MEOW #108 Christmas Grieve

[Ergcat]

Woo Hoo - 25 of you have already tried and solved. Thanks for all the solves, I'll post a board later, right now I am basking in the delight of seeing so many people try.

Tom

Some of us have tried and failed! Altogether now: "All I want for Christmas is a nudge of two..."

Me too! I’ve been trying…..

[DrTom]

By the way...if you have solved the MEOW, or if you want a break from the MEOW, Cap'n Rick, and a host of others, have created a FANTASTIC MEGA Meta (23 x 23 Grid, no one but two metas inside, fun clues, the works!

Ha, if you think we are fun at Christmas you ain't seen nothing yet, try:
viewtopic.php?t=1980

[Qmark]

Thanks for the fun puzzle, Dr Tom.
Happy holidays to all the muggles!

[Cap'n Rick]

By the way...if you have solved the MEOW, or if you want a break from the MEOW, Cap'n Rick, and a host of others, have created a FANTASTIC MEGA Meta (23 x 23 Grid, no one but two metas inside, fun clues, the works!

Thanks, @DrTom. Solvers can find our 12-constructor, dual-meta, tribute puzzle here -> "Monumental Moderation".

[DrTom]

OK a few more have come in:
32 Abide
33 benchen71
34 Qmark
35 Darrell

Nudges do not come until Friday (unless there is an overwhelming desire for them earlier) but remember you can always ask me!

[Ergcat]

Cat is free!!
Finally got the “aha” thanks to a helpful muggle assist! Thank you, @woozy !!

[DrTom]

Only one more to add, Ergcat - whose cat is appropriately out of the bag (the cat had been out to dyne it appears and it must have taken considerable force because to measure it they went ahead and centimeter) - making him #36.

So maybe it is Nudge time?

What kind of unpleasant or annoying things might give you grief at Christmas?

Do you see anything like that in the grid?

The meta answer is 8 letters long

What is a VERY common way to get letters for a meta answer

[ReB]

Cat is out of the bag with no dampening of spirits.

[DrTom]

Five more join the ranks of cat saviors:

37 BrennerTJ
38 jbird
39 Carolyn
40 ReB
41 CPJohnson

With a Cat 4 Gaffney storm coming tomorrow (and you thought a bomb cyclone was bad....) I do not expect a lot more activity on this one, but hey Christmas Grieve on Christmas Eve, I like the alliteration if nothing else. Can we get 9 more intrepid souls to untie that feline enclosing burlap, I mean 50 would be a nice Christmas present!

[Dow Jones]

Nudged out of the gunny sack. Thank you for the fun grid and meta, DrTom. Merry Christmas to my fellow MEOWERS !!

[CPJohnson]

Thanks for the puzzle, @DrTom! And Merry Christmas!

[edestlin]

After a Christmas griEve nap and @DrTom nudge I found my way to freeing the cat. Thanks and Merry Christmas!

[DrTom]

Its early on Christmas and all through the house
No unbagged kitty is chasing a mouse.
There are sheets of paper with scribbles galore
Some on the table and some on the floor

The puzzler now nestled all snug in his bed,
While visions of mechanisms danced in his head;
There next to the bedstead lies a thinking cap,
Thrown with a vengeance, “I don’t need this crap!”

When out of the blue there arose an idea,
“It was always there I just didn’t see ya”.
Away to the table he flew like a flash,
And grabbed his last effort lying there in the trash

The light from the gooseneck emitted a glow
Gave the lustre of hope to the entries below,
When, what to his wondering eyes should appear,
But a path to the meta, it all became clear

With a stroke of the pencil, so lively and quick,
He knew in a moment he now had the trick.
More rapid than snowflakes the letters they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called DrTom a name;.

COMPLETED he shouted, emitting a sigh
And just in time, since morning is nigh
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove off to mass,
NO MORE CUTESY ONES TOM, THEY’RE A PAIN IN THE….

[DrTom]

Night before Christmas solvers:

42 Wendy Walker
43 Dow Jones
44 edestlin

Merry Christmas all

[DrTom]

Boxing Day update

Only one more, Rufus T Firefly early on Christmas morning.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I'll do the reveal tomorrow if I haven't thrown my computer in the trash since it is NOT helping me with the MGWCC! I mean what good is all this power if it cannot make up for my own inadequacies!!!

[DrTom]

Alrighty then - 45 solvers for the Grievous Christmas, and now, as promised, the reveal.

The GRID had eight entries that were rather unpleasant things that might accompany Christmas. Two of them actually were both an unpleasant thing AND a bit of a nudge...but lets see the grid first:

I should apologize for one entry, the one about RVED was unthinkingly clued with a Christmas reference about going on vacation with cousin Eddie. I wanted people to get RVED and figured that Christmas Vacation was so well ingrained that everyone would. BUT they also, rightly, saw that as an unpleasant thing and it confused, or at least slowed the solve, for some.

The two clues that were nudges? Well the ones that included Reindeer. Actually this puzzle harkens back to an old, rather corny joke that end up...but Rudolph the Red knows rain dear... Many have heard it, and if you have you are probably sorry I resurrected it. I hope I di not eat up much of anyone's Christmas.

[dsbened]

I'm a newbie so I don't understand a lot of crosswordese. But can someone define what 56D means?

[benchen71]

I'm a newbie so I don't understand a lot of crosswordese. But can someone define what 56D means?

In meta crossword circles the E word is "easy". It is considered poor form to post something like "On the beach! Thanks for the easy one, Mike!" You might have stumbled across the meta mechanism quickly; but someone else might beat their head against the brick wall for days. As such, a post with the E word in it might cause them to think they are stupid, which is definitely not the case when it comes to metas.

[DrTom]

I'm a newbie so I don't understand a lot of crosswordese. But can someone define what 56D means?

In meta crossword circles the E word is "easy". It is considered poor form to post something like "On the beach! Thanks for the easy one, Mike!" You might have stumbled across the meta mechanism quickly; but someone else might beat their head against the brick wall for days. As such, a post with the E word in it might cause them to think they are stupid, which is definitely not the case when it comes to metas.

Thanks Ben - I probably should not have used "Muggle Lingo" in a puzzle because certainly not all who do these are (1) Muggles (2) long time Muggles. I will endeavor (or endeavour for Ben) to be more broad based in the future. Because we are a bit of a "club" I will use references to older puzzles or answers, like "Energy level after a 20 (or 21K) race" or "An IOU as we recently learned". If this was one of the early metas I had tried or if I did not do MGWCC or WSJCC I probably would not know what I was talking about (a supposition that has been advanced in the past I might add!).

So thanks again Ben for a perfect explanation and sorry for anyone I confused.

[SJMcK]

In meta crossword circles the E word is "easy". It is considered poor form to post something like "On the beach! Thanks for the easy one, Mike!" You might have stumbled across the meta mechanism quickly; but someone else might beat their head against the brick wall for days. As such, a post with the E word in it might cause them to think they are stupid, which is definitely not the case when it comes to metas.

Yeah I had no idea and had to get that one from the crosses