Monumental Moderation

[Ergcat]

We got the Meta 2 ( 11 letter phrase)! So much fun and a wonderful tribute to our Moderators!!
Merry Christmas, one and all!!
Ergcat and Regfish7

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Awesome puzzle! Thanks so much! Got the nine letter. Will look for the 11 next! Happy holidays everyone!

[AaronT]

Got the first one (confirmed on crosshare). Great work, gang!

Now on to part deux.

[TheFusionMoose]

Got the 9 letter answer. Now onto the 11...

[Miki]

9 letter was a nice one. 11 letters - not there yet.

[Jace54]

I solved both the 9-letter and 11-letter answers, great fun and creativity! That was a nice bonus to start the weekend.

[rjy]

What a great joint effort and tribute, folks! Got 9, still figuring 11

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 2 Leaderboards:

Okay, as more solvers reach the WSJ shore, more solvers have had a chance to have a "Monumental" experience:

Meta 1 (9-letter word)

Carolyn
Heidi
kurtalert
Ergcat
Regfish7
ky-mike
Joe Ross
Katiedid
Darth
Purdue81girl
BrennerTJ
HunterX
Berto
Tom Wilson
Mattythewsjpuzzler
AaronT
TheFusionMoose
Emily Woodard
Miki
Jace54
DBMiller
rjy

Meta 2 (11-letter phrase)

markhr
Darth
BrennerTJ
Ergcat
Regfish7
Jace54
TheFusionMoose

That makes 39 solvers of Meta 1 and 15 solvers of Meta 2 so far. Please let me know if I've missed anyone!

[Cap'n Rick]

Christmas Leaderboard

Merry Christmas, everyone! Five more Muggles have solved Meta 1, bringing the total to 44:

Streroto
TeamDoubleTow
Bob cruise director
eisense
michaelm

Meta 2 is proving to be quite elusive. Look for a few holiday nudges tomorrow.

Please let me know if I've missed anyone.

[dot]

Finished the metas. We are pretty sure about the 11-letter, but are awaiting confirmation. Woohoo! Fun solve.

[Qmark]

What a great team effort meta puzzle...thanks! Got the 9-letter word...now on to the second meta phrase.

[lbray53]

I had the pieces for the 9-letter but did not know what to do with them. Boharr nudged me in the right direction. Thanks for that! Very clever (and fair) puzzle. I should have looked just a little harder. I guess I have a second chance to do that with the 11-letter answer.

[MikeyG]

Time to get nudgy! Even these were a team effort!

In order of increasing blatancy, with muggles recognized.

Meta #1

An earlier working title for this puzzle was "Opposites Attract."

Indeed, opposites attract...and, oddly, repel at the same time.

I say this meta is wicked awesome; there's a definite possibility it's the best I've seen.

Our verbal scores are better than our math, since 1 + 1 = 1!

The puzzle title gives you two hints about the metanism. What stands out in terms of (a) the relative length of the two words and (b) the meaning of the two words?

I'd be okay if I could get the icy part to cancel out the hot!

Imagine my luck when I came too late to the party and realized one of the few options left to clue was 159-Across.

There are as many pairs as Ginger Cat has lives (MikeyG says thanks for the kitty shout-out!)

Nine of the clue-writers for this puzzle were MikeyG, Al Sisti, benchen, Mark Woychick, DrTom, AnswerPfinder, Chris Barbee, Jay Livingston (Bird Lives), and Whimsy. They each wrote two clues.

---

Meta #2

People in our culture generally have two names...discounting any aliases!!

All six Moderators (Peter Abide, Bob Harris, Brian Mac, Joe Ross, Bob Stevens, Kay Whitman) are mentioned by name (first or last) in 11 clues/answers. You'll notice that some of these clues are phrased a bit oddly. There's a reason for that.

Across the board these folks are great - we'd swear that up and down!

You may look in the grid initially, but you will need to expand your gaze to find the second meta answer.

In fact, we gave our moderators a monogrammed gift!

Hmm, so they used the first letters of grid entries in grid order for one meta answer. What are the chances they'd use first letters of clues in clue order for the other meta answer?

---

Happy solving!

Mikey G

[MatthewL]

Definitely needed the nudges, but finally got Part 2.

[Dplass]

Huh. Stumped on both parts... even with the most blatant nudges. Guess this isn't my day.

[ajk]

LOL had the 9-letter one almost instantly--except for a single screwup that hid the answer for several days until I came back to look at it again.

Now wondering if I had a similar issue with the 11.

[DBMiller]

Finally got part deux. Had way too many letters and wasn't sure which ones weren't being used. Finally figured it out.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update:

Okay, we've seen a little movement on the leaderboards:

Meta #1 (9-letter word)

Dannyvee
dot
Qmark
lbray53
MatthewL
ajk
DBMiller

Meta #2 (11-letter phrase)

Dannyvee
Bob cruise director
dot
DBMiller

Please let me know if I've missed anyone, and please be sure to check out our multi-constructor nudges if you're stuck. You can always send one or more of us a PM too.

[Berto]

Was almost there with the 11-letter phrase, got interrupted by a family trip to the bowl game at Ford Field (#QLB2022) but quick solve once I had time to sit down and go through my workings (with a bit of a reminder from @Cap'n Rick )

Appropriate phrase! Thank you all!

[ajk]

Lol yep. As with the 9, had all the parts and just wasn't thinking properly.

Either piece on its own would be nice, but the double meta was extra fun. Thanks