"How Hard Can It Be?" - July 22, 2022

[otlaolap]

Sixteen pages, with three hours still to go? (Darn it, now I've got an earworm -- "sixteen candles".) As Cruise Director Bob has remarked more than once, "Slim odds this week.". Good luck to all.

[ . . . and the earworm pushed this to page seventeen . . . ]

[dho]

Thanks to all in the Sunday Zoom Room for the advice, help, and support.

Don and Lisa

[JRS51]

Ashore, late but smiling.
I had step one shortly after working the grid Friday morning. Struggled over the weekend, probably making it harder than it needed to be as have others here. The whole time the “key” was in the back of my mind and finally this afternoon, I worked it out. In the end I can admit it’s a fun one!

[pjc]

Good luck to any muggles competing at Boswords today!

Please let us know how it goes

I participated on-line today (it was a hybrid event) and had a lot of fun; it went as smoothly as it always has during the on-line years. Some people reported a couple of minor technical glitches in the accompanying Twitch stream, but they were solved quickly. They also had interesting interviews with the constructors and a couple of very funny comedy videos (one a parody of airline safety announcements, but applied to the contest itself).

I managed to get a letter wrong in two of the puzzles (not Naticked or anything - just didn't check my acrosses and downs carefully enough), but thought all the puzzles were very fair and completely solvable - and fun! If at least one answer in a grid puts a smile (or laugh!) on my face, I consider it a success and the puzzles all delivered; such a talented group of people.

[vandono]

[...]

I spent this hot weekend taking photographs for our forthcoming Primitive Hall book. Here is one of the beautiful 15-over-15 ground-floor windows. Taken, of course, from INSIDE the air-conditioned Hall.

I'm always moved when standing somewhere where others stood centuries ago... wondering what they saw, what they were feeling, what they were thinking about and all that. It must be even more moving when standing where your ancestors stood. I'm glad you're able to preserve some of that history.

[Crest]

Down to the wire and ashore!

[iblinked]

On shore, with 56 minutes to spare

[Cbaudhuin]

Ashore at the last minute.
Rough sailing for a while .

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

[CAe39]

For this meta quite a few muggles posted their progress or lack thereof and then referred to their streak.
Isn't that a nudge when the puzzle is about Moh's hardness scale and streak plates are used to test mineral hardness

Just kidding. Congrats to all who made it ashore.

[C=64]

Isn't that a nudge when the puzzle is about Moh's hardness scale

I realized afterwards that I mentioned "Diamond Head" in my post.

[mydogsam]

Arriving thru a rabbit hole...
I noticed the five clues with answers in the normally relevant positions all ended in a "?" And then I noticed they were the ONLY clues that ended in a "?". Except for one. And that one was 66 across. And the answer to that clue was EGGS. So then I put my thinking cap on and went back to the title "How hard can it be?" And then me thoughts, oh HARD-boiled eggs. So I knew I was on the right track. But the only image regarding eggs that kept flashing in my head was in the movie where Sylvester Stallone drinks all those raw eggs before going for a run. And then I thought, well, he was training in a sport which is considered the school of HARD knocks and maybe knocks was somehow a play on ROCKS. But rocks isn't an adjective. So then I thought, OH! (slapping myself upside the head), the answer MUST be the movie title ROCKY!!! Whew... Well that's my "story" and I'm sticking to it... LOL..

[pookie]

RE: mydogsam
Don't make me laugh so hard. I just woke up the cats.

[Gman]

The contortions needed to make the word Gypsum in the grid were just too good to be hiding in plain sight. When the first letters of the five long answers didn't spell a word, MOHS was sitting there like a bright north star. Of course, I had to use Google to look up the MOHS scale numbers of the different minerals (by now, I confess that I just Google away as part of solving the meta). Of course, I thought APATITE was more of a hunger word than a type of stone!

[mheberlingx100]

College geology course finally pays off! That was so long ago, plate tectonics was still a relatively new and controversial theory.

[Dplass]

The contortions needed to make the word Gypsum in the grid were just too good to be hiding in plain sight. When the first letters of the five long answers didn't spell a word, MOHS was sitting there like a bright north star. Of course, I had to use Google to look up the MOHS scale numbers of the different minerals (by now, I confess that I just Google away as part of solving the meta). Of course, I thought APATITE was more of a hunger word than a type of stone!

I got it bottom-to-top. Once I saw TOPAZ and DIAMOND I knew I had unlocked it. Then I had to slog my way back to the top to slog the rest of the sloggy answers.

In the end it was a GNEISS feeling to find all those rocks.

(Paging @DrTom.)

[Barney]

A directional pointer to look up and follow the numbers made this puzzle quick and easy, though I did not submit the answer (that I did not independently find).

[OliviaL]

College geology course finally pays off! That was so long ago, plate tectonics was still a relatively new and controversial theory.

I remember spending most of Geology 101 texting my new boyfriend so I still had to use Google to look up the Mohs scale rating for each mineral, but a decade later and he’s my husband so oh well!

[HunterX]

I spent this hot weekend taking photographs for our forthcoming Primitive Hall book. Here is one of the beautiful 15-over-15 ground-floor windows. Taken, of course, from INSIDE the air-conditioned Hall.

Can't be that primitive of a hall if it has air-conditioning!