#716 - “Taking Sides” by Matthew Stock

[auee89]

Beamed. Liked the first(?) step and thought the rest was hazy for me.

[SusieG]

This finally hit me this morning. For some reason I was stuck on the “1st” step for a few days. Then this morning it just popped into my head while I was doing something else. Glad it happened before the deadline!

[Prozach]

Took the last-minute ride thanks to some kind nudges.

[ky-mike]

A bit disappointed in this one. One reason is that I ended my correct submission streak at 89. Secondly, this puzzle didn't have a clear path to the meta (as mentioned by many here). I submitted LIGER as I pretty much knew that I needed an animal whose name begins with L and ends with R. My reasoning was that a LIGER is a mix of two animals similar to the letters L and R being part of the left and right theme answers.

I did like the L on the left and R on the right. That was a good part of the construction. Not sure why I missed the EMU in the grid (had it been in the middle row, it might have been more obvious as a path to the answer). I just wish that the answer would have been more definitive (like the word before EMU ending in L as the word to the right began with R.)

[Psumcoleman]

A bit disappointed in this one. One reason is that I ended my correct submission streak at 89. Secondly, this puzzle didn't have a clear path to the meta (as mentioned by many here). I submitted LIGER as I pretty much knew that I needed an animal whose name begins with L and ends with R. My reasoning was that a LIGER is a mix of two animals similar to the letters L and R being part of the left and right theme answers.

I did like the L on the left and R on the right. That was a good part of the construction. Not sure why I missed the EMU in the grid (had it been in the middle row, it might have been more obvious as a path to the answer). I just wish that the answer would have been more definitive (like the word before EMU ending in L as the word to the right began with R.)

I’m predicting that everyone who submitted an animal beginning with an L and ending with an R will get retroactive credit. Could be wrong, but that’s my guess.

[woozy]

So no one submitted Labrador retrieveR?

I didn't like how it was fairly arbitrary what to do. It's clear you have a group of words that pairwise are the same but one begins with L and the other ends with R (very cute; I liked that a log) but that doesn't indicate what to do next. Do something with the central letters? Find an animal that will make two new words if you prepend an L or append an R to it? Find a word beginning with L and ending with R that is an animal if you remove the L,R (yes, the UNA, a local variety of Alabaman blackbird....)? Find a Down entry that starts with T and ends with B? Or find a central entry that becomes an animal if you put it between an L and an R?

As I said the last is a solid click but a weak solve. The logic that pairs of words; one beginning with L the other ending with R => a word beginning with L and ending with R, sort of feels like "The effigy of the postman has a bucket on his head because we are blind to their tyranny" logic to me.

Still, overall a fun puzzle.

[woozy]

I’m predicting that everyone who submitted an animal beginning with an L and ending with an R will get retroactive credit. Could be wrong, but that’s my guess.

I wouldn't think so. The EMU was fairly front and center (I had to count the lines to see that it was actually one off of the middle row). And I think just "An animal beginning with L and ending with R" should be clearly too weak in itself to carry the theme. (Though I thought finding a last name of WHITE and no mechanism to find BETTY was obviously not strong enough either.)

[DrTom]

I understand everyone's rather unfulfilled feelings. I've heard the LIGER justification more than once (will it become the LIGER SANCTION?) and I was all set to go that way but I could not justify it as others did (had I been more inventive I might have and thrown the answer!). But when I saw EMU sitting there BEGGING for an L and an R, well I could not shake it. The biggest problem I saw was that this could have come down to a coin flip:

(1) 5 pairs of entries - NO constructor purposefully puts in more constraint than they need to. Just like last week's cities, there were 5 and the answer had five letters. So - answer has 5 letters
(2) the L and R trick was just too good to throw away only on the Grid, it has to be part of the answer. So - starts with L and ends with R
(3) we were told the answer was an animal.

Ergo: Animal name with 5 letters starting with L and ending with R. If you Google that only two come up, LIGER and LEMUR. Thus a coin flip could have given it away. However, if you saw EMU almost in the center (I'm sure it wasn't because of the constraints of putting in the other "have to haves" but I am also sure he wanted it to be in the middle) you had to go with LEMUR.

At any rate, I'll bet this week's will be a humdinger!

[woozy]

Five pairs = five letters only if the pairs each spell one letter which is certainly not the case so I see utterly no reason to the think the answer should have 5 letters.

Crossword Fiend thought the answer was LOBSTER because "lobster" was used in a clue (which to my mind is an absolute assurance the answer can't possibly be LOBSTER).

To my mind there needs to be something points to what with, or without, the L,R leads to the animal.... And the EMU front and center is it.

.... Anyway, I really doubt Matt thought "animals beginning with L and ending in R" was enough and I'm pretty sure he's going to rule we needed to see the EMU on the page. (He might accept the L-ige-R as an animal taking both sides L-ion and tige-R thouhg).

[BarbaraK]

Seeing the comments this month from people who were 80-90% sure, deciding whether to check with someone else before submitting to be sure they kept their streak or just go ahead and submit so they could check the 'solo solve' button, got me thinking about how clever Matt and Alex were in setting this up as one puzzle with multiple competitions.

Want to be fastest to solve? Have a long streak? Solve solo? Solve without across clues and/or a prompt in week 1? Get Achievements? None of the above, just solve for fun and not even submit? Or even just solve the grids and don't worry about the meta? Your choice! Everyone can pick which they care about and how to prioritize them, and even change whenever they wish. Great setup, Matt!