"Last Call" - October 10, 2021

Available by emailing a request to PandorasBlocksWMC[at]gmail[dot]com, these meta puzzles are distributed by email every Sunday. Pandora's Blocks crosswords are intended to spread the popularity of meta crosswords, however, they are not just for beginners and run the gamut it terms of difficulty.
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C=64
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#21

Post by C=64 »

🦖🚂 This one reminds me of Will's early puzzles when he was explicitly designing them to help newer solvers get more comfortable with metas.
Schmeel
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#22

Post by Schmeel »

Dino me!
Fun puzzle. There was something that confused me a bit also.
I enjoy seeing the complexity scale.
But I'll manage just fine if it's not posted too.
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schmidzy
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#23

Post by schmidzy »

Dino me!
Although I also hopped on board the "missing a step" train. I'm new here so I don't know the etiquette, but if anyone can PM me with a nudge towards backsolving for the mechanism, I'd certainly appreciate it!
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auee89
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#24

Post by auee89 »

Image

Fun puzzle Will!
Kevin
hoover
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#25

Post by hoover »

Solved, but not submitting, because it seems the only way to log in to Crosshare is with an Evil Empire account.
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benchen71
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#26

Post by benchen71 »

Add me to the list of people who back-solved this puzzle. After getting the answer, I was able to work out the mechanism.
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! :shock:
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boharr
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#27

Post by boharr »

hoover wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:25 pm Solved, but not submitting, because it seems the only way to log in to Crosshare is with an Evil Empire account.
I think this rightfully gives many of us pause.
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woozy
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#28

Post by woozy »

Hmmm.... not sure how one can solve without getting the mechanism....
Latest meta: Never forget... and never mind (A WSJ retaliation)
miked
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Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2020 7:22 pm

#29

Post by miked »

@hoover @boharr - my sincere apologies that you aren't comfortable w/ logins being only through Google. The only reason for that decision was to keep things simple on my end - Crosshare has largely been a one-person show to date, so not needing to spend time implementing authentication was a huge help.

I will try to find some time in the near future to play around and see how hard it will be to add an alternative form of authentication. Crosshare is also open-source if either of you happen to be software folks and are interested in taking a look at adding it!

Cheers,
Mike
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BarbaraK
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#30

Post by BarbaraK »

hoover wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 7:25 pm Solved, but not submitting, because it seems the only way to log in to Crosshare is with an Evil Empire account.
You need a Microsoft account to use Crosshare? ;)
hoover
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#31

Post by hoover »

miked wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:14 am @hoover @boharr - my sincere apologies that you aren't comfortable w/ logins being only through Google. The only reason for that decision was to keep things simple on my end - Crosshare has largely been a one-person show to date, so not needing to spend time implementing authentication was a huge help.
I didn't realize Crosshare was a one-person show. My apologies if I sounded whiny.
I will try to find some time in the near future to play around and see how hard it will be to add an alternative form of authentication. Crosshare is also open-source if either of you happen to be software folks and are interested in taking a look at adding it!
Is it this one? https://github.com/mdirolf/crosshare
hoover
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#32

Post by hoover »

woozy wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 11:36 pm Hmmm.... not sure how one can solve without getting the mechanism....
Yah, I don't know how one can backsolve this either. I mean, I got the mechanism, saw the solution, realized I had too many pieces, and half-backsolved to figure out which pieces were impostors. But I don't see how you could guess the answer without an idea of the mechanism.
miked
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#33

Post by miked »

hoover wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 12:44 pm
I didn't realize Crosshare was a one-person show. My apologies if I sounded whiny.
No apology necessary! I didn't think you sounded whiny - just wanted to explain the reasoning.
Yup that's it :D
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BrennerTJ
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#34

Post by BrennerTJ »

Was stuck for a bit, now un-.
🦕
🤞🐰
-Tamara
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DrTom
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#35

Post by DrTom »

Struggling, struggling. struggling...trying all kinds of twists and turns, Googling, making dinks (not to help solve the puzzle, just because I thought "heck, its 5 O'Clock somewhere and I'm NOT solving this thing cold sober so). Grinding to a dead halt I am reading everyone's comments and I am feeling INCREDIBLY stupid when it hit me that something I saw early on stimulated a neuron in the back of my mind. Could that possibly be? Turns out it was, and is and I am (according to Crosshare) Dinoed.
Velociraptor equals distanceraptor.jpg
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!
Laura M
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#36

Post by Laura M »

Dinoed! Should have gotten this one way earlier, but was distracted by something that I thought couldn't possibly be a coincidence...
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MikeM000
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#37

Post by MikeM000 »

Dinoed! Now I just have to go and figure out the shady characters by 4pm....
Laura M
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#38

Post by Laura M »

My rabbit hole was: I tried anagramming 8D BAWLER (which stood out as kind of an odd word) and got WARBLE, a perfect synonym for BIRD CALL! I thought that couldn't possibly be a coincidence. But I couldn't find more anagrams, and in fact I couldn't think of good synonyms for some of the CALLs, so eventually I tried what I should have to begin with.
Dplass
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#39

Post by Dplass »

I got this one right without following the rules...I just used all the long answers and skipped one because everything else spelled the answer...
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whimsy
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#40

Post by whimsy »

Dplass wrote: Sun Oct 17, 2021 5:04 pm I got this one right without following the rules...I just used all the long answers and skipped one because everything else spelled the answer...
Me too!
And I bet we both run with scissors!
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