XWord Muggles Forum

Laura M wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:07 am After several hours and a bunch of rabbit holes, I found what others saw so easily!

I can't say I saw it easily. I did see it suddenly -- but only after NOT seeing it suddenly for over an hour.

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:20 am Yeah, yesterday I had nothing -- searching in a way that I thought must be the mechanism -- and today it (the correct mechanism) fell into place nicely. One odd aspect to the puzzle that I'll talk about next week.

I had a similar experience. When I started the puzzle yesterday I was sure I knew what the mechanism would be, and I spent a half hour after I finished the grid trying to make it work; it didn’t. After I gave up the ghost I saw the right mechanism pretty quickly. I bet we both had the same idea.

I had to change my thinking, too. Finally saw the light!

In the WSJCC thread I posted a comment about learning something new in a crossword, and then seeing it in a book shortly thereafter. So it happened again! Maybe an hour after solving the PGWCC, I was reading The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (I picked it up for its title alone, but it turns out to be really good) and there was "Husqvarna,"* which I don't remember ever seeing/hearing before yesterday, and which was one of my Googles in the course of completing this grid. Anyway, once was a funny coincidence, but twice in a row... Is someone spying on my to-read list??

*Not a spoiler for the grid, the meta, or the book.

Finally saw it. I was looking in the right places, just not seeing what was relevant until now.

Ah got it. Similar experience to the rest of you, only it took me a little longer. Cool puzzle, and I'm getting a little better at his grids. I only needed Mr. G for. two squares!

Got in under the wire on this one. Saw a few things yesterday that looked promising - for about 10 seconds. But something popped today while looking for the wrong mechanism. Always satisfying to get a PGW!

I am pretty sure I am right in my answer, but I have yet to get one of Peter's Metas, so we will see tomorrow. I have only done about 3 or 4 of these in the past and I have to say I am not on the same wavelength as him. This week the WSJ and MGWCC were so easy I had time so I thought why not. This too seemed easy, but time will tell.

I just looked through the past few months of puzzles on his page that I did not do. I have to say for the most part that I am glad I did not do them. I think with the MGWCC I can always see the answer of the ones I missed after the answer is given out and say I could have gotten them. With these some of them are so out there I just don't think Matt Gaffney would ever use them as a meta. Just my 2 cents.

Did anyone else have the idea of O=ring and look at 41, see OREGON going "around" that O, but then nothing working with the others? Tripped me up to the point of disregarding utilizing that version of "ring". It took a nudge to get me to refocus on that idea and solve correctly.

So close on the heels of "Pieces of Eight"where themes circled a letter. In this one themes circled o, which all cryptic solvers know is a ring. For those of you who avoid cryptics, I encourage you to try again. The brain torture makes the Aha! moment even sweeter.

I was a little surprised that Peter didn't mention what I assumed was the logic behind the mechanism: "the rings of a tree are only revealed when you take a cross-section."

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:39 am I was a little surprised that Peter didn't mention what I assumed was the logic behind the mechanism: "the rings of a tree are only revealed when you take a cross-section."

That’s lovely Al. I did not think of that.

Meg wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 12:23 pm

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Jul 07, 2020 11:39 am I was a little surprised that Peter didn't mention what I assumed was the logic behind the mechanism: "the rings of a tree are only revealed when you take a cross-section."

That’s lovely Al. I did not think of that.

I also did not really think of that - at least, not directly. The wordplay came first - I noticed three or four of the pine trees with two Os, one in each side of a name that could be split into two parts - and then the connection to "rings" came later. I just thought of it as the rings being in the center. Later when I went to make the solution image I noticed that if I colored the O brown and the rest green, it would sort of evoke a tree viewed from above.

Well, I feel like a noob for not getting this one, especially after doing Al's inaugural MMM recently. Lesson learned!