"Cross Country" - March 4, 2022

[Relic]

Yay, I don't feel so bad not getting this one. Tip of the hat to Mr. Shenk. Great puzzle and meta sir. You are the Master!

I'm interested in what rabbits people chased.

The main one I chased was the non English words in the clues/grid.

[escapeartist]

And all those countries listed in the clues
Australia - 44A
Germany - 47A
Canada (and USA) - 58A
Italy - 60A
etc...

OMG

*Shakes fist at Shenk*

[Relic]

And all those countries listed in the clues
Australia - 44A
Germany - 47A
Canada (and USA) - 58A
Italy - 60A
etc...

OMG

*Shakes fist at Shenk*

And France 31D. Right there with ya! Nauru (seriously?)

[Kas]

...and just realized I forgot to submit my answer

Been there, done that!

Yep.

[sanmilton]

For me, the title of the puzzle and the entry for 1A indicated that country names crossing each other, two each in four places, would spell out the solution, and I thought of PERU immediately, even though it could have been CHAD, IRAN, IRAQ, MALI, or TOGO. I began looking for the letters P, E, R, and U in the completed grid to see if they appeared at "country crosses." Alas, no! I even looked for instances of the ISO Alpha-3 three-letter country codes, but there were too many in the grid and several repeats, and the three-letter country codes used for the Olympics, which are different in many cases, also proved to be a collective rabbit hole.

In fact, I do think the completed grid was full of red herrings, whether or not they were intentional, and there was ample misdirection in the clues, as escapeartist has noted above (and not only foreign countries, but foreign languages: e.g., "Ulm und Wien"). My problem, of course, was that I couldn't "see" what wasn't there and take the leap to imagine letters in black squares. (It's difficult to "prove a negative.") Not, at least, until I did!

As ever, I am in awe of the skill of our constructors and the imagination they exhibit every week. I didn't think this one was "easy," because the solution certainly didn't leap off the screen for me, but it was absolutely "gettable" I felt, and I was happy to get it without worrying about it all weekend. So thanks, Mike, for another meta that was challenging enough to make solving it all that much more satisfying!

[steveb]

When I spotted two words crossing in the upper-left corner that were each one letter off from a country (GREENE/GREECE and GRENADE/GRENADA) I knew I was onto something and all I had to do was find the other 3 pairs. Piece of cake! The changed letters would surely spell out the 8-letter name of a country. But of course I finished the grid without finding any more pairs. Then I saw almost-SPAIN in DISDAIN and figured that I wasn't necessarily looking for complete words. When I didn't find more going across or down, I searched the diagonals. Finally, after all that time staring at the grid, I spotted PORT_GAL and got on the right track.

[Joe Ross]

When I spotted two words crossing in the upper-left corner that were each one letter off from a country (GREENE/GREECE and GRENADE/GRENADA) I knew I was onto something and all I had to do was find the other 3 pairs. Piece of cake! The changed letters would surely spell out the 8-letter name of a country. But of course I finished the grid without finding any more pairs. Then I saw almost-SPAIN in DISDAIN and figured that I wasn't necessarily looking for complete words. When I didn't find more going across or down, I searched the diagonals. Finally, after all that time staring at the grid, I spotted PORT_GAL and got on the right track.

Add 417 other rabbit holes & substitute oGRE_CEe for imPORT_GAL & this was my identical weekend.

[KscX]

This NC Tar Heel is on shore! Meta and Grid complete! Need an IPA (or three) as Coach K will likely drub my Heels this weekend!!

My two tar-heel sons (and prolly the Duke-hating Wolfpack one too) would join me in saying, we actually would be okay with throwing a victory Coach K’s way in this historic “last” except for the fact that Carolina is on the bubble. Regardless, props to coach K… a respectable man going out with dignity.

I was late to the WSJCC party this weekend because of the big Duke festivities. This Durham, NCer grew up a Duke fan and actually was friends with Debbie K in high school… but then I married a Tarheel and raised a Duke fan… where’s a girl to turn?! I’m a neutral. Loved the game and all the hubbub surrounding it. Brought back lots of good memories and I congratulate Coach K on a great career. (But my husband didn’t… thank goodness my son was visiting us and we all had a grand time!)

[Bird Lives]

Someone asked me for a nudge. My reply: "Black holes."
.

.
I got stuck down in DUAD land. It's a forced entry; QUAD crossing with IQS would have been more natural. And all the letters around DUAD spell SAUDI. I spent a lot of time in that desert, a Lawrence without an Arabia.

[KscX]

GRAZIE is an anagram of ZAIRE + G. I was convinced there would be 7 more with the extra letters spelling the country! But then realized 1. What would the “cross” mean there and 2. THERE WERE NO OTHERS.

Clever, too, for the answer to be 4 letters. Prevented reverse engineering from an 8- letter country.

[JaneGummy]

I was stuck in this rabbit hole until a kind man yanked me out

Eight answers that relate to a specific country, actually found extras
Cero. Mexico
Ole spain
Uni Australia
Donau Germany
Nordique Canada
Gracie/ducate italy
Ete france
Alioto usa
Earl England

[ship4u]

I was more worried that you were going to play sea-monitor & drag meta-scofflaws back to the boat!

Ah, yes. "Back to the ship 4u, pal!"

[Wendy Walker]

[ship4u]

Everyone thought that my Porsche 911 was useless for delivering packages.

DSCN2027.JPG

But can it hold a set of golf clubs?

How did I know that would be your main concern..........

[ship4u]

worksheet (2).jpg

I'll be darn, that is exactly what we did. Thank goodness for the zoom session to pull us out of the quagmire!

[pjc]

This is one of those incredibly rare times when I was immediately in sync with the constructor. I saw the title of the puzzle and assumed I was looking for country names that spanned across answers with a blank between.

BUT even though that's what I was looking for, I had a difficult time finding the countries! My brain just refused to see them. Finally, I spotted Portugal and the rest fell fairly quickly (although I stubbornly clung to CHAD for a while).

[Ergcat]

I can see how people chased Rabbits with this one!!! Luckily, I saw EC_ADOR and PORT_GAL as I filling in the grid online. Still spent time looking for 6 other countries. Didn’t see the “crossings” until I printed out the grid. Got PEU pretty quickly and knew I was looking for the “r”. But finding the “r” was tricky at first. “Nauru”??? Had to consult Mr. Google to confirm that one!

[haydendog]

Sorry I can’t seem to figure out how to quote but in reference to @Wendy Walker , this was my thought process.


I started down that same road but realized it was going nowhere. Someone I can’t remember (sorry!) said she looks at the puzzle title and considers what it might mean, then goes on to complete the puzzle and solve. So I was looking for some type of cross to happen and spotted gre_ce at 29A&30A, then saw y_men crossing and had it.

So the hint at 1A - finding eight countries to solve - was key to finding the correct 8 countries

[Dplass]

GRAZIE is an anagram of ZAIRE + G. I was convinced there would be 7 more with the extra letters spelling the country! But then realized 1. What would the “cross” mean there and 2. THERE WERE NO OTHERS.

Clever, too, for the answer to be 4 letters. Prevented reverse engineering from an 8- letter country.

HANGRY = HUNGARY - U

[Dplass]

Dang it! I spent a lot of time looking for crossing countries but never thought to use the black squares. I also went down some other rabbit holes:
8 non-English words: DONAU, NORDIQUE, GRAZIE, DUCATI, MADRAS, CERO, OLE, ETE
River through Ulm and Wien and Quebec player before the team relocated to Denver: Cross Country?
Several words that just made me think of countries: GREENE: Greece or Greenland; HANGRY: Hungary; ARDENT: Argentina? ; DENSE/NORDIQUE: Denmark/Norway; UNITES: United States

Congrats to all the solvers and good luck winning the mug!

This is why I didn't like this puzzle. Too many cutesy misdirections.