Missing Something
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whimsy
- Posts: 2786
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- Location: Hopkinton MA
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TeamDoubleTow
- Posts: 437
- Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2021 1:58 pm
We needed all the nudges but are now off the couch!
Team DoubleTow=Ali who posts here, Alex & Maya the hound(with occasional assistance from son)
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hoover
- Posts: 1366
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KayW
- Moderator
- Posts: 3276
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:10 am
- Location: Chicago
FINALLY got it. Thanks, Jay.Contest Crosswords Combating Cancer (CCCC) is a bundle of 16 metapuzzles created to help raise money for cancer-related charities. It is available at CrosswordsForCancer.com.
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lbray53
- Posts: 1223
- Joined: Fri May 08, 2020 8:34 am
- Location: Elkhorn, WI
I had to use all but the last nudge. There it was! Innovative mechanism to memorialize in the solving data bank.
My avatar proves that it is sometimes better to be lucky than good!
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jhseeman
- Posts: 493
- Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:33 pm
- Location: Charleston, SC
I was clearly missing something, even after figuring out the mechanism (facepalm)...
Cool meta, fun puzzle, thanks Jay.
Cool meta, fun puzzle, thanks Jay.
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MikeyG
- Posts: 1401
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Ohhhh, okay. The Monday and Tuesday nudges helped. Clever, clever!
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JeanneC
- Posts: 624
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- Location: Florida
It took nudges and sitting in the “lucky” passenger seat of our car to solve this. (Yes, we were driving somewhere.) Delightful, challenging meta! How do you puzzlers come up with these?!
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions”. Lillian Hellman
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Bird Lives
- Posts: 2693
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Maybe the nudges helped. Since the last nose-count the solvers roster has more than doubled.
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I couldn’t help noticing that Matt Gaffney in the WSJ puzzle has copied my idea of movie-as-answer. And just to make sure that he gets more solves, he tells you that the movie was an Oscar winner, and he tells you the year. I will not stoop so low. However, the MMM movie too was an Oscar winner. You may take that as a nudge.
As to which of these movies is more memorable, I leave that to you to decide. Ditto for the puzzles.
[Thanks to MatthewL for correcting an earlier, even snarkier version of this post.]
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I couldn’t help noticing that Matt Gaffney in the WSJ puzzle has copied my idea of movie-as-answer. And just to make sure that he gets more solves, he tells you that the movie was an Oscar winner, and he tells you the year. I will not stoop so low. However, the MMM movie too was an Oscar winner. You may take that as a nudge.
As to which of these movies is more memorable, I leave that to you to decide. Ditto for the puzzles.
[Thanks to MatthewL for correcting an earlier, even snarkier version of this post.]
Jay
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DrTom
- Posts: 3782
- Joined: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:46 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Well you win on both counts of course Jay. The puzzler is a little closer of a contest, but the movie, yours is a hands down the winner.Bird Lives wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 9:11 am Maybe the nudges helped. Since the last nose-count the solvers roster has more than doubled.
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Solvers 300.jpg
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I couldn’t help noticing that Matt Gaffney in the WSJ puzzle has copied my idea of movie-as-answer. And just to make sure that he gets more solves, he tells you that the movie was an Oscar winner, and he tells you the year. I will not stoop so low. However, the MMM movie too was an Oscar winner. You may take that as a nudge.
As to which of these movies is more memorable, I leave that to you to decide. Ditto for the puzzles.
[Thanks to MatthewL for correcting an earlier, even snarkier version of this post.]
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!
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Ergcat
- Posts: 785
- Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:12 pm
- Location: Seneca SC
Think I Got it! I’ve been cleaning up the metas today and realized I never finished this one! Needed all the nudges 
Clever one, Jay! Thanks!
Clever one, Jay! Thanks!
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Bird Lives
- Posts: 2693
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With two more solvers coming in under the wire, the final total is now just shy of sixty.
58. mattythewsjpuzzler
59. Ergcat
And now the far too long reveal: The title of the puzzle is “Missing Something.” The thematic elements are things that someone is missing and wishes they had, things about which they might say (or sing), “If I only had a . . .”
OK, that gives it away, unless you have been living in a cave since 1939.
The answer is The Wizard of Oz.
But what yellow-brick road gets us there?
The biggest defect that made this one difficult to solve is the absence of any obvious themers. It does not have noticeably longer entries. So what to look for?
You might have noticed that four Across entries, symmetrically located, are letter-word format:
E MAIL
I PODS
M STAR
A TEAM
So what? Well, you might have looked at the other entry in the same line. That mechanism is not unheard of in these puzzles, though it is not typical, hence that first nudge telling you that the thematic elements are in the lines, not just the entries. The gloss on that nudge suggested that you look on both sides now.
That other entry in the line consisted of two parts, each of which could stand on its own as a word:
MOSS HART
OAT BRAN
BACK HOE
DE COURGE
In many puzzles, the key word is the first one. Here, it’s the last word — a bit less common but certainly not unheard of. The title suggests that each of these words is missing something. In this case, it’s a letter. Specifically, it’s the letter from the other entry in the line. So . . .
E — HART
I — BRAN
M — HOE
A — COURGE
Each missing letter can be inserted in only one place, yielding
HEART
BRAIN
HOME
COURAGE
These are the things that the characters in the story, respectively, are missing and seeking the Wizard’s help in getting. (Dorothy is missing her home, and she wants to get “back home.” So I thought BACK HOE worked out rather well, though I was tempted by the only other candidate I could think of — IVANHOE.)
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Not everyone was delighted with this puzzle, or so I conclude from that anonymous PM that ended with “and your little dog too.” But to all those who did comment kindly, much thanks.
58. mattythewsjpuzzler
59. Ergcat
And now the far too long reveal: The title of the puzzle is “Missing Something.” The thematic elements are things that someone is missing and wishes they had, things about which they might say (or sing), “If I only had a . . .”
OK, that gives it away, unless you have been living in a cave since 1939.
The answer is The Wizard of Oz.
But what yellow-brick road gets us there?
The biggest defect that made this one difficult to solve is the absence of any obvious themers. It does not have noticeably longer entries. So what to look for?
You might have noticed that four Across entries, symmetrically located, are letter-word format:
E MAIL
I PODS
M STAR
A TEAM
So what? Well, you might have looked at the other entry in the same line. That mechanism is not unheard of in these puzzles, though it is not typical, hence that first nudge telling you that the thematic elements are in the lines, not just the entries. The gloss on that nudge suggested that you look on both sides now.
That other entry in the line consisted of two parts, each of which could stand on its own as a word:
MOSS HART
OAT BRAN
BACK HOE
DE COURGE
In many puzzles, the key word is the first one. Here, it’s the last word — a bit less common but certainly not unheard of. The title suggests that each of these words is missing something. In this case, it’s a letter. Specifically, it’s the letter from the other entry in the line. So . . .
E — HART
I — BRAN
M — HOE
A — COURGE
Each missing letter can be inserted in only one place, yielding
HEART
BRAIN
HOME
COURAGE
These are the things that the characters in the story, respectively, are missing and seeking the Wizard’s help in getting. (Dorothy is missing her home, and she wants to get “back home.” So I thought BACK HOE worked out rather well, though I was tempted by the only other candidate I could think of — IVANHOE.)
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Not everyone was delighted with this puzzle, or so I conclude from that anonymous PM that ended with “and your little dog too.” But to all those who did comment kindly, much thanks.
Last edited by Bird Lives on Thu Jan 11, 2024 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Jay
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sharkicicles
- Posts: 848
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Dplass
- Posts: 1739
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After guessing a few well known movies I got it and then back solved courage and hart too.sharkicicles wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 7:09 pm Oh wow. I totally solved this without step 1. I got it from COURGE and HART
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MikeyG
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I did not catch the single letter on each row, and that makes it even more genius.
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Magistra
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2021 7:14 pm
Well, I got heart, brain, home, and courage, but I did not connect with one of my favorite films. I really liked the mechanism once I saw it, but by then I had forgotten that you said it was a movie we all know. Thanks for a good puzzle.