"Bar Code" by AJK and Wendy Walker
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DCBilly
- Posts: 261
- Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2021 4:40 pm
- Location: Washington DC
So, I have become that guy who always solves but only after getting several helpings of nudges. That is better than giving up. Thanks to so many for helping me press on to the end. Not just on this puzzle.
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Wendy Walker
- Posts: 1720
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
- Location: Unionville, PA
The final additions to the leaderboard are mkmf and Dannyvee. Thank you all for solving! AJK will be posting the reveal on Sunday.
Last edited by Wendy Walker on Sun Oct 08, 2023 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
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MikeyG
- Posts: 1401
- Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 2:52 pm
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Don't mind me, just squeezing in under the wire at 2 am on Sunday.
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ajk
- Posts: 965
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:22 pm
- Location: Colorado
well done. And Katiedid joined you under that wire. Reveal here in a sec.Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
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ajk
- Posts: 965
- Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2020 4:22 pm
- Location: Colorado
The meta answer is MIXED.
This one started back in August, when Wendy was wrestling with Mike Shenk's "Tie Game" puzzle (you can find it here). The clue for 49-Across was "Queen with a Manhattan apartment" (cluing ELLERY). Aha, thought Wendy, it's drinks! Narrator: it was not drinks.
But, like any good constructor, Wendy repurposed that frustration into a new idea, which brings us to this week's puzzle.
We're looking for a type of message. The title could mean several things. But hopefully the omega across ("Refreshing beverage, like cranberry juice" for DRINK) put you in the correct frame of mind. And indeed, there are 5 very common cocktails in the clues: Screwdriver, Manhattan, Sidecar, Old Fashioned, and Cosmopolitan. OK, that has to be progress. But now what? The first letters of the related entries (DIARD) or the cocktails (SMSOC) do not seem promising.
But hang on, perhaps that cranberry juice was not chosen at random from the list of possible refreshing beverages. That's definitely something used in cocktails. And if we go hunting through the clues we can turn up some other ingredients: orange juice in the clue for DIME, rye in the clue for GRAIN, cognac in the clue for XXO, and sugar in the clue for DEAR. OK, if we take the first letters of those entries (plus DRINK) we get: DGXDD. Hmm.
Hang on though. The distribution of those entries in the grid is not random. In fact, each of those ingredients is a signature component of one of the cocktails, and furthermore the grid entries for the matched cocktail/ingredient clue pairs intersect (as shown below)! Well, what happens if we take the letters where they intersect (or mix, if you will)? In grid order, they spell MIXED, which is a type of message, and this week's answer. The MIXED messages that might result from consumption of these drinks might also be viewed as a type of bar "code"
Thanks to my co-constructor for a very enjoyable maiden joint venture, and I hope that you all had as much fun solving this as we had constructing it.
This one started back in August, when Wendy was wrestling with Mike Shenk's "Tie Game" puzzle (you can find it here). The clue for 49-Across was "Queen with a Manhattan apartment" (cluing ELLERY). Aha, thought Wendy, it's drinks! Narrator: it was not drinks.
But, like any good constructor, Wendy repurposed that frustration into a new idea, which brings us to this week's puzzle.
We're looking for a type of message. The title could mean several things. But hopefully the omega across ("Refreshing beverage, like cranberry juice" for DRINK) put you in the correct frame of mind. And indeed, there are 5 very common cocktails in the clues: Screwdriver, Manhattan, Sidecar, Old Fashioned, and Cosmopolitan. OK, that has to be progress. But now what? The first letters of the related entries (DIARD) or the cocktails (SMSOC) do not seem promising.
But hang on, perhaps that cranberry juice was not chosen at random from the list of possible refreshing beverages. That's definitely something used in cocktails. And if we go hunting through the clues we can turn up some other ingredients: orange juice in the clue for DIME, rye in the clue for GRAIN, cognac in the clue for XXO, and sugar in the clue for DEAR. OK, if we take the first letters of those entries (plus DRINK) we get: DGXDD. Hmm.
Hang on though. The distribution of those entries in the grid is not random. In fact, each of those ingredients is a signature component of one of the cocktails, and furthermore the grid entries for the matched cocktail/ingredient clue pairs intersect (as shown below)! Well, what happens if we take the letters where they intersect (or mix, if you will)? In grid order, they spell MIXED, which is a type of message, and this week's answer. The MIXED messages that might result from consumption of these drinks might also be viewed as a type of bar "code"
Thanks to my co-constructor for a very enjoyable maiden joint venture, and I hope that you all had as much fun solving this as we had constructing it.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
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benchen71
- Posts: 2448
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:50 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Gonna have to try some of those recipes! Great puzzle, Alan & Wendy. 
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta! 
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JeanneC
- Posts: 624
- Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:25 am
- Location: Florida
This was a fun puzzle with great clues to the mechanism. Really enjoyed it!
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
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Al Sisti
- Posts: 2067
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
Never really got back to it after the first couple of days -- life getting in the way and all that -- but I really wish I had. What a great meta! More please...
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jhseeman
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:33 pm
- Location: Charleston, SC
Went to a prohibition bar down in Savannah Ga. If you're looking for a list of drinks to try......
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