"Leap of Faith"

A weekly meta crossword created by members of the forum. Difficulty levels will vary. Hints are usually available starting Wednesday, and solutions are posted on Sunday.
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CPJohnson
Posts: 1078
Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:38 pm
Location: Kingsport, TN

#61

Post by CPJohnson »

I got it, but only because DrTom dragged me to it. A great puzzle! Thanks, Al.
Cynthia
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boharr
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Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:57 am
Location: Westchester, NY

#62

Post by boharr »

Al Sisti wrote: Wed Oct 06, 2021 11:40 am First of all, congrats to those of you who have solved it. For those of you who haven't, I know you will. Now, another challenge for those who have solved it and thought they were done: I've also put in a "hidden aha" within the clues.. and no-one has found that trick yet. All I can say is that I used a similar mechanism to that used in the solve, and that it's consistent with the title and -- to some extent -- the answer.
Did anyone find this?
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Al Sisti
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
Location: Whitesboro NY

#63

Post by Al Sisti »

Not a whole lot of obvious themed entries in this one, so where to begin? The only thing I gave you before the nudges was in the usual “hint” spot; the SE corner entry, which said “One side in a checkers game... the other is a hint to this meta.” The SE grid entry was REDS, which meant the other side was “Blacks.” Couple with the title, I had hoped solvers would deduce that they were going to “leap” over “black” [squares]. Pretty straightforward, right? Uh, apparently not. Without the nudges, I think there were two solvers.

Eventually, the nudges had you looking at five specific rows, and eventually, people saw that they could form the words:

ER_RAND
MA_TE
RUS_HIN
CA_P
GOL_D

…and solvers either saw (or found, by using OneLook) that all five could be proceeded with the word FOOLS (or FOOL’S), and by doing a quick search of Aretha Franklin songs, 32 solvers came up with the meta’s answer: “Chain of Fools” (each “Fools ___” phrase was formed by linking two partial words together, forming a “chain of fools”).

Thinking that might be too easy (ha!), I also worked super hard to create a second “hidden aha” that roughly used the same “chaining” mechanism, where I similarly linked the last word of the clue for the first part of the Fool word with the first word of the clue from which the second part was taken. Together, they formed a clue for the FOOL word. Confused? Here it is in a nutshell:

Last word of 17A with first word of 18A -- Quick Trip -- clued the word ERRAND
Last word of 26A with first word of 28A -- Close Colleague -- clued the word MATE
Last word of 39A with first word of 41A -- Burst Through -- clued the phrase RUSH IN
Last word of 47A with first word of 49A – Baseball Topper -- clued the word CAP
Last word of 64A with first word of 66A – Ring Element -- clued the word GOLD

Anyway, the reactions to this meta ranged from “my favorite” to “not my favorite” and everywhere in between. That’s fair, and it’s always a chance you take when you test the waters with a different mechanism.

The randomly selected winner of whatever she wants -- either a Blarney Rebel Band CD, or a Utica Club keepsake, or $15 donated to a charity of her choice -- is Cinny Congratulations!!
Solution.png
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cbarbee002
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#64

Post by cbarbee002 »

Very clever Al!
JeanneC
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Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:25 am
Location: Florida

#65

Post by JeanneC »

Clever…or devious! 🤔! Are you sure you weren’t a Batman villain in another life? 😁
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
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