"Alternate Version" - June 24, 2022

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is KNOCKOFF. The four theme answers have alternative answers that differ by two letters each (ASTRONOMER, HUNGARIAN, HEADSTAND, STALACTITE). Using those answers instead creates new words for the crossing Down answers, each of which fits another clue, like 19-Across’s “Sharp” for HONED. In clue order, they are: HONED: 19-A/KEEN; CAME: 22-A/NEARED; CHANCES: 38-A/ODDS; TREAT: 59-A/CURE; HOARD: 62-A/KEEP; ARIES: 32-D/ONSET; TIL: 50-D/FORE; NAME: 52-D/FIDO. The first letters of those grid answers spell the contest answer.

It's always a treat when Patrick Berry, one of the crossword world's most brilliant constructors, comes up with a contest for us. This one's mutli-step solution certainly had his ingenuity on vivid display. It also hit home with our solvers: We had 1607 entries and 93% were correct, way above our typical level around 75%.

Incorrect entries came in ones and twos: INTERACT, REMAGED, MOUNTAIN, CHANGING, REVISION, a bunch of others. Congratulations to this week's winner: Terrence Moenich of Perrysburg, Ohio!

[BrianMac]

Treat = 12D Great Delight (Glee) in my solve for, oh, at least 2 days?

I spent a full day there myself.

[DrTom]

Well that was a fun solve. I got the beginning of it in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre airport....

Although the trip to Scranton was not really for "fun", we did go out to a very nice place to eat. I had forgotten about the charms of NE Pennsylvania, this was at the Ledges Hotel in Hawley PA at their "Glass Piano Bar and Grill" restaurant:

Based on your post, I checked out the Ledges Hotel online. Looks like a gorgeous setting by the water. And SO very "Poconos." As we now have a place in the Pocono Mountains, we may have to take a drive and enjoy a meal there! We're in the "lower" Poconos though, so it's a bit of a drive. But it's a pretty drive. Great for a sunny day with the windows and moonroof open. And we'd get to go by places with great names like Lake Wallenpaupack, and the Lackawaxen River. (Lackawaxen is Lenape for "Swift Waters," and Wallenpaupack is a Lenape name meaning "The Stream of Swift and Slow Water.")

Thanks for the tip!

It is very nice, I am sure you'll enjoy it, and make sure to request outside seating! You left out the river that flowed behind my home as a boy, Lakawanna (Lenape for "River that Forks"). As for Wallenpaupack I always thought it meant "Big manmade lake that covers a village", but Wallenpaupack is much more fun to say.

[DrTom]

So glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who fell temporarily into the “treat”/“glee” hole! For some reason my brain just refused to read “doctor” as a verb, even while filling out the grid! But thankfully I caught my mistake fairly quickly. I really had a lot of fun with this one and agree that it was a super impressive construction to use so much of the grid!!

Well I for one feel a Doctor is always a treat!!!

[DrTom]

I had some misdirections as well: I saw GUARD but initially entered GUIDE, I wondered if WAFTED could be RAFTED. Actually since it was a two letter exchange I spent a LOT of time on GUARD but since I could not make the new words I abandoned it.

I wonder how many of us first filled in ASTRONOMER? I know I did. That and the STALACTITE/STALAGMITE gave me the path. I held out filling in the C and T since I wasn't sure which I was going for and the fills should have made it clear (and they did). However with that pair I saw the alternate words and thought "change tow letters get two new words, probably not random"

I really liked this puzzle - probably because I could solve it.

[Janet]

Another mugless Monday!
The issue I had at first was Aries -- Dodge ram had a ram(aries) for a hood ornament, so I matched it with fin (auto ornament).
With one wrong letter, I figured knockoff had to be the answer, and kept looking until I found Aries matching with onset (first sign).

[Joe Ross]

Big sisters are the worst. I know; I am one.

Younger brothers earn their keep.

[HunterX]

It is very nice, I am sure you'll enjoy it, and make sure to request outside seating! You left out the river that flowed behind my home as a boy, Lakawanna (Lenape for "River that Forks"). As for Wallenpaupack I always thought it meant "Big manmade lake that covers a village", but Wallenpaupack is much more fun to say.

You are correct, as Wallenpaupack was the Lenape name for the area, and the lake was built in the 1950's as a reservoir for hydroelectric power in the area. My first ever SCUBA diving experience, at the age of 12, was in that lake, looking for the remains of the village that was flooded out. I was searching the bottom and found an old train wheel. I thought, "A-ha! I must be near the village." Attached to the wheel was a chain, mostly buried under the silt. We started uncovering the chain and following it. Turns out it was just a mooring.

It wasn't until I got certified many years later that I realized how dangerous and irresponsible that dive was. But that's a different story.

[vandono]

I'll share my experience with this in case others who are newer to this like myself find it useful. The two main takeaways for me were: knowing the number of letters in the meta answer sometimes is a clue where to look, and pay attention to 'coincidences'. (Of course, a coincidence can also be a rabbit hole.)

I had ASTRONOMER initially for 17A until the downs didn't work and I thought "oh, interesting that both of those fit" but didn't think more about it at first. And then when I got to 56A I knew there were two answers that fit and glanced at the downs to figure out which one.. and didn't think more about that, either.

When I completed the grid, it took a while to come up with any ideas. At some point I wondered if switching ASTROLOGER back to ASTRONOMER would result in valid down words. It did, of course, and I thought "well, it that was intentional, how clever of him to do that" and I didn't think any more about it.

It eventually clicked that there were two possible answers for 17A that differed in two letters and two possible answers for 56A that differed by two letters, and that there are 4 of those long answers and I need 8 letters so having 2 per long answer seemed like it might be important - so I started looking for alternate answers for 34A and 39A. Eventually, of course, that led to 4 more letters but nothing I could spell.

It took me longer than it should have to think about the new Down answers and how that might lead to something. But once I thought of that, changing 42D to CHANCES and it being *right next to* 38A ODDS clicked pretty quickly. Having those close together and getting the wrong answer for 17A are ultimately what helped me. Having to refer back to the clues for the replacement answers (since they weren't always good replacements for the grid answers) and for the letter order was an unexpected complication, but now I have that in my toolbox.

I'll say it again: I thought this puzzle was a masterpiece. I am awed by the ability to execute something like this - to pack this much into a symmetrical 15x15 grid of letters given the constraints of using words that work for the mechanism. (Not to mention coming up with 4 entries of specific lengths where replacing two letters satisfies the same clue.)

[Richard]

For some reason I goofed and changed mil to AIL and then way too much time there. Figured it was Knock Off so I then relooked at everything saw my mistake and bingo.

This is now one of my favorites. Uses many of the words in the grid, couple of aha moments for me, and an answer that is a 100%er.

[femullen]

I really wanted RANDO to transform into WALDO somehow (person somewhere in the back of the picture…) but maybe we can save that for a future meta.

I wanted RANDO to transform into something too, but something different. I had never heard the English term RANDO, so it was the Smarter (and Younger and Hipper) Half that got that one. Funny, though, a "rando" in French is a shortened form of "randonee," which is an outing or a hike. And the Smarter Half, shortly before we solved the puzzle together, had just given me a book as a gift: "Randos biere au Quebec," which is a guide to beer trails around the province. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought when TSH filled that word in the grid, if Patrick Berry had hidden a trail of brewery names in the grid. Obviously too much of a coincidence, but that's how the puzzled brain occasionally works.

[MikeM000]

Another mugless Monday!
The issue I had at first was Aries -- Dodge ram had a ram(aries) for a hood ornament, so I matched it with fin (auto ornament).
With one wrong letter, I figured knockoff had to be the answer, and kept looking until I found Aries matching with onset (first sign).

Speaking of.... hopefully I'm not the only person around here who recently added "astrological signs in order" to their Google search history....

[Dplass]

I always have to remember from school days that the ones coming from the Ceiling are stalaCtites while.the one coming from the Ground are stalaGmites. C for ceiling, g for ground.

Around 60 years ago, we visited the Oregon Caves, where a docent explained how to remember which is which:

A stalactite has to hold on tight or it might become a stalagmite.
A stalagmite would have been a stalactite if it had held on a might tighter.

We learned stalaCtite is on the Ceiling (both have C)

[Barney]

I always have to remember from school days that the ones coming from the Ceiling are stalaCtites while.the one coming from the Ground are stalaGmites. C for ceiling, g for ground.

Around 60 years ago, we visited the Oregon Caves, where a docent explained how to remember which is which:

A stalactite has to hold on tight or it might become a stalagmite.
A stalagmite would have been a stalactite if it had held on a might tighter.

C for ceiling

G for ground

[SusieG]

I was disappointed this morning when I woke up and remembered too late that I didn’t submit my answer before the deadline. Oops.

[Bob cruise director]

A quick note for all the scorekeepers. While Mike Miller was on vacation, the percentage correct statistics for the June 3 (Be Transformed) and June 10 (Think of A Number) were not kept and unfortunately the data was lost.

[Joe Ross]

I wanted RANDO to transform into something too, but something different. I had never heard the English term RANDO, so it was the Smarter (and Younger and Hipper) Half that got that one. Funny, though, a "rando" in French is a shortened form of "randonee," which is an outing or a hike. And the Smarter Half, shortly before we solved the puzzle together, had just given me a book as a gift: "Randos biere au Quebec," which is a guide to beer trails around the province. Wouldn't it be fun, I thought when TSH filled that word in the grid, if Patrick Berry had hidden a trail of brewery names in the grid. Obviously too much of a coincidence, but that's how the puzzled brain occasionally works.

Beer trails?!?!?

[Dplass]

I always have to remember from school days that the ones coming from the Ceiling are stalaCtites while.the one coming from the Ground are stalaGmites. C for ceiling, g for ground.

Around 60 years ago, we visited the Oregon Caves, where a docent explained how to remember which is which:

A stalactite has to hold on tight or it might become a stalagmite.
A stalagmite would have been a stalactite if it had held on a might tighter.

C for ceiling

G for ground

That's so much better!

[JRS51]

I always have to remember from school days that the ones coming from the Ceiling are stalaCtites while.the one coming from the Ground are stalaGmites. C for ceiling, g for ground.

Around 60 years ago, we visited the Oregon Caves, where a docent explained how to remember which is which:

A stalactite has to hold on tight or it might become a stalagmite.
A stalagmite would have been a stalactite if it had held on a might tighter.

Our guide in Carlsbad Caverns quite a few years ago used a similar, more succinct phrase:
Stalactites stick tight (ie, to the ceiling)
Stalagmites might (reach the ceiling some day)

[JRS51]

One misspelling ("STALAGTITE?") hampered my progress. Fairly sure I wasn't the only victim here. After correcting, I had to back-solve one clue (the same as @ALS , @Colin and/or @JRS51?), as I was using "12D Great Delight" for "TREAT".

TFTXWD. Truly an exquisite construction.

Yes, as you surmised, and as many others have since posted as well, I initially chose 12D for TREAT. I looked at all the C answers several times, discarding all of them including "Doctor" until I finally gave it enough consideration to realize that was the one.