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.
MEOW #47: Parallel Universe
- whimsy
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- DrTom
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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
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!
- sharkicicles
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Yep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.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!
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And here I was printing two grids like a schlubsharkicicles wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 amYep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.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!
- Joe Ross
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Until I overlaid them, these were my grids:Dplass wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:56 pmAnd here I was printing two grids like a schlubsharkicicles wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:11 amYep, solving it that way made quick work of the actual meta. This was probably one of my favorites of the year.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!
- BarbaraK
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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.)
- boharr
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That's not cheating. That's genius.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.)
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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): Or like this, to make it more obvious:Joe Ross wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:52 pmUntil I overlaid them, these were my grids:Dplass wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 12:56 pmAnd here I was printing two grids like a schlubsharkicicles 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.