An excellent puzzle written by one of the innovators of the meta crossword format. It comes out every Friday at noon and increases in difficulty throughout the month. Available for modest subscription (worth every cent) here: www.xwordcontest.com
patpatchica wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:41 pm
After I submitted, I got the message that submissions are now closed. Is that just automatic for anything after the normal submission time on Tuesday? I saw we had until Wednesday noon for this one.
No, submissions deadline is delayed as per Matt:
"NOTE: Due to the late post, the deadline for entering this week’s contest is Wednesday, November 24th at noon ET."
Would anyone be willing to PM me with a hint, or if you're also stuck and want to discuss it? I normally solve alone, but am tantalized on this one because I have a first step that must mean something, but not sure how to proceed from there. Thanks!
mathdanmom wrote: ↑Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:59 pm
Would anyone be willing to PM me with a hint, or if you're also stuck and want to discuss it? I normally solve alone, but am tantalized on this one because I have a first step that must mean something, but not sure how to proceed from there. Thanks!
I’m in the same boat. I would accept a nudge if anyone is open to sending one.
I got a nudge to get started. Then asked for another nudge, outlining what I had so far. It turns out I had the answer. I missed some things along the way and will be interested to find out the rationale for the final solution. I came in the back door so I missed the click, I think.
In any case, I am beamed up.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
I finally got it though with a nudge. I can understand people's frustration with the ambiguity of the answer. I've seen -- from other muggles and me -- alternate answers or prompts that fit together better.
Well, a swing and a miss I guess. I submitted what I thought was the best answer I could come up with but do not see my name on the board so I guess I am in good company.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
ky-mike wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:00 pm
Tried submitting at 10:55 central and got response that submissions were closed. I emailed Matt. Hoping for the best.
You're on the board, Ky-Mike -- and I'm one minute after you!
Annoyed at myself. I had everything I needed for the answer, but I didn't realize that TDVC was supposed to be one of the three movies, I thought it was just the key. I should have realized POOL EMPTIER was both BIG and SPLASH, but I thought that it only pointed to SPLASH and that I still needed two more movies. When I couldn't find them, I put together two more titles for a 23-letter Hail Mary late last night, but of course that fell short.
Well, I had my (10) for a couple weeks, anyway! And I've been too busy to spend all my time obsessing over this puzzle; in fact after my initial foray I only remembered to get back to it late yesterday. So minimal time wasted :-)
Last edited by Laura M on Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ky-mike wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:00 pm
Tried submitting at 10:55 central and got response that submissions were closed. I emailed Matt. Hoping for the best.
I always see the screen update to say submissions are closed immediately after submitting, no matter when. I think it just means that now you can't submit again, although it would be nicer if it said something like "Submission Accepted."
My guess turned out to be correct! I had a feeling The Da Vinci Code would be one and picked the other two to make it 23 letters. Happy T.Hanksgiving everyone!
Yeah, this wasn't going to happen. I noticed the DAVINCI/RAVIOLI alignment and then tried to translate things, but I was looking for the translated words to be critical rather than the original entries. Don't think I would ever have thought to just look at the words that fit the pattern, especially since it doesn't take much to qualify. Ah well. Congrats to those that got it.
Check out this very cool project by many of your favorite muggles to raise money to fight cancer. You get a fun puzzle bundle and good causes get $. Win-win: Crosswords for Cancer
Yeah, I kept thinking how I would make RAVIOLI work - since that seemed rather suspect - and the proliferation of 7-letter entries gave it to me.
Honestly, once I got THE DA VINCI CODE (which I also thought initially was just a key to getting the three), I figured, "Well, that's 14 letters - can we find two that give us 9 letters?" And BIG SPLASH was a legitimate phrase, so I was going to go with that, had I not randomly followed the 7-letter rabbit hole, which turned out to have an actual rabbit at the end.
This is the second puzzle this week that I guessed the answer without having any clue on how to solve. It’s kind of creepy! I have never guessed a correct answer before. Did not submit on either puzzle. Darn!
Very frustrated on this one. I feel like I had found everything there was to find, but never submitted because nothing felt "good enough" for a Gaffney puzzle. And that makes it feel like a failure on the setter's part, rather than mine.
IMO the intended mechanics were all over the place in a way that never gave a good click. The title somewhat suggests the Da Vinci Code, but there's no confirmation of this anywhere else, and the clue POOL EMPTIER clearly points to SPLASH but I have no clue how you're supposed to know it's a BIG SPLASH specifically. So you have two completely different mechanics to find three movies, with one mechanic being extremely vague and the other mechanic supposed to point to two answers at the same time for some reason.
I'll be the first to admit that it's possible I'm just salty about losing my streak, but it certainly feels to me like Matt dropped the ball on this one. Here's hoping that today's goes better!
NoFeetMcGee wrote: ↑Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:20 am
Very frustrated on this one. I feel like I had found everything there was to find, but never submitted because nothing felt "good enough" for a Gaffney puzzle. And that makes it feel like a failure on the setter's part, rather than mine.
IMO the intended mechanics were all over the place in a way that never gave a good click. The title somewhat suggests the Da Vinci Code, but there's no confirmation of this anywhere else, and the clue POOL EMPTIER clearly points to SPLASH but I have no clue how you're supposed to know it's a BIG SPLASH specifically. So you have two completely different mechanics to find three movies, with one mechanic being extremely vague and the other mechanic supposed to point to two answers at the same time for some reason.
I'll be the first to admit that it's possible I'm just salty about losing my streak, but it certainly feels to me like Matt dropped the ball on this one. Here's hoping that today's goes better!
Update: I had totally missed that DA VINCI also followed the pattern, and didn't see anyone mention that until today's writeup... that makes it better and clears up my first complaint about Da Vinci Code not being confirmed. Still kinda iffy on adding BIG to SPLASH but not nearly as upset now. Anyway, onto the next puzzle...
Matt Gaffney wrote:Unfortunately, there was uncertainty here for some solvers who weren’t sure if “The Da Vinci Code” itself was one of the three. It was a little unusual that one of the three answers would be derived one way and the other two another, so I’m going to give credit to anyone who got as far as POOL EMPTIER, whether or not they ultimately chose “The Da Vinci Code.” For example, eight solvers chose “That Thing You Do,” also 14 letters, using the logic that MGWCC is “that thing you do.”
If you don’t see yourself credited for this meta and feel you should have been, please e-mail me
(crosswordcontest@gmail.com) and I’ll take a look.
Just posting this here in case anyone missed it in Matt's writeup on his page.
