XWord Muggles Forum

Meg wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 6:10 pm In the gentlest, most tactful way possible, I would discourage solvers from making up rules about what a meta puzzle can have or not have and then accusing the constructor of breaking them. As far as I know there is no rule book.

Agree completely. I think over analysis is the biggest impediment to solving metas. There is usually a simple, and sometimes even elegant, solution.

Inca wrote: ↑Tue May 28, 2019 10:01 am

JimmyJam wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 2:33 pm ...that PRI at the top of the grid is not “crossworthy” (according to xwordinfo, for example, the last time it appeared in a Times puzzle was 23 years ago) and therefore must be relevant to the meta. When I noticed that ANC, only slightly more crossworthy in my estimation (though I’ve certainly seen it before) was in the mirror position at the bottom of the grid, it all came together!

I love the word "crossworthy".
....and I am super-impressed that you would know exactly when the last time PRI appeared in a puzzle!

Ha, “know” is waaaay too strong a word. Moments before posting, I looked it up in that database just to make sure I wasn’t totally off-base in perceiving it to be an extremely rare answer (and, therefore, likely forced by the meta).

I picked up crossworthy from religiously reading Rex Parker’s (stage name) entertainingly snarky blog about the NYT crossword. No idea whether he coined it, but I wouldn’t want to take undeserved credit!

Matt posted a comment about this puzzle on the crossword fiend board:

https://crosswordfiend.com/2019/05/26/w ... ent-384795

I hadn't thought about it in so many words, but I agree that just using state postal codes would have been less interesting because it is so common. Using the actual initials, regardless of whether one or two, regardless that some happen to be the same as the postal code, was a nice original twist.

Meg wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 7:05 pm

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2019 6:33 pm Got it, Meg.

Don't follow crossword conventions when solving metas. Read the minds of meta-makers, when their clues might be considered by even the most casual observer to be outside the norm. There are no mistakes made by meta-makers. Do not point out inconsistencies. Do not provide feedback.

I was going to post that, per norms, "ALBANY" is a "United States state capital", but not "a U.S. state capital", and also email that to the meta-maker via the puzzle's publisher, since I did feel it' could be valuable feedback.

Joe,
Clearly, I should have listened to that little voice in my head that told me not to post my previous message.

With apologies to Meg, I also should have listened to the [not-so-]little voice in my ear before posting.

I liked my answer "J" as "a U.S. State Capital that should be in the grid but isn't." It is "a U.S. State capital", since it is the "J" in "NJ" & "New Jersey". By that reckoning of "a U.S. state capital", it is the only "U.S. state capital" - postal or otherwise - that isn't in the grid.

"J" "should be in the grid"? There's the rub and no "J" shouldn't, but it complies with the convention of initials being in the clue &, therefore, expected/required in the answer, whereas "Albany" does not (directly). "Albany" makes sense, of course, and, when the author says it's "Albany", it's "Albany", despite any flaws that I may see in it.

If I were smarter, I would have seen it and admit to being blinded by the flawed solution I reached. Worse, I was told by a very nice person that there was a better answer.

Thanks Joe.