#568 - "First and Third, Two Out" - April 19, 2019

An excellent puzzle written by one of the innovators of the meta crossword format. It comes out every Friday at noon and increases in difficulty throughout the month. Available for modest subscription (worth every cent) here: www.xwordcontest.com
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BarbaraK
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#21

Post by BarbaraK »

Matt is hoping for over 400 correct answers this week so it hits his target for a week 2, and there are 370 now. So close, and a full day yet to go. C'mon everyone, we can do it!

If you're still stuck, I'd suggest tossing your current copy with the notes all over the margin and six colors of highlighting and starting again from scratch with a week 2 mindset. I know I tried to overcomplicate this one.
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joequavis
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#22

Post by joequavis »

Beam me up, Scotty!Somehow got the correct answer by taking a slightly wrong approach. Couple things didn't line up, then found the right way and confirmed my original answer.

-Matt
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BarbaraK
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#23

Post by BarbaraK »

Yay! We did it. 415 correct. And lucky number 400 was our very own muggle, Peter Abide.

I was afraid this was going to be a baseball thing - something I know very little about. But after spending some time googling the title, it didn't seem like it had any really strong meaning, so I took hope that it was just a reference to the 1st and 3rd letters of something.

Seeing CAT in COMMUNICATE, SPA in AIRSPACE, and AGE in SECRETAGENT had me scouring all the other three letter words in the grid or in the theme answers. Got so deep in that rabbit hole, I had to set the whole thing aside for a while.

When I came back, I started over and SAY, SPY, etc were so obvious I didn't know how I'd missed them the first time. Doh! Kas 2 for me.
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FrankieHeck
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#24

Post by FrankieHeck »

BarbaraK wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:32 pm I was afraid this was going to be a baseball thing - something I know very little about. But after spending some time googling the title, it didn't seem like it had any really strong meaning, so I took hope that it was just a reference to the 1st and 3rd letters of something.

Seeing CAT in COMMUNICATE, SPA in AIRSPACE, and AGE in SECRETAGENT had me scouring all the other three letter words in the grid or in the theme answers. Got so deep in that rabbit hole, I had to set the whole thing aside for a while.

When I came back, I started over and SAY, SPY, etc were so obvious I didn't know how I'd missed them the first time. Doh! Kas 2 for me.
I had that very same experience. Except that before I saw what he wanted, I did some other complicated and weird thing with three-letter words, taking off the first and third letter, that led me to submit the wrong answer. Kicked myself over that one!
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BarbaraK
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:37 pm
Location: Virginia

#25

Post by BarbaraK »

FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Apr 23, 2019 4:41 pm I had that very same experience. Except that before I saw what he wanted, I did some other complicated and weird thing with three-letter words, taking off the first and third letter, that led me to submit the wrong answer. Kicked myself over that one!
Aww, bummer. :(

But next week can be the start of your new streak!
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