XWord Muggles Forum

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The idea for this one came to me as I was starting in on a recent puzzle by Cap’n Rick, though the mechanism is entirely different. Coming up with words to fit my mechanism was not easy. (Try it yourself and PM me the results). I crowd-sourced the task, putting out an email to my family, a small crowd but an effective one. My niece came through for me. (Thanks, Amy.)

Solving may also present some challenges. I’d rate this as a 2 or 2½ but much higher without the nudges in the clues.

Thanks as always to @Abide for editorial guidance and to @Joe Ross for making it all accessible.

The answer is a word for buzzkills.

Crossroads
crosshare
PUZ
PDF
spreadsheet

First, I need to find the definition of buzzkill….

Off the couch! Well done, @Bird Lives! I absolutely loved it!

Off the couch. Was anything but a buzzkill. Thanks for the puzzle!

OTC. Was stopped for awhile but then the lights went green.

Off the couch - thanks, Jay!

That was great!

OTC. Lots of fun maneuvering!

OTC! Very nice one, definite click when you start to see what's going on.

Needed some kicking to depart the couch, but this is an excellent puzzle. Thanks, Jay.

Before I start on this meta, I have some confusion about the picture.

I am not familiar with that configuration. Here in the Boston area we have roads coming together at odd angles and we have rotaries which are ruled by the person with the oldest and most beat up cars. And local customs rule as no one knows the laws. On the rare occasion that we actually have four roads coming together at right angles, invariably there are stop signs on three of them and nothing on the fourth. Only the locals know which road is the one without the stop sign.

On to the grid and the meta

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:40 pm Before I start on this meta, I have some confusion about the picture.

I am not familiar with that configuration. Here in the Boston area we have roads coming together at odd angles and we have rotaries which are ruled by the person with the oldest and most beat up cars. And local customs rule as no one knows the laws. On the rare occasion that we actually have four roads coming together at right angles, invariably there are stop signs on three of them and nothing on the fourth. Only the locals know which road is the one without the stop sign.

On to the grid and the meta

The best thing about driving in the Boston area is that if you're on a fairly long street, you better know what street it is because the street signs have only the names of the crossing streets. "Wait, are we still on Belmont Ave.?" asks someone in the car, and I drive for a mile or more going past a dozen streets all with only one sign, that of the crossing street. Presumably this custom stems from Yankee frugality so that they could take all the money they save from only one name per street post and use it for useful projects like the Big Dig.

OTC!

Loved that one a bunch. Thanks, Jay!

Fun stuff as always. Thanks.

OTC. Nice one, Jay! :D

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:56 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:40 pm Before I start on this meta, I have some confusion about the picture.

I am not familiar with that configuration. Here in the Boston area we have roads coming together at odd angles and we have rotaries which are ruled by the person with the oldest and most beat up cars. And local customs rule as no one knows the laws. On the rare occasion that we actually have four roads coming together at right angles, invariably there are stop signs on three of them and nothing on the fourth. Only the locals know which road is the one without the stop sign.

On to the grid and the meta

The best thing about driving in the Boston area is that if you're on a fairly long street, you better know what street it is because the street signs have only the names of the crossing streets. "Wait, are we still on Belmont Ave.?" asks someone in the car, and I drive for a mile or more going past a dozen streets all with only one sign, that of the crossing street. Presumably this custom stems from Yankee frugality so that they could take all the money they save from only one name per street post and use it for useful projects like the Big Dig.

So true. And then we have the reluctance to change names as Boston absorbed communities. There are six streets named Washington Street in the city limits of Boston.

You would think that GPS would solve all those problems but it does not since by the time you look at your GPS, you have missed the turn.

And then to make matters more fun, we have Storrow Drive where the height of the bridges is too low to allow any kind of box truck to go under. The fun comes when all the new college students move in and invariably one gets wedged in the bridge or they have to stop traffic so that the truck can back up to get out.

But we make up for that by having the oldest subway system (or second oldest to NYC depending on how you count).

OTC No buzzkill here!
Thanks, Jay -- Great puzzle!

Bird Lives wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:56 pm

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:40 pm Before I start on this meta, I have some confusion about the picture.

I am not familiar with that configuration. Here in the Boston area we have roads coming together at odd angles and we have rotaries which are ruled by the person with the oldest and most beat up cars. And local customs rule as no one knows the laws. On the rare occasion that we actually have four roads coming together at right angles, invariably there are stop signs on three of them and nothing on the fourth. Only the locals know which road is the one without the stop sign.

On to the grid and the meta

The best thing about driving in the Boston area is that if you're on a fairly long street, you better know what street it is because the street signs have only the names of the crossing streets. "Wait, are we still on Belmont Ave.?" asks someone in the car, and I drive for a mile or more going past a dozen streets all with only one sign, that of the crossing street. Presumably this custom stems from Yankee frugality so that they could take all the money they save from only one name per street post and use it for useful projects like the Big Dig.

@Bird Lives Jay - the logic is "if you don't know where you are, you should not be driving here"

Bob cruise director wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 4:40 pm @Bird Lives Jay - the logic is "if you don't know where you are, you should not be driving here"

To me, driving in Boston is easy because there's only one rule of the road - "You ALWAYS have the right-of-way!".

And of course at our traffic lights - GREEN means "Go"; YELLOW means "Go faster"; and RED means "Room for one more!"

OTC!!