The Devil Lived in the Details
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DrTom
- Posts: 4335
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
CURSES...foiled again by the WSJ and impending MGWCC, nary a solver since yesterday!
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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hcbirker
- Posts: 2290
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm
- Location: Studio City, CA
What about little old me?
Heidi
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DrTom
- Posts: 4335
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Oh, you are there Heidi, but you solved Wednesday! However, you did make me realize that I had not updated the leader board. Here is where we stand:
1 MMe
2 Schmeel
3 Cap'Rick
4 boharr
5 dplass
6 Bird Lives
7 woozy
8 HeadInHome
9 MarkWoychick
10 ChrisKochmanski
11 Beth Tyrpin
12 Meg
13 oldjudge
14 rjy
15 Laura M
16 Mikey G
17 Andrew Bradburn
18 markhr
19 Wendy Walker
20 Brenner TJ
21 Chris Kochmanski
22 Cindy
23 Bob cruise director
24 BarbaraK
25 Benchen71
26 Ergcat
27 jhseeman
28 bbaack
29 CPJohnson
30 hcbirker
31 Joe
32 johnaldape
33 KayW
34 Tom.Runner
35 ky-mike
36 DebbieC
37 madhatter5
38 Cinny
39 TeamDouble Tow
40 JeanneC
41 cbarbee002
42 dudeski
43 ricky
44 Naptown Kid
At 44 solvers (newest one was actually today!) that is pretty good, and since I answer all of these personally I'd hate it to be the several thousand that Matt or WSJ get, but constructors are always vain enough to do an Oliver "More Please!"
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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Wendy Walker
- Posts: 1981
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
- Location: Unionville, PA
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vandono
- Posts: 259
- Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:15 pm
- Location: Texas
Took two nudges to move my tired carcass off of the couch. Well, pending confirmation that I've actually moved at all. I may have dreamed it.
EDIT: I am happy to report that I am still reclining gracefully on the sofa. heh. I'll get there eventually. Don't wait up.
EDIT: I am happy to report that I am still reclining gracefully on the sofa. heh. I'll get there eventually. Don't wait up.
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vandono
- Posts: 259
- Joined: Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:15 pm
- Location: Texas
Based on DrTom's helpful response, I've submitted a second guess.
Let's just say for now I am locked in Schrödinger's living room and may or may not be on the couch.
Let's just say for now I am locked in Schrödinger's living room and may or may not be on the couch.
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DrTom
- Posts: 4335
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
OK, now up to 46 solvers with the addition of dowjones (who actually solved earlier and I forgot to post him) and vandono above (I looked in the living room and he is not there, so...)
The write up on this one will be long I believe, I'd better start now.
The write up on this one will be long I believe, I'd better start now.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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minimuggle
- Posts: 633
- Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:33 am
really enjoyed the grid... so much that I'm just hanging out on the couch analyzing the meta. I am looking forward to the long write up which I will probably read on the couch. Thank you for the challenge
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DrTom
- Posts: 4335
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Well the last two have fled the couch:
46 vandono
47 MaineMarge
Ill take 47 solvers anytime! Thank you all for chasing the Devil. Alrighty then, what was the odd and devious thinking that went into this Meta:
Well THAT was fun, 47 of you found the answer to this LIVE puzzle!
Most of you submitted SPOTS which was the desired answer, lots of you submitted STOPS/SPOTS which was entirely understandable. My idea was that I would have these reversible words (semordnilap is the name for it, obviously palindrome backwards) that people would recognize and reverse them. The Title (Devil Lived…) was of course a hint because it contains one of those words (for those of you old enough to remember the Superman comic books and the appearance of Bizarro Superman, I was first fascinated by this type of word play when Bizarro Superman appeared to a bunch of people and said, “I devil” scaring the PARC out of them. Well he was bizzaro and got things backwards so he meant to say “I lived” – I have held onto that for well over 60 years!). I also included two “nudges” in the intro when I said “So try your luck and see if you can work out a reversal of fortune, and don’t forget to remit before the timer runs out” (italics added)
The first reversed word was LEVER which would transpose to REVEL, but the puzzle had a clue (44A) that was “Make wildly merry” and an answer of PARTY, but of course that could also be REVEL. This was repeated 4 more times in the Grid:
When it was all over you should have had STOPS with the first letter of the reverse word in grid order. But STOPS? I guess an accountant could stop errors, but the accountant would more likely SPOT errors and that was what I hoped everyone would see, that there was one more reversal of STOPS to SPOTS.
There were apparently lots of red herrings, all unintended I assure you. Unbeknownst to me I had SATAN anagrammed in two long answers and EVIL reversed in one. Thank heavens the last one was ok (sometimes an ICECREAMBAR is just an ICECREAMBAR) or I’d have had a LOT of explaining to do. There was also the inadvertent MOT (Honest I was not trying to hide Tom in there) along with the pesky A CAT answer. I heard also about people who went looking for Swedish cars when they say BAAS and, knowing my tendency for pun-ishment people took SUNUP to be PUN US. Those and several others were all by chance. I thought I had found them all when editing, but one thing I found when I was doing the THREE POINT PLAY meta is that three letter words are often either palindromes or semordnilaps. I tried to keep theme words all to 5 letters or more, and even got rid of a perfectly good NEMO answer because I saw it was OMEN backwards.
Anyway, thanks to all who solved and my apologies to those who my obviously unprofessional appreciation of unintended meta consequences led astray. Now, if you haven’t had quite enough Tom, there are still two days of MEOW for the intrepid!
46 vandono
47 MaineMarge
Ill take 47 solvers anytime! Thank you all for chasing the Devil. Alrighty then, what was the odd and devious thinking that went into this Meta:
Well THAT was fun, 47 of you found the answer to this LIVE puzzle!
Most of you submitted SPOTS which was the desired answer, lots of you submitted STOPS/SPOTS which was entirely understandable. My idea was that I would have these reversible words (semordnilap is the name for it, obviously palindrome backwards) that people would recognize and reverse them. The Title (Devil Lived…) was of course a hint because it contains one of those words (for those of you old enough to remember the Superman comic books and the appearance of Bizarro Superman, I was first fascinated by this type of word play when Bizarro Superman appeared to a bunch of people and said, “I devil” scaring the PARC out of them. Well he was bizzaro and got things backwards so he meant to say “I lived” – I have held onto that for well over 60 years!). I also included two “nudges” in the intro when I said “So try your luck and see if you can work out a reversal of fortune, and don’t forget to remit before the timer runs out” (italics added)
The first reversed word was LEVER which would transpose to REVEL, but the puzzle had a clue (44A) that was “Make wildly merry” and an answer of PARTY, but of course that could also be REVEL. This was repeated 4 more times in the Grid:
There were apparently lots of red herrings, all unintended I assure you. Unbeknownst to me I had SATAN anagrammed in two long answers and EVIL reversed in one. Thank heavens the last one was ok (sometimes an ICECREAMBAR is just an ICECREAMBAR) or I’d have had a LOT of explaining to do. There was also the inadvertent MOT (Honest I was not trying to hide Tom in there) along with the pesky A CAT answer. I heard also about people who went looking for Swedish cars when they say BAAS and, knowing my tendency for pun-ishment people took SUNUP to be PUN US. Those and several others were all by chance. I thought I had found them all when editing, but one thing I found when I was doing the THREE POINT PLAY meta is that three letter words are often either palindromes or semordnilaps. I tried to keep theme words all to 5 letters or more, and even got rid of a perfectly good NEMO answer because I saw it was OMEN backwards.
Anyway, thanks to all who solved and my apologies to those who my obviously unprofessional appreciation of unintended meta consequences led astray. Now, if you haven’t had quite enough Tom, there are still two days of MEOW for the intrepid!
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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minimuggle
- Posts: 633
- Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2020 7:33 am
Fantastic puzzle. Wow, great mechanism, and I'm so sorry I missed it. It was fun to enjoy from the couch though. Thanks
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ReB
- Posts: 712
- Joined: Sun Mar 29, 2020 9:34 pm
- Location: East Tennessee
You left me off the list - I sent you the solution early Wed morning, which would put me around 25 on the list. Perhaps it was so early it got lost in your compilation.
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DrTom
- Posts: 4335
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Sorry, you are correct, you come in at #26. I must have missed it earlier, so sorry!
26 ReB
So that makes 48 solvers, a stellar showing for me.
26 ReB
So that makes 48 solvers, a stellar showing for me.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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BrennerTJ
- Posts: 491
- Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:54 pm
- Location: Chicago suburbs