MGWCC #725 - “Black Is the New Black”

[mindle]

Wow, what a cool puzzle! I thought I had solved it, so what a surprise to come here and see Joe Ross's graphic!

Like DrTom mentioned, I took 1A to be a helper clue, saw "DRK LIN" across the middle, filled that in as a dark line, and submitted BARBELL. I thought it seemed a little too simple for week 4, but I guess it was accepted as an alternate answer.

I also noticed the A's, C's, and L's at 12 & 6 o'clock, but didn't get to the eight ball. Such a great idea!

[hcbirker]

At first I ERASED all the letters in BLACK. Obviously that didn't work. It took @Meg to say "get a Sharpie" for me to do the right thing. Wow, what a puzzle!

[BarbaraK]

This was a good week to use

https://boisvert42.github.io/mechapuzzle/

I'd noticed lots of b,l,a,c,k in the grid but was hesitant to black them out on my paper copy in case that was the wrong approach.

The website confirmed that they were over-represented and also showed the pattern.

(Then I went back and blackened my paper copy - just to be sure, or to see the pretty picture properly, or because I'm obsessive or something:)

[MarkWoychick]

I tried a number of the paths already described here and also thought I was onto something thinking that “B-lack is the new Black” might be the path, but I couldn’t make anything out of the grid answers by removing the Bs. I needed nudges, some squinting, and ultimately Joe’s spreadsheet to see the light (or the dark, in this case)

[NoFeetMcGee]

Dangit, I started a new job this past Thursday, and for the first time I just totally forgot about the MGWCC until today when it was too late and once I actually did the puzzle I got the answer in ~12 minutes... which would've been my fastest-ever week 4

[Joe Ross]

MUST SEE REVEAL!

[BarbaraK]

Wow! The revealers just keep getting more and more impressive!