"Accentuate the Negative" -- June 16, 2023
- qvart
- Posts: 47
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- Location: Ohio
- Flamel616
- Posts: 78
- Joined: Thu May 07, 2020 6:37 pm
- Location: Pennsylvania
Ashore! I got the mechanism kinda quickly, but it took me a while to find all the pieces. Fun!
As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.
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- Location: Cashton, WI
Safely ashore.
Nice collaboration with my sons!
Fun meta.
Nice collaboration with my sons!
Fun meta.
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- Posts: 145
- Joined: Sat Jun 06, 2020 4:17 pm
Ashore. Another clever one. Grey Goose Martini please.
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- Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:30 am
Just got there (I think because my jetlag has started to subside!!!).
- hcbirker
- Posts: 2045
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- Location: Studio City, CA
- hcbirker
- Posts: 2045
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm
- Location: Studio City, CA
- hcbirker
- Posts: 2045
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:24 pm
- Location: Studio City, CA
- MajordomoTom
- Posts: 1417
- Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2019 12:09 am
- Location: St. Louis, MO
very sweet puzzle, left me un-numb.
"Lots of planets have a North", the Ninth Doctor.
- escapeartist
- Posts: 423
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- moron
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2023 11:15 am
I don't fully understand why crossword writers would want an unlisted number. The celebrity part makes sense.
(I was so close to shore.......
perhaps next week I will not drown)
- woozy
- Posts: 2245
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Considering how we gripe and complain when we can't figure out a crossword (it's always the constructor's fault; never ours) it makes sense to me.
I guess I should change my signature, and start promoting this meta: Hungry Little Creature. I was going to sent it to people for testing but I dropped the ball on it.
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Think Matt is being facetious.
Thomas W (since there's already a Tom W)
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- Location: Palo Alto, California
Absolute dead certain lock for me was 71A: "Number" as the first word of the clue, as in all the other index clues, and, moreover, the fact that the clue said that the clue, and not the answer, was significant. As someone else remarked earlier, this was a wonder in how the clues, answers, and title all meshed so nicely. [Edit] Forgot to add that the number was zero -- no number. A marvel.
[Edit again] The "someone else" was mikeB at post #141. See his even better explanation and elaboration (the best ever?) in the post immediately below this.
[Edit again] The "someone else" was mikeB at post #141. See his even better explanation and elaboration (the best ever?) in the post immediately below this.
Last edited by otlaolap on Mon Jun 19, 2023 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
- mikeB
- Posts: 209
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2021 1:50 pm
It is impressive how all the gears of this meta mesh. The theme entries are the doorway to the mechanism. But they are not simply a collection of “UN-words”. Each is the first half of a common noun phrase. In conventional fashion, they get us to LISTED, but then what? Well, the meta’s title is very unusual, in that it is an imperative sentence. That is, it tells us to take a specific action. But what action? Most obvious is to attach an “UN” to get UNLISTED. Recalling some prior WSJ puzzles, the prompt could have asserted that the answer is a word that would make a good seventh theme answer. In that case, UNLISTED would be the solution, but no such guidance is offered (thank goodness, as this puzzle has more to give). Instead, the prompt is a seemingly capricious one that references celebrities and crossword writers. Huh? But this prompt is not about celebrities and crossword writers. It is really about grammar. Not explicitly stated is the prompt’s one real requirement: that the answer is a noun or noun phrase, because it is “something that . . .”. How do you get from UNLISTED to a noun phrase? It is the same way the six theme answers are combined with their second halves. All you need is a noun that goes with UNLISTED. That’s where Clue 71A comes in. It supplies NUMBER in the same way the other six nouns are delivered, keeping its promise that “this clue should help with that”. So all the puzzle components – title, clues, entries, prompt – work together in perfect harmony to get us to the one and only correct answer to this week’s contest crossword. Of course, experts here will have skipped some of these steps on the fast track to Page 1, and hats off to them, but that doesn’t detract from Mr. Gaffney’s masterful orchestration using all the components of this meta.
- Bob cruise director
- Cruise Director
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- Location: Any golf course within 500 miles of Littleton MA
Neither rain, nor sleet nor gloom of night shall keep @MaineMarge from her gardening choresMaineMarge wrote: ↑Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:13 pm If I was unmarried, I’m all suited up to apply for the position of Mrs. @Darth.
Just coming in from working in the garden in my Darth rain gear.
Probable chances Zero
Bob Stevens
Cruise Director
Cruise Director
- Joe Ross
- Moderator
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- Location: Cincinnati
I want @mikeB to break down every meta going forward so I can understand every nuance I've missed. Thank you, Mike!
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I'm assuming then that submitting simply UNLISTED would not be a correct submission. Arrghhh!
- Colin
- Posts: 552
- Joined: Sat Apr 13, 2019 11:57 pm
Couldn’t wait to get back to the US Open and Father’s Day, so got to LISTED and submitted. Should’ve known better… every meta clue has a purpose! Anyway, congrats to solvers and to Wyndham Clark. Not only a creative shot-maker but also driven by a purpose bigger than himself.
One world. One planet. One future.