought it sounded like the groupthink of committees.
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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whimsy
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Location: Hopkinton MA

#51

Post by whimsy »

I initially fell into the old vertical trap again, thinking that a 7 letter answer had to involve the 2 long downs as well as the obvious 5 across theme entries. I was deviously encouraged in that by finding such a thing as "a call (sign) of vireos" in my googling (but of course nothing for "step" or "aside" -- "A side of fries"? ;) ) So trying to fit that V into the T-O-W=E=R business was a "barrel of monkey wrenches" for me for a bit.
Enjoy your puzzles, Barbara!
And thanks very much, Brian!
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BarbaraK
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Location: Virginia

#52

Post by BarbaraK »

Woo hoo! Thank you, Brian!
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Joe Ross
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#53

Post by Joe Ross »

For several years, I was the PA announcer for varsity sports at my kids' high school. Job #1 was giving credit to players who made positive contributions (while properly pronouncing their names).

In football games, it was often hard to credit individuals, particularly on defensive stops, so I did research on the varied opponents' mascots' group names to use. The odder the names, the better, and the more likely I'd crack open a window in order to hear the crowds' reactions.
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024

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๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ENORMOUS ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ:
๐Ÿฐ๐Ÿฌ% ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฐ,
๐Ÿฏ๐Ÿฌ% ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต, ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ,
๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ & ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ฎ. ๐—ฃ๐—Ÿ๐—˜๐—”๐—ฆ๐—˜ ๐—ฆ๐—›๐—”๐—ฅ๐—˜!
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Bob cruise director
Cruise Director
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:38 pm
Location: Any golf course within 500 miles of Littleton MA

#54

Post by Bob cruise director »

BrianMac wrote: โ†‘Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:47 pm Final additions to the leaderboard:

32. DrTom
33. Cindy N
34. Dannyvee
35. markhr

Thanks everyone for solving. The answer to the puzzle is GIRAFFE, which I think everyone figured out without too much trouble. Pretty standard mechanism. The title, along with the clues and answers at 1-Across and 71-Across, is intended to help you notice that the ends of each of the theme entries is the collective noun (or I should probably say "a" collective noun) for a group of animals. Some are more well known than others, and some are outright obscure (I know no one calls a group of owls a STARE, it's a parliament - sorry about that). Taking the initials of the animals represented by the collective nouns (and hopefully without too much Googling) gives you T O W E R, which is the collective noun for a group of giraffes.

The winner of the NYT book of Thursday puzzles is randomly drawn from the 35 correct entries is: BarbaraK!

Congrats, Barbara, and thanks again everyone who solved. New puzzle tomorrow from TMart!
Interestingly enough, we found that in Africa a tower of giraffes is when they are standing still. When they are moving they are called a Journey.
Bob Stevens
Cruise Director
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