Those of you with long memories will perhaps have an advantage solving this one, given that this is a companion meta to one that ran in 2023. While I've scheduled this one as a "week 4", it may prove to be a little easier than that. And there's a hint in the grid, so be on the look out! The answer to the meta is 15-letters long. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=180333#p180333
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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“Superfluousness” itself seems a bit too many letters! (Superfluity?) This was a good challenge and a real head scratcher for a while. “Beautify” bothered me (thinking shouldn’t that be BEATIFY? Why wouldn’t he say “make more attractive”, not blessed?). 37A and 43A also seemed just not quite right, then the clue at 69A made it all make sense!
Well THAT was fun!! STYLE was my first inroad, but probably because I was looking for something like that. Enjoyed finding the double meanings, very well hidden and quite appropriate. I think ESSE is South African though, not that it really matters. Maybe South Africa is considered Indonesia in Australia, I mean you guys have different names for everything.
Thanks Ben
HeadinHome 🤓1:42 · 8 months ago
…also, now going back and doing the companion puzzle… which apparently I missed, or I would see the puzzle completed in Crosshare when I click on it (I assume).
MatthewL 🤓8:55 · 8 months ago
Woof. That was not easy. But, kept plugging away and finally got it. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
hoover 2s · 8 months ago
The one that got me was 37A because I tried to fill in STYES before realizing that the crossing entries didn't work. So I was primed for BEAUTIFY/BEATIFY when I got there.
Lol. Well, I knew I needed the U in there, so I was thinking: Does a BOY mark a channel? I'd never heard of the word BEATIFY before, so I learned something. :D Fun puz, Ben!
Meg 1:41 · 8 months ago
Nice one!!
Carolyn 2s · 8 months ago
Fun!
Berto 1s · 8 months ago
Fun! Thanks Ben
Dave C 4s · 8 months ago
Fun. The cross that got me started was buoy/beautify and then right away I was looking for superfluous...
Wow, did I love this one, Ben! Saw the mechanism early on, and loved the search for the 15 letters, especially the AB/FAB one. And of course reading the story of 11D on Wikipedia. Still have to look up and watch the commercial, but definitely will. Thanks again Ben!
Steve M 42:53 · 8 months ago
Great puzzle. I really liked that you had “one too many” columns for a 15 x 15 and suspected that we needed to “get rid of” one letter from each row. I actually tried to guess at an answer by doing this before finding the right mechanism to get the letters. Thanks!
lukadisgre 🤓8:05 · 8 months ago
Anther great one Ben! Weirdly enough, I initially thought PUP was the alternative to PUPA if you stretch the clue really hard, but eventually I got it.
Clever. Needed all the nudges. I saw the extra S thing in VITESE/VITESSE right away, but I got too fixated on double letters or double SSs. Then I got fixated on just removing Ss and nothing else (and alot of words appear). As soon as I started doing the correct thing (thanks nudge 4) I saw SUPE and knew it would be SUPERFLUOUS, and then once I got to the last 4 rows it only took a couple of beats to see the N and realize what the last 4 letters were. Fun one, even though I couldn't figure it out.
whimsy 16:09 · 8 months ago
Hadn't realized that the effected Down remained a word too -- very nice -- Thanks, Ben!