All Things Being Equal

[HeadinHome]

Got it! Thanks Mark
Seriously Super SSS

Nothing can equal this beauty today

IMG_9251.jpeg
Grown from a seedling found under her mother. Japanese variety peony

Oh MaineMarge! Can you send me a bit of that seed??? Gorgeous.

[ReB]

Fun sssolve, no nudges needed. Thanks

[whimsy]

Sssolved.

Thanksss, Mark!

[MaineMarge]

Wendy- no seed available. A seedling is a baby plant. Mom drops some seeds on the ground- some of them germinate and show up through the ground a YEAR later as baby plants. 2 years later you get the first bloom. I dig most of them for the compost pile ( or we’d have a million peonies, not 150)- this one got a reprieve, and sure was worth it. Most such seedlings are nothing special- 1 in 10 would be a special beauty, like this one.
Here’s another home grown beauty

[MarkWoychick]

The list of 40 solvers from day 1 is below (and please let me know if I missed you). I want to note one additional solver, which brings the total to 41: my oldest son, Nicklas, solved the meta today - my proudest moment as a meta constructor. Just confirming what the "other" Wendy mentioned: this puzzle could be a good intro meta!

Thanks to all who have solved so for and all the kind comments.

Abide
ajk
Alex Sisti
BarbaraK
Benchen
Berto
Bird Lives
BobStevens, cruise director
boharr
BrennerTJ
Cap'n Rick
Cindy Weatherman
CPJohnson
DIS
Dow Jones
GR
Gutman
HeadinHome
Hector
heidi
I K Snamhcok
imontoo
Jaclyn
JM
KayW
Laura M
lbray53
MaineMarge
Meg
michaelm
Mr Tex
PuzNewbie
ReB
rjy
SeamusOL
Snood
Wendy Walker
whimsy
woozy

[Qmark]

Fun meta, Mark! Didn't get to it until late...No nudges needed. Thanksss!

[MatthewL]

SSSolved. Didn't get to this until today, but found the answer without the nudges. Very nice puzzle, Mark!

[MarkWoychick]

Another 10 solvers to add to the list, bringing the total to 51. Congrats to:

DrTom
Hoover
JHSeeman
Kurtalert
MatthewL
Qmark
Rick
Schmeel
Sharkickles
Tom Wilson

[MarkWoychick]

Another 4 have crossed the finish line, and I think we are probably close to the end. Our total now is 55 solvers, though there are many who are very close to the solution based on what I'm seeing on Crosshare

Carolyn
Jim23809
Mikey G
mimka

[Cinny]

Today is my day to catch up on metas. SSSolved without nudges. Fun one. Thanks, Mark!

[MarkWoychick]

We have two more solvers today - Cinny and Darrell - bringing our total to 57. Looks like we are winding things up as more puzzles appear during the week. Reveal on Saturday!

[MarkWoychick]

Just 50% of yesterday's new solvers to add, and that honor goes to Pair O Ducks. We now have 58 solvers. We are on the road tomorrow, so this is my last update until the reveal on Saturday. Thanks to all the solvers!

[MarkWoychick]

Looks like I'm the only one posting here, but we have three more solvers, bringing our final total to 61

dooiemus
jbird
sledge

And here's the reveal:

The meta answer is "Six of one, half a dozen of the other" - I didn't anticipate the many close variations of this phrase that solvers tried, so our actual number of solvers, at least in spirit, is likely higher than the total tallied on Crosshare.