"Look Inside" - April, 3, 2020

[yourpalsal]

Still on the ship. Right off the bat I saw something that has to be part of the solution. But the fog has rolled in, and I can’t find the other parts.

That’s exactly how I feel and I have been staring at this thing all weekend. Starting to doubt that I know anything at all. So frustrated.

Isaac, take the night off. “Lloyd, you keep setting ‘em up and I’ll keep knockin em down!”

What is that thing in your avatar?

A shofar, used in Jewish practice to herald the new year and other matters.

[yourpalsal]

Wow. I never head a chance. Of the many rabbit holes I explored, the answer lay in none. Touche Mike Shenk.

[DrTom]

OMG - my neophytism has NEVER been more evident than today. I am absolutely in awe of the construction and all of those who got this beautiful META. I never even got close. I recognized that some of the clues were odd, and tried to find within them, or branching from them, internal organs (OK, so maybe I was predisposed to think that way), the collection of which would spell a word. I will of course add this technique to my armamentarium and hope I remember it when the time comes.

Congratulations to the solvers...now if all of the rest of you would like to join me at the ship's bar, hopefully not so many that we cannot stay 6 feet apart because drinking though a mask is REALLY difficult.

[DrTom]

Wow. I never head a chance. Of the many rabbit holes I explored, the answer lay in none. Touche Mike Shenk.

So close and yet shofar.

[lacangah]

I assume others will comment on this more eloquently, but my initial "look inside" took me to an "URN" in 18A, a "MINE" in 38D, a "NEST" in 43D, and an "EAR" in 66A (wasn't sure about the "ROBE" in 24A). Then dabbled with looking for "Ashes or coffee," "Ores," "Eggs or chicks," and "Wax or hair" (and found the last one wrapped around "EAR"). It seemed very much to be the right path,... then nothing... It was a real challenge to back up (beep beep) and try another track, which ultimately did pan out. Very well done.

Have a good week; good health to you all!

[UTHfan]

wow, very nice. Lessons learned.

I went literal, looking at the "in" portions and found a bunch of words that I thought could lead somewhere. But that's so last week.

code
on a
neon
mane
live
list

mmm hmm...

[steveb]

Wow. I never head a chance. Of the many rabbit holes I explored, the answer lay in none. Touche Mike Shenk.

So close and yet shofar.

All that effort and nothing to shofar it.

[Dow Jones]

Double wow. I don't think I could have gone through 76 "clues and answers" trying to parse a solution. Among the many rabbit holes, that I tried, was looking at the "clues" (for a clue). Great construction.

[steveb]

I was close to throwing in the towel when I decided to write down the answers next to the clues. I was looking for answers that resembled each other, and AMOEBA and AEROBE jumped out at me, but I didn't see any other pairs like that. Then I noticed that the letters of clue 29A (Nag) were contained in its answer (GNAW AT). Hmm, that was interesting. While I checked other clues for something similar, my eye drifted to 26A above it. I saw "softhead" embedded there and the rest of the solve fell into place.

The lesson: if you don't get the meta immediately online, print the puzzle. If you don't get it soon from the answers in the printed puzzle, write down the answers next to the clues. You may not find what you think you're looking for, but you also may find the path to the answer.

[DrTom]

Well my problem initially was that I was stuck on the Self Contained. There were a lot of ME, US, WE that were separated by a few letters (I think last week was still ringing in my ears). That yielded 11 letters as it turns out but not a word that was even vaguely human. The I got caught up in things that were INSIDE people. I saw INNARDS, BOWEL, GUMS, TEETH , PUPIL, ILIA (had to twist and turn to get them but they were there) and again got 11 letters that were even less earthlike. I recognized that some of the clues were "odd" but not that they "contained" their own answers. I'd have loved to have been clever enough to get that one though because it was magnificent in its construction.

[Tony S]

Finding the meta in the clues themselves as opposed to the grid has happened before. (I'm sure others on this board can say when that was.) At first I started looking for words within the answers themselves --- like URN in GURNEY for example, but my list exceeded eleven, and the words I got led to nonsense; since the grid didn't help me I began combing the clues. I then noticed something that is a staple in cryptics --- the "container clue" where the answer lies in plain sight --- the solution
came quickly thereafter. This was my favorite meta so far this year.

[BrianMac]

I saw HEARsT and oLIVER and spent a lot of time looking for other organs that were off by one letter ("self" contained, look inside). Eventually I noticed that some of the clues were unnecessarily wordy...why would he clue ATONED as "Made amends for what one did," when "Made amends" works just as well? That got me over the hump.

[Inca]

That was never going to happen for me this week. I don't enjoy looking at the clues (not sure why) so I tend not to go there. Great job to all who solved it.

Seeing self-contained as an obvious clue, I thought that after last week's meta it would be really amusing if the letters to the solution would be found between the Ms and Es in the grid this week. There were a few, but not enought to come up with an 11-letter word.

[Al Sisti]

That was never going to happen for me this week. I don't enjoy looking at the clues (not sure why) so I tend not to go there. Great job to all who solved it.

Seeing self-contained as an obvious clue, I thought that after last week's meta it would be really amusing if the letters to the solution would be found between the Ms and Es in the grid this week. There were a few, but not enought to come up with an 11-letter word.

That's the way I started looking at it too...

[yourpalsal]

Wow. I never head a chance. Of the many rabbit holes I explored, the answer lay in none. Touche Mike Shenk.

So close and yet shofar.

[yourpalsal]

That was never going to happen for me this week. I don't enjoy looking at the clues (not sure why) so I tend not to go there. Great job to all who solved it.

Seeing self-contained as an obvious clue, I thought that after last week's meta it would be really amusing if the letters to the solution would be found between the Ms and Es in the grid this week. There were a few, but not enought to come up with an 11-letter word.

That's the way I started looking at it too...

I spent time on that. And “in.” And the sides. And letters in cups made of 3x letter corners. Letter in 2x letter-ends. So many tunnels of poo like the ones Andy Dufresne crawled 500 yds through, only to find iron bars at the end.

[yourpalsal]

Wow. I never head a chance. Of the many rabbit holes I explored, the answer lay in none. Touche Mike Shenk.

So close and yet shofar.

All that effort and nothing to shofar it.

[yourpalsal]

Big shout out to Mike Shenk. Gorgeous construction. I wish I got it. Humbling, fun, and a great growth experience.

[yourpalsal]

I was close to throwing in the towel when I decided to write down the answers next to the clues. I was looking for answers that resembled each other, and AMOEBA and AEROBE jumped out at me, but I didn't see any other pairs like that. Then I noticed that the letters of clue 29A (Nag) were contained in its answer (GNAW AT). Hmm, that was interesting. While I checked other clues for something similar, my eye drifted to 26A above it. I saw "softhead" embedded there and the rest of the solve fell into place.

The lesson: if you don't get the meta immediately online, print the puzzle. If you don't get it soon from the answers in the printed puzzle, write down the answers next to the clues. You may not find what you think you're looking for, but you also may find the path to the answer.

Great tip. I will try that next time I get stuck. Thanks!

[Meg]

Finding the meta in the clues is standard Gaffney, but I don’t know if Mike has ever used it before. What a challenge! Being a fan of cryptic crosswords really helped on this one. At least the technique was familiar. One thing about metas.....you gotta look at everything.