"New Order" - January 2020

A monthly, music-themed meta crossword published at noon on the first Tuesday of every month. The puzzles increase in difficulty each month, and at year end there is a 13th puzzle (the "Mega-Meta") that invokes each of the 12 monthly puzzles. Currently available at https://pmxwords.com/, as well as through the Washington Post website here: MMMM at WaPo
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Hector
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"New Order" - January 2020

#1

Post by Hector »

Got a little worried after submitting, for reasons, but all is well.
damefox
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#2

Post by damefox »

On the board. I was also a little worried after submitting, for probably the same reasons, which I'm not a fan of, but other than that a nice start to the year! Finally updated my screen name - last year I was ERO on the MMMM board.
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KayW
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#3

Post by KayW »

The first puzzle of 2020. The meta is a band that would complete this puzzle's theme.

Have fun and good luck!
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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KayW
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#4

Post by KayW »

That was fun! I had my guess ready to go before I completed the grid, but as usual waited for the leaderboard to confirm I was correct before posting here.
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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FrankieHeck
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#5

Post by FrankieHeck »

So about the red herring...am I reading it correctly that our best strategy for the mega meta would be to guess the red herring first and then the correct answer, for maximum points? Assuming you can't submit a second answer after you guess correctly?
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sharkicicles
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#6

Post by sharkicicles »

FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 1:44 pm So about the red herring...am I reading it correctly that our best strategy for the mega meta would be to guess the red herring first and then the correct answer, for maximum points? Assuming you can't submit a second answer after you guess correctly?
That’s how I read it FWIW.

Pretty easy January but one of my favorite bands!
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hcbirker
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#7

Post by hcbirker »

Well that was easy! And I agree we should submit the red herring first.
Heidi
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ChrisKochmanski
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#8

Post by ChrisKochmanski »

Got it. Nice, fairly easy warm-up for a new MMMM year.

I too am not 100% clear on the rules for the red herring. So I'll keep watching here.
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joequavis
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#9

Post by joequavis »

Officially joining the MMMM crowd this year. I tried a few puzzles last year and find them to be just the right difficulty level for me these days.

Looking forward to the music-themed banter.

Oh, and I got this one!
Laura M
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#10

Post by Laura M »

Fun one! On the lifetime leaderboard, I know I joined up partway through 2018, but my score that year is 0. I guess because I didn't solve 9 puzzles? Anyway, I'm glad Pete is doing another year!
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FrankieHeck
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#11

Post by FrankieHeck »

Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:39 pm Fun one! On the lifetime leaderboard, I know I joined up partway through 2018, but my score that year is 0. I guess because I didn't solve 9 puzzles? Anyway, I'm glad Pete is doing another year!
Yes, only solvers with 10 or more correct answers are listed. I'm looking forward to a full year, too!
Laura M
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#12

Post by Laura M »

FrankieHeck wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:46 pm
Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:39 pm Fun one! On the lifetime leaderboard, I know I joined up partway through 2018, but my score that year is 0. I guess because I didn't solve 9 puzzles? Anyway, I'm glad Pete is doing another year!
Yes, only solvers with 10 or more correct answers are listed. I'm looking forward to a full year, too!
Thanks, I guess I was thinking that meant that you had to have 10 solves total in order for your name to be in the list at all, but it makes sense that it's per year. I did get a full year in 2019 but I'm looking forward to another one! Though I see that the mega-meta won't have [***] clues this year, so I'm not optimistic about improving on that...
pmxwords
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#13

Post by pmxwords »

Hi all-

I wanted to clarify the mega-meta/red herring scoring since a few people mentioned not being sure how it works.
It doesn't matter if you get the red herring before or after you get the mega-meta. You will get credit for both in either case.

Thanks for playing!

Pete
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Jeremy Smith
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#14

Post by Jeremy Smith »

Got it!
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hcbirker
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#15

Post by hcbirker »

pmxwords wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:21 am Hi all-

I wanted to clarify the mega-meta/red herring scoring since a few people mentioned not being sure how it works.
It doesn't matter if you get the red herring before or after you get the mega-meta. You will get credit for both in either case.

Thanks for playing!

Pete
Thanks for clarifying that Pete!
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pmxwords
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#16

Post by pmxwords »

Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:39 pm Fun one! On the lifetime leaderboard, I know I joined up partway through 2018, but my score that year is 0. I guess because I didn't solve 9 puzzles? Anyway, I'm glad Pete is doing another year!
Thanks for finding a bug in our calculations!

Your 2018 score should be listed now
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Thurman8er
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#17

Post by Thurman8er »

This one was just right. Happy to join in another year of fun solving.
Laura M
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#18

Post by Laura M »

pmxwords wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:50 pm
Laura M wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:39 pm Fun one! On the lifetime leaderboard, I know I joined up partway through 2018, but my score that year is 0. I guess because I didn't solve 9 puzzles? Anyway, I'm glad Pete is doing another year!
Thanks for finding a bug in our calculations!

Your 2018 score should be listed now
Thank you so much! It's nice of you to read this forum and respond to something that I didn't even think was an actual problem, just something that I didn't understand :-)
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ky-mike
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#19

Post by ky-mike »

Going to try and add this to my meta-solving activities. January complete.
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Eric Porter
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#20

Post by Eric Porter »

It was an easy one to start the new year as promised. I didn't start until around September last year, so this year I'll be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing.
Nice to have Pete in this forum.
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