"Counting Calories" - December 20, 2019

[MajordomoTom]

I am on shore, late in the game as usual, and amazed that Matt and Mike (and others) can construct these beauties. Hats off!

yes, the ability to keep generating new and interesting variations on mechanisms ... very good work

[Jeff S]

I had hoped that Phil Simms would throw me a last-minute hail Mary, or that Marie Kondo would fly in from Japan to organize my thoughts, but instead I'm on the ship with Margaret Cho laughing at me and Yma Sumac playing over the speakers in Isaac's bar.

[MajordomoTom]

This puzzle had a number of interesting little rabbit holes that I spent a fair amount of time exploring.

There are some interesting near-pairs of words in the grid that are tempting to try to "match" to pull out letters, such as ELECTOR and ELEKTRA, ITT and ITS, ERR and EER, etc. But that was an empty burrow.

There are some interesting patterns to letters in the grid that are tempting to play with - in particular, 34A - SEVEN ELEVEN has a very interesting cadence of E?E, several times, making me want to play with that pattern in the rest of the grid and possibly find letters/clues.

But ... none of those involve counting.

I started down one path early - realizing that the first letters of 1A, 8A, 15A, 16A, and 17A spelled "THREE", but then wasn't able to take that further.

Until ... 34A hit me again.

There are 7 letter words at the top and at the bottom of the grid. There are three 11 letter words in the middle of the grid. Lay them all together and see what their first letters spell:

TRADING
HARRIET
RIVETER
ELEKTRA
EVICTEE

MIMOSAS
UNTHINKABLE
SEVENELEVEN
KIDNAPPINGS
ELECTOR
TILAPIA
EARHOLE
ENAMELS
ROSERED
SKYBLUE

THREE MUSKETEERS, something that you can buy at 34A and which you would want to avoid if you were "counting calories".

That's what I submitted around 3:30 today so that I was able to then go to the theater and see Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker and not be distracted by the meta for this puzzle.

[Joe Ross]

[SewYoung]

What I wanted to say the other day was that we had this answer for another contest puzzle some time ago. Don't remember exactly when or what the title and contest question were. I seem to remember some question as to whether either" 3 Musketeers" or "Three Musketeers" was acceptable.

[Bill Bovard]

Did anyone else notice that 30A is NOMEN and that all the gender-specific clues/answers going across are female? And 7D is GREATMEN and all the gender-specific clues/answers going down are male? Coincidence? Red herring?

[Tony S]

Spent the weekend drinking with Isaac and never figured this one out. Unlike Marie Kondo or the Wonder Twins, the Three Musketeers were in the realm of reality --- congratulations to those who solved this one.

[FrankH]

What I wanted to say the other day was that we had this answer for another contest puzzle some time ago. Don't remember exactly when or what the title and contest question were. I seem to remember some question as to whether either" 3 Musketeers" or "Three Musketeers" was acceptable.

May 6 2016. Title was French Twist and instruction asked for a candy. This is another repeat meta answer like ARGO.

[FrancesY]

Good one. Unfortunately, I submitted Krispy Kreme because of a lot of Ks in the grid, the “Kay,” and “kilo” calories.

[TrojanMan]

I thought it was popcorn because there were about 4 or so hints that specified films. Popcorn is something you'd want to want avoid if counting calories. Idk. Thought it was good.

[lacangah]

Good one. Unfortunately, I submitted Krispy Kreme because of a lot of Ks in the grid, the “Kay,” and “kilo” calories.

I was on the fence between that and Slurpee - snaps to those who solved it!

[MarkL]

This puzzle had a number of interesting little rabbit holes that I spent a fair amount of time exploring.

There are some interesting near-pairs of words in the grid that are tempting to try to "match" to pull out letters, such as ELECTOR and ELEKTRA, ITT and ITS, ERR and EER, etc. But that was an empty burrow.

There are some interesting patterns to letters in the grid that are tempting to play with - in particular, 34A - SEVEN ELEVEN has a very interesting cadence of E?E, several times, making me want to play with that pattern in the rest of the grid and possibly find letters/clues.

But ... none of those involve counting.

I started down one path early - realizing that the first letters of 1A, 8A, 15A, 16A, and 17A spelled "THREE", but then wasn't able to take that further.

Until ... 34A hit me again.

There are 7 letter words at the top and at the bottom of the grid. There are three 11 letter words in the middle of the grid. Lay them all together and see what their first letters spell:

TRADING
HARRIET
RIVETER
ELEKTRA
EVICTEE

MIMOSAS
UNTHINKABLE
SEVENELEVEN
KIDNAPPINGS
ELECTOR
TILAPIA
EARHOLE
ENAMELS
ROSERED
SKYBLUE

THREE MUSKETEERS, something that you can buy at 34A and which you would want to avoid if you were "counting calories".

That's what I submitted around 3:30 today so that I was able to then go to the theater and see Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker and not be distracted by the meta for this puzzle.

Had similar thoughts on NOde, NOcal, NOtes and NOmen - to NO avail! Cheers!

[Jeff S]

This puzzle had a number of interesting little rabbit holes that I spent a fair amount of time exploring.

There are some interesting near-pairs of words in the grid that are tempting to try to "match" to pull out letters, such as ELECTOR and ELEKTRA, ITT and ITS, ERR and EER, etc. But that was an empty burrow.

There are some interesting patterns to letters in the grid that are tempting to play with - in particular, 34A - SEVEN ELEVEN has a very interesting cadence of E?E, several times, making me want to play with that pattern in the rest of the grid and possibly find letters/clues.

But ... none of those involve counting.

I started down one path early - realizing that the first letters of 1A, 8A, 15A, 16A, and 17A spelled "THREE", but then wasn't able to take that further.

Until ... 34A hit me again.

There are 7 letter words at the top and at the bottom of the grid. There are three 11 letter words in the middle of the grid. Lay them all together and see what their first letters spell:

TRADING
HARRIET
RIVETER
ELEKTRA
EVICTEE

MIMOSAS
UNTHINKABLE
SEVENELEVEN
KIDNAPPINGS
ELECTOR
TILAPIA
EARHOLE
ENAMELS
ROSERED
SKYBLUE

THREE MUSKETEERS, something that you can buy at 34A and which you would want to avoid if you were "counting calories".

That's what I submitted around 3:30 today so that I was able to then go to the theater and see Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker and not be distracted by the meta for this puzzle.

Had similar thoughts on NOde, NOcal, NOtes and NOmen - to NO avail! Cheers!

Me, too - especially since NOCAL seemed so tantalizingly close to the theme of "Counting Calories".

[Wendy Walker]

What I wanted to say the other day was that we had this answer for another contest puzzle some time ago. Don't remember exactly when or what the title and contest question were. I seem to remember some question as to whether either" 3 Musketeers" or "Three Musketeers" was acceptable.

May 6 2016. Title was French Twist and instruction asked for a candy. This is another repeat meta answer like ARGO.

That is why I was so amused when I got the answer to THIS puzzle. I failed to solve that earlier puzzle and even dragged poor Mark down the candy aisle at Wegman's hoping for inspiration!

[MaineMarge]

Lots of interesting rabbit holes. The words EAT ME in 5d (and down a literal rabbit hole on Alice’s birthday ) led to no more cakes.
The only actual number mentioned in the clues- 538 electors - had me searching for state abbreviations to spell out a word. No food, just a map of the USA. I knew we were supposed to be counting something, but what?? I’d have to leave counting the number of occurrences of each letter to you guys with the Excel helper. Not gonna go there.
My eyes kept going back to the matching RoseRed and SkyBlue at the bottom, which was where I finally saw the 7. Otherwise I was going to Hail Mary with Mellow Yellow to complete that colorful group.
Thanks Matt. Another nice gift to the Muggles.

[Joe Ross]

Did anyone else notice that 30A is NOMEN and that all the gender-specific clues/answers going across are female? And 7D is GREATMEN and all the gender-specific clues/answers going down are male? Coincidence? Red herring?

If this was intentional, Matt Gaffney should send Bill Bovard a mug!

[Joe Ross]

Good one. Unfortunately, I submitted Krispy Kreme because of a lot of Ks in the grid, the “Kay,” and “kilo” calories.

I was on the fence between that and Slurpee - snaps to those who solved it!

I had SLURPEE stuck intractably in my brain, too, since SLURPEE is the only other 7-11 brand I could remember and find via a duckduckgo search.

I heeded BarbaraK's tip, below, and walked away. Thank you, Barbara (and her uncredited source)!

Wish I remember who said this so I could give proper credit because it's brilliant. "You have to find the answer, not just think of an answer."

[DrTom]

I’d probably never have figured that one out, but it is VERY clever and a solveable puzzles. I just never saw the connection, as opposed to seeing it and never being able to make the last step (which actually makes me more frustrated than never seeing it at all)

[RDaleHall]

Like the answer - saw the THREE METEERS part but didn't catch on to add the 3 other clues. Long, wild stretch alternative: If you take the bottom right of the puzzle, and then count out "CAL" OR "IES", the remaining letters anagram to SLURPEE.

[BarbaraK]

That is why I was so amused when I got the answer to THIS puzzle. I failed to solve that earlier puzzle and even dragged poor Mark down the candy aisle at Wegman's hoping for inspiration!

I remember well your distress with that puzzle, so when I saw your comment here, before I'd even looked at the puzzle, I knew what the answer was going to end up being.

And you call yourself the spoiler police?! Tsk Tsk.

(Just kidding; no worries. Getting there was the fun part.)