Speak Plainly! (Meta)

CROSSHARE

Just the ticket

Across

1A
Just the ticket
6A
They cross rds
9A
Toaster waffles
14A
___cotta (earthenware)
15A
Forty winks
16A
Two-door auto
17A
Like a babe in the woods
18A
Taika Waititi's spouse, Rita ___
19A
Every time you turn around
20A
Less than a few
22A
"Say ___ so!"
23A
Give it a whirl
24A
Tarzan portrayer Ron et al.
25A
Striped stones
29A
Light-bulb moment
33A
Forest units
34A
Happen next
35A
What you hear when a dove cries?
36A
At sea
37A
Language with a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words, which gets in the way of plain speaking at the drop of a hat
38A
Spill the beans
39A
Narcissist's problem
40A
Block a river again
41A
___ paneer (Indian dish made with spinach)
42A
On cloud nine
44A
Lone Star State residents
45A
Out of the wind
46A
Do a vanishing act
47A
Start of Shakespeare's best-known sonnet
50A
Thiamin or riboflavin, for example
55A
Play by ear
56A
Typical airliner
57A
Also-ran
58A
"... ___ man with seven wives"
59A
Lead up the garden path
60A
Shire of "Rocky" films
61A
More amiable
62A
Slip-___ (some shoes)
63A
Cry uncle

Down

1D
"Give ___ further thought"
2D
College official
3D
Lake, canal, or city in Pennsylvania
4D
Australian P.M.
5D
Ophelia's brother
6D
Quite white
7D
Poi ingredient
8D
Health club
9D
Environmental subgroup
10D
"I don't have that card so you'll need to take one from the deck"
11D
Entrails
12D
Ready for customers
13D
In the mail
21D
___-80 (old Radio Shack computer on which I learned how to program in BASIC)
22D
Pelvic bone
24D
___ salts (bath additive)
25D
Tamil director Arun Kumar's professional name
26D
The Child's name in "The Mandalorian"
27D
Fable writer
28D
Vietnamese festival
29D
30-ton computer of the '40s and '50s
30D
Fast Amtrak train
31D
Artist Sidney ___ (known for his paintings of Ned Kelly)
32D
Egg centres
34D
Perfect Broadway songwriter (for "Beetlejuice" and "King Kong")
37D
Middle words of a famous palindrome
38D
Put a strain on
40D
Race car safety feature
41D
Punishment imposed for breaking a law
43D
Rock salt
44D
Boy king of Egypt
46D
Sacred ceremonies
47D
Healthy, in Paris
48D
Port in a TV
49D
Obi-Wan portrayer
50D
Blood vessel
51D
Easter Island statues
52D
___ of Wight
53D
First name of he who took one small step for a man
54D
Bird of Hollywood
56D
Jenny from the Block, for short

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Darth 11:41 · 2024-11-12T13:26:22.978Z

Well, that was slightly frustrating. Lol. Thanks, Ben.

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-12T20:20:44.684Z
Sorry about that. That wasn't my intention. I thought this would be a nice fun "week 2"!

kurtalert 🤓4:59 · 2024-11-12T16:26:33.316Z

LMAO. Dude.

Hector 3s · 2024-11-12T16:51:40.583Z

Loved it, but 1 and 5 aren't letters :-)

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-12T20:19:36.885Z
I guess it's not quite as literal as I would have liked.

boharr 3s · 2024-11-12T19:05:48.355Z

I always loved those letters 1 and 5.

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-12T20:20:17.105Z
Yes, but if the hint had said "a 15-character phrase" it would have looked suspicious and been wrong as well!
- JM 🤓11:05 · 2024-11-12T21:28:33.579Z
  Interesting dilemma— “a 18 character phrase” adds up but ain’t so hot grammatically.
- boharr 3s · 2024-11-13T00:56:26.390Z
  Needed a different and fairer prompt I'm afraid.

MatthewL 🤓7:06 · 2024-11-12T21:03:01.534Z

Very tricksy, Ben. I suspect that you've been flooded with Crosshare guesses that contain any number of phrases from the intro. Thanks for the puzzle!

hoover 2s · 2024-11-12T20:59:37.229Z

Dang it! I almost typed that in six hours ago, after my third guess "ANSWER TO THE META" didn't work.

woozy 12:08 · 2024-11-12T21:27:13.580Z

Someone has to say it.

that's called a "prompt" not a note and
1 and 5 are not letters.

And no one has to say this

"signed and sealed" is 15 letters that literally means in the Nate.

Okay. Full puzzle. Even if impossible to get. Thanks.

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-12T22:40:35.183Z
Fair cop, guv. Sorry for the undue frustration!

Carolyn 3s · 2024-11-12T22:21:36.820Z

Oh my! Not what I expected, but clever, I guess....

Morendil 🤓10:00 · 2024-11-12T23:43:08.300Z

Phew. Light bulb finally went on.

KayW 🤓4:33 · 2024-11-13T01:29:55.767Z

Without the nudges, I found all the idioms and IN NOTE LITERALLY. First I tried BETWEEN THE LINES (which is 15-letters and could be something "literally in a note"). Then I tried IN NOTE LITERALLY. Then I read the nudges and slapped my forehead. Good one, Ben!!!

DrTom 4s · 2024-11-12T21:40:30.516Z

Hey stop picking on 1 and 5; 1'm 5erious

Bird Lives 5s · 2024-11-13T01:31:48.368Z

I parsed the letters correctly and looked for a fifteen-letter phrase that was already on the screen. The long clue for IDIOM, a clue that was obviously a key to the solution, ended with "at the drop of a hat." Fifteen letters. True, it was not "in note" but rather in clue, but it seemed to work.

DrTom 4s · 2024-11-12T21:39:27.520Z

Well THAT was diabolical! You are right, the "15 letter" was misleading. I think "The meta answer is 15 characters long" would not have been too much of a tip off, but hey it is not my puzzle. But in the end, every cloud had a silver lining; I gave it the old college try even if I banged about like a bull in a china shop.

Thanks for the workout Ben

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-13T05:32:54.377Z
It would have to be "The meta is 16 characters long" (for a meta answer of "16 CHARACTERS LONG"). But, as you say, that would have been too much of a tip off. Plus, I really liked the fact that the letters derived from the grid also gave you a 15-letter phrase: IN NOTE LITERALLY.

HeadinHome 3:52 · 2024-11-13T03:36:07.457Z

Oh for Pete’s sake. Starin’ right at it. I needed the nudge about what the “note” referred to .. have never used a puz file.

benchen71 constructor · 2024-11-13T05:33:53.285Z
This never occurred to me! I'm going to chalk this one up to my lack of test solvers!!

lbray53 3s · 2024-11-13T15:06:55.339Z

Like Bird Lives, I picked up on 37A. The "at the drop of a hat" seemed like an extraneous note added to the end of the clue. I submitted that and of course it was wrong. But then, that phrase had 15 letters but was an idiom, so not literal. What does the phrase mean literally?

"Do it immediately" has 15 letters. NOPE.

Well, a quick search yielded that "at the drop of a hat" was how races were started, so I submitted:
The start of a race. NOPE When a race starts. NOPE

I also struggled accepting 15 as a letter.

I think my answers were defensible at least. But hey! No skin off my nose. (another 15-letter phrase by the way)

hoover 2s · 2024-11-14T06:21:25.928Z
That's because in Strine, "15" is not a letter, but two.

Capn Rick 🤓7:18 · 2024-11-16T17:55:41.824Z

Ben, you tricky rascal you! This would've made a great April Fools Day meta.

ajk 🤓9:31 · 2025-01-21T20:52:29.820Z

Lol continuing my trek back through this semester's puzzles, and I had the same solving experience as others did a couple of months before me.

Instantly got to INNOTELITERALLY but that parsed as gibberish, even when I had it right (i.e. I wrote IN NOTE LITERALLY and then was still lost). Even with the nudge about the puz file I didn't get it. Needed the shove of nudge 6. Not my favorite one of the series. :) But I admire the effort and creativity. :)

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