XWord Muggles Forum

After a fail, I finally saw it. Got side tracked by something I saw that I couldn't let go of. At least I finally got it!

Apparently I am way too stupid to do this one.

Don't beat yourself up over this one. Set it aside and come back with fresh eyes tomorrow. If you have marked up your puzzle, print out a fresh copy and fill it in again using your completed grid. Sometimes that helps you to see something that you missed while focused on the grid answers.

PGW's puzzles are often way out of my league. I started keeping track of my completion % this year on WSJ, PGW and MG. I have an 8 puzzle gap where I just couldn't get on the same page as PGW. I have done much better on the other puzzles.

Good Luck.

No, I am definitely just not smart enough to do this one - I was given a hint that led me to the method - I'm just so dumb I don't know how to apply the method! That is public school and Scottish/Welsh genes for ya!

TPS wrote: ↑Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:09 pm No, I am definitely just not smart enough to do this one - I was given a hint that led me to the method - I'm just so dumb I don't know how to apply the method! That is public school and Scottish/Welsh genes for ya!

It took me awhile. You are definitely smart enough! This one is a little tricky.

Really loved this one! I did the hard version but feel like I got lucky early on

I think I got it. Wanted the last step to work a different way, but it led to gibberish, which is always pretty much always wrong. The answer I landed on was far more elegant and appropriate.

Solved, with (aghast!) nudges.

Got it. I did the hard version, and wasn't so sure of my answer when I submitted, but Peter confirmed it. Good one, and nicely constructed.

Now what to do until 4 PM when WSJ is supposed to come out? I guess I'll keep looking for that red herring.

Well putting it away and not looking at it for half a day didn't help. So it is definitely me just being a moron. I'm not eve sure I will understand it when the solution comes out - I really don't even understand how one would get from the hard version to the easy version - i.e. how one would have found some of those clues because some of them aren't related at all.

TPS wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:01 pm Well putting it away and not looking at it for half a day didn't help. So it is definitely me just being a moron. I'm not eve sure I will understand it when the solution comes out - I really don't even understand how one would get from the hard version to the easy version - i.e. how one would have found some of those clues because some of them aren't related at all.

Don't be so harsh on yourself... PGWCC metas are harder, on average, than the other metas we usually see. Hang in there!

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:06 pm

TPS wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:01 pm Well putting it away and not looking at it for half a day didn't help. So it is definitely me just being a moron. I'm not eve sure I will understand it when the solution comes out - I really don't even understand how one would get from the hard version to the easy version - i.e. how one would have found some of those clues because some of them aren't related at all.

Don't be so harsh on yourself... PGWCC metas are harder, on average, than the other metas we usually see. Hang in there!

Agree with Al. Keep trying - it takes time and Peter's puzzles are rarely simple. I remember the days when I had no idea - and I remember exactly where I was when I tried to solve my first one - I was clueless! I didn't even understand the answer when I read it on Monday (WSJ).

I have to say with this one, I did the "hard" version, then after I was finished I looked at the "easy" version. It's hard to know how I would have experienced the easy one if I saw that first, but I'm not sure it would have been all that easy. We'll never know I guess.

TPS wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:01 pm So it is definitely me just being a moron.

Not really. It's not that 'the rules are … there are no rules'. Metas are like tax law. The rules are not fixed, they change. Solvers would like them to be fixed, but the constructors make up the rules as they go. PGW takes this to an extreme sometimes.

FKelly wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 4:21 pm Not really. It's not that 'the rules are … there are no rules'. Metas are like tax law. The rules are not fixed, they change. Solvers would like them to be fixed, but the constructors make up the rules as they go. PGW takes this to an extreme sometimes.

I won't go into a whole treatise on my theory of metapuzzles here, but as an avid metapuzzle solver myself, I don't agree with the part I've bolded above. If the "rules" (not really the right term IMO) were the same from puzzle to puzzle, they'd stop being puzzles.

Because I opened it this morning I directly went to the easy version, and I'm glad I did. I don't think I would have ever gotten the hard version. Loved the idea, very nice.

One thing I realized with PGW metas is that the difficulty of the grid was holding me back because I got obsessed with filling it out without Googling (I have weird crossword-solving rules: I also hate it when people ask for a nudge on a meta, which is absurd because a forum is where you discuss things and ask for help, but maybe I'll change one day) Anyway, that effort cost me valuable time and mental resolve, and I think PGW grids are just impossible to finish unlike the other metas we cover here. So a couple puzzles ago I admitted defeat and stopped doing that, and guess what, it's fine. I enjoy PGW metas more now

So after having tried Peter's for the last 3-4 weeks and not solved any, I was ready to give up. I downloaded the "hard" grid and solved the meta in just a few minutes after filling the grid. I'm on a mini-streak, having done this, the WSJ and the MG over the weekend. Chances are I won't be able to solve any more metas for the rest of the year!

Here’s my wrong answer. Thinking the crossing letters of each set must provide the meta letters I submitted Hyena. Reading from left to right we have H-I-N-E-H. Split that into Hi=Hy, N=en, and eh=long A giving us (ok only me) Hyena. Hyenas do sound different.
Thanks for letting me know I was wrong so I could find the correct answer.