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"Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:31 pm
by BrianMac
The answer for this meta is a famous song.

Good luck!

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:35 pm
by Hector
Pleasant and kind of easy for October (aren't these supposed to get harder through the year?).

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:52 pm
by Leslie
Fun one -- not too hard!

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:53 pm
by Laura M
Glad it wasn't too difficult though, I'm still smarting (dumbing?) from MGWCC...

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:06 pm
by damefox
Agreed, pretty easy one this month. Little shout out to last month's in 58D, which made me groan.

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:20 pm
by Cindy
Easy solve. Now back to pgwcc.

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:38 pm
by sharkicicles
Pretty easy. I also got the mega meta as well... had the answer a couple months ago but waited to submit til now for some reason. :(

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:00 pm
by BarbaraK
Got it.

Guess it's time to quit licking my wounds from my mega meta red herring trauma and think seriously about that again.

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 3:06 pm
by sharkicicles
BarbaraK wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:00 pm Got it.

Guess it's time to quit licking my wounds from my mega meta red herring trauma and think seriously about that again.
I actually just emailed Pete asking what the mechanism for the red herring this year was... didn’t catch it before. It’s pretty dastardly. :)

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:35 pm
by TMart
Got it. 2 for 2 today - relieved to know that Rich O'Malley didn't break my brain.

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:54 pm
by FrankieHeck
That was so much easier than "Follow the Directions! (1)"

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:15 pm
by KayW
FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:54 pm That was so much easier than "Follow the Directions! (1)"
Agreed! I failed the original. I groaned when I saw the title of this one and hoped I somehow followed an old link. But smooth sailing to shore this time!

(Probably because the first time around I tried absolutely every way to follow directions except the one Pete had in mind!)

Now I have some time to turn my brain to the mega meta.....

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:19 pm
by FrankieHeck
KayW wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2019 6:15 pm Agreed! I failed the original. I groaned when I saw the title of this one and hoped I somehow followed an old link. But smooth sailing to shore this time!
I failed the original too. Thought I'd tried everything, but I had just tried everything except the *right* thing!

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:30 pm
by hcbirker
That was fun and pretty simple. Thank goodness! (Heidi)

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 11:21 pm
by GlennG
Mega-meta solved. Haven't seen anything yet on the monthly...

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:21 am
by ChrisKochmanski
Ditto the many comments above: Fairly easy, and fun.

Now I really need to think through the mega meta. Seems like I should have it, but ...

And we have PGWCC, Peter Gordon contest puzzle, WSJCC, and MGWCC to come, right? Fun week!

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:43 am
by KayW
oh poop. I'm now 0 for 2 on the mega meta. At this rate I will have a negative score for the year :D

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:28 pm
by FKelly
There seem to be two plausible answers to "Follow the Directions! (2)". Perhaps, there's another meaning for the (2) in the title. The first answer I found used familiar encoding method and led fairly directly to a possible answer. It's a famous song for a certain group, but not a genre that Pete Muller has used before (at least that I'm aware of). So I kept looking and found another answer that used a different familiar encoding method and also led directly to a possible answer. This answer was of a genre Muller uses regularly. Are there two (2) possible correct answers to this meta?

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:20 pm
by Jeremy Smith
I haven’t attempted all the MMMM metas this year, but I’m glad I tried this one. Crunchy grid and an enjoyable aha moment.

Re: "Follow the Directions! (2)" - October 2019

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 6:26 pm
by KayW
FKelly wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:28 pm There seem to be two plausible answers to "Follow the Directions! (2)". Perhaps, there's another meaning for the (2) in the title. The first answer I found used familiar encoding method and led fairly directly to a possible answer. It's a famous song for a certain group, but not a genre that Pete Muller has used before (at least that I'm aware of). So I kept looking and found another answer that used a different familiar encoding method and also led directly to a possible answer. This answer was of a genre Muller uses regularly. Are there two (2) possible correct answers to this meta?
I considered myself lucky to find ONE answer :) I did not see a second. If there is a second I'd bet it's inadvertent. But I know of at least one other time when a constructor allowed an alternate answer... the famous Matt Gaffney Border Crossings Maine/New Mexico kerfuffle.

https://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/2018/06/07 ... st-june-8/

Perhaps lightning can strike twice!