MGWCC #791 — “Table Games”

[Joe Ross]

MGWCC #791 — Friday, July 28th, 2023 — “Table Games”

Starting now, I’m writing a weekly crossword for Merriam-Webster’s website. It’s a puzzle type called “The Missing Letter” that I created especially for the site: 25 entries in the grid are defined using their M-W dictionary definition, and these each begin with a different letter of the alphabet. The only one not represented each week is “The Missing Letter,” and you can enter to win a $25 gift certificate at their site. Check it out here.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 6-letter adjective that I hope you won’t think applies to this puzzle

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

–Matt


NOTE: There are three additional hints given in an extra email and posting to Matt's Patreon site which do not affect credit given for a correct answer.


The spreadsheet will be PMed & available tomorrow evening.

WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CROSSWORD CONTEST?:
MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page.
A subscription costs $3/month.

[Joe Ross]

(First to be wrong, but that is not an Achievement nor the last one I need..)

[MikeyG]

Obvious self-promotion: I have a Level 5 (eep!) meta coming out tomorrow, and it's definitely playing like a Level 5. In honor of Matt's generosity, I'll also offer 3 early hints!

This was a fun one, and what I suspected turned out to be true. (I did take the hints, in full disclosure.) Another great one from the meta master!

How I feel after many Week 4 and Week 5 metas:

[MMe]

Obvious self-promotion: I have a Level 5 (eep!) meta coming out tomorrow, and it's definitely playing like a Level 5. In honor of Matt's generosity, I'll also offer 3 early hints!

This was a fun one, and what I suspected turned out to be true. (I did take the hints, in full disclosure.) Another fun one from the meta master!

How I feel after many Week 4 and Week 5 metas:

Early hints are fine, but on a week 4 I don't know why they needed to be so soon? Wouldn't it have been good to give the Janglers a shot at solving before we all got hints that turn it into a week 2?

[SJMcK]

Beamed up with Gaffney hints

(In the top ten, woo hoo!)

[boharr]

I downloaded the puzzle at 12:01, and Jangler beamed up at 12:21 (he was a tad late today). However, utilizing the infamous quadratic equation, I believe I have now qualified for the long-sought-after "Downloaded the Puzzle Before Jangler Posted on the Board" badge.

[MikeyG]

I downloaded the puzzle at 12:01, and Jangler beamed up at 12:21 (he was a tad late today). However, utilizing the infamous quadratic equation, I believe I have now qualified for the long-sought-after "Downloaded the Puzzle Before Jangler Posted on the Board" badge.

To the tune of "Pop Goes the Weasel":

x equals negative b
plus or minus square root
of b squared minus 4ac
all over 2a

And we'll see if this really does turn this into a Week 2! Data nerd here, with averages of 347 for 2023's Week 2 puzzles (thus far) and 304 for Week 3! Only 9 in about 75 minutes, so I think it's still playing on the difficult side.

[MMe]

Yeah I might have been too quick with the "week 2" call

[stmv]

Early hints are fine, but on a week 4 I don't know why they needed to be so soon? Wouldn't it have been good to give the Janglers a shot at solving before we all got hints that turn it into a week 2?

I pretty much agree with this sentiment.

However, it was awfully nice to have the hints right away, so I could avoid the feeling of helplessness that I often get with the hard metas, of not having any idea even where to start.

So I was weak, and read all three hints pretty much right away. Even with the hints it took me some time to tease out the meta solution. And I ended up at #8 on the leaderboard, an unaccustomed exalted position.

[Wendy Walker]

Beamed up at #12! Really nice aha moment when I saw this one. I appreciated the hints.

[markhr]

Number 23. Not sure why Matt put out hints so early, but they were indeed helpful.
I won't complain.

[ky-mike]

On the board at # 28. Glad to have the hints to get me started.

[ajk]

Solved with the hints. I had already worked out what the third one says, but the hunt was tough IMO. I might well have abandoned the path without that pointer to keep going. So definitely glad to have them.

[boharr]

Beamed.
Hints used of course.

[AaronT]

Submitted and awaiting beamage. Solo solve, though I did confirm my answer with another solver just to be sure and unashamedly used all 3 hints.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Beamed.

I used the hints — and still found it challenging.

Very cool! Fun aha!

[Laura M]

Solved (pending leaderboard update) with hints, and feeling kind of unsatisfied about it. I can see that having official hints might level the playing field for the non-Muggle MGWCC crowd. But I don't like getting them with the puzzle because I have no willpower :-) We should at least have to request them.

Edit: Just curious, did people still submit as solo solve after using the hints? I assumed that made it non-solo.

[Meg]

Beamified. I thought this was a fine week 4 puzzle!

[Amanda Hugginkiss]

I agree with @stmv. I rarely get week 4s, and lately I don’t always even try, so I took the hints right away and they made it the perfect level of difficulty to be fun for me. I don’t care about the leaderboard, but I can see why some would be annoyed that people using the hints are on there earlier than people who aren’t. Then again, we’re in different time zones and have different schedules too, so maybe it shouldn’t matter. Not everyone can get to a puzzle right when it comes out.

[Bird Lives]

On at #43

Edit: Just curious, did people still submit as solo solve after using the hints? I assumed that made it non-solo.

I used the hints. I called it a solo solve. I consider the hints that Matt puts in an e-mail to be the same as the hints that he sometimes puts in the clues (". . . or a [something or other] that you need to solve the meta").