#668 - "Asked and Answered"

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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MajordomoTom
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#41

Post by MajordomoTom »

Scott, one to beam up, hopefully to the correct coordinates.

apparently I'm lost in space ... not on the board and he just updated it.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
Dplass
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#42

Post by Dplass »

DrTom wrote: Sun Mar 21, 2021 7:37 pm Holy CRAP! What a puzzle, I cannot believe that he accomplished that. I have submitted, with substantial nudging and someone correcting me at one point about some errors I had made, but in the end I am correct in my answer because, well because once you get it you go "WOW" and you knwo it cannot be wrong.

I wish I could take more credit because I saw the beginnings of the mechanism two days ago but overlooked a very important point that in truth I had noticed and did a "Huh, ain't that odd" and then just carried on. Some day I will get as good as I want to think I can be. But in the meantime I'll settle for being a mid level earth tone (Midi Ochre).
Picard Frustration.png
I felt exactly the same way. Had one of my co-solvers not noticed something that propelled us to the answer, I would not have solved it.
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Thurman8er
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#43

Post by Thurman8er »

Sunday evening and finally about to sit down and tackle this bad boy.
CrossedPurposes
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#44

Post by CrossedPurposes »

Are you there, Matt? It's me, Margaret.

I'm full of questions, and no answers. Would love a nudge/the opportunity to bounce my rabbit holes off someone.
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Bird Lives
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#45

Post by Bird Lives »

I did the grid on Friday, didn't see anything, and forgot to come back till now. Usually if I don't see the mechanism early on, I won't get it without a nudge. But from some of the comments here I'm hoping that if I keep on staring at the grid, I might actually find my way.
Jay
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DrTom
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#46

Post by DrTom »

I was correct, currently onboard Starship Gaffney in the low 200's - I'll take it! Now to work on Will's Pandora.
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!
Laura M
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#47

Post by Laura M »

Beam me up! That was amazing.
higgysue
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#48

Post by higgysue »

Beam me up with a nudge. Thank you, hashbrown! Would not have gotten there solo on this one.
smashburn
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#49

Post by smashburn »

Can I get a nudge? Super stuck. See one thing, but can't tell if its relevant.
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Thurman8er
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#50

Post by Thurman8er »

I literally lost sleep over this one. Couldn't fall asleep last night because I was thinking about it. Woke up early this morning and instantly started thinking about it again...finally just got up.

Matt was positively diabolical in the huge rabbit hole he constructed here. And insanely talented at this masterpiece of construction.

Now I'm going to go submit this answer I'm 99.99% sure about. And then take a nap.
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hashbrown
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#51

Post by hashbrown »

Thanks to those that reached out - somehow managed nudge higgysue without having the answer yet myself! If this was Week 3 then I wonder what trickery Matt has in store for Week 4...
-HB
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hcbirker
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#52

Post by hcbirker »

Finally got it after a bit of confirmation from Meg. That was a doozy!
Heidi
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Alvibu67
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#53

Post by Alvibu67 »

Beam me up! Wowzer, what a puzzle! Amazing meta mechanism and construction. I can’t imagine what’s in store for next week 😬
stmv
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#54

Post by stmv »

I just got it, after many delays for various reasons. I found this one to be really tough for a week 3 - I had roughly the right idea fairly early on, but then there were so many paths one could go down. Suddenly this morning I saw that one of the paths was right, and then I got stuck again, until noticing a wrinkle that hadn't occurred to me before. Once that wrinkle was ironed out (ha!), it was smooth sailing, and I'm beamed onto the board. Better late than never.
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ky-mike
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#55

Post by ky-mike »

Well, I got an "aha" and am pretty certain of the meta technique and answer, but I am not getting the final click as how I am deriving the answer isn't as clean as I normally see from Matt. Gonna noddle on this for a bit before submitting.
mheverson
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#56

Post by mheverson »

Have a couple inroads but all have turned up nothing obvious. Would love to get a nudge or bounce a couple things off someone.
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ky-mike
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#57

Post by ky-mike »

ky-mike wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 3:09 pm Well, I got an "aha" and am pretty certain of the meta technique and answer, but I am not getting the final click as how I am deriving the answer isn't as clean as I normally see from Matt. Gonna noddle on this for a bit before submitting.
My "aha" as to technique was correct, but my initial execution of that technique was flawed. Thanks to a fellow muggle for telling me to take a second look. This time, the answer does come together nicely.
i1mjm03
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#58

Post by i1mjm03 »

Struggling to get a toehold on this one.
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MikeyG
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#59

Post by MikeyG »

As always, one thing I love to do is see how people who got it made inroads. Mine was a weird bizarre set of confluences, I suppose. It was one of those where I went from "No, there's no way this is it" to "Oh man alive, I can't believe this is it." Look forward to seeing that after the deadline has passed.

Seems like a very fair Week 3, perhaps leaning 3.5; the average since I became a muggle in August for a Week 3 is 286; there have been some doozy Week 3's, including the "I had no chance" MASS IN B MINOR and, more recently, TOP HAT. I'm projecting this one might cap around 300 or so, maybe a bit over.

I'm a stats nerd, sorry! (He went data way!)
Less cross words, more crosswords.

Solve my latest "Pun of a Kind" Meta!: 89. That's Not Right!
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lbray53
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#60

Post by lbray53 »

Beam me up. And thankful for the help I got. Enough to keep me from giving up but not a giveaway.

Great puzzle.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
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