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What a pair
◆◆ · By woozy · Published 2022-09-18T17:53:26.746Z
Meta Prompt
The answer to the puzzle is a poem
This came to me after a trivia question that was right up my alley on Tuesday. This may be one of my better puzzles. I think the theme and mechanism is clever and there are other hints to the answer that you may be able to guess without even doing the meta. I hope it all works and blends together.
Other then necessary theme entries there are no "woozyism"s; there was one short one but I decided to replace it with a "How the hell are we supposed to know that" clue (You aren't, but you should get the cross entries and make educated guesses at some letters and you can use St. Wikipedia to verify afterwards ... or just google from the start, no-one's judging you). There are a total of 3 of those in this puzzle which if the cross entries are clear is, I believe, an acceptable number. (You may replace one clue with the woozyism "Was it the 16th letter?" if you prefer)
Checking for previous play data...
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
- hoover solved 2022-09-18T18:46:13.115Z
- Gutman solved 2022-09-18T18:51:25.593Z
- markhr solved 2022-09-18T20:30:32.082Z
- Cindy Weatherman solved 2022-09-18T20:50:01.302Z
- Meg solved 2022-09-18T20:59:02.975Z
- ReB solved 2022-09-18T21:01:06.167Z
- Hector solved 2022-09-18T22:23:59.461Z
- Mwoychick solved 2022-09-18T23:13:52.372Z
- benchen71 solved 2022-09-19T05:07:44.783Z
- zonkswonk solved 2022-09-19T06:10:19.280Z
- SeamusOL solved 2022-09-19T07:17:14.218Z
- Hailey solved 2022-09-19T13:54:25.243Z
- Mr Tex solved 2022-09-19T19:05:32.725Z
- emmie solved 2022-09-20T03:44:33.294Z
- boharr solved 2022-09-20T16:56:24.965Z
- kurtalert solved 2022-09-21T00:59:13.742Z
- Capn Rick solved 2022-09-22T19:57:42.408Z
- I K Snamhcok solved 2022-09-23T01:18:46.475Z
- dplass solved 2022-09-23T02:03:03.718Z
- whimsy solved 2022-09-24T03:02:28.809Z
- sledge solved 2022-09-24T17:01:36.767Z
- rickybillingsgate solved 2022-09-26T02:47:53.204Z
Comments
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- Gutman 3s · 2022-09-18T18:54:07.312ZWell done. I loved the Cool Hand Luke reference. 35A is Shea
- Thank you for being kind, but if the answer to 35A is "SHEA" rather than "SHAE" as I made it, then it is simply an error and a mistake and wrong and there is no way to sugar coat it.Thank you for pointing it out. I will have to fix it. Sadly it may be a less perfect clue but with look I'll find a SHAE that is not too obscure.
- Oh, I see what happened. I went from wikipedia's page for SHAE to the disambiguation page for SHEA without noting the change in spelling and not asking myself "why the separate page and why is nothing on this page on the other". I really have no excuse but sometimes when you a disparately looking for the right clue and one seems to fall in you lap you overlook proofing...... sigh.... Okay, other SHAE's......
- Gutman 3s · 2022-09-18T23:35:04.209ZWoozy, loved the puzzle. I wasn’t trying to nit pick. Hope you didn’t take it that way. American actress D’lyn would work.
- If you can refresh past a cach I went with the Game of Thrones character. That seemed the best. ... but it's rather odd the wikipedia has a long list of people with last name Shea, a short list of people with first name Shae, but no list of people with last name Shae...
- hoover 7s · 2022-09-18T18:47:17.796ZOne of my favorite childhood poems!
- markhr 28:01 · 2022-09-18T20:38:24.164ZClever puzzle. Tough grid, but the meta came together quite nicely.
- ReB 40:51 · 2022-09-18T21:09:29.861ZAmazing that you found eight words of seven letters each that differed from each other by only one letter - and that you could get these letters to spell out a color. And then you added some hints (evident in retrospect) including 4D, 31D, 50DCool Hand Luke reference was neat. First time I've seen "broccoli rabe" as a crossword item
- Hector 19:36 · 2022-09-18T22:36:09.993ZEnjoyed this one! I do worry that the owl and pussycat were evil colonialists who exploited the pig.
- Very nice! I got it from the themers (OWL + CAT) without even getting to PEAGREEN. But that made it all the more fun to keep going to find the BOAT COLOR.
- kurtalert 14:23 · 2022-09-21T01:01:42.958ZClever. Had fun solving this! And not crazy frustrating for once, I feel like I’m getting stumped a lot recently.
- I K Snamhcok 11s · 2022-09-23T01:19:42.015ZTres bien!
- whimsy 31:14 · 2022-09-24T03:12:19.644ZI think you're right! -- best one yet -- in spite of any blips that can always be fixed -- Thanks, woozy! Way to go! (by boat naturally-- and don't forget your runcible spoon -- always loved that phrase!)
1A
Entices
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Across
- 1AEntices
- 7ARecent celebrity
- 14AContends with resolutely; "he ------ the raging sea; Head-on he breaks the waves" Agamemnon (Seneca)
- 16AAirbnb ---? Choices, choices....
- 17AVessel for cooking the meatiest part of the lobster
- 18ACovering for the pot to keep the seeped beverage hot
- 19AReady
- 20A15 square km island in Croatia between Permuda and Olib
- 22ADining room piece (rather the most important one, don't you think?)
- 23AA tool for punching bottle-holes into leather over-garments.
- 25AOaks to be
- 30ASteadfast; loyal
- 31ALabel
- 34ATaboos
- 35ACharacter in "The Game of Thrones"; Tyrion Lannister's mistress who is eventually bought into testifying against him and eventually comes to a bad end.
- 36ADead or decaying organic matter (prefix)
- 37AThe portion of the July 4th entertainment where they turn off the stage-lights and the performers tap-dance while being illuminated only by the light-sticks they are wearing one their wrists and ankles
- 39AApproach, dejected, and in utter humiliation
- 41AGehrig, Reed, Rawls, Costello, Dobbs, Ferrigno, Diamond Phillips, Gottleib, et al.
- 42ALeafy Vegetable; Broccoli -----
- 44ABritish prisons
- 45ABe human
- 46AProtagonist
- 47AUbiquitous diner franchise
- 48A"The Story of Ferdinand" by Munro Leaf, for example
- 50ABoxer Mike
- 53ABrief engagement
- 55A___ mai (Asian dumplings)
- 58AThis might be an insurmountable obstacle attempting to light a furnace in a damp basement
- 60APortable bed for sleeping outside on your mowed yard
- 62AExpression used to imply an action that is unusual or stupid is normal and reasonable. "I was trying to sort my recipes by frequency of the letter M, -----, when I noticed that I had misspelled 'Rin-Tin-Tin' in my cheese souffle recipe"
- 63AGoes to the fitting room with
- 64AAn avian Pokemon with a portmanteau name; they evolve to Fearows apparently (I don't get that game)
- 65AWhat 58A probably won't do
Down
- 1DBelonging to Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation
- 2D----- Stanley Gardner
- 3DEdible flesh of an animal
- 4DAnd here, at the end of the animals leg, you'll find this
- 5DThere are 192 of them in a qt.
- 6DImperturbable ones
- 7DNeither hide nor hair
- 8DPrior prior
- 9D"----- have here is a failure to communicate"
- 10DCentral (to one's attention)
- 11DRunning the gamut from the very beginning all the way to 2/26th from the beginning
- 12DSoulful searching cry in the night
- 13DPopular fashion magazine
- 15DNormandy town; site of 1944 battle
- 21DA washing or soaking of all or part of the body
- 24DHungarian violinist Leopold, or his grandson Russian actor Misha
- 25DPerspective (as it were)
- 26DCracking the meta mechanism does not reveal the poem. It reveals one of these.
- 27D"You and me burning matches Lifting latches, --- way back home" (from "I Dig a Pygmy by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids")
- 28DThis grid has 15
- 29DSupersecret org.
- 31DAnd here, at the end of the animals leg, you'll find this
- 32DFittingly
- 33DEww
- 35DInitiates at an unhurried pace
- 36DGraceful bird
- 38DWork force
- 40DMature
- 43DThe 26D that you get when you crack the meta mechansim is the 26D of one of these in the poem.
- 46DHigh respect; esteem (Brt.)
- 47DBasic monetary units of North Macedonia
- 48DWarm chocolate drink that'd be really nice right now, wouldn't it?
- 49DJaunty tune
- 50D--- Brillig and the slithey toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe
- 51DICAO Code for Esperance Airport in Western Australia.
- 52DEye annoyance
- 54DTiny branch
- 55DPeripheral port technology now mostly obsolete. ("Is your printer -----?" "No, it's clean and legitimate!")
- 56DSoulful searching cry in the night
- 57DMagazine that once awarded the Independent Press Awards
- 59DCommotion
- 61DBantoid language of Cameroon
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