#700 - “FACEBOOK Is Now META”

[Joe Ross]

MGWCC #700 — Saturday, October 30th, 2021 — “FACEBOOK Is Now META”

IMPORTANT NOTE: TODAY’S META IS NOT A TENTH MONTH PUZZLE. Tenth Month ended last week; I had planned on doing five puzzles for it but was overtaken by events when, as you may have heard, Facebook renamed its parent company “Meta” earlier this week.

This week’s contest answer, which is eight letters long, is something that’s often useful in solving metas.

NOTE: Due to the delayed post, the deadline for this puzzle is NOON ET on Wednesday, November 3rd.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.



-------------PREVIOUS POSTPONING POST-------------

MGWCC #700 — POSTPONED Until Saturday, October 30th at Noon ET

Dear Solver,





The usual palindromic suspect struck with a vengeance this week. First tooth coming in meant little sleep for this guy, so I’ll need to delay Week 5 for a day.

Apologies for the wait, and I’m told the Shenk WSJ meta is lovely, so consider giving that one a shot if you haven’t already.

Until tomorrow,

–Matt

[SewYoung]

Yeah, he thinks that by posting a picture of said suspect we will get all sentimental and say "Aw how cute. How can we be mad about that."
He's right!

[Meg]

Awww. She really is cute!

[dudeski]

Thanks Matt. Your puzzles are worth the wait. Hope you get a good night's sleep.

[ajk]

Reminder to the speed demons that submitting tomorrow instead of today earns the 'Nothing Scarier' achievement if one does not already have it.

[Teddybear]

edit: yeah, what they said!

A reminder that if you solve tomorrow on Halloween, there's an achievement.

[ky-mike]

edit: yeah, what they said!

A reminder that if you solve tomorrow on Halloween, there's an achievement.

Actually, two achievements. One for a Halloween solve and one for a week five Halloween solve.

[MikeM000]

Boy howdy. I did the grid and looked at the finished product and noticed something while gritting my way through this football game....I'm definitely on the right path (way too much coincidence for it to not be correct) and am certain I can complete all of the instances of stuff in here and submit tomorrow....

[MajordomoTom]

I'm also definitely on the right path, but it's not clicking together as it should.

Plus I won't be submitting until tomorrow (if I get the answer) to get those achievements. Which ... well, I'll get them, perhaps.

[sharkicicles]

I’ve never group solved an MGWCC before but if anyone wants to, I’d like to get those achievements tomorrow because, ah, why not.

[JordanianTomlinson]

Methinks I got it! Will wait until tomorrow to submit



Edit: May have spoken a bit too soon - will keep at it.

[HeadinHome]

Would someone please explain the whole tenth-month / facebook Meta thing? I missed something, obviously!

[RPardoe]

Would someone please explain the whole tenth-month / facebook Meta thing? I missed something, obviously!

Matt had posted earlier in the month:

The Tenth Month puzzles begin! Is this one of those connected suites of crosswords, you may wonder, where you lay all the puzzles out at month’s end and search for the big reveal?

It is not. The puzzles are meant to be enjoyed separately, with only time and the number 10 connecting them.

This was inspired in part by the interview with Pete Muller who stated that having constraints in the puzzle (like his own meta-mega) can enhance the creative process as one has to work within those constraints. So Matt decided to try to do so in October.

His comment this week is that he had a puzzle planned for Week 5 Tenth Month Puzzle - but with the announcement that Facebook was rebranding itself META - Matt created a more topical puzzle (at least in title) and dropped the Week 5 Tenth Month thing. That is all.

[MajordomoTom]

also, I have a book of Gaffney metas (published a while back, some of the grids/clues/fill are quite dated), and he had a "thing" one October where all 5 puzzles locked together for a meta/meta level "aha". That might be what he was planning for this year/month, and then the FB/M "opportunity" presented itself and he published our current teaser/test/brainfreeze.

[Bird Lives]

D'ya think?

As for the meta, so near and yet. I've got all the pieces, I think, but can't figure out how to put them together.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Oh, my, Ada may be even cuter than my 7-month-old grandson Theo. If that were possible!

[RPardoe]

Solved and submitted (awaiting confirmation - but enjoyed the construction this week.)
Confirmed.

[oneacross]

Does Matt manually approve answers? I’m always curious why there are sometimes a few hours between updates.

[RPardoe]

Does Matt manually approve answers? I’m always curious why there are sometimes a few hours between updates.

Yes - timing depends on when Matt (or his webmaster et al) can get to the submission queue.


PS - And there's the update with both our names on it.

[MikeyG]

Does Matt manually approve answers? I’m always curious why there are sometimes a few hours between updates.

Yes - timing depends on when Matt (or his webmaster et al) can get to the submission queue.

The fact this is all done manually is, in my opinion, beyond impressive and the definition of commitment.