MGWCC #743 — “Butterfly Effect” by Paolo Pasco

[Wendy Walker]

"Tiny" Smith of Helping Hand Services described to this reporter what went on at the Woozy household.
"So, y'know, we repo guys are used to seeing just about everything that comes down the pike," he said. "But, like, this guy just didn't care that we were taking away his furniture and even his dog! He waves this honkin' big crossword puzzle in my face and says, "Just let me finish this, please." But I saw it, man -- and it was already all filled in!"

[HoldThatThought]

Changing the subject completely, but, if really tough cluing is absolutely your thing, I have encountered very little out there that rises to the level of the Saturday Stumper puzzles, published in Long Island's Newsday. Forget the Saturday NYT, forget the Peter Gordon Fireballs - I do them, I love them, but for pure "make the clues as challenging/tricky/misleading/puzzling" as possible, you'll have a difficult time topping the Saturday Stumper.

If you've never been introduced, there is a new-ish series of Stumper collections, Hard As A Rock Crossword, with three (?) entries, Extra Hard, Really Hard and Super Hard, all sold at a cover price of $9.95, which is pretty reasonable for 70 puzzles per book.

You don't need to know a lot of esoteric trivia, or five dollar words, but you need the patience to parse some nefarious cluing. If you have never encountered a Stumper, give them a shot.

[ajk]

Phew. Beamed* after a intense but very entertaining effort. Had the answer for a few hours before I could nail down the last 2% that confirmed what I already knew had to be the last bit. But glad that I stuck it out and dotted that i as well (metaphorically, of course, so no spoilers ).

Definitely liked this one a lot, even if the percentage of grid entries I didn't know was higher than I'd prefer. I'm all for a good dose of those in general, and if sometimes a puzzle has to have even more than I'd like in order to make up for the ones that have none, well that's fine too. Plus the mechanism was pretty cool.

*Technically awaiting, but not worried. ETA: officially beamed.

[higgysue]

Oof, I just may skip this one.

[joequavis]

Requesting beam up, though it appears the transporter is undergoing repairs. I enjoyed the challenge, grid and meta alike. This coming from someone who generally dislikes overly challenging grids on metas.

[woozy]

, though it appears the transporter is undergoing repairs.

Wish they'd get that fixed. I'm positive I've got the mechanism but I may have made an error or two. Still I'd like to get a solo 4 after flubbing the week 1.

Edit: Ah, there I am... 92.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

I for one have no friggin idea. Not complaining. Yet.

Beamed with shoves. Not my fave.

[edestlin]

I'd appreciate a nudge or collaboration if anyone is open to it... I feel like I was making solid progress until I beamed halfway into a Cronenberg monstrosity.

UPDATE:
Awaiting confirmation but I'm pretty confident in my answer. That was my first MGWCC and what a doozy it was. Thanks to a couple of very gentle nudges to help me stay on the right track.

[Cinny]

Beamed up. I found this one to be difficult and hard on the eyes. But with a bit of help, I got through it.

[Jeremy Smith]

On the board at #91. Always nice to get a Week 4 solo solve. Hmm....I think I know why some of our usually speedy solvers are not yet on the board.

[benchen71]

Oof. Nudged to the tractor beam. Not my idea of fun, but a very clever concept.

(After the reveal I might suggest the one thing I would have changed, had I come up with this meta idea.)

[stmv]

Woof, that was indeed a good workout, but I'm now beamed up at #95. I'm amazed that Paolo was able to conceive of and then construct a meta like this.

Regarding the discussion about the cluing, I agree that Paolo tends to lean towards cutesy, but (speaking as a 69 year-old geezer) the grid didn't seem unfair to me. I was able to get everything without resorting to Google ... well, in all honesty I did google some entries after I was done to make sure that I didn't have any errors. Looking back over the grid, I can see only one place where two "obscure" names cross each other, and even in that case there was enough context given to make an educated guess possible.

[Guffman]

Partial Differential Equations...
Complex Variables...
Non-Euclidean Geometry...
Non-linear Algebra...
This puzzle.

[woozy]

I'm amazed that Paolo was able to conceive of and then construct a meta like this.

It almost seems to me conceiving and constructing this would be easier than solving this.

[MountainManZach]

Beamed up and happy to provide nudges. Standard DrTom-type request: brief me on what you've done/what ideas you've had

[HunterX]

After a full blown shove to get started, I worked through the rest and am awaiting beam up.

Phew! I need a shower... for my brain! I can see why some chose not to go through the marathon workout, but I enjoyed it once I got through the first 19.2 miles and only had 7 to go.

Had a cutesy comment to make, but I think it might constitute a bit of a spoiler.

Edit: Beamed up at 146.

[HoldThatThought]

"Ich gebe auf" - Albert Einstein, 2022

[sheeparenotgreen]

Beamed up with help! This was complicated. Happy to hint via PM.

[Karawitan]

I’ve been staring at this for a few days now and still can’t find a way to get even started. If there is a way to have a gentle nudge in the right direction, I’d appreciate it in a DM. I love challenging metas where there is a lot of work to do, but I need to know what the first step is! Any (tiny) help would be appreciated.

[Joe]

Psssshh. Having lost my 50 badge a couple weeks ago, I no longer find myself panicky about solving difficult metas. If I had a little more free time this past week, I might have spent a little more time on the meta. I'm sure I'll marvel at the solution once it's published. As it is, I'm a proud DNF this week.