My attempts at a Week 1, and my attempt at a week 5.

[woozy]

Can I count on You:

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/MkVIFG ... unt-on-you

This is my attempt at a week 1. It may not be because the themers might be too hard to find. But it still shouldn't be any harder than a week 2, I hope.
I came up with this concept as part of my "So many rabbit holes" puzzle but it became a puzzle of its own.
Oh, by the way 29A is not a themer. It's just me going off on a tangent.

So many Rabbit Holes:

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/LZiFEE ... bbit-holes

This is my attempt at a Week 5. It may not be because the themers might be too easy to find. But it still shouldn't be any easier than a week 4, I hope.
I came up with this idea when I had a familiar frustration trying to solve a meta and a thought "what if I made a meta where these types of frustrations are part of the solution".

[hoover]

I''ve solved both grids but neither meta yet. For the first, I have a shallow indentation that's just big enough for a rabbit to curl up and take a nap in, and for the second I have a very deep rabbit hole that I haven't reached the end of yet.

[whimsy]

Same here -- 2 grids, no metas, but not for lack of trying -- taking a break and will look with fresh eyes later.

[benchen71]

"Can I count on you?" is a week 1?!? I daren't even attempt the week 5, then!

[woozy]

Well.... I guess finding themers are harder than I think it is. And I guess I was better at hiding the mechanism in plain sight than I thought

So... I've edited "Can I count on you". I guess if my goal is a week 1 I shouldn't be worried about making it too easy. It's probably not too easy now but it's probably dropped from a week 6 to a week 3.

The week 5 might have been easier than the original week 1 because the themers were easier to see.

[benchen71]

Ah, so those are the themers. [Stares at the themers for ages.] Guess I'll wait for the nudges!

[woozy]

Ah, so those are the themers. [Stares at the themers for ages.] Guess I'll wait for the nudges!

Okay Here are your nudges for "Can I count on you"

The title is "Can I count on you"
The themers are:

1A The unnamed forest outside Shakespeare's Athens and Burzee Forest near L. Frank Baum's Ix are full of these-- FAIRIES
25A If I've recalled correctly, it would go next, right? -- REMEMBER
35A Members of the phylum often noted for boniness-- VERTEBRATES
48A Gray area without the weight of our certainty-- PENUMBRA
64A This type of boating hazard is even worse on the north reef--SANDBAR


The prompt is "The answer is a ten-letter word you must do to solve this meta"
The difficult ranking is week 1
"Count"? "Ten"?

[Dplass]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

[woozy]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

They weren't meant to be. You shouldn't need any nudges.

[Dplass]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

They weren't meant to be. You shouldn't need any nudges.

See, that's where we disagree...

[woozy]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

They weren't meant to be. You shouldn't need any nudges.

See, that's where we disagree...
[/quote]

But you have nudges.

The title talks about counting. What does counting involve?
Where are you going to find these things to count? You could look in your refrigerator, I suppose, but usually a puzzle constructor will put them somewhere in the puzzle
So where can a puzzle make put the themes to a puzzle? Is there some aspect of a puzzle dedicated to themes? Something we made up a word for because it relates to the themes of a puzzle?
So those nudges did tell you something.

Count
Ten
In
the themers
Count ten in the themers

[Dplass]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

They weren't meant to be. You shouldn't need any nudges.

See, that's where we disagree...

But you have nudges.

The title talks about counting. What does counting involve?
Where are you going to find these things to count? You could look in your refrigerator, I suppose, but usually a puzzle constructor will put them somewhere in the puzzle
So where can a puzzle make put the themes to a puzzle? Is there some aspect of a puzzle dedicated to themes? Something we made up a word for because it relates to the themes of a puzzle?
So those nudges did tell you something.

Count
Ten
In
the themers
Count ten in the themers

fancydan.png
[/quote]

You said I shouldn't need nudges. Obviously I do.

[woozy]

Well, you have one: Count ten in the themers

[woozy]

Some nudges:

The unnamed forest outside Shakespeare's Athens and Burzee Forest near L. Frank Baum's Ix are full of these-- FAIRIES
Shakespeare's Athens is a reference to "A Midsummer's Night Dream". The unnamed forest is the home to Oberon, Titania, Puck and others.

The reference to L. Frank Baum, and Ix, and Burzee forest seems a little bit obscure, doesn't it. A crossword puzzler solver can be expected to know that L. Frank Baum is the author of "The Wizard of Oz" but it's not reasonable to expect a solver to be familiar with "Queen Zixi of IX". Burzee forest and the fairy queen Lurline are mentioned a few times in the later Oz books but it is in "Queen Zixi of Ix; or The Magic Cloak" that they are introduced.

Still this seems a lot of extraneous detail, doesn't it?


If I've recalled correctly, it would go next, right? -- REMEMBER
If I've recalled what correctly? And what would go where in context to what?

That's really weird clue isn't it? I mean, sure, recalling evokes remembering but... that's a weird clue.


Members of the phylum often noted for boniness-- VERTEBRATES
I guess that's a pretty normal clue, all in all. Phyllum is a classification just below Kingdom so chordata would be all the vertebrates-- animals with spinal columns. In other words all animals with skeletons and bones. Still, it's not as though Vertebrates are "known" for boniness. It's more that having bones is basically their definition. And "boniness" implies being excessively bony while vertebrates simply have bones at all.

Still though, that's a pretty natural clue.


Gray area without the weight of our certainty-- PENUMBRA
That "weight of our certainty" seems awfully affected and pretentious doesn't it? Why not just say "Uncertain gray area" or something like that. Still it's a straight forward clue.

This type of boating hazard is even worse on the north reef--SANDBAR
North reef of what? Even worse than what? Where is this clue taking place and just what was the catastrophe that occurred here somewhere south and how bad was it?

Just what is the back story of all these clues?

[Meg]

I got Woozy #1 earlier today. I’d say more like a week 2. Woozy #2, is proving to be hard. I got the first few steps and then became quite stuck. Waiting for help out of the rabbit holes.

[woozy]

I got Woozy #1 earlier today. I’d say more like a week 2. Woozy #2, is proving to be hard. I got the first few steps and then became quite stuck. Waiting for help out of the rabbit holes.

Nudges will come tomorrow but you are well on your way. There is just one aspect you haven't really taken into account.

[MMe]

Those types of nudges aren't too useful...

They weren't meant to be. You shouldn't need any nudges.

No offense, but you don't seem to be good at judging difficulty. I suggest enlisting test solvers to help you with that.

[woozy]

Okay, it's monday time for the real nudges.

"Can I count on you" first.

I thought the themers might be hard to find but one would recognize them because they'd just seem off. So I identified them with *s. Is there something weird about their cluing that seems off? Apparently this is a lot more well hidden than I thought. I guess I should consider that a success but... it feels quite the opposite
The title refers to counting. The mechanism involves number manipulation. Find the numbers.
CDLI and ONECAR are not the numbers. The numbers are hidden a bit.
The themers are important. That is the only place you'll find the numbers.
It just occurred to me that maybe people are thinking "Ix" in 1A refers to the roman numeral nine. It doesn't. Ix is the name of one of the magical countries in "Queen Zixi of Ix" which is a real book. (The other places are the forest of Burzee and Noland.)
Anyway... find the numbers. Then you them to find the letters associated in a normal meta fashion
In 3D T. Williams refers to Tennessee Williams and "late" Joni Mitchell song doesn't mean she died. It means late in her career as in 2007. But I didn't want to include any numbers in the clues so I didn't want to write 2007, or "Tennessee"
Wait a minute! Didn't you just say you didn't want to write "Tennessee" in a clue because you didn't want any numbers in the clues? Then what about the word "often"? That has the number ten. Was that an oversight?
No... It wasn't.
"North reef"? "Baum's Ix"?

So far 5 have solved it. I'll grant this may be a 3 but I'm not putting it any harder than that.

[woozy]

And "So many rabbit holes"

The rabbit holes, and there are well over three, are not red herrings. You need to explore them. They are the mechanism
There should be several obvious clue/entry pairs that obviously don't work. We'll call those "problem entries"
Try to categorize the problem entries. Make a table and classify them and sort them.
But the problem entries aren't everything. There are some themers. Can you find the three themers.
How do the themers relate to the problem entries?
The themers have different themes. That's the idea of multiple rabbit holes. What are the different themes? How do the themers use these themes?
Okay, enough of the themers. Back the the "problem entries". They go deep. Look at the entries. Do they go anywhere. And the places where the entries go... do they go anywhere.
This is the most important nudge! You need to sort the real mechanism from equally crafted red herrings. Which of the "problem entries" are "good ones" and which are "bad ones"?
Use the themers to answer the last question

So for no-one has solved it but then only 20 have attempted it. This one I am placing firmly in 5 territory so I can't actually be upset when people find it hard. It's hard but not impossible and there is a straightforward path. Good luck.

[Meg]

Woozy week 5: Ok, well I finally made it to the answer not in a way I’m particularly proud of. I had 80% of the necessary info. This was a gnarly puzzle for sure!