MGWCC #787 — “Hold It!”

[woozy]

Week 1 Dr. Tom's 10
Week 2 the hourglass
Week 3 the periodic Table
Week 4 X-men.
Week 5 this damned sandwich puzzle of which I see utterly nothing so far

EDIT: .... Okay, I submitted. But if I lose my 30+ streak on something seeming too stupid to be believed actually being to stupid to be correct I'm going to be angry. But if I am correct I'm rating:

Week 1.65 Dr.Tom's 10 (It should have been harder but it wasn't)
Week 1.66 the hourglass (No-one else had trouble with the double letters but I did)
Week 4.2 this sandwich one. (It should have been easier but it wasn't.)
Week 4.3 the periodic table. (It should have been a *lot* easier but it wasn't.)
Week 7.3 the X-men. (There's a special place for a puzzle that you figure out exactly how to do it from the very beginning and you see all the easter egg hints that point to it and recognize them as such and you do figure out the mechanism and ... you still don't get it.)

EDIT: And there I am at 182. I found it a lot harder than others did. But I really shouldn't have.

[DCBilly]

Well, alright! Beamed up at #151, and a 5 week June with 5 solves, albeit with help on 2-5...

[KayW]

This is how they played for me:
Week 1 Agard Hourglass
Week 2 Coulter HoldIt
Week 3 DrTom Tentative Meta
Week 4 AES Set Collection
Week 5 Vasquez Xmen

Interesting because I think there were SAD (Simple And Difficult) aspects to all of this month's puzzles - so my perceived difficulty is really a matter of how long it took me to spot each (relatively) straightforward metanism. And I flipped my weeks 4 and 5 back and forth a few times before pressing submit on this. Haha maybe I should make an animated list and have them alternate.

[HeadinHome]

In response to @Bird Lives' comment, here's my ranking of difficulty for the Guest Constructors' puzzles:
Week 1: The Week 1 Erik Agard hourglass puzzle.
Week 2: The Week 5 sandwich puzzle.
Week 3: The Week 4 periodic table puzzle.
Week 4: The Week 3 puzzle by Dr. Tom with the 10 10-word clues.
Week 5: The Week 2 X-Men puzzle by Quiara Vasquez.
I'd like to hear others' rankings!

Week 1 - W.1 hourglass (we agree)
Week 2 - W.2 Dr.Tom 10-word (I just saw it very quickly)
Week 3 - W. 4 Periodic table
Week 4 - W.5 THIS ONE (sandwich) — because like a few others, I approached it the hard way and could only get a few of them that hard way. Just didn’t see the giveaways. Plus the big red herring had me befuddled a long time.
Week 5 - W.2 X-men. Needed a shove to get there, and even then, a bit of messiness made it murky to me.

[Kwyjibo]

Hard to get in the top 100 when 202 have solved before you get grid done.

Got it, awaiting beamage.

Nothing better than finding an error in your grid because the fix makes the meta work.

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

Beamed! Thought it was fun but tough grid. I find I am getting cranky with constructors who feel obligated to make clueing so challenging. This one was on the border for me in that regard. I still contend Patrick Berry is #1 for clueing difficulty (in a good way) followed by Shenk.

[MarkWoychick]

Beamed up at #208 (Idaho's area code, fyi) - I've had to sneak in some work on the puzzle where I can during vacation (in Moab, UT, visiting Arches today and Canyonlands tomorrow).

Guest constructor month was an enjoyable one - all very good puzzles with their own challenges and fresh/unique approaches. Here are my difficulty rankings for the month:

Week 1: The Week 1 Erik Agard hourglass puzzle.
Week 2: The Week 4 periodic table puzzle.
Week 3: The Week 5 sandwich puzzle.
Week 4: The Week 3 puzzle by Dr. Tom with the 10 10-word clues.
Week 5: The Week 2 X-Men puzzle by Quiara Vasquez.

I could have swapped my weeks 4 and 5 (I needed a hint to get Dr. Tom's), but clueing and grid difficulty alone pushed the week 2 to the most challenging for me.

[Bob cruise director]

Beamed up at #217

It might as well been our area code 978 for all the help I needed from @Wendy Walker

[Streroto]

Beamed. From one Philadelphian to another great grid and meta, Paul!!! I am seriously pumped to get a week 5. I don’t share the reservations others do and that might just be naïveté but I’ll take it. To me this seemed a 100%er.

Stay well all

[Streroto]

@MarkWoychick I am seriously jealous. Those two parks are at the top of our list. Post some pix!!

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I would rank them by difficulty as:
1. Hourglass puzzle
2. Tentative Meta
3. Sandwich*
4. Turn into Superheroes
5. Periodic Table

The Periodic Table was certainly Simple and Difficult, but I have to rank it highest because I needed the nudge. I felt like all the other puzzles had a more obvious entryway. Turn into Superheroes was tricky, but I had seen a similar trick which helped.

* I am still awaiting beam up for this week's meta, so I reserve the right to modify the rankings if I have fooled myself.

[BarbaraK]

Beamed! Thought it was fun but tough grid. I find I am getting cranky with constructors who feel obligated to make clueing so challenging. This one was on the border for me in that regard. I still contend Patrick Berry is #1 for clueing difficulty (in a good way) followed by Shenk.

I love clues that are challenging because they mislead in some clever fashion. Not a fan of clues that are challenging because they refer to some person, place, song, etc that I’ve never heard of and have no way to even guess. I think this was on the right side of my line, but honestly I can barely remember the details of the puzzle I solved an hour ago, never mind two days ago.

[rjy]

Awaiting beamage… took awhile - myriad rabbit holes and red herrings - but received a rabbit-hole confirmation to seal the deal.

[DrTom]

Well this is almost embarrassing. I finally, with a corrective nudge, thought it over and looked again to see how I might tie all the parts together and there it was. I say embarrassing because I have seen, solved and even used this same mechanism. I believe I am going to try to hold off and do a "last minute" submit just because I can't really take full credit and I am WAY too late for any "positional" bragging rights, so I may as well turn it into a badge. Hopefully will not forget or experience a computer glitch.

So, I believe I have solved, but I won't beam until Tuesday some time.

[woozy]

Ah, the late posts.... very refreshing to see that not everyone found it Easy, Trivial, Pfft a week 2 at best, well since we all got that in the first five minutes lets go on to other topics,

Some of us thought it was hard. *sniff*.

[three]

Ah, the late posts.... very refreshing to see that not everyone found it Easy, Trivial, Pfft a week 2 at best, well since we all got that in the first five minutes lets go on to other topics,

Some of us thought it was hard. *sniff*.

Some of us think it hard enough to be asking for a nudge! Anyone got a nudge?

EDIT: I have received a nudge and am trudging through. Beamed!

[eckmania]

Beamed. From one Philadelphian to another great grid and meta, Paul!!! I am seriously pumped to get a week 5. I don’t share the reservations others do and that might just be naïveté but I’ll take it. To me this seemed a 100%er.

Stay well all

I guess WAWA HOAGIE would’ve been too provincial…

Go Birds!

[BrennerTJ]

These are the pieces I used to solve -- might've missed others:

[MikeyG]

[BarbaraK]

Beamed after a suitable delay while I contemplated if it could be so simple.

There's an added dimension, not essential for solving, but it adds a certain elegance.

I solved the same as Tamara. Curious about this comment and others in that vein. What is the added dimension, or alternatively what is the shortcut?