What's in the Box - December 2022

[Katiedid]

What an incredible puzzle!!!!! Thanks to rjy for getting me out of some fruitless rabbit holes.

[gpj73]

Oh my goodness. It took us about 2 hours to figure it out, but once we did … absolutely BRILLIANT. I truly don’t know how people like Pete (and Mack) do it.

[jbird]

Anyone up for providing a nudge? I've made progress but I might have some holes.

[Abide]

Just got around to this one tonight, and I agree this one goes straight to the Meta Hall of Fame.

But did no one else pick up on the co-constructor? Mack Meller, not Muller.

This is an amazing read... http://www.college.columbia.edu/about/s ... etter-head

[AnswerPfinder]

Fun way to end the year!

@damefox and I live-solved it on the most recent episode of Outside the Blocks - you can listen here: https://outsidetheblocks.buzzsprout.com/

[jbird]

Ahhhhhhh - just got it. I had the first part completed at 10:50pm last night but couldn't make out the last part before the deadline. I handed the puzzle to my wife this morning to see if she could solve it - as I was handing it over I saw the pattern and it clicked. 11 out of 12 MMMMs, this one stings a bit.

[kurtalert]

Good lord. I just read the hint, and finally figured it out... and, OMG, how did he make this puzzle?!? Mindblowing.

I was absolutely on the wrong path prior to this; I found what now appear to be a bunch of massive coincidences, that not only all coincide with the theme, but there are enough instances of it to make me think that I was *definitely* on the right track. Essentially, I found a number of instances of answers like STELLA, where that clue is also represented somewhere else in the grid- but it's split by a black box that needs to be filled in with a missing letter- the connection to the title.

On the KIAS/ELLA row, you just put a T into that black box to get STELLA.
EXACTOR followed by black boxes that could be the missing Is to get TORII.
STL/REPINS- just fill in the missing O to get LORE.
DNASTRAND/SEAS , just fill in SO there and you get DSOS.
ANG/SAVE needs an A to be GAS.
ONESIE/STEAM needs ND to become ENDS.
REPINS/AVIAN needs ET to make SETA.
ARK/PIETA needs EL to become KELPIE.
KELPIE needs TA to become PIETA, or RO to become PIERO.
LEAPINTO/REFI needs DO to become ODOR.

There were just WAY too many instances of this mechanism, I was *never* going to be able to get my brain off it and realize that it was a rabbit hole and not the real answer... the obvious problem is that the missing/black box letters basically end up being ELIADTOEOETSOANDA or something like that- just nonsense- and nothing in there looks like it's a "middle" step on the way to the final answer, either- it's all gibberish.

[damefox]

@kurtalert - Oof, that is a ROUGH rabbit hole. And it works so nicely with the title too! The problem with an oversized grid is that even if they're not doing it on purpose, the constructor is bound to have included lots of rabbit holes for people to stumble into.

@AnswerPfinder and I talked about potential rabbit holes in this puzzle while we were recording our most recent podcast episode, but that part of the discussion didn't make the final cut. The one I landed on (and would almost certainly have spent three days traversing if Will and I hadn't solved it together) is that 34A reads like a revealer clue, and if you have BEAST in there and don't see what's really going on, you can very easily end up looking for animals all through the grid and all over the clues. And there are a frustratingly large number of them!

[Laura M]

My first thought, based on nothing but the title, was "Schrodinger's Box... something to do with cats... Cat Stevens?" But I didn't think that could possibly be it, probably wouldn't have even bothered submitting it as a Hail Mary :-)

For the first day and a half I fixated on the clues that had a song title containing a blank, and the artist(s) in parentheses. There were 7 of them--a good number for a meta, and seemingly too many to be coincidental. The 52A clue "Music boxes" (always important when a title word shows up in a clue! Right?) pointed me to look up the albums for each song. I tried to use the track numbers, and other songs on the albums (I remember "Stella" is another song on one of them!), but no dice.

Finally I was just looking idly at the grid and noticed that 57A which I'd filled in as ASIAN could also be AVIAN since the letter swap also worked for the down entry (thanks to an oddly worded clue), and... huh. Once I started looking, I couldn't believe that I missed so many ambiguous entries while filling in the grid, but I guess it's not unusual. I fill in something that seems to fit in one direction, and if I can find something that seems to fit in the other direction as well, I don't think any more about it!

Incredible meta, the piece de resistance was having the letters spell out both names. Also, the Muller/Meller collab for this particular metanism has to have been intentional :-)

[benchen71]

I did enjoy this puzzle, and the dénouement was epic. But I have to say I found 52 across rather misleading. The repetition of BOX in the clue; the suggestion from the grid entry that the letters C and D might encase other letters; and I was definitely not looking at a few slightly ambiguous clues.

[Leslie]

I did enjoy this puzzle, and the dénouement was epic. But I have to say I found 52 across rather misleading. The repetition of BOX in the clue; the suggestion from the grid entry that the letters C and D might encase other letters; and I was definitely not looking at a few slightly ambiguous clues.

I spent a LONG time in this rabbit hole. I was convinced that a clue about music “boxes” had to be significant in a puzzle called “What’s in the Box” with a musical artist as the answer. It completely distracted me from paying attention to some of the ambiguous clues I had vaguely noticed in the back of my mind.

[MikeM000]

Just finished this one using the post-contest hint. Holy frijoles! It is just unpossible what happened here.

I too was victimized by the CD thing. Oh, and the fact that it's December.

[BarbaraK]

This month’s randomly chosen winner of an MMMM coffee mug is Larry Bray. Since Larry won a mug a few months ago, he has generously donated his mug to someone who gave him a nudge on the meta, Wendy Walker of West Grove, PA.

Wow, how nice is that! Congratulations to both of you!

[auee89]

Yay Larry and Wendy!

[Al Sisti]

I thought it was hall-of-fame enough just finding CAT STEVENS... but to also have the other letters spell his Islamic name? I can't even... I gave it a 5-star rating; it could easily have been a 10. And to have a "cat" in the boxes? Unbelievable.

[hcbirker]

Congrats @Wendy Walker on getting an MMMM mug! Now you and Mark can have a toast together!

[rjy]

This reminded me of Evan Birnholz's Fathers Day puzzle a few years back, "Like Father Like Son". Not a meta, but a similar Shrodinger's construction. I wasn't able to find the puzzle online anywhere, but his write-up is still out there. Maybe some of you solved it back then... https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine ... -like-son/

[auee89]

Congrats @Wendy Walker on getting an MMMM mug! Now you and Mark can have a toast together!

And, your comment last Tuesday @hcbirker got all of us going on the right track!