"Round Five" February 23, 2024

[kurtalert]

Wow. I didn't submit, because I couldn't figure out how to get to a 100% solid answer, but I was *positive* that this was tied to the Olympic flag and rings. I was struggling to figure out whether the paper plate was white, and represented the background of the flag, or if it was possibly green because paper plates can be any color... but I was getting to "big round green" likely meaning golf. Never would have gotten to archery. Oh well. I don't feel bad about not submitting anymore!

[mheberlingx100]

Wow. I didn't submit, because I couldn't figure out how to get to a 100% solid answer, but I was *positive* that this was tied to the Olympic flag and rings. I was struggling to figure out whether the paper plate was white, and represented the background of the flag, or if it was possibly green because paper plates can be any color... but I was getting to "big round green" likely meaning golf. Never would have gotten to archery. Oh well. I don't feel bad about not submitting anymore!

Google Green Paper products, they make paper plates that are compostable.

[hoover]

I saw the five round things. I couldn't figure out how largest/smallest applied, because planet Mars is huge.
I got tripped up by BILE (+ S = BILES, the most decorated gymnast in history), MARS that rhymes with BARS, allusions to RINGS, ... so my Hail Mary was GYMNASTICS.

[HeyMikey]

We are bummed. Jane identified the colors and the concentric circles in the correct order. But the first reference to billiard balls mistakenly gave us Yellow as the color of the #2 ball! It was late Sunday so we moved on to, or back to, other ideas. We finally submitted RINGS.

An early idea was TENNIS. The server would hold two balls in case the first service was a fault. The entries LET and SLICE were in the grid. Men and Women Doubles have a FIVE ROUND tournament.

Too many times we ascribe meaning to random clues that have nothing in common other than coincidence. I liken it to describing constellations or assigning figures to cloud shapes.

There's always next week!

[HeyMikey]

I saw the five round things. I couldn't figure out how largest/smallest applied, because planet Mars is huge.
I got tripped up by BILE (+ S = BILES, the most decorated gymnast in history), MARS that rhymes with BARS, allusions to RINGS, ... so my Hail Mary was GYMNASTICS.

Yes! I thought BILE was a tribute to Simone Biles, too. I thought HEX was a tribute to Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon last week.

[fourletterword]

I followed all the above rabbit holes, but went further! After seeing all the colors, I expanded on the two ball theme, and included all of the pool balls, yellow being 1 and 9, blue being 2 and 10, etc. . . but couldn't figure out what to do with the missing dark maroon, 7 and 15 balls, or what to do with the white cue ball! I finally gave up and got a nudge from Wendy.

[Sleepy]

Had to use google to check the colors of an archery target in order to confirm my answer as archery. I just don’t have the order of colors of Olympic targets memorized. I guess that’s just not in my wheelhouse. Lol. Wondering how many others had to use a search engine, as a percentage? And do we feel bad about submitting an answer for the mug after using a search?

[The XWord Rabbit]

Another happy mug winner from your Rabbit!
You can be one, too. Just go astray and tell me about it.
Congrats again, Ben!

[hoover]

I'm curious to know what caused people to look for colors in the first place.

[chart]

I'm curious to know what caused people to look for colors in the first place.

Great question. For me it was the rabbit hole that actually helped me find the solution. I was so sure the "round five" were the Olympic rings, that I googled to figure out what the colors should be. When it turned out they were the wrong colors (and did not vary from largest to smallest), my brain was still primed to think that colors were important. And the fact that they each have an obvious color, and a distinct color, made it feel right.

But I was also running a million other scenarios in my mind connected to all meanings of "round" and "five" and "round five" and so many patterns in the grid. So it felt right, but I wasn't convinced until it clicked.

[Alvibu67]

I kept being drawn to the preponderance of Ps in this puzzle and thought that must figure into the solution.

Noticing the round/circular things theme, and the plethora of P items, I had: pepperoni, puck, pita (from 36D per caPITA), plate, planet.

This sequence didn’t work with the parenthetical “largest” and “smallest” hints in the clues, and didn’t include all five theme answers, but it did get me drawing concentric circles on the page, which got me to the correct answer. It was confirmed from the Friday Zoom call, as well as the correct mechanism with the colors.

Phew! Lovely, well-rounded puzzle!

Allison (Alvibu67)

[clonefitz]

Had to use google to check the colors of an archery target in order to confirm my answer as archery. I just don’t have the order of colors of Olympic targets memorized. I guess that’s just not in my wheelhouse. Lol. Wondering how many others had to use a search engine, as a percentage? And do we feel bad about submitting an answer for the mug after using a search?

I googled several Olympic sports before archery occurred to me and even then had to google it for confirmation. No shame in googling, a lot of times metas can be fun AND educational.

[clonefitz]

I'm curious to know what caused people to look for colors in the first place.

TWOBALL: I thought that was a very strong push into the "color is significant" realm.

Also, upon identifying white, black, blue, red and yellow for the themers, I saw orange, purple and green in non-themer clues.

[Scott M]

I was thrown by the lack of specificity in the clues to the themers. Planet Mars? Could also be Planet Venus. TENNIS! Lemon Slice? Could also be Lemon Wedge. GOLF! Paper Plate? Picnic Basket. HOOPS! Lightning and Flames? Are there other, non-hockey teams named that? Liberty Flames maybe...

And that was the end of that rabbit hole. Puck/Pluck, Mars/Lars was the next dead end, then Slice of Pepperoni? Eye (level) Ball? Nothin'.

Oh well. See y'all again Thursday.

[Jace54]

I followed all the above rabbit holes, but went further! After seeing all the colors, I expanded on the two ball theme, and included all of the pool balls, yellow being 1 and 9, blue being 2 and 10, etc. . . but couldn't figure out what to do with the missing dark maroon, 7 and 15 balls, or what to do with the white cue ball! I finally gave up and got a nudge from Wendy.

The pool ball trail did me in. It was too enticing with “two ball” sitting in the center of the grid, and the purple, green, and orange colors sitting in the clues to complement the colors of the theme entries. Even the “smallest” hint worked with yellow being the color of the smallest numbered ball. Tried to convince myself that maroon paper plates were a common thing!

[hoover]

I was thrown by the lack of specificity in the clues to the themers. Planet Mars? Could also be Planet Venus. TENNIS! Lemon Slice? Could also be Lemon Wedge. GOLF! Paper Plate? Picnic Basket. HOOPS! Lightning and Flames? Are there other, non-hockey teams named that? Liberty Flames maybe...

And that was the end of that rabbit hole. Puck/Pluck, Mars/Lars was the next dead end, then Slice of Pepperoni? Eye (level) Ball? Nothin'.

Oh well. See y'all again Thursday.

I went down the PUCK/PLUCK, OPAH/OPRAH rabbit hole, too. For EYE LEVEL, I noticed that you could break it into EYEL EVEL, two halves that are almost the same with one substitution.

[WabiSabi]

Wondering how many others had to use a search engine, as a percentage? And do we feel bad about submitting an answer for the mug after using a search?

I did, and I don't.

[hcbirker]

I'm curious to know what caused people to look for colors in the first place.

Planet Mars was so out of place, It had to be a color.

Heidi

[theothermarniesmom]

I got RUGBY, via a somewhat forced rabbit hole that I knew wasn't correct.
R = red = PLANET MARS (the largest, in reality)
G = green = PAPER PLATE (next largest)
B = blue = TWO BALL (next)
Y = yellow = LEMON SLICE (smallest).
The "U" came from the U in HOCKEY PUCK (black, keeping with the Olympic Rings theme), which is shot into the middle of the word, just as a hockey puck would be into a net.

[BarbaraK]

Much as I don't care for sports metas, I've got to say how amazed I am once again at Matt's ability to see the world in meta terms, or maybe to see metas as he looks at the world. Looking at an archery target, I would never have thought of making a meta with 5 round objects of the correct colors.