#699 - “Nothing Will Change”

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
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BrennerTJ
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#41

Post by BrennerTJ »

Beamed up.
-Tamara
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Jeremy Smith
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#42

Post by Jeremy Smith »

Beamed (or should I say hoisted) up! :lol:
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Bird Lives
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#43

Post by Bird Lives »

I see how some people could catch the mechanism right off the bat. I was not one of them and got there thanks to a shove. Matt did something like this before (in a puzzle I thought was better). I'm always impressed in Matt's puzzles by how the prompt, title, and mechanism all tie together.
Last edited by Bird Lives on Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jay
NoFeetMcGee
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#44

Post by NoFeetMcGee »

Oof, this is maddening. I got last week's right away, had no clue it'd even be hard for some... and this week I feel utterly, totally clueless. From what I've read I'll kick myself when I find out. At this point, would be willing to accept small nudges via DM, even just someone going through the thousand directions my mind is pointing and steering me to the closest one.
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joequavis
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#45

Post by joequavis »

Phew beam me up! Saw some things early on chasing a wrong idea, but finally caught on.
NoFeetMcGee
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#46

Post by NoFeetMcGee »

NoFeetMcGee wrote: Mon Oct 25, 2021 9:14 pm Oof, this is maddening. I got last week's right away, had no clue it'd even be hard for some... and this week I feel utterly, totally clueless. From what I've read I'll kick myself when I find out. At this point, would be willing to accept small nudges via DM, even just someone going through the thousand directions my mind is pointing and steering me to the closest one.
FINALLY beamed up with help from Joe and Barbara. Lack of certain vocab was really killing me on this one.
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bhamren
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#47

Post by bhamren »

Finally took a look at this today. Once I caught the first clue the rest came fairly fast (with google).
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hcbirker
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#48

Post by hcbirker »

Finally! Beam me up!
Heidi
breadbasket
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#49

Post by breadbasket »

Can anyone spare a last-minute nudge? Seem to be missing something here...
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sharkicicles
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#50

Post by sharkicicles »

Not gonna lie, 40 was the that broke this open for me. Not sure what that says about me.
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Wendy Walker
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#51

Post by Wendy Walker »

My worksheet: Unlike ^ 40 was the last one I found!
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MWAHAHA.jpg
Last edited by Wendy Walker on Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
Carolyn
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#52

Post by Carolyn »

Nope, never would have gotten it.
EmilyW
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#53

Post by EmilyW »

This is the second time this week I got the mechanism but couldn't get all the themers. I got 40, 300, and 420. I'm not sure how I didn't think to look at 180 and 360. I thought maybe 70 could be bunches and bunches, and 100 could be usually-not-really-true text. I went down a bit of a "nothing" rabbit hole based on the title but only found RIEN which is French for nothing, and maybe PLACEBO. This was a really cool meta though, congrats to all the solvers!
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rjy
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#54

Post by rjy »

My scribbles looked remarkably like Wendy's - fixated on LAPAZ/PLAZA/LOPEZ, or the notion that "Nothing will change" mayyybe (kind of?) pertained to some answers that differed by a single letter that could answer the same clue, like MEDAL/METAL for Silver or Gold, or NUKE/NIKE for Minuteman, AMAR/OMAR for long-lived, ITSALLDONE/ITSALLGONE, even OTTER/OSTER.

But even once I got the mechanism, I did not know "40" was a common term for a can, and googling (sort of) implied that "ounce" needed to be in there.

And the fact that there's a movie called "730" completely sunk me, that I had an extra "R" (from Rudy) that fully clicked but didn't fit.

Others that threw me: 540 "U" (YOU) is a U-Boat, and 280 PRESS is a Xerox machine.

Too hard to get to the solution with those red herrings and not having landed the "Z". Oh well.
Ray
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mntlblok
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#55

Post by mntlblok »

On a vacation trip so didn't give this one much of a go. Reading the comments sent me googling the first one. Urban dictionary then also found me some handy medical info.
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Meg
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#56

Post by Meg »

There are 2 achievements to be unlocked with Matt's week 5 puzzle:
Solve a puzzle on Halloween
Solve a week 5 puzzle on Halloween

Both of these involve submitting your answer on Sunday.
If you don’t know what achievements are, click on your blue name (hyperlink) under the tab for This Week.
Check out and support http://CrosswordsForCancer.com.
architect
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#57

Post by architect »

Meg wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:33 am There are 2 achievements to be unlocked with Matt's week 5 puzzle:
Solve a puzzle on Halloween
Solve a week 5 puzzle on Halloween

Both of these involve submitting your answer on Sunday.
If you don’t know what achievements are, click on your blue name (hyperlink) under the tab for This Week.

Thanks for the reminder, even though I have this achievement. I'm down to just three more locked achievements:
  • 1-Across: I came really close to being the first solver two Fridays ago.
  • Holly Jolly Crossword: Christmas is on Saturday this year, so that ought to be an easy one to get (if I remember).
  • Buzzer Beater: This one runs against my nature, waiting until five minutes before the end to turn it in.

So, yeah, the latter two should be easy enough, but it's rare that I get in striking distance for the first one. I guess we'll just see.
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BarbaraK
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#58

Post by BarbaraK »

Today’s puzzle not coming until tomorrow, which means one less day to solve in time for the Halloween achievements. Uh oh.
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