XWord Muggles Forum

OTC sans nudge(s), although had to make an educated guess as I missed a couple of steps…

HNY everyone!

OTC (Just playing A little catch-up with puzzles!)

Excellent puzzle, Cap'n -- Thanks!
(And I really needed that second nudge!)

Leaderboard Update

Well, the early nudges helped another half-dozen solvers "see clearly":

ChrisKochmanski
DrTom
HeadinHome
Berto
Whimsy
BarbaraK

Wednesday Nudges are on the way!

Wednesday Nudges

Hopefully these nudges will help more of you to clearly see the mechanism and solution:

Remember that 1972 song by Johnny Nash with the same title?

Remember why he could see clearly?

Remember that MMM meta from Dec 05, 2022 - "The One That Got Away"?

Remember how you needed to insert "ONE" into symmetrically-placed grid entries to form new words and then look for alternate clues?

The "look" you're looking for is another weather condition as well as a term that is applicable to Star Trek fans and MGWCC solvers .

Finally off the couch after a few naps. Had the right idea, but needed a muggle nudge to reach the right path. Thanks, Cap'n. Very nice!

Is this the one where you say you let the cat out of the bag, or is it the other one? Whichever, I needed all the nudges. And I still need something to get rid of the earworm.

I figured out the steps up through what's given in nudge 4 on my own, but maybe I have the wrong pieces, or not enough pieces, or something, because yeah, it's still gibberish, even if I apply nudge 4 again.

Nudged off the couch. Elegant meta - thanks, Cap'n!

OTC after nudge #3
Clearly now I can verily see
But without the help of Mr G
On the couch I would certainly be

Stay well all

@Cap'n Rick , I can’t see the meta too clearly yet, but can you see me now?

I see it now.

OTC, thanks to nudges!

Finally got it, but needed the 3rd nudge. Nice one and a lot of fun! Thanks, Cap'n!

Leaderboard Update

Okay, things appear to have gotten a bit clearer after yesterday's Nudge front moved through. We have 20 new solvers to add to the board:

DCBilly
Pair O Ducks
LarsCaine
Darth
dannyvee
markhr
Cindy Heisler
LB800
woozy
michaelm
MrTex
CPJohnson
Bird Lives
hoover
KayW
Streroto
JM
jbird
SamKat9
Jeremy Smith

I believe that makes 38 solvers. Please let me know if I've missed anyone.

finally off the couch.... I wasn't quite seeing clear enough. Thanks for the puzzle

Leaderboard Update

We picked up another half-dozen solvers bringing our total to 44:

Philip Chow
rayyandroid
Sharkicicles
Wendy Walker
minimuggle
andeux

Please let me know if I missed anyone and/or if you would like additional help.

I hope I didn't confuse anybody when I compared this meta to "The One that Got Away". I only meant that the mechanism works similarly, not that you needed to do something with the word "ONE".

Final Leaderboard

Three more solvers bring our final total to 47:

edestlin
BrennerTJ
Danny K Bernstein

Thanks for solving, everybody! Reveal coming up shortly!

Ahoy, Muggles!

The meta answer is "BEAMING", as in what the sun does when "the rain is gone", as in the lyrics to that 1972 hit song with the same title by Johnny Nash - an earworm that many of you are probably still trying to extract. To solve, puzzlers first needed to look for symmetrically-placed grid entries that could hold "RAIN" (kind of appropriate with our weather here today) and form new words. Those entries included 1A BLESS, 16A REFS, 37A BAH, 38A RESTING, 41A GET, 64A DING, and 69A TABLE.


The next step was to look for other clues that could fit these 7 new words containing "RAIN". The first letters of the original answers to these 7 alternate clues, in grid order, spelled "BEAMING", a good look for solvers - particularly those who've just solved the MGWCC.


As expected, this one played a bit harder than usual. Like @Bird Lives said in an email, "Puzzles where the mechanism depends on something that is absent rather than present are going to be more of a challenge." Despite the fact that only 47 people solved the meta, Crosshare stats showed 273 grid completions - matching my all-time high in that category.

Thanks for solving, everyone!

Until next time,
Cap'n Rick

Interesting stats at the end there - especially about audience size. I assume "without helpers" means pre-hints. But folks may have helped each other. I'm starting to see lots of posts where someone took a nudge immediately on the first day.

Anita wrote: ↑Mon Jan 08, 2024 1:05 pm Interesting stats at the end there - especially about audience size. I assume "without helpers" means pre-hints. But folks may have helped each other. I'm starting to see lots of posts where someone took a nudge immediately on the first day.

Thanks for your comments, @Anita.

First, I think a little background info on Crosshare might help you and others better understand the statistics. In addition to being an awesome crossword/meta construction tool, Crosshare is also a community of both constructors (some meta, but mostly not) and solvers. There is some overlap with our Muggle community, but I'm not sure how much. They "seem" to be a relatively younger group of people, but again, I'm not exactly sure. They feature a variety of puzzle types on their site each day (5x5 minis, 11x11 midis, and 15x15 themed, themeless, and meta, etc.). I've been trying to interpret the Crosshare stats vis-a-vis our Muggle meta puzzles for a while now, and here's my quick summary of the parameters and my interpretations:

• Total completions: Total number of people who completed the grid only (not the meta)

• Average completion time: Average time to complete the grid only

• Completions without helpers: Total number of people who completed the grid only without checking or revealing any squares, words, or the puzzle itself

• Average time without helpers: Average time to complete the grid only without revealing any squares, words, or the puzzle

• Correct contest submissions: Number of correct meta answer submissions

• Total contest submissions: Total number of meta answer submissions

Interestingly, these stats have been pretty consistent (for me, at least) from puzzle to puzzle. The number of grid "Completions without helpers" is usually about half the number of "Total completions". "Average completion time" usually runs around 10 minutes, and "Average time without helpers" is usually between 8-10 minutes. "Total contest submissions" (for meta answers) usually end up averaging between 1/3 and 1/2 of "Total completions" (for the grid), which is interesting because there are a lot of solvers out there (mostly from the Crosshare community, I'm guessing) who only complete the grid without submitting answers to the metas. "Correct contest submissions" usually averages between 85%-95% of "Total contest submissions".

As most Muggles already know, Crosshare allows multiple submissions of meta answers, and it will instantly indicate when a correct meta answer is submitted (a very handy feature for both solvers and constructors!). At publishing time, Crosshare constructors can set an option that prevents solvers from being able to reveal meta answers for 7 days. I virtually always set this option, so the only early help that solvers receive is either from me directly or from their solving friends.

I'm "copying" @miked who manages Crosshare, and I'd ask him to please correct me if any of my definitions and/or interpretations are incorrect. He can also offer up his descriptions and/or views of the Crosshare and Muggle communities if he'd like.

I hope some of my ramblings above helped to clarify a few things for you, @Anita.

Cap'n Rick