Watch It! - May 2022

[woozy]

...Which is disappointing since I know all the hit songs from 1970.

And none of them reference any particular metanism that I know of....

Instead of googling the hit songs from the 70s and seeing which fit the metanism, just google songs that fit the metanism and seeing which were hit songs from the 70s.

[MamaE]

...Which is disappointing since I know all the hit songs from 1970.

And none of them reference any particular metanism that I know of....

Instead of googling the hit songs from the 70s and seeing which fit the metanism, just google songs that fit the metanism and seeing which were hit songs from the 70s.

That was helpful woozy! I had everything I needed, but hadn't thought to put it together that way.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Got this one relatively easily. Always needs lots of Mr. G for a MMMM. Found a qualifying song which I actually remember. Second one was a lock.

[BethA]

My brain cloud finally cleared, and I’m on the board!

Excuses, excuses…got my 2nd Covid booster on Monday, and felt under the weather on Tuesday. The only thing to do was stay in bed under the electric blanket all afternoon. Daisy thinks that’s a great way to spend the afternoon! That’s where I completed the grid, but was unable to see the meta. Finally came into focus a little while ago. Thankfully.

[joequavis]

Submitted. Pretty sure I got half-credit, which is frustrating. I obviously see what I'm supposed to see, but didn't google the right thing I guess. Second least favorite meta from Pete.

Edit: second point added...doesn't really change my opinion of the meta though.

Edit again: Thanks to @Bird Lives for explaining exactly why my answer was correct. Much less displeased with the puzzle.

[jbird]

On the board now with one point. I imagine the second one will be given but if anyone wants to send me a PM with the answer that would be awesome. Otherwise I'll be hitting F5 (refresh) for the next few hours

[HunterX]

Confident that, after collaborating with @jbird (thanks jbird!), I (we) have both answers now. My musical knowledge did not really help at all. (So why do I keep all this trivia in my head?)

And now I feel dumb for not getting what I had to do from the start. COVID brain. Yeah... that's the ticket....

[jimmyd]

Spent wayyy too long trying to figure out the 1970 hit song… then I saw it! Gotta love Pete!

[Katiedid]

Then I tried to way overcomplicate the meta. Saw the obvious and dug deeper and deeper into rabbit holes. Finally backed out and said, wait, what if it's just... And it was.

I remember the 1970 song well; never heard the 1999 one before.

For those still stuck, remember that this is just a May, 2-point puzzle.

Thanks for this advice! I hadn't had much time this week and was stuck. So I chilled out, looked again and aha - found my way to the two songs.

[twelvetones]

Jeez, yeah, I was really overthinking this one, lol. Finally cracked it by doing the obvious thing!

[burghman]

Thanks to joequavis for explaining the logic behind what I suspected was the 1970 answer. Tricky and SAD (Simple And Difficult, for those that don’t know the Gaffneyism).

[m5rammy]

On the board now with one point. I imagine the second one will be given but if anyone wants to send me a PM with the answer that would be awesome. Otherwise I'll be hitting F5 (refresh) for the next few hours

I don't know. I got 1 point, then after a while I'm pretty sure I got a second point. Now I'm back to just one point.
Anyone else have that happen?

[jbird]

On the board now with one point. I imagine the second one will be given but if anyone wants to send me a PM with the answer that would be awesome. Otherwise I'll be hitting F5 (refresh) for the next few hours

I don't know. I got 1 point, then after a while I'm pretty sure I got a second point. Now I'm back to just one point.
Anyone else have that happen?

Actually, I just emailed MMMM. The response was they were still having issues but would catch up over the next day or so.

[Joe Ross]

Solved & submitted.

[rjy]

Phew, finally got it… was in the right rabbit hole, just needed a nudge to commit to it. Logical, solid click after all was said and done.

[HunterX]

Fun mash-up on the MMMM full write-up page here. Thanks @Petemuller!

[ky-mike]

I had it 1/2 right. I got "No Scrubs" first. I came across "For the Good Times", but discounted it because it wasn't on the Billboard 100 for the year. I should have looked at the Country charts as well.

Following the pattern of "NO" (as is not in the grid), I went with "No Time" by the Guess Who. Seemed logical at the time. Oh well, I am generally not in the hunt for the top prizes, so 1 point isn't going to significantly impact my overall score.

[MMe]

I had it 1/2 right. I got "No Scrubs" first. I came across "For the Good Times", but discounted it because it wasn't on the Billboard 100 for the year. I should have looked at the Country charts as well.

Following the pattern of "NO" (as is not in the grid), I went with "No Time" by the Guess Who. Seemed logical at the time. Oh well, I am generally not in the hunt for the top prizes, so 1 point isn't going to significantly impact my overall score.

I think "No Time" should count. You obviously had the idea and just went with a different invariant than Peter wanted. I was tempted by that one too.

[BarbaraK]

I spent three days getting nowhere with this one, basically because instead of keeping an open mind about what the instructions meant, I made an assumption about how it was to work and just wouldn't let go.

I saw the four TV shows and their matching actors right away. And expected that something derived from them - probably the names of the characters - would lead me to the first answer. Then I would apply that same mechanism to the other 3 TV people (I was counting Jack Paar) and that would give me the second answer.

Needless to say, that didn't work. Even browsing lists of 1999 hits and seeing No Scrubs, and writing it down and saying isn't that interesting was not enough to jar me loose.

Finally while I slept Thursday night, my subconscious must have finally broken free from that rabbit hole because I woke up and said, wait a minute, what if the instructions had said, "The answer is the two songs that could also have been theme answers." That's a perfectly valid mechanism, and I have one of the answers already written in my notes, just need to find xxxx Good Times from 1970. Doh!

Fun choice for Pete to record both songs together!

[jbird]

I had it 1/2 right. I got "No Scrubs" first. I came across "For the Good Times", but discounted it because it wasn't on the Billboard 100 for the year. I should have looked at the Country charts as well.

Following the pattern of "NO" (as is not in the grid), I went with "No Time" by the Guess Who. Seemed logical at the time. Oh well, I am generally not in the hunt for the top prizes, so 1 point isn't going to significantly impact my overall score.

I was also stuck on "No Time". I was also tempted to submit "The Thrill is Gone" by BB King even though BB King was last month's solution and Pete's ultimate song.
"Thrill" == "Good Times"
"No Good Times" == "Good Times are gone"
"The Thrill is Gone"