XWord Muggles Forum

Fifth Wheels by Mark Woychick.

The answer to this meta is a nine-letter phrase.


This puzzle is part of the CCCC bundle. To access the bundle and for more information, see this post.

Solved.
Good puzzle - thanks!

This was the toughest for me, and fittingly last alphabetically by author. Enjoyed every minute of curing cancer. Great work, constructors!!

Looking just as good as when I test solved. Thanks, Mark.

I really liked this one! It's definitely tricky though. One of those where I just stared and stared and all of a sudden it jumped out at me. Very cool puzzle!

Wow, even with a number of nudges from the constructor I couldn't get this one, and so finally caved and looked at the answer.

Only click this if you have solved. While I don't tell you what the correct method is, I do tell you what not to do!
I just couldn't get past all the double letters in the grid! I was pairing up DOOMSCROLLS and DOODADS to get "O" as the fifth letter; PANEER and ESTEE to get "E". But when that didn't go anywhere - certainly not 9 letters worth - I was at a loss. Ah well, I guess you can't get them all!

Thanks for supporting CCCC. Here are some nudges that may help - let me know if you need more/different.

The title phrase refers to an odd number.

When you have a couple + 1, sometimes the +1 is referred to as a third wheel. Sometimes the +1 is referred to as a fifth wheel.

In this case, we have a fifth wheel, so that changes the number of couples involved.

Couples don’t always stand right next to each other

You'll need to find a couple of couples per theme entry to identify the fifth wheel.

What a lovely way to end my alphabetical journey through these puzzles. That took me much longer to see than it should have.

A very typical Mark Woychick; clean fill and straightforward mechanism, BUT deftly hidden so that it was a S.A.D.

I am so enjoying all of these, I hope that Will does more compilations like this in the future.

Terrific puzzle, Mark! Thanks!

I did this one a while ago but forgot to comment here. Very nice puzzle, very "clean." I especially like the way the apparently unpaired, fifth-wheelish themer is accounted for.

Excellent puzzle, Mark. I had a tough time getting started on this and needed the nudges so thanks for posting them!

Finally! Got it nudgelessly, was quicksanded in a rabbit-hole that was compelling, tho disconnected from the theme… nice one, Mark!

Got it!

Nudgelessly. Though another post above, not a spoiler, somehow put a useful idea in my head.

And so my CCCC journey ends. (I worked alphabetically.)

Hey, CCCC team, do this again soon. It was great! And next time I promise to double my gift to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

Started this one a bit tentatively because of others mentioning "tricky," and was glad to see the presence of ace-in-the-hole nudges. But it turned out that the meta surprisingly rolled right off my brain. Just as DrTom says, very Mark-like, with all the goodness that implies, and I liked it a lot!
Thank you Mark!
(Only 2 more to go. )

Got, after an kindly bonus nudge-for-dummies from Mark. Fun stuff, thanks!

I got to this one last because I printed them all out and solved in alphabetical order. Nice puzzle. It made for a great finish.

It took me some time to see it even thought I noticed some things in common in the grid.

Needed the nudges to get me out of my stupor. Once I figured out what to focus on, the answer emerged. Nicely done.

We are going out of order so this isn't our last. This was fun and we were grateful for the nudges! Thanks so much @MarkWoychick !