MEOW #94 Split the Bill

[DrTom]

Leaderboard Day #1

1 LauraM
2 Schmeel
3 Cindy
4 Meg
5 boharr
6 Mme
7 rjy
8 hoover
9 ChrisKochmanski
10 ergcat
15 Beth Tyrpin
11 Darth
12 MarkWoychick
13 Gutman
14 SJMcK

Over a dozen cats of various sizes and shapes running around the place - but we need more!!!

[DrTom]

I forgot to include my intrepid test solvers on the list, and that is a grave oversight. These people often see a much less polished puzzle and their efforts really make for a better experience for all. I use a number of different people (believe it or not my humor can wear on you after a while) but for this particular puzzle it was:
T whimsy
T Cinny
T Bird Lives

[HeadinHome]

Well DRAT. One of the clues asks for the number of German words (including this one) in the puzzle. Unfortunately one of the words got edited out with a change suggested by a tester (which really made the puzzle better) so now you just have to pretend there is one more....let's say it is dummkopf!

It does not affect the meta.

T

I don’t know about that .. what if we put 111A with the others?

[HeadinHome]

I haven’t solved yet BTW - still scanning this colossal grid.

[lbray53]

Here is my costume for work one year as 54A.

[edestlin]

Cat is out! Finally got a chance to really dig into this puzzle and I enjoyed it a lot. Nice one, DrTom!

[DrTom]

Well DRAT. One of the clues asks for the number of German words (including this one) in the puzzle. Unfortunately one of the words got edited out with a change suggested by a tester (which really made the puzzle better) so now you just have to pretend there is one more....let's say it is dummkopf!

It does not affect the meta.

T

I don’t know about that .. what if we put 111A with the others?

I was going to try to say to the inquiry about the number of words, "Hey what's up 111A you" but since 111A is there masquerading as a different meaning I could not.

[DrTom]

The Rapper Eminem Copy.jpg


Here is my costume for work one year as 54A.

That's a rap!

[woozy]

Leaderboard Day #1

1 LauraM
2 Schmeel
3 Cindy
4 Meg
5 boharr
6 Mme
7 rjy
8 hoover
9 ChrisKochmanski
10 ergcat
15 Beth Tyrpin
11 Darth
12 MarkWoychick
13 Gutman
14 SJMcK

Over a dozen cats of various sizes and shapes running around the place - but we need more!!!

Well.... cough, cough.....

[DrTom]

OK, one i missed:
woozy
and one new one
edestlin

SO a grand total of 17. I think we may have hit supersaturation on metas. it may be time to actually decrease the number so people do not have an entire week of them to worry about. Interestingly this is the definition of supersaturation:
Supersaturation occurs with a solution when the concentration of a solute exceeds the concentration specified by the value of solubility at equilibrium. Most commonly the term is applied to a solution of a solid in a liquid. A supersaturated solution is in a metastable state; it may be brought to equilibrium by forcing the excess of solute to separate from the solution.

We can probably redefine it to be:

supersaturation occurs when the concentration of puzzles exceeds the amount of concentration that can be devoted to solution at equilibrium. Most commonly the term is applied to a solution of a meta on a forum. A supersaturated condition is an unstable meta state; it may be brought to equilibrium by forcing the excess of metas to separate from the forum.

Madhatter may have simply seen the writing on the wall before some of us did.

[boharr]

This does make a certain amount of sense.

[HeadinHome]

I for one am meta-stable, Dr. Tom. Just sayin.

(still don’t get this one yet… it’s sitting on my nightstand, snickering at me.)

[benchen71]

Regarding meta-saturation, I'm very much afraid that I am going to keep contributing to the problem. I have MOATs scheduled now through to the end of October 2023. (I constructed 4 metas in four consecutive days earlier this week. That's more than normal, even for me!)

By the way, I am completely stumped by "Split the Bill" (and the WSJ, but that's another story). Happily waiting for the nudges!

[markhr]

Ben: Please don't stop. I thoroughly enjoy your efforts.

Dr. Tom: Besides WSJ and MGWCC, I do other puzzles as I have time, and try not to overstress if I can't get to one. All these meta efforts are appreciated, but if MEOW has to cut back, I for one can sympathize.

As for Split the Bill, I think this is harder than you may have judged. Some are seeing the path okay, and some (like me) are still waiting for some kind of nudge. I got the WSJ and MMMM okay, but this one has me quite mystified.

[KayW]

My cat still very much in the bag on this one. I greatly appreciate the efforts of all the constructors, however often they are able to share them. But I think I’m finally learning to wait for nudge day on the metas that offer them, rather than harass the constructors or more smarter muggles that have already solved.

Also, I think this puzzle had the misfortune to drop one day after a rather tricky MMMM. And MOAT, which I’m also still stumped on. I try not to work on more than one meta at a time because my little pea brain tends to conflate them. And this week, my focus will go first to MMMM because it doesn’t have a nudge day. And is a puzzle with a YTD leaderboard.

[DrTom]

OK, then nudges it is!

These are in increasing order of spoilocity:

Puzzles often have repeated things that point toward the theme, and this one is no different. It has some things that have one or two mentions, but only one that appears in a total of 4 “related” clues.

The title of the puzzle gives a hint to what those 4 related clues are

The title of the puzzle ALSO gives a hint on what you must do to those 4 related clues!

One of those clues actually has a hint to the secret to the next step of the mechanism in it!


BIG I hope I have not been a pig hogging all of your time, that would be a vile thing to do

[lbray53]

I just spent ten minutes trying to solve this meta using the MMMM Put a Pin in It grid. Needless to say I have not make much progress on either.

EDIT: I submitted this before noticing the nudges posted.

[DrTom]

I just spent ten minutes trying to solve this meta using the MMMM Put a Pin in It grid. Needless to say I have not make much progress on either.

EDIT: I submitted this before noticing the nudges posted.

Well if the grids are now cross-referential that IS an accomplishment!

Tom

[DrTom]

Other constructors PLEASE do not take my message as being aimed at you. I enjoy everyone's puzzles (even more so when I can solve them of course). I am just saying that for my creations, which have been more on the MEOW forum of late, there seems to be waning interest. It could be that, as stated, mine are harder than I think. Quite possible, since nobody ever thinks their children are difficult or ugly, Still that seems to be my curse, they are either WAY too easy or WAY too hard - apparently though my mechanisms may at times be too weak they are not week two. I've looked through the 5 or 6 or so that I have "cooking" and they are no better unfortunately. Some of you (testers) have seen a couple of them so you know of what I speak.

I hope the nudges are enough to help people over the threshold, I really wanted Madhatter's Grande Finale (for a while?) to be grand.

[markhr]

Well, my thick head needed the spoilers to get me there. But I finally arrived.
Challenging but enjoyable, Dr. Tom.