MEOW #26: Hop On Board

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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ImOnToo
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#21

Post by ImOnToo »

The cat is out of the bag ONLY because Boharr ripped that sucker open for me. My follow through was non-existent on this one. Nicely done, Josh!
Last edited by ImOnToo on Mon May 31, 2021 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Abide
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#22

Post by Abide »

Had this grid in my back pocket all week, awaiting Saturday. Worth the wait!
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DrTom
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#23

Post by DrTom »

Well I'll be darned, another clever Josh puzzle that befuddled me until I got a Creator Nudge. In my defense I THOUGHT about the right mechanism during one of my frustrated attempts, but to my detriment, thinking about it is not doing it.

Great puzzle and once again a prodigious piece of construction.

TB
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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MamaE
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#24

Post by MamaE »

Geez Louise, off the couch because Josh basically carried me. Rough one for me. Putting it in my memory bank of techniques.
- Just puzzling it out here in Delmarva :D
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HeadinHome
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#25

Post by HeadinHome »

Welp. I’ve read all the nudges and spoilers and still have no idea what we are talking about. ??

Update - thanks to Whimsy and Abide I finally went far enough to get it.

Gorsh - some of you clever muggles got that without nudges? I’m not worthy....
The other Wendy. :roll:
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Dannyvee
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#26

Post by Dannyvee »

Got the cat out with the nudges. Impressive!
I can be found in Sheridan, NY, veejaying. (8)
hoover
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#27

Post by hoover »

Ohhhh... With all of the spoiler nudges, I see the mechanism, which is something that I tried early on, but I was coming at it from a slightly different angle, so all I got was gibberish.
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KayW
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#28

Post by KayW »

Yeesh was I dense on this one! I sensed the mechanism right from the beginning, but stubbornly refused to apply it properly.

Thanks to Josh for a fun meta and remarkable construction...

...and for VERY patiently correcting the many wrong ways I tried to apply it. He probably felt a bit like SpongeBob towards the end :roll:
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.
madhatter5
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#29

Post by madhatter5 »

Solution:

The title was supposed to get you thinking about knights on a chess board. If you start at the circled squares and hop southeast like a knight, you can spell out some Knights of the Round Table:




kotrt.PNG
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
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FrankieHeck
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#30

Post by FrankieHeck »

Learned helplessness usually keeps me from attempting these, and I did not solve this one.

But with all the talk of solving metas in the bathroom, I'll share my amusement at the TMI in this puzzle when I filled in an M as the second letter to 3D, and then thought that "when he does it" (50A) was in the a.m. Took me far too long to correct that mistake. :D
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whimsy
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#31

Post by whimsy »

My definitely non-nudgeless path while test solving included something along these lines---

"L", "Yeah" -- "A", "Yup" -- "N", "Keep going" -- "C", "Yes!" -- "E", "You got it!" -- "R", "Argghh!" :D
Because LANCERS was one of the possibilities I'd tucked away in my head when first mulling a solution.
There were in fact 2 ways to get as far as LANCER (singular.)

At that point I wailed to Josh, "But I can't find an S! And that's only one of the circled letters anyhow!"
Whereupon he reminded me of the importance of 35A (and I believe upped the ante to "Very important direction.")

A little example of the back-and=forth of testing. :)
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RPardoe
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#32

Post by RPardoe »

Originally, I did NOT see the "Very Important direction" as I filled in 35A with the the crossings and never read the clue!
As a result, I was hopping all over the place without rhyme or reason.

Like @whimsy as I was spelunking through the grid LANCERS came to mind as I hopped down from the corner position through LANC..., but as soon it changed to LANCELOT the light bulb went off and the solve was complete.
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Bird Lives
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#33

Post by Bird Lives »

FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 7:32 am Learned helplessness usually keeps me from attempting these, and I did not solve this one.

But with all the talk of solving metas in the bathroom, I'll share my amusement at the TMI in this puzzle when I filled in an M as the second letter to 3D, and then thought that "when he does it" (50A) was in the a.m. Took me far too long to correct that mistake. :D
I did the same thing and e-mailed Josh to that effect along with my answer.
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Bird Lives
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#34

Post by Bird Lives »

knew that the answer would involve knight moves, but once you move from the edge onto the board, there are 8 choices for the next square and from there another 8 and so on. It took me a while, but once I found LANCE, I quickly saw how it had to go.
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I
Knights 450.jpg
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Jay
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KayW
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#35

Post by KayW »

I knew from the beginning that knight moves would be involved, as well the very important direction SE. And even the possible direction-changing DEMON. But I was intent on finding a one-to-one mapping of circled letters to answer letters for the longest time. I finally figured it out last night after several patient corrections from Josh.

This is particularly embarrassing since my name was one of the septad!

And only some of the Knights of the Round Table are found because Sir Robin bravely ran away, away.
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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