In last Saturday’s Q&A on Zoom, Matt Gaffney distinguished between “inferential metas” and those where the answer was “spelled out” by letters in the fill. An inferential meta requires thinking outside the grid – a knowledge of something out there in the culture, e.g., “Eight is Enough.” Last week’s SSS answer — “Three’s Company,” like Matt’s “Eight Is Enough” — was inferential, requiring what Hector in his comment called “unscripted insight,” which may be why so many people — even formidable solvers — were tempted to open the nudges.
This week’s SSS is in the “spelled out” category. It’s pretty much self-contained. The only external knowledge needed is some familiarity with the two 8-letter entries. And given the population coming to this Website, I’d say that this criterion leaves out nobody. (It’s at best tangential to the meta, but the game mentioned in one of those entries is “inferential,” the other is “spell it out.”)
Deadline noon Saturday, nudges later today.
Thanks to @Abide and @Wendy Walker for setting me straight on some of the cluing, and to @Joe Ross , who hurried back from a Bearcats game (alas, they lost) to make it available in a variety of formats.
Here’s the prompt:
It's good to do this in 25 Across, bad in 18 Across.
It's All in the Game:
crosshare
PUZ
spreadsheet
SSSolved with nudges, but chagrined to have needed them. Well played! (Jay, that is. Not me 
)
