#685 - "Get Out Your Wite-Out"

An excellent puzzle written by one of the innovators of the meta crossword format. It comes out every Friday at noon and increases in difficulty throughout the month. Available for modest subscription (worth every cent) here: www.xwordcontest.com
Cuse
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#61

Post by Cuse »

At last ... beam me up!
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SusieG
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#62

Post by SusieG »

FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:41 pm I *finally* got this one almost immediately after taking my first ever sip of Red Bull. (We won some in a drawing at a bar.) If I start buying/drinking that crap, I'm going to blame Matt.
Maybe that’s my problem - not enough caffeine!
Cow
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:11 pm

#63

Post by Cow »

I've been lurking around here for many months now, but never made an account until today. Just wanted to say that this puzzle was fantastic. I had to come back to it several times, but finally saw the light earlier today, and was so amazed at the construction that I had to come here to say nice things about it :D
JennyByrd
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Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2020 2:51 pm
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#64

Post by JennyByrd »

UPDATE: Nudge Received, answer submitted, but rejected as it was after midnight eastern time” - I thought the deadline was noon Weds, but apparently not. Thanks for the nudge - wouldn’t have gotten it without the help.

would appreciate a nudge. Have gotten the grid and saw ‘step 1’ while still completing the grid. But no further enlightenment has come. Not looking for the solution, but perhaps a gentle nudge in a certain direction…. Frustrated and running low on time…
Last edited by JennyByrd on Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RPardoe
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#65

Post by RPardoe »

JennyByrd wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:17 pm I would appreciate a nudge. Have gotten the grid and saw ‘step 1’ while still completing the grid. But no further enlightenment has come. Not looking for the solution, but perhaps a gentle nudge in a certain direction…. Frustrated and running low on time…
PM Sent
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Joe Ross
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#66

Post by Joe Ross »

JennyByrd wrote: Tue Jul 20, 2021 11:17 pm UPDATE:... answer submitted, but rejected as it was after midnight eastern time” - I thought the deadline was noon Weds, but apparently not.
AM for PM might have been entered when resetting the deadline. It seems to have been fixed, as you're on the leaderboard. Congratulations!

In the future, should this happen, solvers can email their answers to Matt on crosswordcontest@gmail.com.
Frausty
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:42 am

#67

Post by Frausty »

Been staring at a heavily highlighted grid (with obvious first Thing clearly visible but noticing nothing else yet) for many minutes now. Going to sleep on it with crossed fingers but still humbly requesting the most delicate of nudges and/or simple chats
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SusieG
Posts: 431
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#68

Post by SusieG »

Edit: have nudge(s) thanks

I think I’ve been looking at this wrong all along. If anyone is available for a nudge I’d appreciate it.
Big Mac
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Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2020 1:01 pm
Location: Vienna, VA

#69

Post by Big Mac »

OK I give up. Looking for last second nudge/assistance...

EDIT: Thank you all!
Last edited by Big Mac on Wed Jul 21, 2021 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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SusieG
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#70

Post by SusieG »

Thanks to the three Good Samaritans that dragged me out of the ditch. I’m waiting to be beamed up. Very nice puzzle, as usual.
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hashbrown
Posts: 123
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2020 9:25 am
Location: Scotland

#71

Post by hashbrown »

Anyone around for a last minute bail out?

Spotted the obvious thing that everyone has been mentioning but lost as to what comes next ...

E: Also dragged to safety, thank you to all who helped - slowly working my way back to a 10 emoji!
Last edited by hashbrown on Wed Jul 21, 2021 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
-HB
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Joe
Posts: 546
Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 12:45 pm
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#72

Post by Joe »

Nudged to the... no wait... DRAGGED KICKING AND SCREAMING to the transporter bay by cbarbee002. Thanks again. Happy to be aboard. yeesh
Happy to give nudges. If you notice I've solved, please tell me about avenues you've explored so I can nudge you in the right direction and not off a cliff.
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KayW
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#73

Post by KayW »

Submitted "buzzer beater" entry....

<refresh>
<refresh>
<refresh>

... and :alien: :flying_saucer:!
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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Dannyvee
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Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:39 am
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#74

Post by Dannyvee »

Got my buzzer beater! (for real, didn’t solve until 11:55)
I can be found in Sheridan, NY, veejaying. (8)
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Joe
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Joined: Sat May 11, 2019 12:45 pm
Location: New Hampshire

#75

Post by Joe »

Another joon DNF this week. I was gonna be right with him without the help I got. I REFUSED to accept that the TYPOs could be replaced by letters that made the entry a new clue. I was CONVINCED that I was looking for new entries.

Also, Warsaw in two different clues? Come on!
Happy to give nudges. If you notice I've solved, please tell me about avenues you've explored so I can nudge you in the right direction and not off a cliff.
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ajk
Posts: 925
Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:22 pm
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#76

Post by ajk »

I was hung up for the longest time on how to replace the TYPOs. I even tried '4 letter grid entries' pretty early on, but either PARISLANES didn't jump right out at me or I somehow didn't try ISLA.

Also noticed early on that all the themers were the same length and thus paired with a single word of the same length on the same line. For some reason I didn't connect those until right after I sent my white flag PM. At that point I tried ISLA again(?) and looked more closely at the result. Then SIXANDSUCH, which didn't seem like a slam dunk but was promising. When SALOONALES came up I knew it was right, and the rest took like 10 min.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
stmv
Posts: 296
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:12 pm

#77

Post by stmv »

ajk wrote: Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:35 pm I was hung up for the longest time on how to replace the TYPOs. I even tried '4 letter grid entries' pretty early on, but either PARISLANES didn't jump right out at me or I somehow didn't try ISLA.
Pretty much my experience also, except that I'm sure that I tried ISLA and saw PARIS LANES, but I didn't realize that it was a clue, despite having a good idea from early on that the theme entries were going to connect to other words in the grid of lengths given by the parenthesized numbers. I would have been much faster if I had connected those two insights.

What finally did it for me was becoming obsessed with the idea that the WER in MEATY POWER should become ANSWER after replacement, and I saw NANS among the 4-letter entries, so it become MEAN ANSWER, leading to RIPOSTE, and from there it was fast.

For a while I was hung up on AIRPORT as an entry, but for the wrong reason: The entry EWRY seemed very unusual, and contains EWR, an airport, but I couldn't make that go anywhere.
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FrankieHeck
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#78

Post by FrankieHeck »

MikeyG wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:18 pm Hardest Week 3's of 2021 were TOP HAT (133) and OCHO (228). I'm thinking about 250 or so for this one
Mikey G
Dang, good guess!
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RPardoe
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#79

Post by RPardoe »

Agree - we were at 180 yesterday and I would have bet @MikeyG we wouldn't get to his number.
He knows about the last day surge for sure!
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MikeyG
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#80

Post by MikeyG »

I've definitely studied the surges before, haha!

This reminded me a lot of AMUSED, which was one several months back where each row was important, i.e. you needed the key entry (here, the TYPO one) and that involved something with the other row. In AMUSED, I think it was you used the Greek letter embedded in the first entry to extract a letter from the second.

This might point to a doozy of a Week 4 and Week 5 this month - only time will tell!
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