I was sure that I needed to count the numbers of A-Is. When the whole grid didn’t give anything usable, I tried the theme answers. Nothing there, so how about the initials of the 4 words in each theme. There were four missing - C, H, E, and F. 4 across “TV chef Brown”. Aha! It must be BROWN! Didn’t seem quite good enough to be right, but not bad enough to just let it go either.
Other rabbit hole was the 5 clues with Js.
Got a nudge away from these and onto the correct path. Think I picked a good year to quit worrying about solo solves.
MGWCC #729 - “Count to J”
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BarbaraK
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If you want help with a meta, feel free to PM me. The more specific you are about what you have and what you want, the more likely I can help without spoiling.
(And if I help you win a mug, I’ll be especially delighted.)
(And if I help you win a mug, I’ll be especially delighted.)
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benchen71
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I beamed up after a nudge, but waited until Wednesday to submit to get the badge!
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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rjy
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I never quite got a solid enough understanding of how the title "Count to J" was to nudge us towards the answer... sure, there was counting involved, but "J"?? Am I just obtuse on this one, or did it click for anyone?
Ray
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woozy
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I think it's just a play on "Count to Ten". All it's telling us is that letters are going to represent numbers and that the letters involved will represent the nine digits.
Funny story. I was all set to enter Par for the course for the CrossHare midi contest for April but I mistakenly thought midi meant 7x 7 and not 11 x 11. Oops. Well.... Here's a complex but **small** meta on the subject of golf.
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Joe Ross
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Matt Gaffney says (on crosswordfiend):
May 25, 2022 at 11:07 am
Thanks, Joon — 217 right answers, of which 112 were solo solves.
You had the right idea — with a nudge from the title, count the number of letters in each of the four words in the theme entries and assign their alphabetical letter: 2-9-2-2 is B-I-B-B, 2-1-4-7 is BADG, 2-1-3-8 is BACH, and 6-1-3-5 is FACE.
Then find the five-letter grid entry those start: BIBB(Y), BADG(E), BACH(E), and FACE(S), yielding YEES, Do the trick once more to get contest answer YEESH in 8-Down.
Well after solving, I equivalate "Count to J" to "Count to Ten." :::shrug:::
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rjy
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Thanks, Joe. A little too oblique a reference to get me to the mechanism, but not unfair.
Just continued training to limit time in rabbit holes, to bounce out and think differently...
Ray
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Abide
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I interpreted "Count to J" as also meaning that was the stopping point for the mini-alphabet, as all letters are A through I.
My submission comment was "I am impressed Matt! (1,2,9,4)"
My submission comment was "I am impressed Matt! (1,2,9,4)"
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