"Trade-Ins" - April 1, 2022

[hoover]

Waiting patiently on the boat for another drink and the reveal.

[Joe Ross]

[Joe Ross]

EDIT: I missed that the synonyms for the new words via swapped letters have synonyms on same line.

[C=64]

Pretty cool! Once I got to the point of finding a MAGIC bus snaking through the very upper right corner, I knew I needed to give up on this one.

[Colin]

Sad long visages,
Not wishing to be the goat;
Brain waves did not spout!

[escapeartist]

I picked up on the vehicles pretty early but was looking for words to "swap" in (looking at you, sELLout).

Tried late with the single letter swap.

I never saw the adjacent synonyms but got lucky with my submission, so I'll call that a win.

[mikeB]

To A (Meta) Swiss Army Knife

In solving a meta, one question is vital:
What can we learn from the challenge’s Title?
It’s not just a name, picked at random, for show,
But may have a meaning the solver should know.

The Title might subtly hint at the theme,
To make our job quicker than first it may seem.
It might suggest vehicles (that is a clue).
CAR, TRUCK and VAN might then come into view.

The mechanism might become clearer for some,
If the Title suggests where the answer comes from.
Maybe we switch certain letters, let’s say;
Thus CAR becomes S, just as BUS becomes A.

Or the Title might help at the end of our quest,
And cue the “Aha!” that we all love the best.
A synonym there could confirm what we found:
Trade equals swap, and Aha! is the sound.

With three different ways that a Title can guide,
The author must choose, but how to decide?
This genius constructor says “Why not all three?”
His clever idea turns into our glee.

He made this week’s Title a three-way device,
Three tools in one, where just one might suffice.
Mike wins the trifecta with nary a ripple.
And gives an entendre that’s cleverly triple!

[CopperRiver]

Made it to the beach on a Hail Mary!

[MikeM000]

I did end up legitimately solving it on Sunday afternoon, but did others see "Trade-Ins" & "4 letter word" and immediately think "SWAP" without touching the grid or looking at the clues?

[mheberlingx100]

I saw Visages first, and then the rest. My problem was instead of Spout, I thought Shout. SWAH didn't make much sense. A quick double check yielded the right result.

[haydendog]

I made it to shore thanks to a nudge from @Wendy Walker with just a few hours to spare. I also at first had shout, not spout!

[Colin]

Saw the four vehicles, but I have a 14-year old Acura in the garage and once I saw Aura, my brain became stuck on adding letters (like C to Aura) to make car models. I moved on from that but my friend in England has a Triumph Stag so I went down that hole too. The good news: woke up to a lovely sunny morning today… first daylight I’ve seen since starting the grid on Saturday!
Nice meta though!

[Puzzle mom]

My rabbit hole was finding the ‘ape’ in ‘parapet’ which can mean parrot and the letters ‘ape’ can be replaced with ‘ro’ to turn it back into parrot. Spent waaaay to much time looking for more of these. Spoiler alert: there were none.

[ReB]

It was very kind of the author to put the theme words and the synonyms on the same line so as to make confirmation of the solution (SWAP) unequivocal. Quite a challenge he must have had to find a way to do that, though, to maintain symmetry and have the correct number of letters across - so I must tip my hat at that.

And MikeB summed up well the author's title trifecta with his ode. Given it's still early Monday morning, I suspect MikeB may be in the running for the all-time title for the most likes for a post.

MikeB's poem reminded me of my dad (who had the same name abbreviation), who liked to compose clever little poems/ditties for special occasions.

[Dplass]

I did end up legitimately solving it on Sunday afternoon, but did others see "Trade-Ins" & "4 letter word" and immediately think "SWAP" without touching the grid or looking at the clues?

No. I thought of another few 4 letter words. ,,

[CallMeShane]

I got sucked in by trying to add IN to some of the answers, hoping that the title was suggesting that mechanism. Found four of them, including LIE-IN at the central spot! Very promising.

After beating my head against the wall, I finally found the unequivocal step 1. Then another round of head versus wall.

Like the path across the Rhine at Arnhem, step 2 was a bridge too far. Never going to fall.

KAS 5.

[JJD]

Early on, I tried to find the April Fools Day and LIE connection by assuming the instructions were the opposite of what we should do, or perhaps some of the grid answers were wrong. (Papandreou’s father George/Georgios instead of the son Andreas?)
But thankfully I didn’t have much time this weekend to get myself mentally stuck in rabbit holes!

[LittleGood]

4 clues start with "Ins"

[drbockel2]

At first I missed the proximity part of the mechanism and when I got to STRUCKOUT, I saw the clue for Bitter Brew and thought STOUT, and my first solution was SWAT. Fortunately I was nudged back on the right path.

[Deb F]

I, too, began trying to swap "ins" but nothing made sense. Once I dialed in on the Car, Van, etc., I knew I had step one. It was just figuring out the rest--Visage was the first that clicked. A very fun puzzle.

Good luck on the mug, Muggles! Have a good week.