MGWCC #727 — “Don’t Look Up”

[Charles Stevens]

Well that was a fun way to spend a weekend.

Pretty early on I noticed the fact that there were only three one-word clues of 13, 14, and 15 letters each, which could easily correspond to the three long down answers. And the cluing was so weird for a bunch of the other entries. But I couldn't make the further connection beyond that - hats off to those who did.

Now I'm going to lace up my soccer cleats so I can kick myself for a while.

[jhseeman]

I finally figured it out, took me a while, like until 3:01 pm (facepalm)....but alas that is how life goes.

Now just deciding between a Dark and Stormy or Kraken and Coke to drown my sorrows

[Bird Lives]

This was a great puzzle. My chief quibble is with the title. It offers almost no help for discovering the mechanism. With a puzzle as difficult as this one, you'd think that Matt might have left a few breadcrumbs. The answer, with "count" and "down," is in fact related to the mechanism, but that puts things backwards -- the answer, once you get it, shows the way to the mechanism rather than the other way round.

The relation of the title to the answer is also oblique, "down" being analogous to "not up." Is there more than that?

[Streroto]

Never in a million years. But, I got that it had something to do with downs right away from the title, and the 15 letters was clearly a good hint, but that's as far as I got. Amazing construction and serious kudos to all who got it. I'll take the Week 2 coming up and lick my wounds

[Al Sisti]

Not sure why I had to use five pages of notes, when I could have looked at my second guess, before I started working on the meta.

[woozy]

Hmmm, the following is nowhere near as impressive or clear as I thought it would be......

[MikeyG]

What went down (literally):

1. ANTEPENULTIMATE has to be relevant. Third from last. Start circling every third-to-last letter. No, that's nothing.
2. What in the world is with all these "for"s? Wait! THERE ARE FIFTEEN OH WAIT...oh. Oh, there are 17.
3. That doesn't have a titular connection, though. Down themers matter. There wouldn't just be random down themers, instead of across ones.
4. Also, asymmetry. Yeah, the number "3" seems connected but...the last crazy one was the JACK DANIELS one, and there was a reason for that asymmetry. So something's funky.
5. Are there any 15-letter clues? Oooh! Superannuated...no, wait, that's 13. Groundbreaking...no, wait, that's 14. Whatchamacallit, that's 15.
6. Hmmm. Well, now, wait. Even if there aren't any other 15s, what about...hey, wait a minute, three downs match. Match those up.
7. What in the world is an OLD NEW THINGY? That's got to be it. There's no way he'd do "superannuated" for old. Something is majorly up.
8. 15-letter phrase. He intentionally told us that. Is there something in which every column matters? That might be why the columns are different.
9. This doesn't apply to other columns, does it? 5-3-4 for the first? Oh, "stuff for tees." Okay, that's way too awkward to be relevant. I bet there aren't any other 5-3-4 ones either.
10. Let me find some other random ones. Oh, okay, I'm spelling something. Perfect, okay, DOWN FOR THE COUNT (shameless self-plug: This was the title of my first - and very inaptly titled meta - seen here).

Ironically, the first thing I noticed about this puzzle was how terse the clues were, but that could be because of how ridiculously loquacious I tend to be on mine (I still haven't learned lol). I mused if that could be something.

It's also worth using this puzzle - and this applies to plenty over the past couple of years - to state how much joy these metas have brought me and I hope you all as well. I came to these after a crossword resurgence in my own life around '19, and something about solving the puzzles we can figure out help us deal with the chaos of the world that we often can't. I wonder if I was drawn to the meta process more as a result of the pandemic-based isolation, since I felt like it transported me, in a way (honestly, like literature), to other worlds.

Happy solving to all of you! I think we're going to be grateful this is Week 3 next, haha.

Mikey G

[Joe Ross]

What went down (literally):

It's also worth using this puzzle - and this applies to plenty over the past couple of years - to state how much joy these metas have brought me and I hope you all as well. I came to these after a crossword resurgence in my own life around '19, and something about solving the puzzles we can figure out help us deal with the chaos of the world that we often can't. I wonder if I was drawn to the meta process more as a result of the pandemic-based isolation, since I felt like it transported me, in a way (honestly, like literature), to other worlds.

Happy solving to all of you! I think we're going to be grateful this is Week 3 next, haha.

Mikey G

This is some Whole World Championship Solving along with some Whole World Championship Sentiments and Perspective.

Congratulations, Mike, and thank you!

[Al Sisti]

^^ this

[boharr]

Worth reading Jangler's comment on Fiend.

[madhatter5]

This was a great puzzle. My chief quibble is with the title. It offers almost no help for discovering the mechanism. With a puzzle as difficult as this one, you'd think that Matt might have left a few breadcrumbs. The answer, with "count" and "down," is in fact related to the mechanism, but that puts things backwards -- the answer, once you get it, shows the way to the mechanism rather than the other way round.

The relation of the title to the answer is also oblique, "down" being analogous to "not up." Is there more than that?

I think it was a strained allusion to the movie. But I agree maybe down for the count (or counting down) as a title and something else as the answer.

Amazing puzzle that I would never have gotten

[JennyByrd]

I had to leave the zoom room just as you all were honing in on the solution because my son was calling for Mother’s Day. I would have never gotten it without hearing all of you brilliant people work through various options. Was stuck on ‘antepenultimate’ and looking for 3rd-to-last letters, and all of the clunky clues.

Also agree with Mikey G that the meta’s have been a godsend during a difficult time. I am grateful for the constructors and for all of you.

[Charles Stevens]

Also agree with Mikey G that the meta’s have been a godsend during a difficult time. I am grateful for the constructors and for all of you.

Amen to that. I recently upped my subscription level, because let's face it, the amount of enjoyment/entertainment/frustration I get out of Matt's puzzles is worth way more than $3/month to me. Even when (like this week) I fail to solve the puzzle and spend the rest of the week feeling like a dunce.

[JordanianTomlinson]

What went down (literally):

1. ANTEPENULTIMATE has to be relevant. Third from last. Start circling every third-to-last letter. No, that's nothing.
2. What in the world is with all these "for"s? Wait! THERE ARE FIFTEEN OH WAIT...oh. Oh, there are 17.
3. That doesn't have a titular connection, though. Down themers matter. There wouldn't just be random down themers, instead of across ones.
4. Also, asymmetry. Yeah, the number "3" seems connected but...the last crazy one was the JACK DANIELS one, and there was a reason for that asymmetry. So something's funky.
5. Are there any 15-letter clues? Oooh! Superannuated...no, wait, that's 13. Groundbreaking...no, wait, that's 14. Whatchamacallit, that's 15.
6. Hmmm. Well, now, wait. Even if there aren't any other 15s, what about...hey, wait a minute, three downs match. Match those up.
7. What in the world is an OLD NEW THINGY? That's got to be it. There's no way he'd do "superannuated" for old. Something is majorly up.
8. 15-letter phrase. He intentionally told us that. Is there something in which every column matters? That might be why the columns are different.
9. This doesn't apply to other columns, does it? 5-3-4 for the first? Oh, "stuff for tees." Okay, that's way too awkward to be relevant. I bet there aren't any other 5-3-4 ones either.
10. Let me find some other random ones. Oh, okay, I'm spelling something. Perfect, okay, DOWN FOR THE COUNT (shameless self-plug: This was the title of my first - and very inaptly titled meta - seen here).

Ironically, the first thing I noticed about this puzzle was how terse the clues were, but that could be because of how ridiculously loquacious I tend to be on mine (I still haven't learned lol). I mused if that could be something.

It's also worth using this puzzle - and this applies to plenty over the past couple of years - to state how much joy these metas have brought me and I hope you all as well. I came to these after a crossword resurgence in my own life around '19, and something about solving the puzzles we can figure out help us deal with the chaos of the world that we often can't. I wonder if I was drawn to the meta process more as a result of the pandemic-based isolation, since I felt like it transported me, in a way (honestly, like literature), to other worlds.

Happy solving to all of you! I think we're going to be grateful this is Week 3 next, haha.

Mikey G

I actually really appreciate when folks share their processes. No way it would have come to me without a lot of discussion/nudging so it always makes me strangely happy (maybe excited?) to see it come naturally. Well done!

[MikeM000]

something about solving the puzzles we can figure out help us deal with the chaos of the world that we often can't.

Just reading this now after Matt pasted it in waytoosmall on the results post.

This snippet here is Bojack-level insight into the human condition.

I don't say this lightly, but Neigh Way Jose, sir.