Welcome to Phil's Crossword Corner (PCC)! Philip Chow (aka Phil) is an auditor at NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation who makes crossword puzzles for fun in his free time. A new meta puzzle posts every other Saturday weekend on Crosshare.
Phil’s metas will usually include immediate nudges, a great tool for new solvers. You can reach him at pchow13@gmail.com
Please see below for the latest puzzle PCC#23 - "Three-Course Meal" Meta puzzle and mechanism by Kelly McMahon. Crossword puzzle and clues by Philip Chow.
[Level 2.5] Meta prompt: The answer to the meta is something that DJ Khaled does (that I hope you do too)
Many thanks to FrankieHeck and Abide for test-solving!
Note: the level is the intended difficulty I had in mind when I designed the puzzle, but may play differently since every solver has their own area of expertise... what one person may find easy, another may find difficult.
Have fun and keep in mind if you're ever lost at sea, google is your best friend (actually, I don't know if you'd get internet service in the middle of the ocean)
-Phil
Edit: The clue for 10-Down has a typo (should be "Antagonist")... Note this does not affect the meta. Thanks to Sendhil Revuluri for pointing it out on Crosshare.
Nudges below:
Hint #1: The meta answer is three letters long
Hint #2: Please don't waste your food
Hint #3: 36-Across and 69-Across are hints as to what to do with the three courses and their respective ingredients
Hint #4: to make JELLO (the first course), combine JOIN + CELLO = JELLO... the leftover letters give you OIN + C which can be recycled to make COIN
Hint #5: if you employ the strategy in hint #4 to all three courses, you end up with the words COIN, COHERE, and WHERE
Hint #6: use the same trick from hint #4 on the three words from hint #5
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: using the hint from 36-A, take the two ingredients to make the foods outlined in the three courses... then use the hint from 69-A to recycle the leftovers... (1) JOIN + CELLO = JELLO = and leftover letters = COIN... (2) FLARE + COHEN = FLAN and leftover letters = COHERE... (3) SPHERE + WRINKLES = SPRINKLES and leftover letters = WHERE... using the trick one last time on the three new words, COIN + WHERE = COHERE and leftover letters is the meta answer = WIN... Something that DJ Khaled does is win (a reference to one of his hit songs with the lyrics "all I do is win win win no matter what") and is something I hope you do too!
Constructor notes: I took a semester of British Literature in high school and my teacher Ms. Kelly McMahon assigned an extra credit assignment called "The Dormouse Problems" that was inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland"... It was a bunch of riddles/mini-puzzles all leading up to a meta puzzle! (Not crossword, more like a mystery hunt puzzle). Ms. McMahon gave us a one-week deadline and planned to release hints throughout the week. I dove right in and finished it the day she assigned it. I found the meta but had to backsolve on one of the mini-puzzles which were a bunch of cryptic-style crossword clues (I was unfamiliar with cryptics at this time)... The next day I excitedly told Ms. McMahon I finished and her first reaction was of shock, then suspicion "there's no way, one of your friends who took my class before must've fed you the answer?" I was so sad she accused me of cheating and amused that she thought I had friends. I just responded with "No, I just really like puzzles"... the mechanism used in this puzzle is one of the mini-puzzles from this anecdote.
Although the word already existed to mean a large trunk or suitcase, Lewis Carroll first coined the term "portmanteau" in the usage of blending words... in "Through the Looking-Glass," he writes, "You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word"... happy birthday to Lewis Carroll 01/27/1832 "You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are."
Last edited by pchow13 on Sat Feb 24, 2024 2:50 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!
Thanks for the puzzle, I needed the first nudge to figure out what I was forgetting to do.
Shannon PS: If you want help with a meta, PM what you have so I can help without spoiling too much. I've received lots of help in the beginning and I love to pay it forward!
Nudged around the corner - thanks for a creative and fun meta!
