MGWCC #885 -- "Taking the Fifth"

[hcbirker]

What @ChrisKochmanski said. Thanks @Meg

[ajk]

Beamed yesterday after bringing up the rear of the group solve. Tough but fair.

[SamKat9]

Waiting for beam, I definitely needed the hint and some time to let things marinate!

[JoDave]

Beamed. Wow. I got the main idea while on my walk and it still took some doing to finish it off.

[MikeyG]

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.

I groaned a bit when I saw that was his hint, haha. That's par for the course!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Myself, I'm not much bothered by MGWCC's irregular publishing schedule. For me, MGWCC has, over the years, become a wild adventure, and the unpredictability is part of the ride. But that's me.

[Bird Lives]

I like docison's characterization of these metas as works of art. Yes, the delays are an inconvenience but a minor one. My only complaint is that the Wednesday deadline means that those of us on the Tuesday evening Zoom often can't discuss the puzzle in much detail

As a sometime constructor, what I'm really curious about is the cause of the delays. This is a guy who whipped up a Leo XIV meta while the white smoke was still visible in the Rome sky. I wish he would do a post-meta explaining what the difficulties in construction were.

[woozy]

I like docison's characterization of these metas as works of art. Yes, the delays are an inconvenience but a minor one. My only complaint is that the Wednesday deadline means that those of us on the Tuesday evening Zoom often can't discuss the puzzle in much detail

As a sometime constructor, what I'm really curious about is the cause of the delays. This is a guy who whipped up a Leo XIV meta while the white smoke was still visible in the Rome sky. I wish he would do a post-meta explaining what the difficulties in construction were.

I'm absolutely flabbergasted by the predictive ability. "I'm not finished but I should have it done by noon". How on earth can anyone predict how long a crossword is going to take to construct?

[schmidzy]

FINALLY beamed up with the solo solve. Some large quibbles aside, I really enjoyed this puzzle! Lots of cool (albeit tough) things going on here.

[SamKat9]

I can understand both points from HoldThatThought and docison about the delays. Jumping into the world of meta crosswords helped me cope with a difficult pregnancy and being on bedrest. So naturally, when the MGWCC was delayed, I would be a bit disappointed. I can imagine a long-time solver with a greater appreciation for Gaffney puzzles might feel even more disappointed.

92 puzzles later (still probably peanuts to some of you out there), the MGWCC still helps me enjoy my very little downtime over the weekend. I selfishly can’t say I still feel the same about the delays now, because I’ve benefited more than a few times when the deadline has been pushed ahead. I can also now only imagine how tricky it must be to make a meta crossword appropriate for the week level, free of errors, test-solved, enjoyed by the masses and on time. But I do understand both posts.

[rjy]

Awaiting beamage, but with confirmation from a nudger. My better half and I got most of it on our own, but had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of some nasty rabbit holes. Amazed at the varied ideas Matt comes up with... wow!

[sharkicicles]

This one was a cool one but as I’m from the west side of Chicago I have to say it was a mother******.

[ajk]

My only complaint is that the Wednesday deadline means that those of us on the Tuesday evening Zoom often can't discuss the puzzle in much detail

Did he officially announce that it's Wednesday anywhere? I know that's been the common practice, but maybe not universally so?

ETA: per Matt's recent email

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

[MountainManZach]

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

Short version, I've been keeping track of late puzzles too. (Longer version is

► Show Spoiler

I was learning to scrape websites with R and Matt's leaderboard was a perfect practice: the URLs for each week are in numerical order and the table always has the same format. I wanted to see if I was faster in certain weeks or months, so I had to adjust the deadline if it was different than noon Tuesday.

) I got that ~32% of puzzles have been delayed since Ada's birth which was in the late 600s IIRC (and I likely undercounted delays that didn't result in a deadline change). May seems to be particularly challenging, with ~20% of puzzles all-time to be released in May were delayed, driven largely by Mays 2022 & 2023.

I share in the minor annoyance because a Saturday release means I can't print it out at work, which often makes late-month puzzles way harder

[Katiedid]

Whew! That was hard.
I needed a nudge, but I still went down a lot of rabbit holes. The final aha was fun.
(The official hint didn't help.)

[MattGaffney]

HoldThatThought's comment on this thread is of course completely correct and fair, and kindly worded to boot.

I'll respond on my site on Friday since I think it's something a lot of solvers have been (justly) irritated by.