49. 7 by 7

[whimsy]

Nudge #2 pushed me to keep on with what I was doing; but it was slow going since I missed something that would have been useful.

Thanks for a super puzzle, Mikey!

[Dow Jones]

Wow !! Good meta, Mikey !!!

[Cap'n Rick]

Excellent meta, Mikey! Awesome construction and execution!

[DrTom]

Having the benefit of solving (using multiple nudges) I can now see why the very subtle Spoiler 1 was a GREAT nudge, and in truth I should have caught it because I experienced the problem but did not catch on. DUH!!!

[ajk]

Looked at the first two nudges, which were enough to persuade me to look harder for additional instances of some things I spotted from the get go. Wound up backsolving a couple of parts, but got there in the end. Fun one, thanks.

ETA: yeah, I missed the nuance referenced in nudge 8 that would have avoided the need for backsolving

[Cinny]

I hadn't realized I didn't solve this until going through my pile of metas this morning. The first couple of nudges helped me see what I was overlooking. Very clever meta and a fun solve! Thanks, Mikey.

[Qmark]

Didn't get to the puzzle until this weekend, but managed to solve without looking at any nudges. Clever construction...super job, Mikey!

[MikeyG]

So I was a bit late posting this one, but it features a graphic from the best of the best! (Thanks, @BrennerTJ!)

Puzzle #49 recap

Puzzle #49 answer: PERFECT SQUARES

Correct entries: 57 (not a perfect square but 11^2 - 8^2)



So, if I make a grid where over 23% of the squares are black and there are 27 3-letter words, there is probably a good reason for that!

This grid was a bear to make, but it was also a lot of fun. The clue for the spanner MATHEMATICIAN implies we might need to be doing some substitutions of our own! And that's exactly what happens.

A lot of clues in this puzzle may have seemed cumbersome or vague, to the tune that you might even have to have hit reveal before finishing the grid.

Here are 14 of them, 7 in each direction.

1-A: Black, for one: PEA --> SEA
1-D: Character in a long-running NBC sitcom: PAM --> SAM

4-A: They may fill a very large saucer, briefly: ETS --> QTS (this was such a stretch, but I think it was Will Nediger's favorite clue of the switches; I struggled with this one but decided to play off the double meaning of "saucer").
4-D: He was seen on screens in the 1980s: EBERT --> QBERT (I played a couple rounds of the classic arcade game just now online).

7-A: Abbr. related to an important internal component: CPR --> CPU (tough to get a clue for this one).
9-D: It could be used for transportation, for short: RTE --> UTE (abbreviation for "route" or colloquialism for "sport utility vehicle")

16-A: It might store water: FLOE --> ALOE
16-D: Some radios FMS --> AMS

24-A: Team member who often defeated opponents in the 1980s: MET --> MRT (I liked this one - it helped the Mets were playing good ball in the '80s! Even I, as a Cubs fan, can recognize that.)
25-D: Big city sight, maybe: EATS --> RATS (I think you know which I'd prefer!)

36-A: Key in music: CFLAT --> EFLAT (technically, C-FLAT is just B, apparently)
36-D: They might be adorned with accessories: CARS --> EARS

24-D: Verb related to a bridge mishap: MISDEALT --> MISDEALS
49-A: Source of a liquid: TAP --> SAP

The original letters in the puzzle spell PERFECT, and the replacement letters spell SQUARES, making the answer to our puzzle PERFECT SQUARES, the meta answer.

Now, of course, that's all fine and good, but the puzzle should have something to do with squares! And it does!

The seven "Schrödinger" squares are located at the 7 numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, and 49 - and indeed, those are the seven PERFECT SQUARES in the grid! (I did not have to have exactly 49 numbered squares in the grid to accomplish this, but I did pull it off, albeit at the expense of some awkward black square placement.) Also, the title "7 by 7" might be a tiny bit of a stretch, but that does signal multiplication in the mathematical world.

Yes, this is one of those where you kind of have to see the meta-nism for the title to make sense, as opposed to using the title as an "in," perhaps, but I enjoyed the end result this time around and hope you did too!

We have the half-century meta on this Saturday, which will move the meta typically scheduled for the end of the month to the following Saturday (April 1). See you then, fellow Muggles!

Mikey G

[dsbened]

OMG! This has to be the greatest crossword puzzle of all time because it works on three different levels. Dual-answers that "duel it out", and then to have the clue number be part of the theme makes for a perfect masterpiece! (Just curious, did you ever submit it to any of the big publishers, or is it too complex for them?)

[MikeyG]

OMG! This has to be the greatest crossword puzzle of all time because it works on three different levels. Dual-answers that "duel it out", and then to have the clue number be part of the theme makes for a perfect masterpiece! (Just curious, did you ever submit it to any of the big publishers, or is it too complex for them?)

I think this might have been a bit too niche, haha, and to be fair, I had to break conventions (namely that my black square percent is well around 23 or 24%, where I try to keep this under 18% if possible. There were also a lot of 3-letter words as well, though I know at least one of the greats (Peter Gordon) has cited that that rule is a bit outmoded - after all, if a solver has fun, why should it matter how many 3-letter words there are?

But it was one of my favorites to make so far! Definitely took some time, and I want to try to make at least one every 5 to 10 puzzles are so that requires a little more cruciverbal ingenuity to construct.

Thanks for solving, everyone! Mid-month meta tomorrow!

Mikey G