Well, I know I've bitten off slightly more than I can chew with this one, which is why I'm running it as a "week 4". But I think I've left you enough to find your way to the meta answer, which is a movie. And let's do the prize thing again! If you check the box during submission, your name will go into the draw for the latest MOAT pack, the MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=183071#p183071
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
Checking for previous play data...
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
Berto solved 2024-10-22T11:41:31.645Z
Dave C solved 2024-10-22T15:48:22.905Z
Hector solved 2024-10-22T18:02:04.595Z
LarsCaine solved 2024-10-22T18:49:45.718Z
Pair O Ducks solved 2024-10-22T22:09:14.222Z
MatthewL solved 2024-10-22T22:47:44.419Z
Tim solved 2024-10-22T23:31:55.727Z
markhr solved 2024-10-22T23:35:17.755Z
whimsy solved 2024-10-22T23:44:52.026Z
Steve M solved 2024-10-23T00:47:57.075Z
DrTom solved 2024-10-23T00:51:18.524Z
KayW solved 2024-10-23T00:57:16.286Z
Meg solved 2024-10-23T01:33:39.299Z
Cindy Weatherman solved 2024-10-23T01:35:46.134Z
woozy solved 2024-10-23T02:13:00.755Z
boharr solved 2024-10-23T02:23:03.344Z
HeadinHome solved 2024-10-23T02:24:27.605Z
DebbieC solved 2024-10-23T02:57:32.715Z
Carolyn solved 2024-10-23T05:09:35.914Z
Morendil solved 2024-10-23T07:47:22.839Z
I K Snamhcok solved 2024-10-23T13:41:27.424Z
edestlin solved 2024-10-23T16:42:58.974Z
CPJohnson solved 2024-10-23T18:27:36.089Z
Serafin solved 2024-10-23T19:48:34.493Z
heidi solved 2024-10-23T20:01:38.545Z
Cindy Heisler solved 2024-10-23T22:02:03.433Z
JM solved 2024-10-23T22:38:09.288Z
iceman solved 2024-10-23T23:20:17.400Z
rjy solved 2024-10-24T03:50:33.741Z
DaveG solved 2024-10-24T03:52:09.345Z
Laura M solved 2024-10-24T08:42:08.260Z
lbray53 solved 2024-10-24T23:55:21.948Z
Danny K Bernstein solved 2024-10-25T01:39:34.676Z
DIS solved 2024-10-25T15:49:45.359Z
rfj solved 2024-10-26T01:43:01.051Z
DCBilly solved 2024-10-26T13:19:22.847Z
Mr Tex solved 2024-10-26T17:13:24.168Z
kurtalert solved 2024-10-28T21:18:20.562Z
jonny solved 2024-11-01T15:10:23.992Z
Sanna solved 2024-11-04T00:22:31.713Z
Comments
Sign in with google to leave a comment of your own:
Berto 1s · 2024-10-22T11:42:16.994Z
Woohoo!
Thought I’d (never) get there, but jumped out in the end! Thanks Ben!
Well done on being the first solver... by a good 4 hours!
Dave C 3s · 2024-10-22T15:49:17.657Z
Got the first step right away then struggled a bit to find the synonyms. Nice one.
MatthewL 🤓16:47 · 2024-10-22T22:48:46.586Z
Needed the nudges, but then kept saying -- what the heck is TINGHILL? Then finally remembered the cardinal rule of metanisms -- when in doubt, apply the rule again. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
^^^ Exactly! And yes, needed the nudges to pinpoint the synonyms -- was distracted by "other" synonyms in the grid such as RUE, LOATH (sic.) A week 4 doozy of a challenge to be sure, but terrific when I realized the necessary "jump" I had to make. Thanks, Ben!
Steve M 47:34 · 2024-10-23T00:50:12.285Z
I was looking for synonyms in the grid (without luck). Needed the nudge to find them in the clues. Thanks for the fun puzzle!
KayW 🤓3:46 · 2024-10-23T00:58:17.872Z
Wowza!! Took the nudges and (as usual) then asked myself why I needed them. Fantastic concept and construction, Ben. Thanks!
HeadinHome 🤓2:33 · 2024-10-23T02:26:35.935Z
Had given up on initialisms and figured this was one that just had to occur to you. Tried Inception, Unbroken, Unforgiven, Hitch…. The nudge to look in the clues is all it took. Duhhh…. (Even so, I thought I was way off when the word started “TINGH…”. Huh?? ( :
Yeah... the synonyms were hard for me. Had to read every grid entry and clue six times before I found them all. I sort of saw teeny bits of this but didn't really.
I really thought I had to do something about finding some word meaning pet inclusion. I didn't really think I was supposed to do something about putting negatives in.
Carolyn 4s · 2024-10-23T05:11:13.446Z
I had all eight words without the nudges but it took forever to find the synonyms. Good one!
TOUGH grid and puzzle. I got step one then faltered. I had the right idea because I was looking at LUNATIC for INANE but never thought to look in the clues...silly me. Needed that nudge to get me past what I already had. Loved the movie, and loved the last step.
lbray53 2s · 2024-10-24T11:01:01.952Z
I needed the last nudge. I saw PRACTICAL in the clues as a synonym for NANE and spent WAY too much time looking for more of those. Ironically, I connected TRANSCENDENT and HOLY but when I tried to use the last nudge my brain dismissed it because I was looking for first words and not single words.
Also, I struggled to see the How and DEBUNK connection, assuming that is correct.
Oh, this is super clever. I'm only now hearing about meta puzzles, but I'm amazed at the level of planning and creativity involved — amazing work! I felt like I was beginning to work out the meta puzzle as I was solving, which kept it from feeling like I hit an immediate hard wall. Lovely work.
Breakfast cereal based on everyone's favourite crossword cookie
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
Across
1A
Breakfast cereal based on everyone's favourite crossword cookie
7A
Sensible?
10A
Sin / Cos
13A
Tangled?
15A
"So adorable!"
17A
Details of a person's life, education, and career
18A
"Oh, but it just may be a ___ you're looking for" (lyric from Billy Joel's "You May Be Right")
19A
Separated colour (like "cyan", for example)
20A
Gift shop section (and also a song by Chris Lane if that helps)
22A
Prove?
23A
Chinook salmon
25A
Chinese electric vehicle company
26A
Cold-shoulder (with "out")
28A
"I can ___ obstacles in my way" (lyric from a Johnny Nash song)
31A
Play ___ (act)
35A
Actor, Ron ___, who was in a relationship with his ER co-star Julianna Margulies from 1991 to 2003
38A
1991 or 2003, for example
40A
Morgue in a short story by Edgar Allan Poe
41A
Confidence?
43A
Describable?
45A
Doubts that ___ exists (is a religious skeptic)
46A
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, ___
48A
Do some grapplin'
49A
Beginning stage
51A
Matthew Broderick movie, "___ Blues"
53A
Blog feed letters
55A
How-___ (instructional books)
56A
Japanese grapplin' (maybe that will help with 48 across)
60A
Love?
63A
Big laugh
66A
Silly spy movie, "___ Secret!"
67A
Chris Hemsworth and benchen71, for two
69A
French meatloaf named after the pottery mold it's cooked in
71A
Stinging plants
72A
Neat?
73A
"Mr. Blue Sky" band, for short
74A
Reactive?
75A
Common motel restriction (and given this entry contains the only negative in the entire puzzle - grid and clues - maybe you should do something about that!)
Down
1D
Planetary path
2D
Day when you finally get to use all those things you saved, perhaps
3D
Bring to mind, as a memory
4D
UK multi-volume lexicon
5D
Anna's "Frozen" snowman friend
6D
Like the teeth of someone listening to fingernails on a blackboard
7D
Tamarisk salt tree
8D
"Flashdance" actor, Michael ___
9D
Very long time
10D
South African bishop, Desmond ___
11D
Has ___ ear (is tone-deaf)
12D
Puncture site in a vampire movie, perhaps
14D
Character from the MTV animated series "Beavis and Butt-Head" who got her own self-titled spin-off
16D
Pole tossed at the Highland Games
21D
Transcendent
24D
"La Bamba" actor, ___ Morales
27D
Auto data company that sounds like a ridiculously superfluous communications accessory
29D
Belonging to 50 down
30D
"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" director, Ang ___
32D
Eyes, poetically
33D
Dormant period
34D
Very wide shoe
35D
Big name in toaster waffles
36D
Wild animal of the African savannahs
37D
Contents of a package from Netflix, once upon a time
39D
Iconic 60's brand for those with naturally curly hair that relaunched recently