"Letter Openers" May 17, 2024

[sharkicicles]

Did anyone else google "Are hyphenated words considered one word?"?

I was all set to rail against "r-rated" being described as a six-letter word. But apparently it is technically one word.

I use this quote all the time. One of futurama’s best.

[DBMiller]

“Aha! There are six entries in the puzzle that begin with a stand-alone letter.”
(Well, more than that, actually, but your Rabbit isn’t getting into THAT.)

Sure, let's get into it. Only six were of the hyphenated form.

[damefox]

Did anyone else google "Are hyphenated words considered one word?"?

I was all set to rail against "r-rated" being described as a six-letter word. But apparently it is technically one word.

To be fair, the prompt never said the answer was one word. The prompt asked for "a six-letter adjective," which R-RATED definitely is, regardless of how many words it is. Presumably the phrasing of the prompt was to circumvent exactly this issue, that some people would be confused about whether a hyphenated word counted as one word.

[BarbaraK]

When posted this late last night, I had no idea that 12 hours later I would finally become a Muggle.
I was just notified that
I am this week's mug winner!!!

Woo hoo! Congratulations!

[hcbirker]

It's 11 pm. And yes, I waited until the last possible minute, hoping someone is still awake to send me a hail mary.

Please help. I have part 1.


Thanks
Miki

No hints yet, but figured it out.
Submitted answer at 11:40 pm on Sunday night.

I will consider this much more of a victory than a page one submission.

When posted this late last night, I had no idea that 12 hours later I would finally become a Muggle.
I was just notified that
I am this week's mug winner!!!

Congrats!

[Flying_Burrito]

I think Matt did a superb job with this meta. Everything was super tight: meta mechanisms, letter hyphenations (to distinguish from all the A + something answers), final answer description and some really good deceving rabbit holes (and I hope those were intentional). Chapeau, Matt!

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is R-RATED. Six answers consist of a letter followed by a word (D-DAY, U-HAUL, X-AXIS, C-CLAMP, A-GAME, T-SHIRT). Remove the letter and its twin in its word to get an anagram of the first word of a clue; for example, D-DAY – DD = YA, the start of 40-A’s clue. Similarly, U-HAUL – UU = HAL (39-A); X-AXIS – XX = SIA (17-A); C-CLAMP – CC = PALM (14-A); A-GAME – AA = MEG (10-A); T-SHIRT – TT = SHRI (58-A). The first letters of those answers (RYAN/RESORT/AUSTRALIAN/ THE FIRM/EVIDENTLY/DEMOCRATIC) in grid order spell the apt contest answer.

This was a complicated one! We had 760 entries, on the low side, with 75% correct (right in line with our usual level). Incorrect entries included SIMPLE (17 ... any ideas why?), BORING (3), and several one-offs including DUXCAT!

Congrats to this week's winner (as noted above): Michal Koren of Greensboro, NC!

[chart]

Incorrect entries included SIMPLE (17 ... any ideas why?), BORING (3), and several one-offs including DUXCAT!

I would guess SIMPLE is just a common six-letter synonym of easy, and no one thinks metas are easy.

[BethA]

Just for the record, since I never posted ship or shore, I was not able to free my mind sufficiently enough to get this one. Point to Matt!

Solved the Sunday WaPo instead just to prove that I could still solve a meta!

Looking forward to Thursday at 4pm