An excellent puzzle written by one of the innovators of the meta crossword format. It comes out every Friday at noon and increases in difficulty throughout the month. Available for modest subscription (worth every cent) here: www.xwordcontest.com
tonyrobots wrote: Sun Jan 17, 2021 9:34 pm
Phew, got it! (FWIW, don't really get the title, either.)
I can't decide if those of us who solved without understanding the title should get bonus points for doing it the hard way or demerits for missing a part of the gestalt.
I am lucky that Matt is not a high school teacher. He has never required us to "show our work" to receive full credit
FWIW I saw the mechanism and answer pretty quickly but am among those who don't see a connection to the title... hoping someone will fill in the BLANK( STARE)S tomorrow...
Finally beamed up onto the ship after first materializing/dematerializing on too many wrong planets (and patiently resisting the urge to request a nudge). It was brutal finding the correct links to generate the answer, which I had intuited but wanted proof.
I also think I have some explanation for the title - it will be interesting to compare notes.
New here! Solved my first two puzzles the last two weeks, but this one has me stumped! I think I'm 80-90% of the way there but could use a nudge OR a hint of some sort. What am I missing?
BarbaraK wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:27 am
I can't decide if those of us who solved without understanding the title should get bonus points for doing it the hard way or demerits for missing a part of the gestalt.
As one who didn't use the title I vote for the former.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
A commenter on the Fiend just posted a D'OH headslap comment for the title...for the 8 squares with differing letter entries for A/D, one of the 2 clues has a blank in it ("Free _____" for WILLY, etc.). The "blank" clue is the one that is the key for the meta...
MikeM000 wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 12:31 pm
A commenter on the Fiend just posted a D'OH headslap comment for the title...for the 8 squares with differing letter entries for A/D, one of the 2 clues has a blank in it ("Free _____" for WILLY, etc.). The "blank" clue is the one that is the key for the meta...
Ohhhh, good one... I took it as if it was a blank tile in Scrabble, where you can make it be whatever letter you need.
MaineMarge wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 3:20 pm
Yea! Matt gave me the OK to hitch a ride with Dr. Tom too. Hope he has room for me.
763406C6-EA8C-44BE-BE5C-19567F549903.jpeg
Heck yes, it will seat 5 if we cuddle!
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges IF ASKED; metas should be about fun, not frustration. PM me what you have done so far, because often you are closer than you think, and I will try to help you move along.
cbarbee002 wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:21 am
I'm riding in Tom's Beemer, in more ways than one! Energize!
OK then! I'll drive, you pour - but only up to the legal limit of course.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges IF ASKED; metas should be about fun, not frustration. PM me what you have done so far, because often you are closer than you think, and I will try to help you move along.
I thought HOLY MOLY had to do with the stare you are giving when you say something like Holy Moly! I never even noticed it correlated with the blanks. He's good our Matt....
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges IF ASKED; metas should be about fun, not frustration. PM me what you have done so far, because often you are closer than you think, and I will try to help you move along.
" MGWCC #660 will run tomorrow, Saturday the 23rd, at noon Eastern Time. Spent all week working on a rather nice idea...that in the end simply refused to work (I finally threw in the towel at 1 AM last night).
"I hate postponing, but the crossword gods were in a particularly cruel mood this week. Hopefully they will take pity this evening.
