55. This Isn't Going Anywhere

[hoover]

Ahhhhh, I set it aside for a few days, reopened it, and now I see what Mikey wanted us to pay attention to! Solved! (But I don't remember what the solved phrase is for this subforum.)

[ChrisKochmanski]

Got it! With a small nudge. Good one! Thanks, Mikey!

[rjy]

FINALLY got this! Nudgelessly, it just took awhile...

I must say I was fixated on the "Let's Pause!" phrase... I thought of the pause symbol ||, like 2 lower-case Ls, and there were 5 pairs of L's in the grid, so 10 letters. Couldn't be a coincidence, right? But could just never get LLLLLLLLLL to translate to any kind of useful word. Happy to get the clarification

Clever puzzle Mikey, I have the highest opinion of your construction wizardry!

[Berto]

I still haven’t got anywhere. Patiently waiting for Thursday nudgefest…

[MikeyG]

We've only hit 29 so far, which definitely means I was right to "upgrade" the difficulty on this. Let's see if this helps some of you going somewhere!

1. Let's start with the title, and let's take it literally.

2. So, we're not going anywhere. So, what's the opposite of "go"?

3. You'll note that 1-A has this opposite: "Stop, for one." So, that's a blatant use of "stop."

4. Then, in the "stoplight" reference, we have another "stop" in the last across entry. These are sometimes the "anchor" entries of a meta, so this seems like too much to ignore.

5. And, well, at this point, you've basically gotten 2 out of the 10 "stops" that you need!

6. Yes, there are 8 other stops you'll need to find! Unlike the other two, these are more hidden!

7. One, for instance, references Aristophanes (note ATHENS is a great pun-possibility: "where to go to be covered in Greece" - so, often, clues that bypass these can be indirect hints for this punster).

8. Once you find all ten of these, you'll probably know what you'll need to do!

9. I did this last year with state capitals, and it did not go over well, bahaha. The consolation here is that it is the same word, just occasionally spanning spaces and punctuation!

10. Once you've gotten the answer, just know that that relates to my summer, haha.

Mikey G

[ReB]

I'm afraid it was nudge city this week. Had to go down to number 6 before I started to go somewhere...

[CPJohnson]

Got it; needed 5 nudges. Thanks!

[hcbirker]

Needed three nudges, but I figured it out. Thanks Mikey!

[Berto]

I feel like this is one I would’ve had more chance at if I’d printed it out. Although obviously still only a chance…
Very clever (and fair) though. Thanks, @MikeyG

[Cinny]

I needed the first couple of nudges. A nice aha moment. Thanks, Mikey!

[Cap'n Rick]

Excellent job, @MikeyG! I should've known better...

[MikeyG]

Excellent job, @MikeyG! I should've known better...

And I knew with yours that it was great, like I thought it would be! We were on the same wavelength!

[BarbaraK]

Finally got it. I’d already figured out the first 5 nudges but was stuck there.

[jhseeman]

Solved....
Saw nudge #3 and said aha then saw what you had done.

Nice one.

[Dow Jones]

Great meta, Mikey G !! 6 nudges got me to the promised land.

[benchen71]

Solved! That was, to put it mildly, a real pleasure.

I was slightly worried that this was bordering on a spoiler, but I seem to have got away with it!

[MikeyG]

Solved! That was, to put it mildly, a real pleasure.

I was slightly worried that this was bordering on a spoiler, but I seem to have got away with it!

Oh, this was good, nice!!