#642 - "We're Surrounded!"

[JordanianTomlinson]

Got it with a lot of help from Joe. Struggling more with the week 3s than 4s these days

[chnest]

I think I have the core idea, but not sure how to proceed

[norrin2]

Well, I've had three nudges (Thanks, Muggles!) and still can't get it. Can someone please give me a shove?

[Streroto]

Wow. So many happy campers. I am completely LAS. I got a delayed start as I was visiting my grandson (yay) which has happened way too infrequently in his 9 month life. So if/when I go down the tubes on this one I won’t have a single regret.

Stay well all

[Andrew Bradburn]

My short streak is over at 9 weeks, time to start a new one. I made an educated guess (wrongly it turned out), as I was never going to get this. Could only find one thread to follow, and nothing ever developed from it. I can always tell that I will struggle with a puzzle when I have no clue what the title is referring to, and cannot figure it out in due course. My hat is off to those who solve Mr. Gaffney's puzzles every single week. I am getting better at them, but often they are just too tough for me.

[Kaille]

Week 3s are always the death of me. I am shamelessly asking for a nudge if anyone is still out there.

[DrTom]

Week 3s are always the death of me. I am shamelessly asking for a nudge if anyone is still out there.

Nudge unabashedly sent! Check your PM

[Kaille]

Pretty sure I have it! Thanks for the nudges. I don't know how I missed it!

[tonyrobots]

Guess I'll chalk this one up as another miss, unless lightning strikes in the next 20 minutes. The misses been piling up lately! To be fair though, I've been a bit distracted and spending less time staring at grids, unfortunately.

[Big Mac]

I decided not to 16A and got my second Hail Mary completion of the year. I submitted Blue's Clues at 11:59am in desperation. Wow.

[tonyrobots]

Yup, same, @Big Mac. Last minute Hail Mary for the "win." Now will try to backsolve.

[damefox]

My "spoiler" from an earlier post:

I predict many correct Hail Mary guesses this week (on this and the WSJ).

Looks like I may have been right.

[tonyrobots]

@damefox Gotta admit that your post may have given me the confidence (?) to submit my guess.

[Big Mac]

My "spoiler" from an earlier post:

I predict many correct Hail Mary guesses this week (on this and the WSJ).

Looks like I may have been right.

Yep. The apostrophe pattern was too much of a coincidence. I saw it immediately when completing the grid and then never got beyond it (despite writing down the surrounding letter pattern several times - d'oh!). Submitting the the most well-known answer with an apostrophe seemed prudent having gotten that far.

[Joe Ross]

[Richard B.]

Would it have been more elegant (and/or complete) to have had the first letter of each of the clues for the 5 relevant three letter entries to have been C-L-U-E-S?

[norrin2]

Why is it only the three letter words that count? Isn't the G in MIDGE surrounded by D and E? And the T in TATS by the A and the S?

[Joe Ross]

Why is it only the three letter words that count? Isn't the G in MIDGE surrounded by D and E? And the T in TATS by the A and the S?

Mots croisés d'élégance!

[norrin2]

Why is it only the three letter words that count? Isn't the G in MIDGE surrounded by D and E? And the T in TATS by the A and the S?

Mots croisés d'élégance!

More like Mots croisés déroutant!

[Jacksull]

I solved the BLUE’S part of the meta, but where does the CLUES part come from? Did I miss it, or is it just understood?

I did find a “C” surrounded by AHAH, but that was it for me.