XWord Muggles Forum

Oh for Pete’s sake. Yes, I had it all along. Had everything through nudge 5 and I am actually a bit familiar with the answer, but … well, better stop blabbing. GREAT puzzle!

Moat crossed!
Had an AHA and DUH moment at same time!!

MikeyG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 9:48 pm Yeah, definitely intrigued by this - have yet to figure out how all these pieces come together. See some things on my break from work but not everything just yet!

In morning eyes, I have to wonder if this post was meant to be serious or was a deliberate joke circling around but intentionally missing the final solution.

woozy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2024 10:56 am In morning eyes, I have to wonder if this post was meant to be serious or was a deliberate joke circling around but intentionally missing the final solution.

Probably both, haha. I see a couple things (or at least one thing) but not all the things!

lol of course had everything through nudge 5. Tried to follow nudge 6 but googling 'nothing' didn't work

Across the MOAT! I finally realized that I had already solved when I noticed the answer written in my notes. I was in the same situation as ajk above.

Moat crossed. Clever mechanism and I learned a new word! Thanks, Ben

Crossed the drawbridge of this beauty onto the grounds.
Boldt Castle on Heart Island in the Saint Lawrence River.
I guess you could say this is some spectacular 1,000 Islands dressing.

Thanks, Ben -- a spectacular puzzle too!

…and there it was. Right in front of us. I’d sprinted across the moat and run face-first into the port-cullis, stumbled dizzily about until I finally came to. Gah.

I was 75% of the way there, and a quick search showed I was actually doing something right! Imagine that! (And I think I have heard of this before back in the recesses of my brain.) Thanks for the puzzle - this cat is demoated!



Ginger Cat (an indoor cat to the core) approves!

OK, dragged across by a kind muggle. Could have sworn I tried it before, but I guess I messed something up.

A solver update for you!

potemkinish
Dow Jones
JM
Ergcat
Spid4567
lbray53
HeadinHome
Cindy Heisler
whimsy
Gutman
Johnny Luau
Golem
CPJohnson
Berto
Danny K Bernstein
Mikey G
frostyjhammer
Elana
Jerry Miccolis

That's 47. Final solver update Monday morning Australia time, right before the answer reveal!

Crossed my first MOAT today!
I needed a different take on [nudge #6] (thanks DrTom) to see that I was going the right way the first time.

Final solver update time!

Mozeytown
Steve M
Amarus
Sanna
BarbaraK
ELSavage

That's a total of 53!

Welcome to MOAT, @ELSavage - may this be the first of many more MOAT-crossings to come!

Here's the solution to "Heart Of Gold":


Lots of you reported never having heard of this word before. Fortunately, you managed to get the answer despite this!

That said, I had one wrong answer on Crosshare as follows: "Why do you do weird s**t like this. Just leave out the dumb s**t and it would have been fine." I am assuming they were referring to the stuff in brackets. But without that, the puzzle would have been just a regular crossword! The more I do crosswords, the more I'm finding regular crosswords (even themed crosswords) are just not that interesting. So MOATs will always have lots of that "weird s**t"!

I happened to come across Kintsugi about a year ago at this exhibit at a local museum:
https://imss.org/kintsugi-healing-through-japanese-art/
I wouldn't have been able to pull the word out of thin air but when I extracted those letters from the grid, I thought "oh yeah, THAT stuff!"

This meta is a perfect example of Kintsugi in crossword form. Well done, Ben!