MEOW #47: Parallel Universe

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.
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whimsy
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#61

Post by whimsy »

I can answer that question to a certain degree -- although I was only on the fringes --

PAINSTAKINGLY!

Poor Josh - every time he thought he had it just right, someone would notice another "double" where there shouldn't have been one. Then fixing one thing......
Anyway, there were a lot of ARRGGHHHS! flying around in the messaging. Hence the curse of the cat in the intro.
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DrTom
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#62

Post by DrTom »

Dplass wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 5:24 pm
madhatter5 wrote: Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:42 pm Solution:

par.png
That reveal is just awesome.

Also, the meta was awesome. Wow. How did you pull that off?! Wow.

Just wow.
It was only possible because Josh is tireless! As Whimsy pointed out, it was very difficult to construct two grids with about 150 words and have 8, and only 8 of the right letters be the same. The man is a wizard.

Some people apparently solved the puzzle by putting BOTH answers in the same squares (from what I understand a square split diagonally). They solved it much easier than we thought because of course those squares would be immediately obvious. Now granted they may have gone blind and crazy in the process, but in the pursuit of the cat all is justified!

Oh, and to play off Whimsy's comment
Pain staking.jpg
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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sharkicicles
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#63

Post by sharkicicles »

DrTom wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:29 am Some people apparently solved the puzzle by putting BOTH answers in the same squares (from what I understand a square split diagonally). They solved it much easier than we thought because of course those squares would be immediately obvious. Now granted they may have gone blind and crazy in the process, but in the pursuit of the cat all is justified!
Yep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.

Image
Dplass
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#64

Post by Dplass »

sharkicicles wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 am
DrTom wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:29 am Some people apparently solved the puzzle by putting BOTH answers in the same squares (from what I understand a square split diagonally). They solved it much easier than we thought because of course those squares would be immediately obvious. Now granted they may have gone blind and crazy in the process, but in the pursuit of the cat all is justified!
Yep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.

Image
And here I was printing two grids like a schlub
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Joe Ross
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#65

Post by Joe Ross »

Dplass wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:56 pm
sharkicicles wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 am
DrTom wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:29 am Some people apparently solved the puzzle by putting BOTH answers in the same squares (from what I understand a square split diagonally). They solved it much easier than we thought because of course those squares would be immediately obvious. Now granted they may have gone blind and crazy in the process, but in the pursuit of the cat all is justified!
Yep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.

Image
And here I was printing two grids like a schlub
Until I overlaid them, these were my grids:

Image
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BarbaraK
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#66

Post by BarbaraK »

I kind of cheated on this one. Once I thought I knew what was going on, I filled in a .puz grid with the second set of clues. Then when I cleared all the “errors” the answer letters were right there. (I did go back and do the first set of clues, just for fun.)
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boharr
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#67

Post by boharr »

BarbaraK wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:16 pm I kind of cheated on this one. Once I thought I knew what was going on, I filled in a .puz grid with the second set of clues. Then when I cleared all the “errors” the answer letters were right there. (I did go back and do the first set of clues, just for fun.)
That's not cheating. That's genius.
hoover
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#68

Post by hoover »

Joe Ross wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:52 pm
Dplass wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:56 pm
sharkicicles wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 am

Yep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.

Image
And here I was printing two grids like a schlub
Until I overlaid them, these were my grids:

Image
This mechanism will never come up again, but on the minuscule chance that it does, the .PUZ format allows you to enter multiple letters in a single cell via Escape (on Mac, anyway):
Parallel Universe WW.png
Or like this, to make it more obvious:
Parallel Universe W.png
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