XWord Muggles Forum

PDF and PUZ

Crosshare



Honestly, that kind of happened today.

---

We continue the Winter Solvestice today with some actual snow in the Midwest! Perfect time to stay inside and curl up with a good book or a meta or three!

---

Puzzle #78 answer: CHILD'S PLAY

Correct entries: 84 (second of all time!!)



Thanks again to @BrennerTJ for some epic graphics! Little explanation needed - and we're doing mini-drawings during the solve-stice, so those will be revealed later!

---

A bit of a lurch on difficulty; we had a great Level 1, but this one will actually jump to (so I believe) a Level 4; we'll then have 2 and 3 following that to close out the month.

---

79. All the Time

The answer to the meta is a phrase visually depicted in the grid.

Deadline is Saturday, January 20 at 1 pm ET.

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

6A to you Mikey - that was wild and fun!

Wow, Mikey, you never fail to impress in your concepts, execution, and especially cluing. Some real LOLers in there… cheers!

I had the right idea, just not really. I liked this puzzle a lot more after I solved it. With some help. Nice job, Mikey!

Meg wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 6:55 pm I had the right idea, just not really.

Story of my life, haha.

I don't think it's ruining too much to say (but I will put it behind a spoiler) that the fill is brutal in places, which would never be allowed for a non-meta...so clearly, there usually must be a reason for that! I think determining issues in fill that cause us to raise our eyebrows is often a good solving strategy!

Very nice! I had some help to solve it (I need practice with this mechanism too), which was good because I was getting WAY off track.

I can't wait to work 10-Down into a conversation.

Abide wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 9:22 pm I can't wait to work 10-Down into a conversation.

Be sure you pronounce it correctly.

Luckily the weather outside meant I had all the time in the world to work on this, yet only solved during a 4.30am bout of insomnia!
Back to zzzzz…

I neglected to post earlier, but I only solved this one with a nudge! Clever puzzle, though.

Needed help yesterday but solved. Tricky one. Thanks Mikey.

Gneiss!

My 10-D of over-thinking were fortunately reined in by a friendly, helpful Muggle (aren’t they all?).

Thanks, Mr. G!

Solved.
Thanks!

Re. 52D... One thing I can say about UC Santa Cruz... If there's ever a clue about its mascot there won't be any ambiguity.....

Re. 51A... My high school math teacher used to post daily jokes. He once posted about a dream where he had to get an eye exam on a small island in the chain off of Alaska but when he awoke he found....

Anyway... my ego has only just recovered from the first week of the year, and I was beginning to feel in fine form with the WSJ causing hardly a ripple and the MGWCC being not as hard as I was making it but my psyche was willing to allow a nudge. But then.... the weekend... and the two usual suspects. *sigh*

All I can say is wow. Really glad I stuck it out and kept pulling at this one, such a cool mechanism when it finally fell into place!

KayW wrote: ↑Sat Jan 13, 2024 2:44 pm 6A to you Mikey - that was wild and fun!

Reminds me of my husband, twice a year, changing all the clocks in the house.


Met the deadline -- Thanks, Mikey!

Got it! Thanks, Mikey! :D

We're at 23 so far, and I'm happy with that! Solid Level 4. We'll be doing a nudge a day until I forget, but we'll start cryptically.

1. There are an abnormal amount of As in this grid; that's really just a side effect of some other restrictions going on!

Bingpot! Brilliant meta. S.A.D. but not "sad."

Quiara wrote: ↑Mon Jan 15, 2024 2:17 pm Bingpot! Brilliant meta. S.A.D. but not "sad."

You turned into a super solver! (A little "X-Men" meta reference there.)

(I will also start using "Bingpot!")