#46 - "Taking Reveals"

Creative and challenging meta crosswords (currently on hiatus) from: www.pgwcc.net
User avatar
FrankieHeck
Posts: 839
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
Location: West Virginia

#21

Post by FrankieHeck »

I used to think I was pretty good at anagrams...was it QuizUp or some similar app that had an anagram category? I used to play that a lot. But I didn't see these at all. Not even oregano! Still, it was pretty exciting when I started typing them into the anagram solver.
pgw
Posts: 90
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:24 pm

#22

Post by pgw »

Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 3:52 pm Didn't get REVEALS->LEAVES at all, but that's awesome! I thought that it might have helped to have an herb-related word in the title, but there already was one (sort of).

I really have no idea how I happened to stumble onto the solution to this one, but the idea of taking a letter from each theme word seemed worth a rabbit hole dive. It didn't seem that I could get new words with the letters in the same order, so I thought maybe anagrams. Here's where I cheated a bit, since it's on record that I'm hopeless with anagrams, and besides I still thought this wouldn't go anywhere. This is a useful site for this sort of thing if you're anagram-impaired like me:

http://scrabblewordfinder.org

From LAMPREYS, it came up with the following promising 7-letter words: SAMPLER, REPLAYS, PLAYERS, PARSELY.
ARROGANTE yielded the 8-letter word TARRAGON, so at that point I suspected I might be on the right track!

Kudos to anyone who got this without internet help! ORANGELO might have been the most obvious entry point, but I can see that only with hindsight...
That's a great solving strategy and not at all cheating. Metas are open-internet.
User avatar
FrankieHeck
Posts: 839
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
Location: West Virginia

#23

Post by FrankieHeck »

Ok, so after I posted about QuizUp, I decided to download it to my phone and do an anagram game. The very first question I got was " 'Replays' anagrams into what word?" and the answer was parsley :lol:
LesY
Posts: 678
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:21 pm

#24

Post by LesY »

Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 3:52 pm Didn't get REVEALS->LEAVES at all, but that's awesome! I thought that it might have helped to have an herb-related word in the title, but there already was one (sort of).

I really have no idea how I happened to stumble onto the solution to this one, but the idea of taking a letter from each theme word seemed worth a rabbit hole dive. It didn't seem that I could get new words with the letters in the same order, so I thought maybe anagrams. Here's where I cheated a bit, since it's on record that I'm hopeless with anagrams, and besides I still thought this wouldn't go anywhere. This is a useful site for this sort of thing if you're anagram-impaired like me:

http://scrabblewordfinder.org

From LAMPREYS, it came up with the following promising 7-letter words: SAMPLER, REPLAYS, PLAYERS, PARSELY.
ARROGANTE yielded the 8-letter word TARRAGON, so at that point I suspected I might be on the right track!

Kudos to anyone who got this without internet help! ORANGELO might have been the most obvious entry point, but I can see that only with hindsight...
Tried anagrams (REVEALS = SEVERAL?). Got nowhere. Just fired my old anagram solver website and hired Laura's. :)
User avatar
Hector
Posts: 1297
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:15 pm
Location: San Francisco
Contact:

#25

Post by Hector »

I didn't use an anagram finder, but I did get a hint that an internet resource useful several weeks back was also useful this time, which made me return to an anagram-hunt that I had given up because instead of PARSLEY I had PLAYERS.

I was stuck for the longest time on the fact that taking one letter from ARROGANTE yields ARROGATE, which means "take." What with pgw being an attorney, that just had to be relevant to a meta about taking.
User avatar
Al Sisti
Posts: 2037
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
Location: Whitesboro NY

#26

Post by Al Sisti »

I spent too much time looking at acceptable alternative answers to some of the clues, and anagramming them into parts of the theme answers. Like "ORAN|GELO: 23A One of Asta’s owners could be NORA and 26D Audience tier could be LOGE; ARMY|MAJOR: 49D Worshippee of almost 2 Billion could be MARY and 20A Hebrew name could be JORAM...just seemed too convenient to be coincidence...and yet...
User avatar
Beth Tyrpin
Posts: 512
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:11 pm

#27

Post by Beth Tyrpin »

I never considered anagrams. I guess I’ve been spoiled in the past and there was a hint in the title or clues that anagrams were involved. This was a big person meta. I was sitting at the kids table.
Locked