MGWCC #885 -- "Taking the Fifth"

[Joe Ross]

MGWCC #885 -- "Taking the Fifth"

Dear Solver,

483 of you found the answer to last week's newsy meta. Read about it here.

Today's puzzle is Week 3 of 5 in May. Instructions:

This puzzle's contest answer is a five-letter word.

Good luck!

--Matt

MGWCC #885 -- HINT
May 17, 2025

Dear Solver,

This one is playing much tougher than I'd intended for a Week 3 of 5, so I'm adding an optional hint via email and Patreon. Full credit even if you use the hint; bragging rights if you don't.

--Matt



MGWCC #885 -- Deadline is Wednesday, May 21st at Noon ET
May 20, 2025

Dear Solver,

My apologies! I forgot to include the usual note when a puzzle is published late (as has been happening all too often lately) that the deadline is pushed back until Wednesday. That's the case this week, so the deadline for MGWCC #885 is Wednesday, May 21st, at noon ET.

--Matt

[HoldThatThought]

I know that I will be attacked for this, but I'll be the brave or stupid guy who says the quiet thing out loud.

Since Puzzle #700, seventy-six of the one hundred and eighty six MGWCCs have been delayed, or entirely postponed. That's almost 41%.

I have been, and remain, one of Matt Gaffney's most vocal supporters; I admire and respect the quality of his work, but a 41% delay and/or cancellation rate seems extreme, especially for a subscription-funded puzzle.

I totally appreciate that Matt is almost entirely a one man creative empire. Like the rest of us, he gets sick, his loved ones get sick, technology fails, last minute crises arise, the fickle muse of creativity slips away, but, out here in Solver Land, there are paid subscribers who have established a little routine - setting aside a small part of our lives - to engage with a puzzle that supposedly arrives at noon (Eastern) on Friday. Every shift in delivery time, whether it's an hour, four hours, or one or more days, has an impact on solvers' lives. This puzzle doesn't really come out at noon on Friday - it sometimes comes out at noon on Friday.

There have been grumblings here (not mine), that no one picks up on, or amplifies; but I can't be the only solver who is frustrated by the erratic publication schedule. To be brutally honest, I fully anticipate a notification of delay, every week, so I can be pleasantly surprised when the puzzle arrives on time.

I will say it again. I love Matt Gaffney's puzzles. Every correspondence I have had with Matt has demonstrated his thoughtfulness, his kindness, and his very human dignity. I get WHY it's so very, very difficult to put a quality puzzle out every Friday, at noon.

But the constant delays are frustrating.

Perhaps moving the publication time to a different hour, or a different day would prove more achievable, making the MGWCC an every other week event, sharing the writing with another author, a la the WSJ schedule. I don't know. Something that takes the stress off Matt's extreme challenge - which is proving impossible (unsurprisingly so) to meet.

This is not personal, this is simply an acknowledgement of a fact. If other solvers are tempted to respond, just to tell me that you, personally, aren't the least bit bothered by the delays, because you have so many better things to do with your time, and much more important things to worry about, you won't be telling me anything I don't already know. This isn't a BIG DEAL. Yes, I know.

I said it. Have at me. Oh, and please don't tell me to do an alternative puzzle. I'm not asking how to fill a block of time. I enjoy, and very much look forward to, the MGWCC.

[BarbaraK]

I was just thinking that Matt should do like the rocket launchers do. Instead of advertising that the puzzle will be released at noon on Friday, make it official that it will be released no earlier than noon on Friday.

[sharkicicles]

I know that I will be attacked for this, but I'll be the brave or stupid guy who says the quiet thing out loud.

I thought this was fair, kind, and well-stated.

[Meg]

#6 on the board!!

[Joe]

I am on the board. I absolutely had help from the Discord crew. This is a wonderful meta. It is doable. It makes sense. It's clever. It is, however, a Week 723.

[BeTheLight]

I agree with you HoldThatThought. I absolutely don't care when the puzzle comes out. I often don't do it until later in the weekend and certainly not at noon on Friday when I'm working. But getting the postponed email every week does feel a bit cringeworthy. I made a suggestion once to change the schedule but I suspect that doesn't matter. It clearly takes more than a week to develop a high quality, challenging puzzle. But whenever it is sent out, I'm here for it.

[docison]

If I could play Devil's advocate to @HoldThatThought 's post... I too roll my eyes a bit when the delay email comes out. And yet...
Matt's metas are just so good. This is basically an art form that he invented - and the whole premise of it (and the task he set for himself, much to the pleasure of all of us) is to generate 1000 (!) of these pieces of art, where a big part of the artistry is the originality of each single one. I mean, sure, week 1's are generally straightforward, and there are certainly aspects of mechanisms that repeat - but he does this amazing thing and delivers it to our inboxes for what I would consider an incredibly modest fee. I say this to say - much as I'd like to get a great puzzle from Matt at precisely noon on Friday, I appreciate that the pride he takes in his craft means that sometimes he just has to push it back to ensure that what he sends belongs in the canon. If anything (and with no negativity intended towards guest constructors), I wish he felt NO pressure to turn to anyone else when an idea doesn't work. I would rather have just about any Gaffney puzzle anyday - be it a Friday, Sunday, or Tuesday - than a substitute. So if Matt is reading this thread, I just want him to hear that direct from a dedicated solver.
So all of this is to say - I love these puzzles. I will be deeply sad if he actually concludes the set when he reaches 1000. And this week's was another piece de resistance - clever, hard, fair (I saw something that helped me crack it sooner than most, but still - I loved it) -and ended up #3 on the board. Would have been higher but one piece eluded me for a bit.
That's all...

[Joe]

Hear, hear!!

[ship4u]

Awaiting beamage. Tough one. A week 10, IMHO.

EDIT: Beamed at #38! Yipee! Did I solo solve? I'm taking the fifth! Cheers to everyone!

[MikeyG]

HOLY CATS I FOUND SOMETHING AFTER 4.5 HOURS OF WORK.

WOW.

(Just had to share.)

Edit: And there it is, on a solo solve, somehow! Brilliant!!!!!



(And if they don't take the fifth, it'll be a cat-astrophe.)

[lbray53]

Beamed at #55 thanks to Discord and MeginStPete.

[benchen71]

Awaiting the beam... [I had to be hand-held through that solve! Definitely not solo.]

... and I'm beamed at #57.

[Joe Ross]

I know that I will be attacked for this, but I'll be the brave or stupid guy who says the quiet thing out loud.

Since Puzzle #700, seventy-six of the one hundred and eighty six MGWCCs have been delayed, or entirely postponed. That's almost 41%.

I have been, and remain, one of Matt Gaffney's most vocal supporters; I admire and respect the quality of his work, but a 41% delay and/or cancellation rate seems extreme, especially for a subscription-funded puzzle.

I totally appreciate that Matt is almost entirely a one man creative empire. Like the rest of us, he gets sick, his loved ones get sick, technology fails, last minute crises arise, the fickle muse of creativity slips away, but, out here in Solver Land, there are paid subscribers who have established a little routine - setting aside a small part of our lives - to engage with a puzzle that supposedly arrives at noon (Eastern) on Friday. Every shift in delivery time, whether it's an hour, four hours, or one or more days, has an impact on solvers' lives. This puzzle doesn't really come out at noon on Friday - it sometimes comes out at noon on Friday.

There have been grumblings here (not mine), that no one picks up on, or amplifies; but I can't be the only solver who is frustrated by the erratic publication schedule. To be brutally honest, I fully anticipate a notification of delay, every week, so I can be pleasantly surprised when the puzzle arrives on time.

I will say it again. I love Matt Gaffney's puzzles. Every correspondence I have had with Matt has demonstrated his thoughtfulness, his kindness, and his very human dignity. I get WHY it's so very, very difficult to put a quality puzzle out every Friday, at noon.

But the constant delays are frustrating.

Perhaps moving the publication time to a different hour, or a different day would prove more achievable, making the MGWCC an every other week event, sharing the writing with another author, a la the WSJ schedule. I don't know. Something that takes the stress off Matt's extreme challenge - which is proving impossible (unsurprisingly so) to meet.

This is not personal, this is simply an acknowledgement of a fact. If other solvers are tempted to respond, just to tell me that you, personally, aren't the least bit bothered by the delays, because you have so many better things to do with your time, and much more important things to worry about, you won't be telling me anything I don't already know. This isn't a BIG DEAL. Yes, I know.

I said it. Have at me. Oh, and please don't tell me to do an alternative puzzle. I'm not asking how to fill a block of time. I enjoy, and very much look forward to, the MGWCC.

If I could play Devil's advocate to @HoldThatThought 's post... I too roll my eyes a bit when the delay email comes out. And yet...
Matt's metas are just so good. This is basically an art form that he invented - and the whole premise of it (and the task he set for himself, much to the pleasure of all of us) is to generate 1000 (!) of these pieces of art, where a big part of the artistry is the originality of each single one. I mean, sure, week 1's are generally straightforward, and there are certainly aspects of mechanisms that repeat - but he does this amazing thing and delivers it to our inboxes for what I would consider an incredibly modest fee. I say this to say - much as I'd like to get a great puzzle from Matt at precisely noon on Friday, I appreciate that the pride he takes in his craft means that sometimes he just has to push it back to ensure that what he sends belongs in the canon. If anything (and with no negativity intended towards guest constructors), I wish he felt NO pressure to turn to anyone else when an idea doesn't work. I would rather have just about any Gaffney puzzle anyday - be it a Friday, Sunday, or Tuesday - than a substitute. So if Matt is reading this thread, I just want him to hear that direct from a dedicated solver.
So all of this is to say - I love these puzzles. I will be deeply sad if he actually concludes the set when he reaches 1000. And this week's was another piece de resistance - clever, hard, fair (I saw something that helped me crack it sooner than most, but still - I loved it) -and ended up #3 on the board. Would have been higher but one piece eluded me for a bit.
That's all...

These are thoughtfully composed and artfully written. IMLessThanWorthyO, both are fair and representative of many solvers and subscribers. It's possible and my guess that a majority - including Matt - agree with both.

[ky-mike]

Beamed at #63 with a bit of help. Tough week 3.

[KayW]

Submitted.

[Katiedid]

Darn. I was excited that Matt sent a hint, but I'd already considered that. It's pretty much standard procedure, but it's not helping me
I'll ask for a nudge later.

[woozy]

Whew..... Thanks Ben, alan and minimuggle for the hand holding.

That was a toughie. And there is one obviously intentional monkey wrench distraction. And one unintentional red herring.

[DCBilly]

Beamed, with helpful encouragement/nudgement from a friend mid-solve.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Beamed!

Though only with much help.

Yowsers!