#635 - "Don't Even Try"

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spotter
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#81

Post by spotter »

joequavis wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 12:23 pm Kudos to those who made the connection from what seemed like a very get-able step 1 to a not-so-get-able step 2!

I saw this more as 6 words and the beginning of a 7th, which would have been SIGHT. I saw that this ended on SPEND, and was rightly looking at the clues all weekend. Not seeing the connection, I submitted INSIGHT, as in there was NO END In Sight.

Congrats to the solvers. Tough one!
That was going to be my guess too! I was hung up for a while because "END" showed up 6 times in the grid.
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FrankieHeck
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#82

Post by FrankieHeck »

My good showing on the leaderboard was just dumb luck. Felt really good about Step 1 and found it quickly. But then you know how you just start randomly trying everything you can with what you have? Looking for those "odd" leftover letters in the clues was one of the first things I tried, and it gave me a word, so I went with it. It was probably the first time I've ever written out my reasoning in my submission to Matt (I do it all the time for the PGW; sorry, Peter) because I was afraid it might be some bizarre coincidence. My best place on the board, for sure, but not my most satisfying solve.
Last edited by FrankieHeck on Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FrankieHeck
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#83

Post by FrankieHeck »

*poof*

I tried to delete this post, but wasn't able to. It wasn't too spoilery. Just sounded too cranky.

Maybe it was because I hadn't solved Al's meta yet.
Last edited by FrankieHeck on Wed Aug 05, 2020 4:56 pm, edited 4 times in total.
EmilyW
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#84

Post by EmilyW »

I was so excited to get the first step, but just couldn't get any further. My guess was UPTIGHT which is pretty close so I'll still celebrate with a nice beer tonight, and look forward to the week one coming up!
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joequavis
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#85

Post by joequavis »

I give it 2 weeks before SPOILER-Y is in a MMM grid somewhere.
LesY
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#86

Post by LesY »

This was a moment for me. #2 on the board for a week 5. Sometimes every first thing you think to try works.

Will cherish this one along with a no-hint solve of Quartet Quest a couple years ago - think there were only 17 of us who managed it.

That being said, I fully expect to suffer for the full 4 days over Halloween weekend. Spooky Week 5!!!
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Hector
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#87

Post by Hector »

You're CrimsonHoo, then? Wow, an even Mugglier top ten than I'd realized.

I thought of odd-numbered letters early on, but somehow failed to execute the idea properly in my haste, which seems to be a pattern with me. So it was only after rattling through a number of other ideas that I returned to it. The second step came very quickly, though like someone said in a comment on crosswordfiend.com, it did have the feel of a random, lucky guess.

In hindsight, though, there is a secondary "theme" here of first letters that makes it seem less random: assemble the first letters of the answers of the clues whose first letters are the first letters of the _IGHT words.
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DrTom
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#88

Post by DrTom »

I finally got "home" on a week 5, but the trip was not pretty and it entailed someone shouting in my ear to do what I was told. I found, to my utter amazement, Step One after some frustrating failures at ferreting out the path. However there was a puzzle not that long ago where a similar mechanism in the title pointed the way ("What NOT to Do - for which I have another tale of woe that thankfully worked out [forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=339&start=300#p16579]). I flew through the IGHTS and came to the end thinking I needed an IGHT word with 7 letters that fit the 'Devote, as time...' and I came up with TONIGHT because it was the next letter in the sequence (we had EF-LMN-R (ending in S) so therefore T. I HAD spent TONIGHT looking at clues so perfect, right? Well no because NIGHT had already been used and I was stretching the TONIGHT because I knew it might be SEVERAL nights. I was to say the least frustrated.

The other thing I considered was TIGHT, or because it had to be 7 letters TIGHTER, and if I "don't even try to spend" I am TIGHTER. It follow all the other parameters I wanted but how to get to it??? Anyway, and to save you hours of reading and choruses of WHAT? I won't put up that back solving process, but in the end it led me to TIGHTEN which the person shouting in my ear confirmed. Long road, satisfying (perhaps not 100% because I did need some shouting at), and now I can say I have a level 5 under my belt. Oh. and as an aside, and since I live in Florida, "Hurricane Gods, this is the only Category 5 I want to be in OK?"
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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DrTom
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#89

Post by DrTom »

spotter wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 12:31 pm
joequavis wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 12:23 pm Kudos to those who made the connection from what seemed like a very get-able step 1 to a not-so-get-able step 2!

I saw this more as 6 words and the beginning of a 7th, which would have been SIGHT. I saw that this ended on SPEND, and was rightly looking at the clues all weekend. Not seeing the connection, I submitted INSIGHT, as in there was NO END In Sight.

Congrats to the solvers. Tough one!
That was going to be my guess too! I was hung up for a while because "END" showed up 6 times in the grid.
Yes, I too had a list of END REND LEND SPEND as well as sound-alikes WREN, TOKEN, KOMEN. For a while I considered ENGLISH (what with so many ENs) but that related not at all to the theme or the clue (since they were in the GRID not the CLUES). Yes it would ahve been a stretch but at that point I was Monday desperate (not as bad as Tuesday desperate this week, but usually a scary position).
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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Hector
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#90

Post by Hector »

BTW I hope BrianMac is faring okay in Connecticut. Here's the current outage map (the storm was yesterday!):


Untitled.jpg
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Joe Ross
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#91

Post by Joe Ross »

Hector wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:40 pm BTW I hope BrianMac is faring okay in Connecticut.
Agree. Brian was on Zoom, last night, using generator.

Have lucky (I hope) family that all live between Bridgeport & New Haven. Fingers crossed & best wishes to all.
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Laura M
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#92

Post by Laura M »

Kas 5. Sadly I didn't even get the first step; somehow I must have just decided that couldn't be it! I tried several other odd/even possibilities, and usually I try things I think are pointless anyway just in case, but somehow I didn't this time. I guess there were too many other rabbit holes. I never would have made the connection to the second step in any case!

All I ever found were a bunch of promising first steps with no follow-ons:
- Add "try" to a clue for a new meaning ("PoeTRY collection," that's the only one, trust me) (and there's nothing to match it to unless you anagram the last 5 letters of DEAD NERVES to get VERSE)
- TOKEN (29D, center of grid) which means "not really trying" in this case, also could mean "chip," the first word of the clue for 39D (basically the only one but I could force a couple of others)
- The TV show not mentioned in the clue 1A is "Dallas," which city is unnecessarily mentioned in the clue for 58A. Not sure how that would have fit with anything but it seemed like it couldn't be a coincidence
- BIZ in the grid and "Bizarro" in the clues, ditto
- Change one letter of a grid entry and add "try" to make a word (I was reaching) e.g. GAPES -> TAPESTRY which sorta fits the first word of the clue ("Displays")

And too many more to list. Sincere congratulations (and awe) to all the solvers!
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#93

Post by BrianMac »

Thanks, Hector. We are fine! :D How is your dad? Everyone's power is out, but thankfully we have our own generator, which has been running since about this time yesterday. So we are very comfortable, even though it's 90 today. But it means I am charging all of my neighbors' devices, have all their meat in my freezer and all their kids in my house. I can't turn around without almost stepping on a kid or an iPhone.
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Hector
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#94

Post by Hector »

My dad's fine, thanks. He's in assisted living in Wilton and says he didn't even notice that the weather had been bad yesterday! Looking at the outages, his facility is probably (still) on a generator too. Looks like a full-employment program for CT arborists.
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Beth Tyrpin
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#95

Post by Beth Tyrpin »

I sent in “Alright”. The string was in alphabetical order so I thought I needed “IGHT” to finish the string as “Sight” should have been next and that “S” was just hanging out by itself. I thought it was an appropriate answer to the title.
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TMart
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#96

Post by TMart »

Though the path to the answer was pretty solid, and I got a definitive 7-letter answer (TIGHTEN) that made some sense, this one didn’t strike me as “clean” (which may be why Matt delayed it, and also maybe why the solve rate was so low at first with lots of wrong answers).

I think if the last across answer was SIGHT, instead of SPEND (and also clued to point at the clues), the final answer would have fallen right in line as the next alphabetical iteration of the -IGHT theme. But even then, the -EN at the end was a bit of a non-sequitor, though I understand that to fill the odd numbers of the grid, you needed 7 words.

I tried to grid out SIGHT in that last across spot and it can be done - change 58A to KONAS (plural of Kona, a Hyundai electric model)and 61A to SIGHT ( with GO I, TANG, AMAH and REST) on the downs.

I’m not trying to nit-pick, but I had a certain level of consternation when I hit submit with TIGHTEN as the answer. I was very relieved to see my name on the board.
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MajordomoTom
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#97

Post by MajordomoTom »

I was TIGHT with the TIGHT part, but the "EN" also left me wanting more breadcrumbs and/or some confirmation in the title or the grid that it was the end of the path.

I was concerned that there was a step 3.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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Al Sisti
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#98

Post by Al Sisti »

MajordomoTom wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:07 pm I was TIGHT with the TIGHT part, but the "EN" also left me wanting more breadcrumbs and/or some confirmation in the title or the grid that it was the end of the path.

I was concerned that there was a step 3.
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MajordomoTom
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#99

Post by MajordomoTom »

too late, pretty sure he lurks here.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
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DrTom
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#100

Post by DrTom »

TMart wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:34 pm Though the path to the answer was pretty solid, and I got a definitive 7-letter answer (TIGHTEN) that made some sense, this one didn’t strike me as “clean” (which may be why Matt delayed it, and also maybe why the solve rate was so low at first with lots of wrong answers).

I think if the last across answer was SIGHT, instead of SPEND (and also clued to point at the clues), the final answer would have fallen right in line as the next alphabetical iteration of the -IGHT theme. But even then, the -EN at the end was a bit of a non-sequitor, though I understand that to fill the odd numbers of the grid, you needed 7 words.

I tried to grid out SIGHT in that last across spot and it can be done - change 58A to KONAS (plural of Kona, a Hyundai electric model)and 61A to SIGHT ( with GO I, TANG, AMAH and REST) on the downs.

I’m not trying to nit-pick, but I had a certain level of consternation when I hit submit with TIGHTEN as the answer. I was very relieved to see my name on the board.
I thought that an R would have been a better ending letter to make the word TIGHTER since if "I Don't Even Try" to spend I'm TIGHTER with my money? One wonders if that was the kind of trouble Matt was having making things fit because if you change the N in NOL it messes with a word that then messes with LOTS of words. I've tried to create much simpler METAS (try being the watchword here) and know all too well the "darn, if not for that one letter" maelstrom.
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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