"Signs of the Times" January 20, 2023

[mikeB]

This Year-of-the-Rabbit meta calls to mind the historical significance of rabbits in solving these puzzles. As we all know, the earth’s rabbitational field has been a feature of our planet for a very long time. Some scholars say it pre-dates the Magna Carta. Although the Magna Carta does not mention rabbitational fields specifically, an early draft of the document appears to have contained a meta crossword puzzle, which many historians believe was omitted from the final version due to fears of a singularity. Even back then, scientists knew that the publishing of a meta often results in an intense rabbitational field, especially in the vicinity of a prospective solver. The resulting force of rabbity can be strong enough to pull solvers into the upper reaches of the earth’s crust without their even being aware of it. Solvers can be stuck tunneling aimlessly underground until they overcome the force of rabbity and re-emerge to continue their journey to the answer. Although rare, a singularity can result, where the relentless pull of rabbity is strong enough to prevent light from leaving the resulting tunnel (so-called black holes). I have not had this experience personally, but Wikipedia says that, in extreme cases, the duration of these episodes has been measured, not just in seconds, but in minutes. To me, the Law of Rabbity is just one more reason why meta crosswords are so much fun.

[Bonnibel]

The fact that these were all clued IN ORDER as they appear in the Chinese Zodiac was epic construction!!

Also, did anyone else pause or notice clues/grid answers repeated from last week and the week before? David Lean movie RYANS Daughter, LIONEL Messi, ETA as an H lookalike, PISA as the Piazza dei Cavalieri site...all this seemed just waaaay too coincidental. Of course it bore no relationship to the meta, but for a moment there...it had me going, I must say.

And just like that it dawned on me like a huge bump on the head - in what I thought was an unrelated incident, I was reading about menu ideas for Chinese New Year. DOH! I love a moment like that!

Cheers everyone!

[JerryF]

Congrats to Mr. Bryant. Yea! A fellow Pompano Beach-er.

[diplomatt]

Usually when I'm far away at sea nowhere near the beach, I don't even bother with this site.

But I just checked the meta answer on this one, and I find the entire construction so remarkable. It's jaw-dropping. It's a thing of wonder. It makes me happy to be. Things can be so lousy sometimes, but sometimes there's shockingly wonderful beauty and cleverness in this world. In these puzzles.
Forgive the flourish. I just want to get up and applaud, and this is the only forum I have for that.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Before reviewing the results of this week’s puzzle The XWord Rabbit wishes to express his sincere appreciation to those who helped fill in for him last week: Wendy Walker, Bob Stevens, and particularly, Dr. Tom. They took the review of your post-solution comments with the same seriousness as your Rabbit without resorting to yet another Carmen Miranda video -- and for that, he is grateful. Alas, no nominees, but that’s the way the meta crumbles.

The X-Word Rabbit is often asked if he can predict the likelihood of worthy rabbit hole entries by the difficulty of the puzzle involved. After six months he can confidently answer: “No way.” There has been challenging multi-step metas which gained so little traction that you Muggles saw few, if any, paths to the solution and resigned. And even if there was a not-so-obvious methodology, everyone took the same misguided one.

On the other hand, a relatively easy week can yield a real plum of a rabbit hole story. Difficulty is in the eye of the beholder. And that’s the most curious thing: A meta is a thing with feathers. Sometimes you see the path clearly and easily; sometimes you don’t. And that brings us to this week’s challenge from Mr. Shenk.

You Muggles found your way to the shore rather quickly with this week’s puzzle from Mr. Shenk. The title and center entry pretty much spelled it out: 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac were referenced in a dozen across clues. The first letters of the answers to those clues, in order, spelled out the meta: LUNAR NEW YEAR. As Mr. Miller reported yesterday:

"A big turnout for this extremely clever puzzle … We had 2005 entries, with about 87% correct, above our typical 75%. Also 143 guesses for CHINESE NEW YEAR (presumably spotting all those animals but not going the final step). And 13 for YEAR OF THE RABBIT.”

Unfortunately, these numbers reveal not rabbit holes, but rather, miscalculations in seeing the last step. So we have another dry week for nominations. (Sigh.) But take heart, you misguided Muggles, the time is nearly nigh for the mid-year announcement of finalists for the Gold Rabbit Hole Award. Stay tuned, as a few mugs are being boxed up as Your Rabbit writes this – and he is giddy with anticipation. Good luck to all!

[BarbaraK]

rsz_yearoftherabbit.jpg

One again, kudos on the graphic. It’s fabulous!

[DBMiller]

I've had enough nominations that I didn't really need to post, but now that the Rabbit has posted, here's what I went through...

When I saw the title of the puzzle, my mind immediately went to a Times newspaper or Time magazine. There was an apparent confirmation when the very last across answer was rags which many papers and magazines are considered rags.

Further confirmation seem to appear at 41 across, lestrade, where you can make trade rags. I then took a minor turn in the rabbit hole where I noticed eye patch, and several newspapers are called the Eye or the Dispatch and digs was dis plus g. I also saw Yorkshire and we had newt so we have the New York Times with an extra T, but things went awry when all I could come up with for Appaloosa was Palo Alto which would be a change in letters on Alta, and now I'm doing three different mechanisms trying to make newspapers or magazines out of all of these across answers.

Due to the winter storm I didn't have much time to work on it and the zoom meeting came on Friday and I had gotten in late because I just got done from snow blowing the driveway. Fortunately for me even though everybody else had already solved there were still a lot of people in the meeting and I explained that I didn't have much time to look at it and told them of my current rabbit hole. I also commented that for China I could find a North China Times and was told that China was indeed somehow related to The Meta and to look at the clue.

Looking at the clue for China, I almost got on the right track but then I saw arts which was an anagram of rat plus S, or perhaps rags was a swap of G for T. Then I started looking for other animal zodiac anagrams or missing letters from the grid. Our illustrious Rabbit noted that I had the uncanny ability to find rabbit holes.

I had to be nudged again in the right direction to go look at the clues, where everything finally fell into place. I could now finish The Meta on my own. I knew after LUN what the meta was going to be with a DUH moment as I had previously considered what would be a current event this week.

I really need to start printing out these puzzles to do them. Looking at them on my phone I only get a narrow window into the puzzle and get a very narrow-minded vision of where I'm going, so I easily get myself down a rabbit hole where I often can't find my way out.

[BarbaraK]

...
We had 2005 entries
...

If only there had been 18 more!

[WSJosh]

Ashore, time for a Delectus cabernet