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Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2019 3:19 pm
by Laura M
Been busy, but it still took me way too long to get this one. I was so positive that the meta method I first thought of was wrong that I didn't investigate it thoroughly enough. Rookie mistake. Great song, though, and reminded me of a bunch of songs to add to my playlist!
I also just got the mega-meta, woot! I was sitting on a guess since last month, and Hector's post inspired me to go ahead and submit even though I wasn't very sure about it. Thanks, Hector!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2019 5:46 pm
by hcbirker
That took me way too long. Talk about overthinking! (Heidi)
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:32 pm
by hcbirker
Uh oh. I'm not on the board. And I was SURE it was the right answer. Oh well. (Heidi)
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:12 pm
by FrankieHeck
hcbirker wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 7:32 pm
Uh oh. I'm not on the board. And I was SURE it was the right answer. Oh well. (Heidi)
How is that board updated? I had thought it was immediate, but it wasn't for me this time. Though it was probably no more than 15 minutes.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 12:44 am
by Hector
No, the MMM seems to be automated, but the MGWCC seems to be updated manually, at unpredictable intervals, often well more than an hour, especially as the weekend goes on...
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:40 pm
by BarbaraK
FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:56 pm
I got the mega-meta, too, even though I'm out of contention. I didn't start till May, and I failed one month. Still fun to get it right!
I also got a laugh out of the mega-meta clue for this puzzle.
You got a
laugh out of that mega-meta clue?!? You thought that was
funny!?! Pete dangling that big juicy red herring right in front of us, month after month, where I couldn't possibly resist it and sent in two wrong guesses based on it? And now that it's swum off, just for good measure, he has to go and twist the knife!! And you
laugh!?! You
laugh?!?!
(OK, maybe it was a little tiny bit funny:)
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:42 pm
by FrankieHeck
BarbaraK wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 6:40 pm
FrankieHeck wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:56 pm
I got the mega-meta, too, even though I'm out of contention. I didn't start till May, and I failed one month. Still fun to get it right!
I also got a laugh out of the mega-meta clue for this puzzle.
You got a
laugh out of that mega-meta clue?!? You thought that was
funny!?! Pete dangling that big juicy red herring right in front of us, month after month, where I couldn't possibly resist it and sent in two wrong guesses based on it? And now that it's swum off, just for good measure, he has to go and twist the knife!! And you
laugh!?! You
laugh?!?!
(OK, maybe it was a little tiny bit funny:)
It was very, very cruel, but it was also very funny!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:37 pm
by BethA
Early 80’s, I was a University of Cincinnati co-op student, going back and forth every 6 months from Cincinnati to Hudson, Massachusetts. At least once, I sang this song to myself most of the way. So, in my wheelhouse. But also luckily the second thing I tried. First looked just at the single letters. But roots suggested things dangling down, so then checked the words. Sometimes it just all comes together! Love the mathematical aspect!!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:41 pm
by GlennG
Since this one has closed, a good example of something where I figured out what to do with the grid, but I couldn't make any logical sense out of the results.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:51 pm
by Eric Porter
Damn it. I was so close. I guessed "Woman or a Man", which is a song, but far less famous than the answer that I got after reading BethA's post.
If only I was familiar with the answer I'm sure I would have gotten it. I'd written out all of the square numbered clues that went down but nothing came to me. I did a search for "woman or a man", but didn't find the right song. I could also have put more effort into this puzzle, but I don't yet care about it as much as the WSJ one. I'm 0/2 on MMMM but I have a long streak on WSJ metas.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:59 pm
by BethA
Ps. Had a panic immediately after submitting, because one of the following lines is “ here I am, on the road again”, which is what I first wrote down, instead of the actual name of the song. And since I was not familiar with the term roots rock, I thought maybe the right answer was Willie Nelson “ On the Road Again”. Whew!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:01 am
by BethA
Eric Porter wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:51 pm
Damn it. I was so close. I guessed "Woman or a Man", which is a song, but far less famous than the answer that I got after reading BethA's post.
If only I was familiar with the answer I'm sure I would have gotten it. I'd written out all of the square numbered clues that went down but nothing came to me. I did a search for "woman or a man", but didn't find the right song. I could also have put more effort into this puzzle, but I don't yet care about it as much as the WSJ one. I'm 0/2 on MMMM but I have a long streak on WSJ metas.
It sounds like you are too young! What a pain!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:05 am
by BethA
BethA wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:01 am
Eric Porter wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 11:51 pm
Damn it. I was so close. I guessed "Woman or a Man", which is a song, but far less famous than the answer that I got after reading BethA's post.
If only I was familiar with the answer I'm sure I would have gotten it. I'd written out all of the square numbered clues that went down but nothing came to me. I did a search for "woman or a man", but didn't find the right song. I could also have put more effort into this puzzle, but I don't yet care about it as much as the WSJ one. I'm 0/2 on MMMM but I have a long streak on WSJ metas.
It sounds like you are too young! What a pain!
Or a blessing!
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:41 am
by damefox
Ugh, that was depressing. I was so close but I couldn't make the leap to thinking of the answers as lyrics. (I only know the chorus of that song.) It even occurred to me that it was probably a song from Live Bullet.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't get the answer, but in my opinion this was not as artful a meta as previous months. The "lyric" isn't even the full lyric in the song, which is "All the same old cliches, / 'Is that a woman or a man?'" It is a great song though, and I'm not going to dispute "famous."
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:46 am
by Hector
Live Bullet was on the turntable a lot in high school, but somehow I never really cottoned to this song; indeed in playing it to remind myself what it's like I found myself skipping forward and then closing the tab. Boring! I did focus on square integers pretty early, and had to google to get the song.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:44 am
by sharkicicles
Got the perfect squares thing, but didn’t click that those were song lyrics- figured it was a red herring since it read like gibberish to me.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:25 pm
by hcbirker
I took the last letters of the square roots and got "Amie", which is a Pure Prairie League song. (Heidi)
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:26 pm
by hcbirker
sharkicicles wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 11:44 am
Got the perfect squares thing, but didn’t click that those were song lyrics- figured it was a red herring since it read like gibberish to me.
Me too! (Heidi)
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 8:55 pm
by FKelly
After some help from Google, I got it on Saturday. Didn't recognize the lyrics. After listening to it,I vaguely remember the song, perhaps it was on the radio during long drives to and from a co-op job.
Pete's red herring got me to submit a wild mega-meta guess that was all wet. Someone must have written a rock song about how I feel about this mega-meta.
Re: "Square Roots" - September 2019
Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 4:53 pm
by BarbaraK
Pete's write-up said that having LEAVES as one of the unused across answers at a perfect square was a hint that it was not part of the meta. Hah! Leaves in the grid, roots in the titles, there must be trees somewhere. That was one of the many many empty rabbit holes I dug around in before a kind friend pulled me out and pointed me back toward my abandoned-to-quickly squares.