#11 - "Do Like I Do"

[Hector]

The answer to metapuzzle #11 is a farm animal.

[Anita]

Grid fill was challenging, but it's done. Not seeing the meta yet.

[Meg]

I think these metas are getting harder. A few rabbit tunnels. No wabbit.

[FrankieHeck]

I followed a rabbit hole to....something. But I feel like I found some animal parts and sewed them together and called it a rabbit. I'm sort of proud of my taxidermy, but I don't really think it's what PGW intended. So I shall keep hunting...

[LesY]

No clue. Well, many clues but no leads.

The good news is I can't get the Stevie Wonder song "Do I Do" out of my head. (taking a chance it's not meta-related...)

[Al Sisti]

I got plenty of nothing
Nothing's working for me.
I got the grid; it's all I did;
No rabbits do I see.

Oh, I got plenty of nothing
Nothing's jumping at me.
I got no trick - got no click
I guess I'm Lost at Sea...

But I've got plenty of time left
And I've got tricks up my sleeve
From Gaffney's Books, and Henry Hook's,
So I'll solve it, I believe...

...Well... maybe. But in the meantime, I've got plenty of nothing.

[Toby]

Same here. A few leads fizzled quickly. I'm not optimistic about this one.

[FrankieHeck]

As I work on this, I'm reminded of the time my son's middle school teacher for Talented and Gifted class sent home a huge puzzle...I can't remember if it was a sudoku or one of those logic puzzles where you have to mark off who has what color hat etc. He struggled for hours and couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. We finally tried to cheat with a computer program and still couldn't do it. He was beside himself all weekend. On Monday the teacher said oh yeah, there was a mistake in it and there was no solution. She had no idea the anxiety we went through. I was just thinking how much fun these meta creators could have by sending out a regular puzzle and seeing what sort of ridiculous answers we would come up with.

[Meg]

So far nobody on this blog has caught this week's PGW rabbit. I guess that makes me feel a bit better. I’d like to solve both of them.

[Beth Tyrpin]

Nothing clicking for me either.

[pgw]

I was just thinking how much fun these meta creators could have by sending out a regular puzzle and seeing what sort of ridiculous answers we would come up with.

Gaffney actually did that for April Fool's Day a few years ago (he chose a handful of top solvers as victims and let everyone else in on the joke). Amazingly, the undisputed world's best meta solver actually figured it out almost immediately:

http://xwordcontest.com/2016/04/mgwcc-4 ... efore.html

This puzzle does have a solution, and someone (guess who?) has solved it ...

[Toby]

If no one else solves it soon will we get a hint?

[Hector]

Not . . . getting it. One shallow rabbit hole and nothing else so far. Will continue to torture myself.

[pgw]

If no one else solves it soon will we get a hint?

We're now up to ... two solvers.

I have changed the puzzle a bit to hopefully nudge solvers in the right direction. You can find the new "hint" version on the blog:

https://pgwcc.net/2019/05/21/puzzle-10- ... uzzle-11a/

[Al Sisti]

Pretty sure I got #11, which I never would have gotten without the revised version (although I can understand now how those smarter solvers did get it). Now back to #11a.

[FrankieHeck]

Whew. OK. I actually had most of the hint written correctly in the margin of my puzzle, but it was the one part I had wrong that was key to figuring this out. After lots writing and erasing, I am ready submit this one. Thank you for the hint!!

[Meg]

In hindsight, after the big hint which broke open the meta, I should have gotten this one. Title, title, title.

[Al Sisti]

In hindsight, after the big hint which broke open the meta, I should have gotten this one. Title, title, title.

I totally agree. I was close to correctly parsing it a couple times (pre-hint), but for some reason, I let it go.

[Cindy]

Kicking myself. Had all the hints on a list days ago. Was looking for something in particular and couldn’t find it. Turns out to be the right path that took me days and some nudges to see. Now if I could just see week four Mgwcc. There is a week five coming soon!

[Hector]

Tough one, but elegant.