#591 - "Back and Forth" - September 27, 2019

[FrankieHeck]

Now that I have another puzzle to work on, I'm waving the white flag on this one.

[jakeorjacob]

If anyone sees this in time, I'd also love a hint! I've gone down so many rabbit holes I lost count.

[FrankieHeck]

Noon today is such a busy time! MMMM, PGW, crossword fiend. Ugh! I just read pgw's crossword fiend post, and I'm still not sure I could get there. I'm glad I didn't take a hint because the end of my streak was well earned.

[Laura M]

Yeah, I wasn't ever close. Anyone else fall into the circled letters rabbit hole where A-circle = ANGSTROM, circled X = OPERATOR (didn't know that), circled R = TOMS (on their website it's written with the registered trademark symbol). I could make a case for (C) and (O) but everything fell apart with (H), and I couldn't figure out where to go from there. But I was so sure I was on to something there! I also did the anniversary gifts one (GEODE = crystal = 15th, SOLDIER = tin = 10th, ?) and tried to do something with interstates. Never knew what to do with the numbers in parentheses but I hoped it would be clear if I could get a foothold somewhere else. Congrats to those who got it!

[Jacksull]

No way I would have gotten this one. There were fewer than 100 correct answers so I’m in good company. Even Joon at crossword fiend was a DNF.

[TMart]

I wasn't even close on any of my myriad of rabbit holes, although I thought the numbers in parentheses could be word lengths. I got too hung up on the anniversary gift hint, which ended up being only a small part of the meta, and even had I gotten the words, I'm not sure I would have gotten the number. This was a solid and fair meta that all fit together well, and it was a worthy streak-buster of a Week 4. Congrats to all the solvers!

[sharkicicles]

A fair meta, but yeah, no way I was ever gonna get this one.

[BarbaraK]

I think I tried every possible way of taking letters from the sets of three columns except for skipping the middle one entirely.

I guessed 42 - just because 42 down was the CROSS word and 42 is the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. Oh well. So long, and thanks for all the fish. (Non Douglas Adams fans, never mind:)

[damefox]

I have the same issue with this puzzle that I had with September's MMMM. A bunch of words somehow connected to the number 24 seems like sort of a cop-out (same as a bunch of words somehow connected to a particular song) for a meta. It's kind of a bummer when you need one aha moment about how to use the grid, and then the grid becomes totally unnecessary for getting the answer. Especially since the mechanism for getting to the answer seemed pretty arbitrary. But maybe my standards are too high because I've been permanently spoiled by PGWCC #29 ("Wedge Issues"), which I think might be the gold standard for all meta puzzles in terms of how everything fit together.

[Hector]

which ended up being only a small part of the meta

This is what got me stuck even after I got the first step. I was expecting that the "treasures" (EX is a treasure? OMEGA? CLEVELAND?) would be examples of a specific year's anniversary gift: watch brands, or what have you. The actual mechanism was less complex than I'd assumed it would be. It took a ton of googling and jotting down possibly-relevant facts about the seven words before I realized that I had the number 24 all over the page, after which some confirmatory googling pinned down the loose ends.

[Meg]

Yeah, I wasn't ever close. Anyone else fall into the circled letters rabbit hole where A-circle = ANGSTROM, circled X = OPERATOR (didn't know that), circled R = TOMS (on their website it's written with the registered trademark symbol). I could make a case for (C) and (O) but everything fell apart with (H), and I couldn't figure out where to go from there. But I was so sure I was on to something there! I also did the anniversary gifts one (GEODE = crystal = 15th, SOLDIER = tin = 10th, ?) and tried to do something with interstates. Never knew what to do with the numbers in parentheses but I hoped it would be clear if I could get a foothold somewhere else. Congrats to those who got it!

I went down that rabbit hole! Not quite as far as you did, but when I learned that a circled x was OPERATOR, I really thought I was on to something! But alas, no.

[FrankieHeck]

I dreamed about the angstrom A last night. This damn meta made its way into a couple of my dreams.

[Olaf]

This was waaaaaasy out of my league. But I would like to see the answer and meta. Comments indicate that people have seen it somewhere. Where do I find it?

[Hector]

This was waaaaaasy out of my league. But I would like to see the answer and meta. Comments indicate that people have seen it somewhere. Where do I find it?

Solver Joon Pahk blogs about MGWCC puzzles at the deadline, and Matt often comments, as do others. See https://crosswordfiend.com

[Laura M]

I went down that rabbit hole! Not quite as far as you did, but when I learned that a circled x was OPERATOR, I really thought I was on to something! But alas, no.

Right?! I feel like that must have been an intentional red herring...

[Olaf]

This was waaaaaasy out of my league. But I would like to see the answer and meta. Comments indicate that people have seen it somewhere. Where do I find it?

Solver Joon Pahk blogs about MGWCC puzzles at the deadline, and Matt often comments, as do others. See https://crosswordfiend.com

Thanks! Yeah, that definitely wasn’t happening for me.

[BarbaraK]

One other rabbit hole I poked around in on this one was going "back and forth" between the grid answers and clues. Some of the clues seemed so off I thought they must be meta-relevant. "Bacterium type" for MICROBE? No, microbe is the more general word. "Top Gun" jets for MIGS? Not really; the Top Gun pilots flew F14s; Migs were the enemy. So much weirdness in this puzzle that the usual trick of looking at the weird sections for meta pieces didn't help.