Melbourne experienced an earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale on the 22nd of September 2021. It was the biggest earthquake I've ever experienced, even though it only lasted for about 30 seconds and just made the house shake a little. What made it interesting, though, was that Melbourne was still in lockdown, but this was something we all experienced together. I made this crossword later that day to commemorate the moment! Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=106977#p106977
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!
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Comments
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Nicely done, Ben. Far greater minds than mine put these metas together, week after week after week. I'm not sure how you do it, but I sure am glad you do!
I K Snamhcok 2s · over 2 years ago
As I often do with MOAT, I needed to do a bit of googling to complete the grid. The nice thing about this: I usually learn things. Thanks, Ben!
This is one of my older puzzles so that might account for the grid difficulty. I try a lot harder to smooth out the fill these days!
Sharkicicles 2s · over 2 years ago
I like the tougher grids.
Cindy Heisler 3s · over 2 years ago
Not the easiest grid, but a fun meta. Very nice, Ben!
KayW 🤓13:39 · over 2 years ago
It took a while, but I finally CRACKED this one. Well done, Ben - thanks!
Wendy S HeadinHome 🤓5:19 · over 2 years ago
ELIF, ACOSSE, TALESE, TAPETA are all new to me, but the ability to pull LACUNA, APOLLO & ARTEMIS out of my old brain restored my sense of superior knowledge. . Glad you’re okay… we had a rumbler here a decade or more ago and for people who don’t expect or recognize a quake, it was pretty cool (no damage or it would not have been so cool). I was in a hammock on the back porch and felt the trembling, and my dog looked up at me with a puzzled look.
ReB 3s · over 2 years ago
Can't find any FAULT with this one, Ben. Nicely done, I anticipated the answer, but wasn't sure how it was going to show up in the puzzle. Fortunately it popped right up once I started with the long diagonals.
Bbaack 23:00 · over 2 years ago
Wow, a DC Talk reference! I still listen to Toby Mac. I would also expect a Newsboys clue to pop up sometime, given where they were from! Fun puzzle, thanks!
If I'd known there were more fans for 90s-era CCM I would definitely move my cluing in that direction!
Qmark 4s · over 2 years ago
Nice one, Ben!
Byron 🤓16:39 · over 2 years ago
Nice puzzle! You mean either "The meta answer comprises two words" or "The meta answer is composed of two words"
Ergcat 20:51 · over 2 years ago
I thought I submitted “fault lines” yesterday and it was incorrect . ( turned out I realized submitted “fault line” , singular…. So I tried again today and it worked!) So then I saw “after” scrambled in upper left corner and “shock” scrambled in middle right and submitted “after shock” but not right. I was really frustrated because I saw the diagonal fault lines, saw a scrambled “after shock” ( like after an earthquake) and couldn’t figure what you wanted! Looked up tectonics and saw “fault crossing” as a term so I tried that. Finally today realized I should try “fault lines” once more! And it worked! Still lost on your other meta “she sells seashells “ … even with the nudges! Not my week! Ha! Back to the WSJ puzzle
whimsy 🤓18:57 · over 2 years ago
Took me a while to see the obvious -- but that's the beauty of these!
Thanks, Ben!
Carolyn 4s · over 2 years ago
I've been very distracted this week so needed the nudges, even though I figured it had to be something like that. Excellent construction. Thanks
Diagonals are always hard to see. I did notice a plethora of Fs but couldn't work them out without the nudges.
Sharkicicles 2s · over 2 years ago
Immediately saw the fault lines, then tried to make sense of the letters around the lines… put it aside, looked at the nudges, saw I had already found them… finally said “what if the answer’s just fault lines?” Totally overthought it. Great meta!