"Unprecedented"

[Bird Lives]

As the Mamas and Papas said so eloquently, "Monday, Monday."

This is the first meta I've ever constructed. With our editor, I've tried to make it not too hard, not too easy, but just right. And a little bit fun.

The answer is a mythical creature.

Unprecedented.puz

Unprecedented.pdf

[Joe Ross]

20201019 MMM Bird Lives — Unprecendented — Excel form

[ EDIT 1 & 2: Apologies: The original link allowed the file on my cloud drive to be edited, which was a mistake. Someone is editing it as I amend this post. If you are, please save the file on your own drive & under a different name. The link above is for the blank file & cannot be edited. ]

[Beth Tyrpin]

That was a great way to start off the week. Thanks.

[Hector]

Nice one, Bird!

[Dannyvee]

Very nice!

[oldjudge]

Great job--that was a lot of fun.

[C=64]

Solved. Fun!

[Laura M]

Enjoyed this one a lot! Great debut!

[boharr]

Off the couch. Very enjoyable.

[BarbaraK]

Very clever! That was fun. I'm off the couch.

[BrianMac]

Bird, thanks again for contributing. I really enjoyed this clever puzzle.

By the way, Bird Lives is too humble. This may be his first meta, but he has had eight puzzles published in the New York Times!

More metas please!!

[Al Sisti]

^^ This ^^. Oh yeah, OTC. Outstanding!

[TMart]

Off the couch - great meta debut! Thanks Bird!

[Bird Lives]

Bird, thanks again for contributing. I really enjoyed this clever puzzle.

By the way, Bird Lives is too humble. This may be his first meta, but he has had eight puzzles published in the New York Times!

More metas please!!

Eight? I don't think it was that many. I am sort of proud to have had one published under three different editors -- Eugene Maleska, Will Weng, and Will Shortz, though mostly what that means is that I'm old.

[whimsy]

OTC
Thank you, Bird, for branching out to this meta!

[Abide]

Feeling "kind of blue" that nothing is jumping out at me. May have to sleep on it...

[Bob cruise director]

Great construction. It took a while but when you get it, you know it.

And Bird Lives, whether it was eight or one, getting a puzzle published in the NYT is a great achievement. I hope you have them framed.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Off the couch!

Loved it!

Needed to google to confirm a couple of things on the grid. Then stared for quite some time (though off and on, while attending to other things). Went to bed thinking, "I'll give it a fresh look tomorrow" -- and then, just in a flash, I understood what I needed to do, and solved it in my head in, I don't know, maybe 30 seconds. Amazing how these things can work!

[lbray53]

Off the couch. Very nice.

Had to stare for a bit! Tough grid for me. Thank goodness for Mr. G!

[Abide]

Got it, after the gentlest of nudges.

Fantastic and fun!