XWord Muggles Forum

Enjoyed this puzzle a lot, maybe mostly because I was able to solve without using a nudge. Also, because I’m a cryptic crossword fan, and the puzzle has elements of that genre. Thank you, Doctor.

After one final correction from Dr. Tom, who pared down my search to six, I'm finally off the couch. It turned out to be what would have been my "Hail Mary" answer.

But curiously there is a seventh which follows the rules, one which I don't think Dr. Tom saw, although it doesn't contribute to the answer.

Last of the METAHICANS
53 Naptown Kid 12:59 PM 27-Feb
54 ReB 8:19 PM

THE REVEAL!
MUGGLES!

Thank you soooo much for solving, and apparently enjoying Know No End. The solution was to recognize that 6 of the clues were worded so oddly that they might have referred to something besides just the one word. For example the gender of MAIL carriers being MALE or a dressmaking measurement (WAIST) made with scraps (WASTE). Once those were found, the META title (a homophone itself) points to the end letter, and the hint (yet another homophone) helps you confirm a READ or RED LETTER.

I wish I could take all of the credit for some of structure and clues that people found so pleasing, but I had a LOT of help from the Oracle of Utica, Al Sisti. He helped me stay on the rails and made many excellent suggestions about some of my clues that probably would have made sense only to me. So, in reality, if you liked it thank Al as well.

There were a few “oopses” it was pointed out since there were other homophones in the GRID. Most often mentioned was BREAK/BRAKE but also CELS/SELLS, LEADS/LEDES, ASH/ASHE and SEEK/SIKH. Luckily these were not worded weirdly enough and people usually quickly rejected them. However, one that was brought to my attention was SEA/C, because as “One of a noted septad” it did follow the mechanism in a way; I‘m glad that more people did not fall into that trap. I also inadvertently led some solvers to submit SCARLET LETTER, which made sense with the hint and was, in my estimation, a perfectly acceptable answer.

Unfortunately no mug , no pen and pencil set, just my sincere gratitude to all the people who took the time to solve (54 of you, I am DELIGHTED!!). I consider myself extremely lucky to be a part of a group like this.

I had a bit of a tricky time rounding up all the theme words at first. I was placing "No" at the beginning of several of the words (the front "end") and getting things like No Waste (there wouldn't be any if you used all the scraps) --- Now Right --(which it wasn't previously) -- Not Here --- and No Star (but a different fixed point.) I was slower with Mail and Gait since they didn't have quite the same fit, but I was getting all the correct letters anyway and recognized that it had to be all the clues with commas and the homophones in general.
Thanks, DrTom! (and Al singing back-up)

I tried to solve, but didn't, Dr. Tom. I had an inkling of the right idea (looking for homophones of grid entries), but never made the leap to looking in the clues for synonyms to the homophones. Thanks for the puzzle, anyway; I started doing the Muggle Meta Mondays puzzles to give myself more meta practice. So I learned something!

CPJohnson wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:28 am I tried to solve, but didn't, Dr. Tom. I had an inkling of the right idea (looking for homophones of grid entries), but never made the leap to looking in the clues for synonyms to the homophones. Thanks for the puzzle, anyway; I started doing the Muggle Meta Mondays puzzles to give myself more meta practice. So I learned something!

Well I'm glad that you got something out of it even if the path home was not clear. In truth I learned a few things about crossword construction through it so it was a win all around!

My apologies - I never put that Madhatter solved the puzzle as well! We are working on a META together and he answered within that message stream so I forgot. So, that brings the total to 55. I'll take "double nickels" anytime (well I didn't appreciate them on the rod that much, but it was safer....)

DrTom wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:09 pm My apologies - I never put that Madhatter solved the puzzle as well! We are working on a META together and he answered within that message stream so I forgot. So, that brings the total to 55. I'll take "double nickels" anytime (well I didn't appreciate them on the rod that much, but it was safer....)

That's gotta be a record for MMM solvers, isn't it?

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 3:51 pm

DrTom wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 2:09 pm My apologies - I never put that Madhatter solved the puzzle as well! We are working on a META together and he answered within that message stream so I forgot. So, that brings the total to 55. I'll take "double nickels" anytime (well I didn't appreciate them on the rod that much, but it was safer....)

That's gotta be a record for MMM solvers, isn't it?

I'm not sure - has anyone been keeping those STATS? Whatever the result I enjoyed everyone enjoying it as much as making it. Now I am just waiting for all the groans over the punny, but easy, MEOW I did with Josh.