MEOW #159 Putting The A In STEM

[benchen71]

Solver update for you:

woozy
lbray53
Philip Chow
kurtalert
Pair O Ducks
DrTom

That brings us to 38. Nudges tomorrow morning, when I wake up to start working on the Gaffney!

[benchen71]

No further solves, so it's on to the nudges:

1. The puzzle title is not instructing you to add A to certain grid entries. Instead, it's meant quite literally: this puzzle is about the Arts and Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics.

2. Given a focus on the Arts, did you notice that some clues were harder to answer than normal? There were nine "fill in the blanks" clues that you couldn't really fill in without relying on the downs (although you might have had some rhyming help if you noticed what was going on!)

3. These nine grid entries and their clues form a poem! You now have the POSER of 6D.

4. Here are some hints for the lines of this poem:
If you do an image search for "chicken pot pie" you should see the feature you need; there are also two such "features" in this very grid entry!
You need two letters from this line both of which can be found in their respective grid entries.
This is a tricky one, but knowledge of the periodic table will help; but you will have to remove the cover before you get to the letter you need.
This shouldn't be a tricky one; if you're stuck, just try every two-letter combination until you get one that sounds chilly!
One for Formula-1 enthusiasts!
If you've done it right, you should have 7 letters; since you're looking for an 11-letter word, you need a 4-letter word for "the whole". But "the whole" of what? The whole of this puzzle!

Let me also take this opportunity to let you know that my new meta pack has been released and this time it's a MOAT/MEOW mashup! US$10 gives you access to 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game. You won't quite know what to expect: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, sometimes all of those, and sometimes none! One thing is for sure, these are some of the more creative metas my brain has been able to come up with. And there's more: this time there's a mega-meta!

[whimsy]

Well, the nudges didn't really give me anything I wasn't already working with, so...

...and figured out what the answer needed to be.

Thanks for one that left a few cat hairs on the sofa, Ben!

[edestlin]

This vexed me all week but I'm happy to report the cat has finally escaped the bag, albeit with the nudges. A lot of overthinking.

[benchen71]

Some more solvers!

LarsCaine
Jaclyn
whimsy
Katiedid
edestlin

We're up to 43 now.

[benchen71]

Here's the last solver update:

axmszr
Steve M
AaronT
SeamusOL
Abide

That's a total of 48. Answer imminent...

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "Putting The A In STEM":

Metaphysics is something that tends to come up in Arts subjects rather than science subjects. So that fits quite well with the puzzle title. Plus, the word involves PHYSICS, the mother of science. In addition, while there are admittedly other letters involved, you can see an "A" inside "STEM" in the answer (with STEM going backwards!)

And if you thought the third line of the poem was a little unfair, just remember that we Australians sometimes call our country "Straya"!

Finally... annoucing a new Meta Pack, only this time it's a MOAT/MEOW mashup! US$10 gives you access to 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game. You won't quite know what to expect: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, sometimes all of those, and sometimes none! One thing is for sure, these are some of the more creative metas my brain has been able to come up with. And there's more: this time there's a mega-meta! The pack comes with PUZ and PDF files and private links to Crosshare, where you can access nudges, submit your answer, and then comment with fellow solvers.

So if you were wondering what to do in your spare time once Christmas is over, think no more! The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack can be purchased from my "About me" website, using Paypal for the payment.

[DrTom]

Metaphysics is something that tends to come up in Arts subjects rather than science subjects. So that fits quite well with the puzzle title. Plus, the word involves PHYSICS, the mother of science. In addition, while there are admittedly other letters involved, you can see an "A" inside "STEM" in the answer (with STEM going backwards!)

Well, the other things about putting the "A" in STEM is that you end up spelling STEAM and METAS, those fun puzzles that are sometimes full of hot air (I know, I know, particularly some of them).