XWord Muggles Forum

The answer to this meta demands a lot from you.

http://crossword.info/madhatter5/Treat_It_Leisurely

Fun one. Thanks, madhatter5!

Grid = done --
12D = perplexed, then amused --
Meta = work in progress.

Nice puzzle. Let’s just say I didn’t see all the steps.....My bad.

Solved. After a struggle.

Got it.

Enjoyed!

Got it. Thanks

Edit: not so fast. Quit too soon.

I'm still at the point that apparently Meg and Richard B. have been at some point -- a step away -- and have been for a couple of days.
That Leisurely has me bamboozled -- I sit and relax and slowly and repeatedly drawl words, or syllables, or snippets I've found, but it hasn't helped!
Although I believe I see the guys with the NETs coming for me aGAIN.

I'm thinking of posting puzzles regularly on Mondays, and the solutions to previous puzzles on Sundays. How does that sound to everyone?

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:00 pm I'm thinking of posting puzzles regularly on Mondays, and the solutions to previous puzzles on Sundays. How does that sound to everyone?

Mad—the MMM (Muggle Meta Monday) puzzle drops on Monday. How about Wednesday? I have no metas scheduled for Wednesday.

Ok! Unless anyone disagrees Wednesday it is. And I'll post solutions Tuesdays.

Works for me! That spreads out the "only two or three" a week I do, and will maybe keep me from getting too confused!
Thanks for the nudges, Meg and Mad -- I'll carry on and see if I can beat the buzzer!

ChrisKochmanski wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 11:31 pm Got it.

Enjoyed!

I missed a step too. But got it almost instantly when madhatter5 let me know I still had a bit of work to do.

Considering how many people submitted the same unintended answer I should really have specified that the answer is a 4-letter word.

Just for the record -- you know, the one Saint Margaret Cho keeps in her tome on the podium in front of the pearly puzzle gates ---
I'm pretty sure I finally, duh, made that last hop.

I apologize if my Guys with the Nets quip earlier was in any way a spoiler -- sort of assumed at that point that I was the lone straggler! (The lone stranger, the lone strangler?)

Looking forward to the actual reveal to get a complete sense of how it all meshed.

Thanks for the fun, madhatter -- and I'm not really going bonkers -- I'm in tune with Will P.'s mantra on Pandora's Blocks about only pursuing solutions if you're having fun.

Solution (and comments):



(In my opinion) a neat idea messed up by a few subpar clues and an unintending pageant. Sorry!

The awkwardly-worded title actually contains the word "title". This is a hint to the solution path, which is to notice that each of the nine numbered entries contains a substring of letters which could just as well substitute for the entire thing:

56D: It can be positive or negative -> REACT(ION)

43A: A bunch of geniuses -> ME(NSA)

18A: Government operatives -> SPE(CIA)LAGENTS

87A: An utterly fictional concept -> HUMANPR(OGRE)SS

25D: African country -> SO(MALI)A

12D: Provider of comfort, perhaps -> SH(ERATO)N (I agree this is strained. I was thinking the muse of lyric poetry provides 'spritual' comfort, maybe?)

41D: Take a trip? -> S(TUMBLE)

79D: Crooked characters -> A(XIS) (And this is strained as well, but I needed the X!).


Taking the initial letters of the nested alternatives yields INCOME TAX, something which certainly demands a lot from you. But wait, there's more! Applying our mechanism once more, we look Inside INCOME TAX to find the word META, which also demands a lot from you.


Unfortunately, only boharr spotted the extra step at first (and maybe Hector as well? You never actually submitted). Which means I am guilty of that dreaded crime, pageanting. I should have specified that the solution was a 4-letter word.

Ah well. Live and learn ...

Thanks, madh. (No, I didn't persist to the META.)

Clarification: I only noticed the extra step after a discussion with another solver.

Ah, so that explains that confounding Leisure in the puzzle name.
I'd never criticize any puzzle from which I derive plenty of entertainment (but I know you're looking to hone your skills, madhatter5 , so.......) since I never saw the Title within the title or put it to good use, the L word was mainly confusing for me. At one point I was mixing up leisure with luxury tax and was almost ready to drag out the Monopoly board yet another time! I would have done better with a title like the phrase you included in your explanation: But Wait, There's More! Just INCOME TAX alone would have made a perfectly good, albeit less complex and challenging, meta too. Although I can understand why it's too hard to resist the fact of that META within it and to want to use it! (I'd say that it jumps out -- except that it obviously didn't for me -- duh!) I'm guessing that noticing that fact may have been what inspired the entire meta!
Red herring or coincidence -- INTER(Nal) REV(enue) in the grid?!

Thanks for the comments Whimsy! I agree entirely, the title was a poor choice and I should have gone for something more prosaic. And maybe just left it at INCOME TAX.

I'm really sorry you spent so long on that last step. I never meant for that to happen!

P.S. that was just a coincidence, not a red herring