#68: Bad Move? — 01/26/23

[ChrisKochmanski]

First meta I’ve tried on my new iPad, instead of printing and solving on paper. Harder for me this way, I think. But fun. Thanks, Ricky!

[benchen71]

Nice one! Fun AHA moment.

[ricky]

Thanks!

I go back and forth as a solver - I generally prefer to solve on paper but I'm much faster at solving the underlying puzzle on a computer. With MGWCC I'm usually trying to place high on the leaderboard and I don't want to lose 10 minutes to printing out the PDF and filling it in by hand. But: if the clues are part of the meta, I'm much more likely to pick up on that if I'm solving on paper.

[ricky]

Solution:

Each of the five theme entries is a two-word phrase - ten words total. There are ten other entries in the grid that are one letter off from the ten original words. Read the letter in each original word that was changed to make a new word - a "bad move," if you will - in grid order and you get SWITCHEROO.

[ricky]

Congratulations to winners Hector and ChrisCross!

Leaderboard (only 13 correct answers, which is kind of a drag):

Hector solved at 23:56 on 1/25/2023
FrankieHeck solved at 8:30 on 1/26/2023
Meg solved at 9:04 on 1/26/2023
Cindy Weatherman solved at 9:38 on 1/26/2023
Cindy Heisler solved at 11:34 on 1/26/2023
boharr solved at 13:13 on 1/26/2023
I K Snamhcok solved at 20:49 on 1/26/2023
West solved at 20:55 on 1/26/2023
Alex Sisti solved at 21:58 on 1/26/2023
ChrisCross solved at 0:05 on 1/27/2023
Laura M solved at 14:02 on 1/27/2023
benchen71 solved at 19:51 on 1/27/2023
DIS solved at 13:07 on 1/30/2023

If you attempted this one but didn't get the meta, I'm interested to hear any feedback you have.

Personally, I was happy with the meta, but not so much with the fill for the puzzle, which was compromised a lot more than I would have liked as a result of needing to squeeze in ten three-to-five-letter theme entries, 39 letters in all, on top of 39 letters of theme entries. I felt the same way about the October meta grid. Here, I'd like to apologize for ONEU BRIEN HAPLO LEVIERS HAV GOITERS (ugh) and ULAN, none of which would meet my standards for a non-meta grid.