Wow, the label even resembles the virus.
"What Not To Do" - March 27, 2020
- Scott M
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Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
- KayW
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True, but iNme was included as part of (DONT) TOUCH ME. So you had the N from iNme plus the OT from foOT above. I kind of thought the first O in fOot might also be considered "touching" but it's not monootonousDrTom wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:27 amWell poop - I had not considered that taking OUS from MOUSE left only ME, however by the same token if you take only the N from INME you don't end up with ME...so I'm ADMONISHING the judges to break the MONOTONY of single answers!!! I'm already drowning with the MGWCC so I'm hoping for one solve (even contested) this week.KayW wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:05 am Thank you BarbaraK for an understandable and thorough writeup.
I too got MONOTONOUS and once I sussed out the right mechanism I think it's a clever construction. I too spent a lot of time also trying to wedge in AD from mADebacon and many other things - including along the way excluding any square contiguous with any M or E in the grid.
From the beginning I really like and stuck stubbornly with mOUSe - according to litscape.com there are 300 10-letter words ending OUS. I also liked meMO and MO*OUS yielded 12 words including MONOTONOUS.
One more argument for mOUSe but not mADebacon is when you remove the interrupters from mouse you are left only with ME.
And BTW excellent write-up by DrTom for ADMONITION. I still think MONOTONOUS is better - probably because I found it nor does it involve an anagram - but I think he makes a valid case. If I found that ADMONITION solution myself, I'd probably stop looking and submit.
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.
- jenirvin
- Posts: 205
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Well, I never got back to this, and have to admit, I'd likely have never gotten to shore. Kudos to those who did!
~ Jennifer/jenirvin
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While completing the grid and realizing all the theme entries started with "Don't Do Something" I immediately thought of ADMONITION. Then I couldn't get that word out of my head all weekend! But, like Wendy, I knew that it just wasn't an elegant-enough strategy for a Matt Gaffney solve. I decided my time was much better spent working in the yard! It's calling to me now as a matter of fact...
Sara
- KayW
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I had not heard of this song but thank you for introducing me to it! Very appropriate for this enforced staycation.Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:33 am "How does MONOTONOUS describe the theme entries?"
I think that many children found their parents' continuous admonitions to be monotonous. Not my parents of course. What they repeated was the playing of the LP of "New Faces of 1952," which included this song by Eartha Kitt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXMwK18JQZs
She found other things monotonous.
Has anyone else around here even heard of this song?
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.
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Ah, Validation. It really IS all about ME. I’ll save this as proof to wave at my husband the next time he suggests it is otherwise.
I was out in left field without a glove on this one.
All the music references in the clues and grid had me looking for the answer to be a song title- that would have led me to guess Domination. I struggled valiantly to contort the theme answers into song titles- Let Peace begin with Me, Stand by Your Man, ( there’s My Man standing right by stand).
Eventually I tuned in that the themers were giving us the instructions. But do?? Or don’t?? And which me?? Even a nudge here couldn’t get me to the finish line.
Nice going, solo solvers.
I was out in left field without a glove on this one.
All the music references in the clues and grid had me looking for the answer to be a song title- that would have led me to guess Domination. I struggled valiantly to contort the theme answers into song titles- Let Peace begin with Me, Stand by Your Man, ( there’s My Man standing right by stand).
Eventually I tuned in that the themers were giving us the instructions. But do?? Or don’t?? And which me?? Even a nudge here couldn’t get me to the finish line.
Nice going, solo solvers.
- grwinski
- Posts: 216
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- Location: Fort Collins, Colorado
This was our thinking as well, and we submitted 'admonition' -- the word really fits the commands, and we didn't see the 'N' around the 'ME' in 'INME' (which we should have). But we initially thought the 'don't interrupt me' was part of MADEBACON, so we were to the races with ADMONITION, although we agreed that there was also MOUSE. Oh well, on the partial right trackMajordomoTom wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 12:10 am I also wanted it to be TOUCH(something).
As in
START WITH TOUCH
STAND OR NEXT TO INTERRUPT
striking the DON'Ts and the MEs altogether.
TOUCHINESS was the only such ten letter word, but couldn't find anything for the INESS, so that wasn't one of our submissions.
The other was ADMONITION, which is the AD from MADEBACON, the MO from the first clue, the IN from INME fully backwards (NI), the ON from the stand clue, and no TI in sight.
MONOTONOUS doesn't also fit the puzzle title, ADMONITION does, so we submitted two different words.
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I also fell into the admonition trap—tricked by the “made bacon” answer.
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I agree. And, the metas I don't get are the ones I remember!
- OGuyDave
- Posts: 170
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- Location: Naples
First thought: IMPERATIVE. Second thought (and all subsequent thoughts): garbled, even after a nudge.
Though I knew it wasn't the intended answer, I submitted it anyway. It surely solves the "fits the title" requirement.
TFTXWD anyway
Though I knew it wasn't the intended answer, I submitted it anyway. It surely solves the "fits the title" requirement.
TFTXWD anyway
- Joe Ross
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An ADMONITION to muggles: DON'T suggest more MONOTONOUS earworms to MEMaineMarge wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:24 am ...song titles- Let Peace begin with Me, Stand by Your Man...
DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME was enough and, with everyone socializing online almost exclusively, it's become A SMALL WORLD, afterall.
(Seriously: Great post, Marge!)
Whole blood, platelets, or plasma: Donate 4 in 2024
PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
𝟯𝟬% 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰,
𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
PLATELET 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘀 ENORMOUS 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲:
𝟰𝟬% 𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰,
𝟯𝟬% 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰,
𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 & 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘂𝗺𝗮. 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗘!
- TMart
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- Location: Malvern, PA
Remember, the rules are, there are no rules. The answer doesn't have to fit the title. In this case, the title was an instruction on how to solve the puzzle: what NOT to do. The themers were also instructions - things NOT NOT to do that pointed to grid items, that, when combined, spell a word that describes (i.e. adjective, as noted above) the theme answers. I liked this one a lot.
- lacangah
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Tue May 28, 2019 12:58 am
- Location: Claremont, CA
I was in "MOAD-ville" for many hours (maybe it was the bacon that distracted me), then I took a (socially distant) walk through the clues, finding 'interrupted MEs' (example: 19A 'Solo in MoviEs'). However, I couldn't prove that "MUSOVIBPLOY" was an adjective, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't 10-letters long, which slowly led my wife and I back to monotony (/rimshot).
Congrats to those who solved it, and distant fist bumps to all who tilted at it - good health to you all!
Congrats to those who solved it, and distant fist bumps to all who tilted at it - good health to you all!
- boharr
- Moderator
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- Location: Westchester, NY
I fell into this one too for good while.
- boharr
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Well put.TMart wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:00 am Remember, the rules are, there are no rules. The answer doesn't have to fit the title. In this case, the title was an instruction on how to solve the puzzle: what NOT to do. The themers were also instructions - things NOT NOT to do that pointed to grid items, that, when combined, spell a word that describes (i.e. adjective, as noted above) the theme answers. I liked this one a lot.
- OGuyDave
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- Location: Naples
Correction: "IMPERATIVE" fits "...is a ten-letter word describing the theme entries.", not the title.
- DrTom
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- Location: Jacksonville, FL
If the clue said that "The answer is a 10 letter adjective describing the theme entries" then MONOTONOUS would have some defense. Just as "The answer is a 11 letter word describing the theme entries" REDWINGS, BLACKHAWKS, MAPLELEAFS would be HOCKEYTEAMS or could be DESCRIPTIVE. How would you describe DON"T DO THAT, or DON'T BE HOME LATE, as an admonition no? Nobody is saying that MONOTONOUS is incorrect, but the same level of "elegancy" was required to get to ADMONITION as it was to MONOTONOUS because the letters were derived the same way except for MADE AND MOUSE - a point I know people are lining up on either side of but it was still an "inelegancy" in the puzzle. How would all of the MONOTONOUS people feel if the real answer is ADMONITION in the judges mind? I'm guessing there would be pages and pages of protest.Bulls****** wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 8:30 am "The answer...is a ten-letter word describing the theme entries." Therefore the answer must be an adjective (rim shot...MONOTONOUS). If the answer required were "a category into which theme entries fit" then the noun, ADMONITION, would have some defense.
Gosh guys, although we all had opinions nobody flinched when all those who got the incorrect answer to Higher Education (i.e. did not chose MELLON) gave different answers and reasons for their answers even though they had not followed the instructions or pulled the answer from the grid but inferred what the grid might have been asking. There were deemed two correct answers for that?
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!
- spotter
- Posts: 311
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- Location: SLO, CA
When I highlighted the theme answers, it really highlighted the relevant 'ME's nicely. In the top is the start with me, then the touch me, then the standing me, and finally the interrupted me. I thought it was a nice clean construction.
- Commodore
- Posts: 371
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:12 pm
"Better to be lucky than good" and other adages...
Stumbled upon answer early. Which gave me plenty of time to watch the Boston Bruins battle through the 2011 and 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. I am getting pretty good at gambling on these games.
As my quarantine partner would advise you, 6-D.
Stumbled upon answer early. Which gave me plenty of time to watch the Boston Bruins battle through the 2011 and 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. I am getting pretty good at gambling on these games.
As my quarantine partner would advise you, 6-D.
- Jazzvibist
- Posts: 71
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 7:31 pm
- Location: Los Angeles, CA (temp)
Using the title of the puzzle as the instructions for how to solve it, I quickly came to the same conclusion as you probably did (i.e. that it could not be coincidental that MO and OUS were such solid, logical beginnings and ends of the answer, although I spent a lot of time before discarding in the process the fiendish AD “interrupting” M and E in MADE BACON). Next, assuming that Matt would not likely choose a word as arcane as MONONYMOUS, I figured it was either MONOGAMOUS or MONOTONOUS, but for some reason had to come back to the puzzle three times before I spotted the paths to NOT and ON.