MEOW #31: Yin and Yang

A weekly meta crossword on the forum started by member Josh (aka madhatter5). These puzzles are often very creative with solving mechanisms out of the norm and skewing towards the more challenging. Puzzles are posted every Wednesday, and the solution appears the following Tuesday.
Dplass
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#21

Post by Dplass »

Submitted, pretty sure it's right. Nice meta, very Gaffney-esque (despite the "rule-breaking" grid.)
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ImOnToo
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#22

Post by ImOnToo »

Cat’s out of the bag

Enjoyed this one very much!
Konnie
Dplass
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#23

Post by Dplass »

Dplass wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:00 am Submitted, pretty sure it's right. Nice meta, very Gaffney-esque (despite the "rule-breaking" grid.)
Sorry, I forgot to thank @madhatter5 for the meta! Thank you!
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MamaE
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#24

Post by MamaE »

Cat out of bag with aid of a slight nudge to help me unscramble some alphabet soup.
- Just puzzling it out here in Delmarva :D
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eagle1279
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#25

Post by eagle1279 »

Solved & confirmed, great puzzle!
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lbray53
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#26

Post by lbray53 »

The Siamese is out of the bag. Solved and submitted. Not yet confirmed but I am at peace with my answer.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
michaelm
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#27

Post by michaelm »

Cat is purring because the meta is solved.
Watched too much Olympic gymnastics qualifying, so have to say thanks for setting up the balance beam, Josh!
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KayW
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#28

Post by KayW »

yinyangcats.jpg
Finally!! Fantastic puzzle
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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hcbirker
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#29

Post by hcbirker »

I was lacking a meta challenge today, so tried this one. What a strange grid, strange solve, but my cat is out of the bag.
Heidi
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Abide
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#30

Post by Abide »

My yin has yet to be yanged. Awaiting Saturday nudges...
The site is just a web page, a meeting place, a clubhouse - it's the group that's special.
—Brian MacDonald
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Beth Tyrpin
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#31

Post by Beth Tyrpin »

I had all the things to get this done and had them written down in a way that I should have been able to finish, but couldn’t see it. Came back to it this evening and there is was just as the other comments said. Very entertaining. Thanks Joshua.
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HeadinHome
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#32

Post by HeadinHome »

That was an unusual construction that broke all the “rules” .. loved It!

Cat hunting voles in the back yard.
The other Wendy. :roll:
madhatter5
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#33

Post by madhatter5 »

Nudge Saturday!

45A is a hint to the mechanism

Entries outside of the Yin/Yang symbol are involved.

Once you figure out 45A, you should have a list of entries. These entries will look meaningless unless you can manage to put Yin and Yang in perfect balance
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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Bird Lives
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#34

Post by Bird Lives »

The feline is free. I didn't look at the nudges. Honest. I did the grid on Wednesday, then ignored it till today. Because I do the puzle in .puz form, I can't easily see the ends of clues, so I didn't notice the stars. That raises the level to Puma at least. Even so, I got halfway there. When I finally did catch on that some clues were starred, the rest fell into place.

I thought this was a brilliant idea and design.
Jay
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m5rammy
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#35

Post by m5rammy »

Beth Tyrpin wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 8:37 pm I had all the things to get this done and had them written down in a way that I should have been able to finish, but couldn’t see it.
Came back to it ... and there is was
I had the same thing happen. :-)
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HunterX
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#36

Post by HunterX »

Just started this afternoon. Cat's out of the bag now. I did glance at the nudges, though I'd already figured those out. It was when I found another "hint" that the final piece fell into place. Nice meta construction!
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Darth
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#37

Post by Darth »

A fun solve! Nice puzzle, Joshua!
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sharkicicles
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#38

Post by sharkicicles »

got it. very nice!
madhatter5
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#39

Post by madhatter5 »

Solution:

45A was a cryptic way of saying that Yin, the symbol of agreement, contains synonyms of words found outside the symbol - while Yang, the symbol of disagreement, contains antonyms:

Code: Select all

    YIN                  YANG
 
 SOS -> HELP          CUT -> ATTACH
 IRE -> RAGE          EGO -> MODESTY
 AGED -> OLD          SOUTH -> NORTH
 PIC -> IMAGE         SHUT -> OPEN
 OFT -> USUALLY       BIG -> SMALL
 
To arrive at the final answer you need to take the first letters of these words and intertwine Yin and Yang (starting with Yin) to get HARMONIOUS
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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cbarbee002
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#40

Post by cbarbee002 »

Just got that about an hour ago. :-) Had all the words for a while, but kept trying to spell words vertically. Needed a meta whisperer to set me "straight". Good one Josh!
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