CROSSHAREmoreMenu
Wrapping paper
◆ · By ajk · Published 2024-04-14T04:00:11.376Z
Meta Prompt
The meta answer is a plural noun
This puzzle had been mostly finished for a while, but with the revival of the SSS I dusted it off and decided to finish it. With significant help from Cap'n Rick that improved the fill (and eliminated yet another of those wee crimson fish), it finally became sufficiently presentable. Thanks as always to Joe Ross for tech support.
This one might play a little choppier than the average SSS, but fear not, nudges will surface soon. Solution on Saturday.
Hope you enjoy!
cheers,
Alan
Nudges:
Nudge 1: The title has two words. Both are helpful.
Nudge 2: One of them appears in several clues.
Nudge 3: OK, we have 5 clues with the word paper in them, cluing the long acrosses. Now what? Try applying both title words to those entries.
Nudge 4: Each of those long acrosses is 'wrapped' in a type of paper (each of which is 4 letters).
Nudge 5: OK, now we have 5 new words. Did any of them come to mind while you were filling out the grid?
Nudge 6: You need to find 5 alternate entries
Checking for previous play data...
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
- Schmeel solved 2024-04-14T05:49:16.011Z
- Dow Jones solved 2024-04-14T07:39:05.589Z
- Cindy Heisler solved 2024-04-14T12:27:27.352Z
- Wendy Walker solved 2024-04-14T12:55:08.930Z
- Darth solved 2024-04-14T13:26:25.009Z
- Qmark solved 2024-04-14T13:44:21.217Z
- Bird Lives solved 2024-04-14T13:45:28.833Z
- boharr solved 2024-04-14T13:53:17.627Z
- Meg solved 2024-04-14T13:53:39.511Z
- Hector solved 2024-04-14T13:56:01.317Z
- I K Snamhcok solved 2024-04-14T14:03:50.643Z
- JM solved 2024-04-14T14:24:00.711Z
- LarsCaine solved 2024-04-14T14:27:42.280Z
- Alex Sisti solved 2024-04-14T15:02:17.241Z
- hoover solved 2024-04-14T15:40:56.351Z
- MatthewL solved 2024-04-14T15:41:24.518Z
- Gutman solved 2024-04-14T15:44:11.861Z
- Pair O Ducks solved 2024-04-14T15:49:16.736Z
- Tom Wilson solved 2024-04-14T15:58:31.779Z
- DCBilly solved 2024-04-14T16:10:26.769Z
- Capn Rick solved 2024-04-14T16:15:29.101Z
- Carolyn solved 2024-04-14T16:30:39.509Z
- woozy solved 2024-04-14T17:17:09.853Z
- CPJohnson solved 2024-04-14T18:31:20.000Z
- Philip Chow solved 2024-04-14T18:31:39.002Z
- whimsy solved 2024-04-14T18:44:00.153Z
- KayW solved 2024-04-14T19:16:21.803Z
- michaelm solved 2024-04-14T20:22:30.004Z
- Jeremy Smith solved 2024-04-14T21:12:16.809Z
- BarbaraK solved 2024-04-14T21:23:26.624Z
- Kulea solved 2024-04-14T21:32:13.926Z
- omnilynx solved 2024-04-14T21:36:44.639Z
- Sharkicicles solved 2024-04-14T22:10:53.908Z
- heidi solved 2024-04-14T23:46:39.005Z
- Anita and Steve solved 2024-04-15T00:39:52.717Z
- Berto solved 2024-04-15T01:00:58.669Z
- andeux solved 2024-04-15T02:00:18.303Z
- rjy solved 2024-04-15T03:12:59.511Z
- markhr solved 2024-04-15T05:03:42.413Z
- potemkinish solved 2024-04-15T06:57:17.898Z
- HeadinHome solved 2024-04-15T12:17:08.408Z
- DrTom solved 2024-04-15T13:06:21.972Z
- DIS solved 2024-04-15T14:24:15.588Z
- Jaclyn solved 2024-04-15T16:29:52.976Z
- JHSeeman solved 2024-04-15T17:03:38.578Z
- Abide solved 2024-04-15T17:55:08.121Z
- Laura M solved 2024-04-15T18:40:40.995Z
- Eric Porter solved 2024-04-15T19:16:56.601Z
- Mwoychick solved 2024-04-16T19:06:25.173Z
- Johnny Luau solved 2024-04-19T17:29:14.293Z
- Chris Barbee solved 2024-04-21T23:40:51.008Z
- dooiemus solved 2024-04-25T07:00:39.366Z
Comments
Sign in with google to leave a comment of your own:
- Schmeel 52s · 2024-04-14T05:49:53.884ZA fine present for a Sunday morning - thanks for the puzzle!
- Cindy Heisler 2s · 2024-04-14T12:29:09.348ZWell, I got the rest, but I'm still not sure where the G comes from. Nonetheless, a great way to begin my Sunday. Thanks, Alan.
- BOND (from BOOKSTAND) is another answer to 9A "A connection of sorts" -- hence the G in GLUE.
- Such a clever idea, Alan! I had some trouble with the 29A/26D crossing because I had LURED IN for 10D instead of LURED ON and NSA for 35A instead of NSC, but I backsolved for the I. Might be the first time I've ever seen DRUPE in a grid!
- Thanks :) As for DRUPE, I tried very hard to make it disappear from this grid too
- HeadinHome 3:26 · 2024-04-15T12:27:51.621ZSimilar! That was the crunchiest bit. I had NSA too, and LUREDIN, and had PRUNE rather than DRUPE (thinking well a branch doesn’t prune, but you do it to a branch?? And, I had to google to correct the Star Trek entry — completely unfamiliar, so PSN sounded as likely as DSN).
- Yeah, sorry about that. I swear I tried to make that part better several times. :)
- Bird Lives 4s · 2024-04-14T13:49:10.124ZIt's a wrap. Neat idea. Now all you have to do is construct one for ROCK and another for SCISSORS to complete the trilogy.
- I think there was a ROCK one a while back? Now where are all the cut-ups!
- Qmark 3s · 2024-04-14T13:44:42.615Zloved it...thanks Alan!
- boharr 3s · 2024-04-14T13:53:36.793ZThanks, Alan
- Meg 9:16 · 2024-04-14T13:54:53.942ZNice one, Alan!
- I K Snamhcok 2s · 2024-04-14T14:04:33.892ZFun! Thanks, Alan!
- MatthewL 🤓10:00 · 2024-04-14T15:42:04.250ZFun present to open. Thanks for the puzzle, Alan!
- Carolyn 2s · 2024-04-14T16:31:29.483ZNice one! Thanks
- Good puzzle.BOOK+STAND => NEWS + STAND => NEWSPAPER; FISH => FISH+WRAP = NEWSPAPER led me down a deep, deep rabbit hole.PAPER BOOK and TEXT PAPER were near misses but the whole thing couldn't follow through.
- whimsy 15:57 · 2024-04-14T18:54:00.492ZA combo of nudges and backsolving did it for me. I had to see NE....WS to understand that the wrapping was not outside the themers. With that thought, I was onto the solution, reminding myself that rice doesn't usually come in a tamale but that it's often as ubiquitous as taro!FISH as 5A kept nagging at me as I pictured Fish and Chips wrapped in newspaper! Thanks for a good one, Alan!
- Well done - take a bow!
- Sharkicicles 2s · 2024-04-14T22:11:58.670ZNnno nnnudges nnneeded. Thanks for the great puzzle!
- HeadinHome 3:26 · 2024-04-15T12:21:19.966ZNo nudges needed (though I did have to use a check for one letter. This took a while to spot! My WAG was going to be “Giftwraps” since that would follow the pattern of the themers (9 letters), but since “wrap” was in the title I figured that couldn’t be. I was very close with my first attempt at methods: take the first and last letters and see what I could make. Discovering the ACTUAL method was exciting!
- Very nice! I actually got messed up because I saw CREE and DRUPE (and odd word of course) as CREPE so tried that mechanism of "wrapping". Took me a while to see the first TExtstoRM and then I found the others and only then did I see you gave us a hint to each one in the clue. Once I had those, and exhausted the clue and answer first letter, I saw "TERM for..." (again that odd word - I was hoping to get the drupe on you I guess?) so looked for BOOK or NEWS in clues. But it all came together nicely, thanks Alan, fun one and challenging enough that I feel like I have accomplished something.
- Glad you enjoyed, thanks. As mentioned above I worked hard at getting rid of that DRUPE entry.
- JHSeeman 2s · 2024-04-15T17:04:36.046Zfinally getting to this at lunch on Monday...perfect timing, finished puzzle when finished lunch. Great puzzle, thanks.
- Laura M 🤓20:09 · 2024-04-15T18:40:59.667ZNice! Got it late but without hints.
- Good one! Havent’ been following SSS until I posted a puzzle today so I thought I would go back and solve the one before mine. Clever!
1A
Rental dwellings (abbr.)
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
Across
- 1ARental dwellings (abbr.)
- 5ASearch for
- 9AConnection of sorts
- 13AOne of Canada's largest First Nations
- 14AIt's in Pennsylvania (yes, that one)
- 15ATerm for pitted fruit (that sounds like something branches do)
- 16AOnslaught of well wishes from friends who spot your name in the paper, perhaps
- 18AMiddle age servants?
- 19AOne way to add without numbers
- 20AImportant information
- 21ADisco ____ (Simpson's character)
- 22AToo cute, casually
- 25ABiblical land that reverses to a method (as of transportation)
- 27ADefensive structure
- 29AState of agitation between people, maybe caused by serving legal papers
- 31ATatum, Ryan, and Shaquille
- 34AHerr's partner
- 35APresidential advisory grp. dealing with threats to the U.S.
- 36AUtility statement that once came exclusively on paper
- 39AImportant corporate moment
- 42ATiny bit
- 43AClean up hitter, typically
- 47AType of Oxford/Cambridge competition that might be announced in the paper
- 50APacific food staple
- 51ATaiwanese computer maker
- 52AProperty, as a vineyard
- 55AQuite the trip?
- 56ADangerous companion?
- 58AIt might come in a corn husk
- 60ANaysayers
- 61ADevice for displaying a collection of papers
- 64APeriod of service
- 65AFaithful
- 66ACommon jazz group
- 67A____ Le Pew (cartoon character)
- 68ASome NCOs
- 69AMuch of them might be about nothing?
Down
- 1DPlay part
- 2D"Twins" and "Jerry Maguire" actress Kelly
- 3DFeel
- 4DThey look for ETs
- 5DFoul, as a swamp
- 6DAttach, as some patches
- 7DElton, Paul, or Mick
- 8DGarment boundary
- 9DGrimm gal
- 10DLed, as by a siren to rocks
- 11DAscending air currents
- 12DMany M.I.T. grads
- 15DStar Trek series based on a station not a ship, briefly
- 17DMadrid mrs.
- 20DEl Al competitor
- 21DIts arrivals are handled by NorCal approach
- 23DDeflect, as a light beam
- 24DSharp remark
- 26DAdvanced deg. in math or biology, say
- 28D"I ____ a puddy cat" (Tweety Pie observation)
- 30DTulip shape
- 32DVillain's digs
- 33DPut away
- 37DAirport predictions
- 38DNot dark
- 39DRetirement option
- 40DSpicy, as salsa
- 41DLeave a hundred for a cup of coffee, say
- 44DThe male's head is iridescent green
- 45DFormer talk show host Hall
- 46DSilent affirmation
- 48DRegal fur
- 49DOne way to avoid doing dishes?
- 53DProceeds or opinions
- 54DCertain dashes
- 57DD.C. winter hours
- 59DEncouraging start for boy or girl?
- 60DCleopatra's bane
- 61DKorean boy band
- 62DNon-profit domain?
- 63DPart of the original PC operating system
Loading...