37. Endgames
- MikeyG
- Posts: 1456
- Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:52 pm
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- Contact:
37. Endgames
PDF and PUZ
Crosshare
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1. Puzzle #36 recap
Puzzle #36 answer: HIGHLIGHTER
Correct entries: 37
One of my favorite puzzles of the summer - and one that came to me while eating something spicy one day, which is every day.
I like the fact that you have to be a little clever in figuring out what's going on with the mechanism. My line of reasoning:
a. We have 7 starred entries - but also the fact that the prompt clearly says what we're looking for is more than 7 letters. So at least something else is going on.
b. In perhaps bold, iconoclastic contrast to the title, the starred entries all seem to be congregating toward the bottom of the grid...so something clearly is going on toward the top!
c. This is where we have to be a little bit more sneaky, but I will aver that - since I like clues that might have more than one entry that fits of the same length - I figured that it might be possible that you maybe made one of these actual guesses during the solving!
In any case, if we take a look at the starred entries in conjunction with the top of the grid, we see what almost seems to be the rest of a synonymous entry, once a letter is appended:
L ASHES (facial features)
I CONIC (renowned)
G LAND (pancreas, for one)
H ONE (sharpen)
T EASE (ridicule)
E STATE (tax type)
R ANTS (talks wildly)
The initial letters of these words spell out LIGHTER, which is not really a valid school supply in my book! (You could perhaps make a tenuous argument that you could use it a chemistry lab - and I had a chemistry pun to make here, but all the good ones argon).
Once we get to this part, we recognize we need more than just a string of 7 letters - and once we take the title into consideration, the letters are certainly higher on the grid than the rest of the puzzle! There is your HIGHLIGHTER (great for solving metas as well, as @FrankieHeck said!).
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2. Leaderboard of Destiny
(To be updated sometime this week!!)
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3. This is the final installment of Summer of Solves, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of you for making this week-by-week meta hunt a success. Crosswords do not solve themselves, and I am humbled by what I think is over 100 unique solvers during this stretch. I do acknowledge that some definitely pushed the boundaries into Level 5 (or Level 55), so I'm striving to take it a bit easier on you for the final third of 2022!
After today's puzzle, we return to our bimonthly schedule, where I will post a regular-sized meta on the final Saturday of the month (likely around this same time) and a smaller meta somewhere along the way, likely about the month's halfway mark. I'll try to keep that to Saturday to maintain some semblance of regularity, haha.
I will tabulate leaderboard rankings and announce the final Top 25 (perhaps right in time for college football season!) soon.
This should be no more than a Level 2, especially if you're a fan of something as much as I am. (Ideally, you'll see pretty quickly what's going on!)
37. Endgames
The answer to the meta is a phrase in 9 letters.
Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!
Mikey G
Crosshare
---
1. Puzzle #36 recap
Puzzle #36 answer: HIGHLIGHTER
Correct entries: 37
One of my favorite puzzles of the summer - and one that came to me while eating something spicy one day, which is every day.
I like the fact that you have to be a little clever in figuring out what's going on with the mechanism. My line of reasoning:
a. We have 7 starred entries - but also the fact that the prompt clearly says what we're looking for is more than 7 letters. So at least something else is going on.
b. In perhaps bold, iconoclastic contrast to the title, the starred entries all seem to be congregating toward the bottom of the grid...so something clearly is going on toward the top!
c. This is where we have to be a little bit more sneaky, but I will aver that - since I like clues that might have more than one entry that fits of the same length - I figured that it might be possible that you maybe made one of these actual guesses during the solving!
In any case, if we take a look at the starred entries in conjunction with the top of the grid, we see what almost seems to be the rest of a synonymous entry, once a letter is appended:
L ASHES (facial features)
I CONIC (renowned)
G LAND (pancreas, for one)
H ONE (sharpen)
T EASE (ridicule)
E STATE (tax type)
R ANTS (talks wildly)
The initial letters of these words spell out LIGHTER, which is not really a valid school supply in my book! (You could perhaps make a tenuous argument that you could use it a chemistry lab - and I had a chemistry pun to make here, but all the good ones argon).
Once we get to this part, we recognize we need more than just a string of 7 letters - and once we take the title into consideration, the letters are certainly higher on the grid than the rest of the puzzle! There is your HIGHLIGHTER (great for solving metas as well, as @FrankieHeck said!).
---
2. Leaderboard of Destiny
(To be updated sometime this week!!)
---
3. This is the final installment of Summer of Solves, and I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of you for making this week-by-week meta hunt a success. Crosswords do not solve themselves, and I am humbled by what I think is over 100 unique solvers during this stretch. I do acknowledge that some definitely pushed the boundaries into Level 5 (or Level 55), so I'm striving to take it a bit easier on you for the final third of 2022!
After today's puzzle, we return to our bimonthly schedule, where I will post a regular-sized meta on the final Saturday of the month (likely around this same time) and a smaller meta somewhere along the way, likely about the month's halfway mark. I'll try to keep that to Saturday to maintain some semblance of regularity, haha.
I will tabulate leaderboard rankings and announce the final Top 25 (perhaps right in time for college football season!) soon.
This should be no more than a Level 2, especially if you're a fan of something as much as I am. (Ideally, you'll see pretty quickly what's going on!)
37. Endgames
The answer to the meta is a phrase in 9 letters.
Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!
Mikey G
- Cinny
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- Location: Minoa, NY
- Contact:
Another great meta! I am sorry to see the Summer of Solves ending. But thanks for all your work in getting it out there each week. I always look forward to your metas and love the "punny" clues.
Cindy Heisler
-
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- oldjudge
- Posts: 1652
- Joined: Fri Apr 19, 2019 4:16 am
- Location: Pasadena, CA
Great job by Mikey. He has firmly established himself as one of the top constructors both for puzzle quality and entertainment value.
- MikeyG
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You are way too kind, and I thank you for your support and input. Let's see if the Cubbies can improve in terms of both baseball quality and entertainment value. (Honestly, I always think they have the latter!)
- boharr
- Moderator
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- Location: Westchester, NY
- ChrisKochmanski
- Posts: 2269
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 9:51 pm
- Location: Saline, Michigan
Got it!
Yep, all the Cubs need is for Pete Crow-Armstrong (number 33 here: https://theathletic.com/3531603/2022/08 ... ects-2022/) to come through!
You see, though, who has the number 1 prospect: the Cardinals!!!
Sadly, I suspect that your Cubs and my Tigers still have some years of struggle to go. Let's just hope it's still in my lifetime.
I'm sad that I missed a few of your summer puzzles, Mikey. The ones I did have been excellent. Looking forward to more!
Yep, all the Cubs need is for Pete Crow-Armstrong (number 33 here: https://theathletic.com/3531603/2022/08 ... ects-2022/) to come through!
You see, though, who has the number 1 prospect: the Cardinals!!!
Sadly, I suspect that your Cubs and my Tigers still have some years of struggle to go. Let's just hope it's still in my lifetime.
I'm sad that I missed a few of your summer puzzles, Mikey. The ones I did have been excellent. Looking forward to more!
- DrTom
- Posts: 3957
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Oh I don't know, one thing lead to another and I came up with some that are as good as gold. maybe they'll get a reaction, and if not we can barium.MikeyG
The initial letters of these words spell out LIGHTER, which is not really a valid school supply in my book! (You could perhaps make a tenuous argument that you could use it a chemistry lab - and I had a chemistry pun to make here, but all the good ones argon).
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!
- Meg
- Posts: 2211
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- Location: St. Petersburg, FL
- whimsy
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- Location: Hopkinton MA
- KayW
- Moderator
- Posts: 3534
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
Fun!
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.
- benchen71
- Posts: 2564
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- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Solved! Thanks for the summer of solves, although it was winter here Down 54 down.
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!
- MikeyG
- Posts: 1456
- Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:52 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
A mini-extension for a few days (let's do Tuesday at 1 pm ET), since I technically didn't give nudges if anyone needs any!
Nudge Saturday
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2.
3.
4.
I'm tabulating points this week to give an ultimate leaderboard as we move from summer to fall! (Bring on everything pumpkiny!)
Mikey G
Nudge Saturday
1.
2.
3.
4.
I'm tabulating points this week to give an ultimate leaderboard as we move from summer to fall! (Bring on everything pumpkiny!)
Mikey G
- Abide
- Moderator
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Just needed the first nudge. Beautiful tie-in to the summer's end!
The site is just a web page, a meeting place, a clubhouse - it's the group that's special.
—Brian MacDonald
—Brian MacDonald
- lbray53
- Posts: 1267
- Joined: Fri May 08, 2020 8:34 am
- Location: Elkhorn, WI
Same here! Almost missed this puzzle. I am glad I didn’t.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
- edestlin
- Posts: 244
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- Location: Michigan
- Contact:
Needed the nudges a bit to get me started but satisfying to get to the finish. Thanks for all your puzzles, MikeyG!
- rjy
- Posts: 1085
- Joined: Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:52 pm
- Location: Gaithersburg, MD
Same! Thanks Mikey, I came to this corner of the meta world late, but thoroughly enjoyed the creativity in your puzzles. Cheers!
Ray
- MikeyG
- Posts: 1456
- Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:52 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
The answer to our final meta, a nod to the final puzzle of the summer (but not of the Land of Metas) was SHOW'S OVER: Nine of the clues ended with titles of game shows (hence "Endgames"), and the final letters to each of those entries spell the meta answer. I think the one that stumped the majority was Card Sharks, and Jim Perry did all he could with a game that basically had to do with just predicting if cards were higher or lower. ([overly excited]"Oh, no, it's a queen, it's not lower!"[/excited])
We had about 25 entrants for the final meta of Summer of Solves, and I'll humbly declare it a success! I tabulated the final leaderboard, and we had 112 unique solvers submit at least one correct entry!
Here is the final Leaderboard of Destiny as it stands!
A special shout-out to our top ten, six of whom cracked all 15 conundrums!
@oldjudge
@FrankieHeck
@boharr
@LesY
@benchen71
@Meg
@DJB
@whimsy
@Hector
@KayW
The laurels go to our first-place winner of @oldjudge - and maybe the first-place baseball winner will go to his Yankees. We will see!
Another mini-meta this Saturday, and we are back to standard every other week-ish joy. Thanks to all of the solvers, and thanks to all of the contributions to all of you who make this Muggles board a happier, brighter place!
Until next time, happy solving!
Mikey G
- oldjudge
- Posts: 1652
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- Location: Pasadena, CA
Do I get to pick the color for my new Lamborghini or have you already purchased the car?
- benchen71
- Posts: 2564
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:50 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Thanks for the fun puzzles, Mikey!
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!