Welcome to Phil's Crossword Corner (PCC)! Philip Chow (aka Phil) is an auditor at NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation who makes crossword puzzles for fun in his free time. A new meta puzzle posts every other Saturday weekend on Crosshare.
Phil’s metas will usually include immediate nudges, a great tool for new solvers. You can reach him at pchow13@gmail.com
Please see below for the latest puzzle PCC#22 - "Wandering in Hundred and One Acre Wood"
[Level 2.5] Meta prompt: The answer to the meta is a plural noun for who museums might employ for special exhibitions
Many thanks to FrankieHeck and Abide for test-solving!
Note: the level is the intended difficulty I had in mind when I designed the puzzle, but may play differently since every solver has their own area of expertise... what one person may find easy, another may find difficult.
Have fun and keep in mind if you're ever lost at sea, google is your best friend (actually, I don't know if you'd get internet service in the middle of the ocean)
-Phil
Hint #1: The meta answer is 9 letters long (and there are exactly 9 clues with asterisks)
Hint #2: 62-Across hints at anagrams... "Wandering" in the puzzle's title is another anagram indicator
Hint #3: "Hundred and One Acre Wood?!" I thought Pooh and his friends lived in Hundred Acre Wood... why is there a +1?
Hint #4: EYESORE almost looks like EEYORE
Hint #5: The +1 means an extra letter... Anagram the entries with asterisked clues to get a Pooh character plus an extra letter
Hint #6: Example: EYESORE = EEYORE + S... the extra letters in grid order spell out the answer (no need for a final anagram)
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: The entries with the asterisked clues can be anagrammed to a "Winnie-the-Pooh" character plus an extra letter. They are (in grid order of extra letter appearance): TRIPLE G = PIGLET + R, OREO = ROO + E, SHORT CIPHERS = CHRISTOPHER + S, POOH = PHOTO + T, WOOL = OWL + O, TRIGGER = TIGGER + R, TABBIER = RABBIT + E, ANGKAR = KANGA + R, EYESORE = EEYORE + S... The extra letters spell out the meta answer RESTORERS... Back in 2016, the original Pooh toys underwent a restoration to be displayed at the NY Public Library.
Constructor notes: This puzzle was born when I thought that Eeyore looked like "eyesore"... from there I thought what if I could add a letter and unscramble the other Pooh characters into valid words... then I had to force a word with the limited possibility of extra letters and really had to reach out there to come up with a meta prompt that had any sort of relevancy to Pooh.
Winnie-the-Pooh Day is celebrated on January 18, the author A.A. Milne's birthday (01/18/1882). I'll leave you with two quotes misattributed to Milne: (1) On not being a selfish tool: "When carrying a jar of honey to give to a friend for his birthday, don't stop and eat it along the way." (2) On being yourself: "The things that make me different are the things that make me me."
Last edited by pchow13 on Sun Apr 21, 2024 6:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Fun! A favorite theme of mine. No need for nudges for most I imagine.
I have a favorite trivia question about the theme and about museums but I won't ask it here.
Funny story. I was all set to enter Par for the course for the CrossHare midi contest for April but I mistakenly thought midi meant 7x 7 and not 11 x 11. Oops. Well.... Here's a complex but **small** meta on the subject of golf.
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!
Shannon PS: If you want help with a meta, PM what you have so I can help without spoiling too much. I've received lots of help in the beginning and I love to pay it forward!
that sounds like something I would do too if I were solving… I tend to go down lots of rabbit holes and overcomplicate things until I take a step back and say “oh… why didn’t I see that before” lol
Thanks for solving! Love the clefairy it’s so cute… I kind of want to make a Pokémon meta but it might be too niche… I’m sure there’s a way to do it to minimize the amount of Googling someone needs to do…
Quiara wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 1:44 am
And I've rounded the corner, after
stupidly seeing SHORT CIPHERS and thinking the starred answers were all some sort of Caesar shift... oops...
Hahaha - I think I'm possibly the only person to have actually been paid to make a Pokemon-themed puzzle! (For that '90s-themed book Puzzlewright Press put out last year - shameless plug.) I love me some Pokeymans
Quiara wrote: ↑Tue Jan 16, 2024 1:13 am
Hahaha - I think I'm possibly the only person to have actually been paid to make a Pokemon-themed puzzle! (For that '90s-themed book Puzzlewright Press put out last year - shameless plug.) I love me some Pokeymans
A fun romp in the woods...alas I found no mushrooms.
Thanks Philip
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
A fun one. Well done, Phil - thanks!
