40. Days and Nights

[MikeyG]

PDF and PUZ

Crosshare



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Happy 40th puzzle! I'm honored to have been noodling with metas (both constructing and solving!) for over two years now, and I'm hoping that there's plenty more left in the tank, both from a constructing and solving perspective. I'm grateful for your efforts on all fronts and look forward to more meta mayhem, both now and in the future!

1. Puzzle #39 recap

Puzzle #39 answer: TOUCHDOWN

Correct entries: 45



Apparently, I was too concerned with making the meta straightforward that I made the grid itself more complicated in the process. That was definitely unintentional!

There are two references going across to SIX POINTS, and there are six of these points (or pointers!) at the bottom of the grid: six entries going DOWN, whose final word TOUCH is omitted (or represented by the words "touching" the bottom of the grid).

In any case, this all suggests TOUCHDOWN as our meta answer, and maybe my Broncos will get one or two more before the season is done.

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2. I'm sorry for my duplicity: I said that I would limit myself to Level 1 and Level 2 metas for the rest of the year, and that should be the case after this one! But I had an idea, and I went with it, and here we are. This will be somewhere between Level 3 and Level 4, methinks. Super shout-outs as well to Peter and Al for feedback and insight!

Note: The second page on the PDF just consists of the clues in a larger font; it is not meta-related.

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40. Days and Nights

The answer to the meta is 8 letters long.

The deadline is Monday, October 24 at 1 PM ET.

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Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

[Meg]

That was a fun puzzle to figure out!! Well done puzzle # 40!

[Cindy]

Nicely done!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Got it. Very nice!

[KayW]

That was a fun puzzle to figure out!! Well done puzzle # 40!

My sentiments exactly. Thanks for a fun puzzle and meta!

[whimsy]

Fun! Thanks, Mikey!

I just found out that Cole Porter had two cats; he named one of them "Anything" and the other one "Goes".

[lbray53]

Solved. I enjoyed this one a lot! Some clever stuff here.

[boharr]

Crosshare confirmed my backsolve. Fun one. Thanks, Mikey.

[woozy]

I think I know exactly what needs to be done but I can't bring it home.

[Darth]

So much cleverness in one puzzle! I see what you did there, @MikeyG!

[BarbaraK]

That was fun! Took a bit to find all of it and get it proper form to give me the answer.

[MikeyG]

Thanks for the kind comments on this one! Had fun making it but, man alive, the grid was a bear. Nudges in a day or two!

[hoover]

Woo hoo! Just saw this and filled in the grid last night, and today I looked at it again and saw a thread to pull, which led to a whole sweater! Good thing, because after highs of 90+ F last week, this week we're finally down into the 60s.

[Cinny]

Great meta! I needed a small nudge to show me I had the correct answer all along.

[MikeyG]

"A nudge! A nudge! My kingdom for a nudge!"

Some nudges before the Monday reveal!

1. This is an 8-letter answer, and we will need to extract 8 letters from the grid.

2. To start, we will need to notice the four across "pairs" of words.

3. In the words in the previous nudge, the first four can be followed by DAY and the second four by NIGHT.

4. Then, once I get those, where else can I begin to look?

5. This grid was an absolute bear to make (hence the size), so I probably had to fit in more than just those eight words!

6. And, for instance, Shakespeare wrote more than just Twelfth Night, hint hint.

7. And once you get the 8 letters, even though some people were anagramming them, there is a systematic way (per meta conventions) to get them to spell out the answer!

Good luck! Thanks to all for solving so far!!

Mikey G

[Dow Jones]

Thanks for the nudges and the PUNishing grid. That was superb, Mikey.

[Dplass]

Wow even with nudges I can't get it. I feel like i'm looking at a different puzzle...

[Bird Lives]

I solved this before looking at MikeyG's nudges, but I did get one from another solver. It was less nudgey --basically
You've seen this mechanism before.

Even with that, I spent a a good while hunting (and not for Matt Damon). But despite the work, I still enjoyed this one. Thanks, MikeyG.

[MikeyG]

I solved this before looking at MikeyG's nudges, but I did get one from another solver. It was less nudgey --basically
You've seen this mechanism before.

Even with that, I spent a a good while hunting (and not for Matt Damon). But despite the work, I still enjoyed this one. Thanks, MikeyG.

Just like diagramming sentences, I bet there's a way to "diagram" metas with regard to their mechanisms. The "Find the new clue" is a fun one for me - and always a bit of a challenge to construct, since it will inevitably double the requirements in the grid.

[MikeyG]

And here's our reveal for puzzle XL if you love Roman numerals (and XL puzzles!):

1. Puzzle #40 recap

Puzzle #40 answer: NOAH'S ARK

Correct entries: 28

I tried (and likely failed, haha) to keep to my promise to max out at Level 3 for the rest of the year, but I couldn't resist playing off "40 Days and Nights" for this one, as the numeric position did give a bit of a clue to the puzzle!



Here's how success could have come your way:

1. The title obviously signals that "days" and "nights" will be important in some way, and I was expecting the TWELFTH to be an in with TWELFTH NIGHT, and then we even see OTHELLO going down for you fans of Shakespeare plays (or games with black-and-white tiles). There are other ins as well, especially knowing we have 8 letters in our answer.

There are symmetrical, and cumbersome to grid around, pairs of entries involving the words "day" and "night":

SAME (DAY), MOVIE (NIGHT)
OPENING (DAY), MID(NIGHT)
HEY(DAY), TWELFTH (NIGHT)
EVERY(DAY), GOOD (NIGHT)

2. While I want you guys to have a rocking good time doing the puzzles, since it should be more fun for the solver than the constructor, I do my utmost to minimize the size of the grid. If a 15-by-15 can hold everything it needs to, we don't need to go to a 15-by-21...so something must be up to merit that size!

I tried to get this down to a 15-by-19, and that was still quite a bear; even this required the black square percent going above 20, which is way too high in my book (I try to hit 18% max, and that's even pushing it a bit). Anyway, this cruciverbalist digresses.

The size of the grid was necessarily to begin the "second entry search," a common meta-nism but one that I still enjoy! Here's what we had, in the order their initials appear in the grid and not as the entries appear thematically. (Either is fine, as long as some spelling occurs in standard order in the end, I believe.)

EVERYDAY = "Commonplace" = NORMAL
TWELFTH NIGHT = "Shakespearean play" = OTHELLO
HEYDAY = "Certain peak" = ALP (This was one of the tougher ones, and I shout out @Abide for cluing assistance on this! And bonus shout out again to @Al Sisti for the test-solving as well! If something is in its heyday, it's at its peak.)
OPENING DAY = "Baseball fans enjoy it" = HOMERUN (go Phillies!)
MIDNIGHT = "Shade of blue" = SKY
GOOD NIGHT = "Parting words" = ADIOS
SAME DAY = "Speedy kind of DELIVERY" = RUSH
MOVIE NIGHT = "It can be held in a park" = KITE (The other tough one - and perhaps a bit more of a stretch, though I think it's fair! We're playing off "held" here, and a lot of communities - at least several in my region - will hold movie nights in parks as a way of people to gather outside and watch out mediocre cinema together.)

Put those letters together, and we get NOAH'S ARK, the answer to our meta (which connects to "40 days and 40 nights," which further gets a nod due to the SW entry).

And when the electricity went out, Noah was left in d'ark. ("How did I Noah he would post that?")

Back on Saturday with meta #41! Thanks as always for your solving and support!

Mikey G