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Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 4:22 pm
by Cap'n Rick
SSSolved! Very nicely done, Alan! Keep 'em coming!

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 6:02 pm
by ReB
Sssolved after a premature jump. (The answer was clearly 65A to my first landing.) Nice job there.

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 9:04 pm
by Darth
Sssuper! Thanksss.

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 11:19 pm
by HeadinHome
How clever! Sssolved!

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 12:02 am
by Dow Jones
Sssolved. Fun one !!

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 6:48 am
by MaineMarge
SSSolved! Good one!
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Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 12:22 pm
by hcbirker
Just got to this today. SSSolved and enjoyed it! Thanks Alan!

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 4:46 pm
by ajk
Monday solver update (let me know if I missed any):
24. hoover
25. BethA
26. MatthewL
27. Pair O Ducks
28. rjy
29. DrTom
30. CPJohnson
31. Capn Rick
32. ReB
33. michaelm
34. lbray53
35. Laura M
36. Darth
37. Bird Lives
38. DIS
39. andeux
40. HeadinHome
41. Dow Jones
42. Carolyn
43. MaineMarge
44. Cindy Heisler
45. heidi
46. Gutman

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 5:54 pm
by Jeremy Smith
Nice execution! Thanks, Alan! I regret that I never got to solve your MMM, as I was eating, drinking, and gambling that week! :lol: :lol:

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 11:41 am
by MikeyG
I sized this one up: no sighs at all, just a lot of fun! Clever meta-nism and a great puzzle all around!

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Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 2:25 pm
by jhseeman
SSSolved.

Fun one, good puzzle (had company so just now getting to it).

Thanks for the puzzle Alan.

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 8:17 am
by Guffman
Late to the party because I was putting the finishing touches on the Rabbit results.
Very nice. Solved without hints, thankfully. Particularly liked "(Anka's gift to constructors.)"

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 11:14 pm
by ajk
Friday night update before tomorrow's reveal. As usual, happy to amend as needed.
47. kurtalert
48. Jeremy Smith
49. Mikey G
50. Jaclyn
51. jhseeman
52. ChrisCross
53. Katiedid
54. Guffman
55. Sharkicicles
56. AKS
57. Mr Tex
58. Tom Wilson
59. frostyjhammer
60. Max Chemtov
61. Account
62. Melodie Hardwick
63. K7
64. Jerry Miccolis
65. Sanne

Re: "Size Extremes" by ajk

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2023 10:24 am
by ajk
OK, looks like no more stragglers since last night.

The meta answer is SCALE.

There are five starred entries, each of which is a place. More specifically, each is a member of a specific set of places:
19A ALASKA is a US state
20A PACIFIC is an ocean
34A ASIA is a continent
63A RUSSIA is a country
65A SUPERIOR is a great lake

Guided by the title, we recognize that each of these is the largest member of the set. OK, that's promising. What's next? Well there were also a bunch of places in the clues. In fact, five of them start with another member of each set above, and again in keeping with the title, these are the *smallest* members:
7D "Ontario to Norfolk dir." = SSE (Ontario is the smallest great lake)
28A "Arctic conditions, metaphorically (and often literally)" = COLD (Arctic is the smallest ocean)
29D "Oceania is a good place to find one" = ATOLL (Oceania is the smallest continent)
37D "Vatican City was home to at least 13 of them" = LEOS (Vatican City is the smallest country)
71A "Rhode Island winter time" = EST (Rhode Island is the smallest state)

Last step: read the first letter of the grid entries for those new clues, in grid order, and we get SCALE, which is the meta answer.
size extremes reveal.png