And one more solver to add to the list before the answer reveal:
KayW - well done for persevering!
"First Christmas" by benchen71
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benchen71
- Posts: 2484
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:50 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta! 
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benchen71
- Posts: 2484
- Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:50 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
And here's the answer to "First Christmas"...
I probably should have done the third nudge as follows: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE AZY DOG!
I was surprised that it was actually not all that hard to avoid using the letter "L". I was just really fortunate that all of the theme words I wanted to include (MARY, INKEEPER, JOSEPH, THENATIVITY, MANGER, GUESTROOM, and MAGI) didn't include an L. It has been fun to see Christmas metas utilising a related mechanic. I had my puzzle constructed well before I encountered MikeyG's wonderful puzzle. And I saw from Abide's post that he had been working on something along the same lines! But I recall that as I was working on mine I kept thinking that surely I'd seen this mechanism before. But that's impossible since I only really started getting into metas during 2021!
My first successfully solved WSJ meta was "We're Back In Business". My first post on this site was for the next puzzle, "Two For One". That's less than 6 months ago! Since then, I've fallen so far down the meta rabbithole that I now have a weekly meta release (for which I have constructed more than 50 puzzles already; I'm currently working on August 2022) and have a puzzle coming out on Matt Gaffney's site early in 2022! I'm not quite sure what my family think of my new obsession...
This week's MOAT will be an end-of-year challenge!
I probably should have done the third nudge as follows: THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE AZY DOG!
I was surprised that it was actually not all that hard to avoid using the letter "L". I was just really fortunate that all of the theme words I wanted to include (MARY, INKEEPER, JOSEPH, THENATIVITY, MANGER, GUESTROOM, and MAGI) didn't include an L. It has been fun to see Christmas metas utilising a related mechanic. I had my puzzle constructed well before I encountered MikeyG's wonderful puzzle. And I saw from Abide's post that he had been working on something along the same lines! But I recall that as I was working on mine I kept thinking that surely I'd seen this mechanism before. But that's impossible since I only really started getting into metas during 2021!
My first successfully solved WSJ meta was "We're Back In Business". My first post on this site was for the next puzzle, "Two For One". That's less than 6 months ago! Since then, I've fallen so far down the meta rabbithole that I now have a weekly meta release (for which I have constructed more than 50 puzzles already; I'm currently working on August 2022) and have a puzzle coming out on Matt Gaffney's site early in 2022! I'm not quite sure what my family think of my new obsession...
This week's MOAT will be an end-of-year challenge!
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!
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whimsy
- Posts: 2817
- Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
- Location: Hopkinton MA
Not to burst anyone's bubble but I think Sandra Boynton's got all you guys beat!benchen71 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:13 pm
I had my puzzle constructed well before I encountered MikeyG's wonderful puzzle. And I saw from Abide's post that he had been working on something along the same lines! But I recall that as I was working on mine I kept thinking that surely I'd seen this mechanism before. But that's impossible since I only really started getting into metas during 2021!
Congrats on your upcoming MGWCC puzzle, Ben!