MEOW #27: Gordian Knot
- KayW
- Moderator
- Posts: 3466
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
me too. Although I required an extra nudge to get across the finish line. Fantastic puzzle!
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
-
- Posts: 673
- Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:48 pm
Solution:
There were an inordinate number of across entries to the left of the knot which began with KN:
KNOTGRASS
KNICK
KNOW
KNOT
KNIGHT
KNEED
KNIT
Successful solvers emulated the great Alexander by cutting off the first letters of these entries and finding "associations" (to use Wendy's term) to the right of the knot:
NOT GRASS -> TURF
NICK -> SNAVEL
NOW -> PRESENTLY
NOT -> HARDLY
NIGHT -> EVENING
NEED -> DEMAND
NIT -> BLOCKHEAD
But hang on - the clue for 28D said we would need to cut fourteen entries, not just seven. That is to say, we need to cut the first letters of these "associations" and take the first letter of what remains:
TURF -> URF -> U
SNAVEL -> NAVEL -> N
PRESENTLY -> RESENTLY -> R
HARDLY -> ARDLY -> A
EVENING -> VENING --> V
DEMAND -> EMAND -> E
BLOCKHEAD -> LOCKHEAD -> L
This gives us UNRAVEL, which is the answer.
There were an inordinate number of across entries to the left of the knot which began with KN:
KNOTGRASS
KNICK
KNOW
KNOT
KNIGHT
KNEED
KNIT
Successful solvers emulated the great Alexander by cutting off the first letters of these entries and finding "associations" (to use Wendy's term) to the right of the knot:
NOT GRASS -> TURF
NICK -> SNAVEL
NOW -> PRESENTLY
NOT -> HARDLY
NIGHT -> EVENING
NEED -> DEMAND
NIT -> BLOCKHEAD
But hang on - the clue for 28D said we would need to cut fourteen entries, not just seven. That is to say, we need to cut the first letters of these "associations" and take the first letter of what remains:
TURF -> URF -> U
SNAVEL -> NAVEL -> N
PRESENTLY -> RESENTLY -> R
HARDLY -> ARDLY -> A
EVENING -> VENING --> V
DEMAND -> EMAND -> E
BLOCKHEAD -> LOCKHEAD -> L
This gives us UNRAVEL, which is the answer.
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
- Bird Lives
- Posts: 2797
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:43 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
I highlighted all the KNs but got no further. I wonder if I would have solved it if I had remembered to read the nudges on Saturday. Probably not. But it's a great puzzle. Kudos to the solvers, especially the pre-nudgers.
Jay
- RPardoe
- Posts: 736
- Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 4:09 pm
- Location: Houston, TX
My biggest stumbling block was attempting to do all 14 cuts to start rather than in 2 steps of 7 each.
There are 14 entries in the grid that can be decapitated to make new words.
I also found 14 entries that can be cleaved into two words as well (eg PERTEST into PER & TEST).
Even when on the right path, I attempted to cut a letter out of the associations resulting in a word (eg HARDLY = HARDY + L).
I was figuring the second set of cuts would spell out the answer (not reveal it as the remaining lead letter).
By happenstance (happen chance?) after the first / last letter trims didn't work, I decided to look at middle letters or other letters in the associations and got the answer. Then I realized the second decapitation step was the intended solution.
There are 14 entries in the grid that can be decapitated to make new words.
I also found 14 entries that can be cleaved into two words as well (eg PERTEST into PER & TEST).
Even when on the right path, I attempted to cut a letter out of the associations resulting in a word (eg HARDLY = HARDY + L).
I was figuring the second set of cuts would spell out the answer (not reveal it as the remaining lead letter).
By happenstance (happen chance?) after the first / last letter trims didn't work, I decided to look at middle letters or other letters in the associations and got the answer. Then I realized the second decapitation step was the intended solution.
- Wendy Walker
- Posts: 1749
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
- Location: Unionville, PA
I got a couple of the KN's but didn't finish solving. One that I did get was NOTGRASS = TURF, which made me LOL! Well done, solvers!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
- Hector
- Posts: 1297
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:15 pm
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
NIT as BLOCKHEAD isn't really in my vocabulary, so I was looking for something like CAVIL or PARASITE, to no avail. Then I saw AN, which is clued as, "It gets salty if you turn it around," meaning the metal Na, or sodium, of the table salt NaCl and other sodium salts. Well, just as there are sodium salts, there are tin salts, and NIT is tin reversed. That gives "associated" entries that anagram to HEPTADS, groups of seven, which isn't entirely irrelevant to the puzzle, despite having nothing to do with knots. But tin salts are esoteric even for a madhatter puzzle, and having to anagram to get an answer is usually a red flag, so I kept looking.
- RPardoe
- Posts: 736
- Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2019 4:09 pm
- Location: Houston, TX
I see the reverse (Dunce, Blockhead, etc) to NIT (as a shortened form of NITWIT) often in British cryptics.
This helped me make that connection .... eventually.
-
- Posts: 673
- Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:48 pm
As a fellow addict of British cryptics this is likely why I thought NIT was more common than it probably is. Sorry. (No apologies for SNAVEL though, that's a word we all need to be using).
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
- Al Sisti
- Posts: 2079
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
NIT was the one that did me in. I never considered BLOCKHEAD... instead, the two entries/clues I was waffling with were 54D It's over your head (gross, but fitting) and 67D "The grid was too tough!" (abbr), as in a solver's nit-picking.Hector wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:18 am NIT as BLOCKHEAD isn't really in my vocabulary, so I was looking for something like CAVIL or PARASITE, to no avail. Then I saw AN, which is clued as, "It gets salty if you turn it around," meaning the metal Na, or sodium, of the table salt NaCl and other sodium salts. Well, just as there are sodium salts, there are tin salts, and NIT is tin reversed. That gives "associated" entries that anagram to HEPTADS, groups of seven, which isn't entirely irrelevant to the puzzle, despite having nothing to do with knots. But tin salts are esoteric even for a madhatter puzzle, and having to anagram to get an answer is usually a red flag, so I kept looking.
- Wendy Walker
- Posts: 1749
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:44 pm
- Location: Unionville, PA
I didn't get NIT = BLOCKHEAD, either -- I was actually leaning more toward, umm, 40D (STDs).
Good luck, fellow Muggles!