A weekly meta crossword created by members of the forum. Difficulty levels will vary. Hints are usually available starting Wednesday, and solutions are posted on Sunday.
Good Morning Muggles! I had this one ready a while back but a full schedule, and my Italian vacation, conspired to push it back a bit. No matter, its here!.
The title I’m sure is quite familiar, and our fiend Wikipedia (the world’s authority on everything) says that it is an idiom alluding to a twist or mysterious element hidden in the details. Nothing, of course, could describe a META better.
So try your luck and see if you can work out a reversal of fortune, and don’t forget to remit before the timer runs out…but if you are stuck there will be a “Nudge Wednesday” and of course I am always available to PM for hints.
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
Whoops - apparently an editing change never made the puz file. The prompt there should be Tax Filings not Tax schedules - more cosmetic than anything else but still. The prompt on the PDF, spreadsheet and the picture of the grid are correct. It does not affect the Meta moment really.
Darn details...
(All files have been corrected.)
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
If I got it, this was just my type of puzzle. Kind of had a hard time putting the result into a final form but 100% sure of the gyst.
Oddly, this had many, many rabbit holes. Hard to believe the sheer number of them are withing stochastic norms but ... the seem to be inadvertent.
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.
I am off the couch, courtesy of an assist from Dr. Tom on my original submittal. Seems appropriate on my 1-year Muggle Anniversary!
Thanks for the puzzle @DrTom!
Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 contest-style (meta) crosswords that we've created to help raise money for cancer-related organizations - get the bundle at http://crosswordsforcancer.com
woozy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:59 pm
If I got it, this was just my type of puzzle. Kind of had a hard time putting the result into a final form but 100% sure of the gyst.
Oddly, this had many, many rabbit holes. Hard to believe the sheer number of them are withing stochastic norms but ... the seem to be inadvertent.
Better than writhing stochastic worms! Yep all inadvertent, I am still being surprised by what people are seeing. I actually wish I had been clever enough to insert some of them as red herrings, but you know me, I WANT people ot be able to solve. It gives me no pleasure to mislead.
Tom
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
Coming to the end of day 1 we have a healthy response to the puzzle (thank you Muggles!). Many of you are finding unintentional things that I am afraid I cannot comment on for fear of tipping my hand. Just suffice it to say I did not intentionally include any red herrings and if there is something that you are thinking "well, this might be one", it probably isn't. The themers are pretty clear and once you see one of them you'll know what to look for with the rest.
Solvers so far:
1 MMe
2 Schmeel
3 boharr
4 dplass
5 Bird Lives
6 woozy
7 HeadInHome
8 MarkWoychick
9 ChrisKochmanski
10 Beth Tyrpin
11 Meg
12 oldjudge
13 rjy
14 Laura M
15 Mikey G
16 Andrew Bradburn
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
Hmmm - update and correction to Leader Board. I inadvertently left out the Cap'n and he was an early solver! Plus one more joined the ranks:
1 MMe
2 Schmeel
3 Cap'Rick
4 boharr
5 dplass
6 Bird Lives
7 woozy
8 HeadInHome
9 MarkWoychick
10 ChrisKochmanski
11 Beth Tyrpin
12 Meg
13 oldjudge
14 rjy
15 Laura M
16 Mikey G
17 Andrew Bradburn
18 markhr
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
the 
