The answer to the meta is what is excluded by the Law of the Excluded Middle
Goodness but this was one of the hardest grids I've ever put together! And yes, I know it didn't have to be a pangram; but when 39 down appeared early in proceedings, I just couldn't help myself. Ah well, let's hope all that effort was worth it. The answer to the meta is what is excluded by the Law of the Excluded Middle. Answer & explanation: https://xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=158125#p158125
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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I must ‘fess… Had to look up the law. Although not totally necessary for the solve, nice to be educated! Thanks Ben!
hoover 3s · 11 months ago
Nice one! I started out taking note of the letters that went into the space until I decided I didn't like them there and erased them. That made G--R E---Y pop right out.
That's exactly the solving route I was anticipating!
ReB 3s · 11 months ago
I did something similar, pondered the letter jumble for a minute or two, then had the idea to go back to the four horizontal words and look at the other letters (1D by the title I suspect). Since you had graciously placed the key words side-by-side, the answer popped right out.
HeadinHome 🤓1:38 · 11 months ago
Great puzzle! This theme sounds similar to a fallacy we learned in logic class, the “either/or” fallacy… either you agree with x, or you believe y. Also called false dilemma, or black-and-white thinking. (Examples I hear are often so blatant I sometimes wonder if anyone studies logic any more!)
Meg 2s · 11 months ago
Hiding in plain sight. Very nice!
Cindy Heisler 2s · 11 months ago
Always nice to learn something new. It took me a while to see, since I was concentrating on the middle letters. Nice "aha" moment! Thanks, Ben!
lbray53 4s · 11 months ago
Fun puzzle. I struggled for a bit. I was making a MT out of a MOAT.
Well done! One thing that was tricky for me was that to complete the grid, you had to fill in the correct "missing" letters, but those Across answers were unchecked (no second option to fill in). So for a while, silly me couldn't figure out ACTOR because I was overthinking the clue terribly! :)
In addition, your banner image is not an instance of excluded middle, as logicians use the term. You want: p or not-p. The formula you have is sometimes called non-contradiction (but that term is also used for the different but related principle that no claim is both true and false).
MatthewL 🤓8:44 · 11 months ago
Nice one. Was complaining to another muggle that I couldn't see what to do, and literally typed out "GR? EY?" and then, of course, immediately saw it. Hiding in plain sight indeed. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
Cool meta, but wow that grid was a workout! So many entries were new to me, and not knowing where the "extra" letters would go made it super tough to get a toehold. Thank goodness for autocheck — and glad I stuck it out to enjoy the clever aha at the end! Thanks, Ben!
Fun, after I got over the "WHAT?" factor. I can safely say I am bivalent, though not ambivalent....
Thanks Ben
whimsy 15:52 · 11 months ago
Have I got a (mistaken) solve story! I took the letters missing from the grid -- but I messed up what to use from the NW corner so I had AR (instead of EA), SSA, CTO, MM. I entered them into an anagram solver with two ??s, looking for something to go in the middle of ARSSA__CTOMM! I got the word ACHROMATISMS -- vaguely meaning stuff without color. When I remembered the Ebony and Ivory, I went with the answer of Grey and tacked on the Area just because of the expression. A one letter goof-up led me to a fifty cent word that led me to the right answer!
Thanks for this interesting and nearly double-duty puzzle, Ben!
Excellent. Let's have a cup of Earl Grey tea to celebrate! :-)
ReB 3s · 11 months ago
Enjoyable puzzle - I can see how difficult it was to construct. Started today, but it turned out to be a very straight path to the answer for me with no rabbit holes, no nudges needed. You never know when you start. Thanks.
lol I swear I tried that mechanism a couple of days ago and it didn't work. I think I spent too much time trying to do stuff with the extra letters, rather than ignoring them. But even after the nudge to ignore them I somehow couldn't make it work until just now, which it popped out instantly. Ah well. :) Fun one, thanks.
this was fun! i'm so ashamed of having to use the fourth nudge... i overcomplicated things by trying to manipulate the MIDDLE letters... and the gray/grey spelling threw me off hahaha