Where the Wild Things Are
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Where the Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are
The answer to this meta is the emotional impetus of the Wild Things
It occurred to me this would be a good title for a meta. This one's a little hard but it's doable. It's even doable by the very standard methods if you allow just a slight variation to the process. A starter nudge: . The grid fought me every inch of the way. (Is there a term for grid entries where you just have to pound letters with a hammer just to make thinks work?)
Anyway, Where are the Wild Things? And what is their emotional impetus? Let's find out. LET THE ..... well, you know...
https://crosshare.org/crosswords/0zrl7p ... things-are
The answer to this meta is the emotional impetus of the Wild Things
It occurred to me this would be a good title for a meta. This one's a little hard but it's doable. It's even doable by the very standard methods if you allow just a slight variation to the process. A starter nudge: . The grid fought me every inch of the way. (Is there a term for grid entries where you just have to pound letters with a hammer just to make thinks work?)
Anyway, Where are the Wild Things? And what is their emotional impetus? Let's find out. LET THE ..... well, you know...
https://crosshare.org/crosswords/0zrl7p ... things-are
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
First nudge.
Nudge two.
Nudge 3:
Nudge two.
Nudge 3:
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- whimsy
- Posts: 2823
- Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
- Location: Hopkinton MA
Was able to finish the grid (no small feat for me!) but the gist of the nudges and what to do with them is still eluding me.
Busy weekend -- will check again later --
Busy weekend -- will check again later --
- SamKat9
- Posts: 280
- Joined: Sat Aug 19, 2023 7:45 pm
- Location: Southeast Florida
Clever puzzle, I really enjoyed it! Thank you!
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!
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!
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Nudge 4:
Nudge 5:
Nudge 6:
Nudge 5:
Nudge 6:
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
The was some confusion about the nudges.
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- KayW
- Moderator
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- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
That was one WILD meta - I am amazed that you were able to construct that! Thanks for the puzzle and all the patient nudging!
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
- schmidzy
- Posts: 313
- Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2021 8:56 am
- Contact:
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Final Nudge:
And the nudge after that
And the nudge after that
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
-
- Posts: 783
- Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2020 11:57 am
- Location: Atlanta, GA
Needed every single nudge, but finally got it. Thanks for the puzzle, Woozy!
Matthew
- whimsy
- Posts: 2823
- Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
- Location: Hopkinton MA
Well, I "got" it -- but I'm not sure I "get" it -- or all of it anyhow.
But it was quite an adventure!
Now what's to eat?
Thanks, woozy!
But it was quite an adventure!
Now what's to eat?
Thanks, woozy!
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
One of these days I'm going try to find why people found some things easy and others impossible.
I didn't think this was easy but I thought I left a clear path. My thinking was that 10A would clearly be the key clue. It tells you to look for animals and clue 67A tells you that "wild" = anagrams. So you have find anagrammed animals in themers. The themers are probably the centrally located long ones an you should probably see HORSE in one of them. RUMPUS was meant to be conspicuous and the long central themers first letters spell UMPU so looking for R and S it should be clear where they are (symmetry). There are six animals in clues and if that weren't obvious some of the clues were unnecessarily contrived to contain the animals. And it I'd clear the animals in the clues are the anagrammed animals. And what do you do when you have alternate grid entries of a theme. You take the first letter of them and see if they spell anything. So in theme order they spell MAD MAX, the angry boy whose fit of snit brought the Wild Things into existence.
I suppose part of why it may have seemed difficult is it worked backwards. We needed the alternate entries and the animals first to find the the.ers rather than the other way around. But meta solvers should be flexible.
I nearly blew it though. My first clue for 51D was "Yay, little paridae bird! You show them! ('Did you understand the clue?' 'Yeah I -----')" but I caught myself on time. Howe er the first few hours of puzzle going live I had 63D clue as "A properly cultivated and prepared lobster should be well---". Oops..... Hmmm. Actually "Bible Story" would have made a really good themer. Or Bowel Obstruction....
I didn't think this was easy but I thought I left a clear path. My thinking was that 10A would clearly be the key clue. It tells you to look for animals and clue 67A tells you that "wild" = anagrams. So you have find anagrammed animals in themers. The themers are probably the centrally located long ones an you should probably see HORSE in one of them. RUMPUS was meant to be conspicuous and the long central themers first letters spell UMPU so looking for R and S it should be clear where they are (symmetry). There are six animals in clues and if that weren't obvious some of the clues were unnecessarily contrived to contain the animals. And it I'd clear the animals in the clues are the anagrammed animals. And what do you do when you have alternate grid entries of a theme. You take the first letter of them and see if they spell anything. So in theme order they spell MAD MAX, the angry boy whose fit of snit brought the Wild Things into existence.
I suppose part of why it may have seemed difficult is it worked backwards. We needed the alternate entries and the animals first to find the the.ers rather than the other way around. But meta solvers should be flexible.
I nearly blew it though. My first clue for 51D was "Yay, little paridae bird! You show them! ('Did you understand the clue?' 'Yeah I -----')" but I caught myself on time. Howe er the first few hours of puzzle going live I had 63D clue as "A properly cultivated and prepared lobster should be well---". Oops..... Hmmm. Actually "Bible Story" would have made a really good themer. Or Bowel Obstruction....
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- benchen71
- Posts: 2492
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- Contact:
Ok, I'll tell you what made this one difficult for me: the cluing. So many very long clues just made me think that if the mechanism was in them, it would just be too much work. So I didn't even attempt this one. My loss, I know. But you did ask!
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!
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Well, that's fair enough.
Short cluing is, for me, much harder than it would seem or ought to be. Say the entry is a simple word like TAKE and ... okay, how to a clue for a word like "take", take is ... take. I guess if I calm down and think slowly "take" can be an acted movie clip and wait... how do I put that in words and meanwhile I have 78 clues to get through and I get punchy and ...
But okay... I guess I will make an effort to make the clues shorter. It's just... you know, unoriginal clues are so ... unsatisfying to settle for. But noted, that'd be a weakness of mine. (I'm working on a meta where my latest idea will be difficult probably for the exact opposite reasoning.)
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- MMe
- Posts: 297
- Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:27 am
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
No. An easter egg implies intent.
A weakness I have is designing grids so that to fit symmetry but have entries of reasonable length without painting myself in a corner. Anyhow I had POLYMORPHISM and MOISTENINGUP (one of the weirder entries) and to a less extent UNFORGOTTEN and USERHOSTILE tying me down so getting *anything* of *any* size to fit in the middle of a grid was one of the areas where "the grid fought me every step of the way".
The very first submission was for ESCAPISM and I did wonder where that came from.
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
- KayW
- Moderator
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- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
FWIW I enjoy and appreciate the longer stream-of-consciousness style clues. I consider them bonus entertainment.
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Thank you. But I have to admit when the metanisms is in the clues then steam of consciousness clues can obscure them.
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.