MGWCC #729 - “Count to J”

[MMe]

While a fair number of solvers have gotten this, the solve times for people normally near the top of the leaderboard are very spread out -- some early, some late, some missing, some resorting to nudges. Even lightning-solver Meg modestly said that she happened on the right rabbit hole just by chance. The spread does look the signature of a low-odds random event; maybe it's just that this time the right mechanism doesn't stand out among a lot of plausible ones.

[Janky]

Missed the zoom and desperately seeking a nudge. Too many rabbit holes! Thanks in advance!

[SusieG]

I decided my random drawing is too much work and I’d rather spend the time solving. Anyone have a nudge?

[higgysue]

If anyone is handing out nudges pass one my way please & thank you!

[BobDylan]

Figured it out with a helpful hand.

Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues - you can tell by the way she smiles.

[Joe Ross]

Better than solving the meta, I *might* have figured out the title, but I am much less sure of that.

[Bird Lives]

Off the couch. I needed a nudge, and while the nudge I got was subtle enough, I still kick myself for not seeing what was right there in front of me.

[higgysue]

Beam me up thanks to @boharr for the friendly nudge!

[mindle]

I have so many copies of this puzzle printed around the house, but am stuck! Is anyone available to give a nudge? It's kindof late in the day, so I'm putting it out here instead of PM...thank you so much to anyone who can help!

[SusieG]

Thanks to some very kind advice, I believe i should be on the board (not yet confirmed, but seems correct). You solo solvers are very smart.

[panda95]

Anyone around available to give a nudge?

[Katiedid]

I guess I'm not going to get it this week. At least I got two new badges! Any last second nudge would be appreciated.


EDIT: Got friendly nudge from boharr (thanks!), came up with a semi-defensible wrong answer and submitted it. The nudge was good, I just ran out of time. Oh well.

[DrTom]

Several people tried to help me but to no avail. I am blind to what is needed to solve this puzzle. I know I’ll be mad at myself when I see the reveal. On thé positive side I am sitting beside Lake Como enjoying an Aperol Spritz, so not all bad!

[Joe Ross]

[Al Sisti]

Yep, that's a never for me. But I'm fine with it, because I vowed to make it through the year with all solo solves, after noticing in the past that I got no personal gratification from a solve if it took a nudge to get it. So my streak ends, which is also fine, because I look at streaks differently now than when I thought they were the ultimate measure of success. Kudos to those who got this one...

[Guffman]

Matt's recent "Don't Look Up" puzzle and this one had similarities: First, they both depended on counting the letters within words and then applying that numerical sequence elsewhere. Second, they inflicted considerable streak-ending damage among us muggles.

I don't keep any detailed history of the mechanisms Matt has used to create metas, but I'd venture a guess that this approach has been used previously in some fashion. If so, was there a noticeable drop in the number of correct solves then, too?

Maybe there's something about the counting of letters - in entries, clues or both - that inherently eludes us. Difficulty aside, these recent puzzles were both very fair - and that only made the struggle to decipher them even more maddening.

[Wendy Walker]

Looks like I'm in good company for submitting the wrong answer this week!
This was my path:

I tried counting the number of letters in the long answers that were alphabetically before J ("Count to J") and then going two ways:

1. To the letter in the grid. For instance, for the first themer, there were six letters that were before J in the alphabet. 6 = T. Do that for
each themer and you get TEEF, which is feet backward (a la 61D) -- but what 5-letter clue word would go with it: Happy? First? Small?

and then ...

2. To the letter in the answer. The sixth letter of the first themer is R. Using the same technique for the other three long answers you get E,
A, and H = REAH. HEY! Look at that symmetry! How could it possibly be wrong?!

I found a 5-letter word in the clues, ALICE, that had A, I, C, and E: four letters before J in the alphabet. The fourth letter
in ALICE is a C-- which spells REACH.

I submitted ALICE.

[Joe Ross]

My Rabbit Hole / "words intended to deceive(?)" was 65A - Scouting or MGWCC achievement - BADGE. 22 of 26 MGWCC Achievements have the word SOLVE in them & SOLVE appears in clue 31D - How some solve crosswords - IN PEN.

How can a self-referential clue/entry which leads to another clue/entry involving crosswords NOT be correct, or an intentional red herring?

Fortunately, I was dissuaded from it, but I nearly submitted it 14 times prior, despite not having any relevance to the title, "Count to J.".

[MMe]

Matt's recent "Don't Look Up" puzzle and this one had similarities: First, they both depended on counting the letters within words and then applying that numerical sequence elsewhere. Second, they inflicted considerable streak-ending damage among us muggles.

Pfft! The memory feats they expect of us! To find a MGWCC puzzle where "count" meant to count letters of words in a phrase you have to go back literally a double-digit number of days.

[DrTom]

Way too late, and after an incorrect Hail Mary I saw the light. I had done BIBB sooo many times and said “well that can’t be”. You’d have thought with such a strange entry as BIBBY I’d have remembered. I had a different mx in mind and it blinded me. My own fault because several tried to help. Ok pressure off, no streak to protect and I should be home for the week 4. Who know maybe vacation cleared my head.