XWord Muggles Forum

bhamren wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:17 pm I am on shore, late in the game as usual, and amazed that Matt and Mike (and others) can construct these beauties. Hats off!

SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:13 am What I wanted to say the other day was that we had this answer for another contest puzzle some time ago. Don't remember exactly when or what the title and contest question were. I seem to remember some question as to whether either" 3 Musketeers" or "Three Musketeers" was acceptable.

FrancesY wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:30 am Good one. Unfortunately, I submitted Krispy Kreme because of a lot of Ks in the grid, the “Kay,” and “kilo” calories.

MajordomoTom wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:02 am This puzzle had a number of interesting little rabbit holes that I spent a fair amount of time exploring.

There are some interesting near-pairs of words in the grid that are tempting to try to "match" to pull out letters, such as ELECTOR and ELEKTRA, ITT and ITS, ERR and EER, etc. But that was an empty burrow.

There are some interesting patterns to letters in the grid that are tempting to play with - in particular, 34A - SEVEN ELEVEN has a very interesting cadence of E?E, several times, making me want to play with that pattern in the rest of the grid and possibly find letters/clues.

But ... none of those involve counting.

I started down one path early - realizing that the first letters of 1A, 8A, 15A, 16A, and 17A spelled "THREE", but then wasn't able to take that further.

Until ... 34A hit me again.

There are 7 letter words at the top and at the bottom of the grid. There are three 11 letter words in the middle of the grid. Lay them all together and see what their first letters spell:

TRADING
HARRIET
RIVETER
ELEKTRA
EVICTEE

MIMOSAS
UNTHINKABLE
SEVENELEVEN
KIDNAPPINGS
ELECTOR
TILAPIA
EARHOLE
ENAMELS
ROSERED
SKYBLUE

THREE MUSKETEERS, something that you can buy at 34A and which you would want to avoid if you were "counting calories".

That's what I submitted around 3:30 today so that I was able to then go to the theater and see Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker and not be distracted by the meta for this puzzle.

MarkL wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 7:00 am

MajordomoTom wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:02 am This puzzle had a number of interesting little rabbit holes that I spent a fair amount of time exploring.

There are some interesting near-pairs of words in the grid that are tempting to try to "match" to pull out letters, such as ELECTOR and ELEKTRA, ITT and ITS, ERR and EER, etc. But that was an empty burrow.

There are some interesting patterns to letters in the grid that are tempting to play with - in particular, 34A - SEVEN ELEVEN has a very interesting cadence of E?E, several times, making me want to play with that pattern in the rest of the grid and possibly find letters/clues.

But ... none of those involve counting.

I started down one path early - realizing that the first letters of 1A, 8A, 15A, 16A, and 17A spelled "THREE", but then wasn't able to take that further.

Until ... 34A hit me again.

There are 7 letter words at the top and at the bottom of the grid. There are three 11 letter words in the middle of the grid. Lay them all together and see what their first letters spell:

TRADING
HARRIET
RIVETER
ELEKTRA
EVICTEE

MIMOSAS
UNTHINKABLE
SEVENELEVEN
KIDNAPPINGS
ELECTOR
TILAPIA
EARHOLE
ENAMELS
ROSERED
SKYBLUE

THREE MUSKETEERS, something that you can buy at 34A and which you would want to avoid if you were "counting calories".

That's what I submitted around 3:30 today so that I was able to then go to the theater and see Star Wars: The RIse of Skywalker and not be distracted by the meta for this puzzle.

Had similar thoughts on NOde, NOcal, NOtes and NOmen - to NO avail! Cheers!

FrankH wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:28 am

SewYoung wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:13 am What I wanted to say the other day was that we had this answer for another contest puzzle some time ago. Don't remember exactly when or what the title and contest question were. I seem to remember some question as to whether either" 3 Musketeers" or "Three Musketeers" was acceptable.

May 6 2016. Title was French Twist and instruction asked for a candy. This is another repeat meta answer like ARGO.

Bill Bovard wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:25 am Did anyone else notice that 30A is NOMEN and that all the gender-specific clues/answers going across are female? And 7D is GREATMEN and all the gender-specific clues/answers going down are male? Coincidence? Red herring?

lacangah wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:13 am

FrancesY wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:30 am Good one. Unfortunately, I submitted Krispy Kreme because of a lot of Ks in the grid, the “Kay,” and “kilo” calories.

I was on the fence between that and Slurpee - snaps to those who solved it!

BarbaraK wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 2:29 pm Wish I remember who said this so I could give proper credit because it's brilliant. "You have to find the answer, not just think of an answer."

Wendy Walker wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 8:27 am That is why I was so amused when I got the answer to THIS puzzle. I failed to solve that earlier puzzle and even dragged poor Mark down the candy aisle at Wegman's hoping for inspiration!