XWord Muggles Forum

Why, you could give out ...... mugs.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:52 pm Making less work for me and others is never discouraged. Any idea how puzzles are nominated? Does the crossword fiend even see Mikey’s or Will’s puzzles?

In this year’s post, Sam Donaldson said that it’s his final year doing them. So I’d say the door is open for a muggle meta award.

https://crosswordfiend.com/2021/04/19/t ... ca-awards/

Solved. Excellent!

Just got around to this one. The creativity you constructors exhibit is absolutely amazing! This was a fantastic idea, perfectly implemented, from which all the solvers got to experience 3 separate A-HAs that no doubt elicited smiles across the board. Nicely done @MikeyG !

Got it! Loved the creativity there

"The force [cough, cough] is strong with this one." ~Darth Vader, A New Hope

I finally got around to trying a MIkeyG puzzle and am so glad I did. Fantastic!

Oh my, it has been a busy summer and I’ve just discovered that I’ve been missing what sound to be some terrific Mikey G puzzles. (I know, I know, I should be checking the calendar. And the Daily Crossword Links emails.)

So I picked THIS apparent mind-bender to reintroduce me to Mikey’s puzzles? One or more of you can expect to receive nudge requests from me later today. I’ll try first on my own.

UPDATE: Got it! With a slight nudge, to keep me from straying into the irrelevant. VERY COOL! I’m now tempted to return to the Mikey G puzzles I’ve been missing, but I really should do SOMETHING other than puzzles.

June Meta - Results

Answer: 1776 (hard to see from just the grid!)

Correct answers: 17

Winners!: Laura M and oldjudge - congrats!!



Anatomy of a Puzzle:

• Realize that 37 x 48 = 1776 (I've used this fact with my students before!)
• Think about placing two elements at positions 37 and 48 that are patriotic in some way
• STARS and STRIPES seems as good as any
• Fiddle around forever to get the grid to work, so that those two words are in those positions (note the weird three black squares on the top and bottom row, which helped for that)
• Realize both "STARS" and "STRIPES" start and end with the same letter
• Think this idea is too wild to pull off
• Make a grid with a bunch of red herrings (one literal!), making sure no other word starts and ends with the same letter
• Accidentally (at least twice) make other words that start and end with the same letter
• Cry
• Finally get a "decent" grid with a healthy dose of crosswordese
• Write the question that will be used to direct solvers to the grid
• Realize this question is about 25 letters too long
• Cry again
• Keep working with it for as long as you can, awkwardly rewording until it works out
• Write the message in the clues, so every letter is filling the clue in which it must be in the fourth position (hence the title!!)
• Pet the GINGER CAT, BEST CAT EVER
• Work hard to make clues as natural and as not contrived as possible (RIK and BETSY were the last two)
• Double- and triple-check that every 4th letter is, in fact, what it should be
• Publish
• Take a nap
• And, because Mikey G likes doing these, get ready to repeat (perhaps not as many steps but who knows!!) for months to come.

Thank you so much for your interest in my creation and for a hearty welcome to these boards the past several months. I'm honored! July's meta dropping soon!

Mikey G

Slightly related mathemagic: grab a calculator and find the decimal values of 1/37 and 1/27.

C=64 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:55 pm Slightly related mathemagic: grab a calculator and find the decimal values of 1/37 and 1/27.

Oooh, cool! That's likely because 37 x 27 = 999, I would surmise. (Somehow, I'll have to incorporate even more math into these metas, hahaha.)

MikeyG wrote: ↑Fri Aug 06, 2021 11:57 am

C=64 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 05, 2021 9:55 pm Slightly related mathemagic: grab a calculator and find the decimal values of 1/37 and 1/27.

Oooh, cool! That's likely because 37 x 27 = 999, I would surmise. (Somehow, I'll have to incorporate even more math into these metas, hahaha.)

Yep, that's why! Bonus mathemagic: 37*27 = (32+5)(32-5) = 32^2 - 5^2 = 1024 - 25 = 999.