CROSSHARE
Print Puzzle
Download .puz File
Account / Settings
Construct a Puzzle
Profile

Count Off Into Teams

· By Pandora's Blocks Meta Crosswords · Published 2023-01-01T14:00:25.787Z

Meta Prompt
The answer to this week's meta are things in the news this week.
Thanks for solving! You can find all 100 Pandora's Blocks puzzles here: https://crosshare.org/PBWMC.
Checking for previous play data...

Leaderboard (updated hourly)

  • FrankieHeck solved 2023-01-01T14:51:20.750Z
  • oldjudge solved 2023-01-01T16:06:01.143Z
  • HeadinHome solved 2023-01-01T16:22:28.177Z
  • Meg solved 2023-01-01T17:38:43.603Z
  • boharr solved 2023-01-01T18:51:45.200Z
  • Hector solved 2023-01-01T21:11:32.672Z
  • raceyamatt solved 2023-01-01T21:29:17.794Z
  • Gutman solved 2023-01-01T22:14:13.190Z
  • Emma Oxford solved 2023-01-01T22:16:01.222Z
  • RPardoe solved 2023-01-02T00:20:10.852Z
  • BarbaraK solved 2023-01-02T01:21:52.645Z
  • I K Snamhcok solved 2023-01-02T01:34:13.315Z
  • hashbrown solved 2023-01-02T02:18:27.360Z
  • Dave C solved 2023-01-02T03:55:46.057Z
  • hazmat solved 2023-01-02T14:10:24.892Z
  • Alex Sisti solved 2023-01-02T14:37:56.118Z
  • lbray53 solved 2023-01-02T17:14:03.262Z
  • Matt A solved 2023-01-02T22:12:48.676Z
  • Golem solved 2023-01-03T01:05:30.504Z
  • Pair O Ducks solved 2023-01-03T12:05:03.870Z
  • whimsy solved 2023-01-03T17:41:34.802Z
  • CPJohnson solved 2023-01-03T21:08:53.665Z
  • Cindy Heisler solved 2023-01-03T22:11:02.117Z
  • Mwoychick solved 2023-01-04T00:04:59.676Z
  • JM solved 2023-01-04T01:41:01.311Z
  • MajordomoTom solved 2023-01-04T03:18:56.985Z
  • Schmeel solved 2023-01-04T14:29:39.503Z
  • Louis D solved 2023-01-04T15:09:41.297Z
  • donutrobot solved 2023-01-04T17:24:23.553Z
  • BrennerTJ solved 2023-01-04T20:37:01.303Z
  • KathleenTM solved 2023-01-04T22:40:11.770Z
  • KayW solved 2023-01-04T22:48:12.100Z
  • MARR71 solved 2023-01-05T15:10:11.587Z
  • Account solved 2023-01-05T17:39:06.891Z
  • THC solved 2023-01-05T18:34:46.410Z
  • spotter solved 2023-01-05T19:40:58.251Z
  • Deepak B solved 2023-01-06T02:44:09.497Z
  • DrTom solved 2023-01-06T04:45:10.579Z
  • benchen71 solved 2023-01-06T20:58:11.260Z
  • Ryley solved 2023-01-07T01:53:58.951Z
  • ReB solved 2023-01-07T02:02:50.952Z
  • Bird Lives solved 2023-01-07T03:49:36.024Z
  • JeffPrug solved 2023-01-07T06:04:19.977Z
  • ChrisCross solved 2023-01-07T17:33:50.538Z
  • Abide solved 2023-01-07T21:57:13.304Z
  • Jimbo solved 2023-01-07T22:33:28.371Z
  • Tom Moose solved 2023-01-08T02:49:14.896Z
  • Rand solved 2023-01-08T02:54:39.355Z
  • Meta World Peace solved 2023-01-08T04:02:49.948Z
  • Burakodrama solved 2023-01-08T05:25:41.805Z
  • James Brawner solved 2023-01-08T19:37:29.758Z
  • TheFusionMoose solved 2023-01-10T01:51:46.326Z
  • Sendhil Revuluri solved 2024-01-13T23:25:39.756Z
  • coffeeandcrosswords solved 2024-07-15T03:08:02.899Z

Comments

Sign in with google to leave a comment of your own:

  • FrankieHeck 🤓9:33 · 2023-01-01T14:53:23.217Z
    Outstanding puzzle! Happy New Year!
    • oldjudge 3s · 2023-01-01T16:17:19.946Z
      Fun puzzle Will--great to have you back on Sundays
      • HeadinHome 🤓22:47 · 2023-01-01T16:24:29.827Z
        A classic meta that was fun to decode!
        • Meg 4s · 2023-01-01T17:39:56.912Z
          Nice one! I was quite stumped with my word squares until I thought to check the clues.
          • boharr 3s · 2023-01-01T18:52:49.439Z
            My WAG was Bowl Games. Close. Great puzzle. Thanks Will.
            • Hector 12:31 · 2023-01-01T21:12:32.149Z
              Nice one! BTW, I did try PAGEANT first. Thanks and HNY!
              • BarbaraK 3s · 2023-01-02T01:22:53.967Z
                I thought about that too. Wouldn’t that be meta!
              • I K Snamhcok 2s · 2023-01-02T01:36:03.412Z
                Nice! Too bad my school’s team (Michigan Wolverines) lost, but want to know a secret? I don’t really give a hoot. Fun puzzle!
                • Dave C 2s · 2023-01-02T03:58:09.532Z
                  Well done. It was challenging, but not impossible, as evidenced by the fact I solved it.
                  • Alex Sisti 3s · 2023-01-02T14:38:17.590Z
                    What a clever construction...
                    • whimsy 15:24 · 2023-01-03T17:45:31.323Z
                      Wow! Just amazing! Throw that constructor an Oceanic taco ingredient!
                      Thanks & Happy New Year, Will!
                      • Mwoychick 🤓2:41 · 2023-01-04T00:05:16.502Z
                        Great puzzle, Will - took me a while but I finally got it!
                        • JM 4s · 2023-01-04T01:42:13.963Z
                          Quite the tour de force!
                          • MajordomoTom 🤓12:57 · 2023-01-04T03:19:18.754Z
                            thanks for the nudges. at least it wasn't "Pageants"
                            • Louis D 5s · 2023-01-04T15:10:41.952Z
                              Impressive construction and two ah-ha moments make for a great first puzzle of the year!
                              • MARR71 4s · 2023-01-05T15:13:28.032Z
                                That took a lot of thinking and some hints. Very challenging but fun!
                                • THC 🤓5:22 · 2023-01-05T18:35:32.151Z
                                  Thanks, Will! Welcome back!
                                  • spotter 🤓8:56 · 2023-01-05T19:43:48.465Z
                                    Very clever and nice construction! I need to be better at noticing when clues are forcing the first letter to be something...
                                    • DrTom 6s · 2023-01-06T04:51:40.381Z
                                      Well I can no longer call you a Muggle because only a wizard could make that all come together. I tried everything after I got the 16 words, but I had never put them in "blocks". Since I had used EXCEL and put the long words across the top and then went down the columns to enter the "counted off" letter I never had them lined up together but rather in a stair-step fashion so when I tried using the different letters my order was never correct. I needed Whimsy to hit me in the head with a brick. This has my vote for an ORCA award!
                                      • ReB 3s · 2023-01-07T02:06:39.074Z
                                        It took a long time with my having to correct some entries in my 4x4 grid of clue first letters until I finally came up[ with a meaningful phrase. But certainly not as long as it must have taken you to come up with this remarkable construction. Quite a tour de force.
                                        • Bird Lives 🤓14:58 · 2023-01-07T03:50:24.683Z
                                          Very impressive. It was a lot of work to solve, but fun. It must have been even more to create.
                                          • ChrisCross 🤓10:50 · 2023-01-07T17:33:58.845Z
                                            Nice one.
                                            • Jimbo 🤓21:44 · 2023-01-07T22:37:10.275Z
                                              I think it's safe to say we are all bowled over by this construction. (that's my one and only pun for the year. Got it out of the way early.)
                                              • Meta World Peace 5s · 2023-01-08T04:08:49.724Z
                                                Such a cool puzzle to kick off 2023, Will! And good thinking to run with this theme now while the college football playoffs have just four teams and not 12 (wink).
                                                • Burakodrama 2s · 2023-01-08T05:32:37.345Z
                                                  Wow. Amazing puzzle. Early contender for Meta of the Year. The cleanliness and compactness of the grid while pulling this off is simply remarkable.
                                                  My journey: Judging by the title, "Bowl Games" was gonna be my wild guess so maybe I would have gotten partial credit somehow. But I finally did something I can never bring myself to while solving puzzles, and that's writing everything that comes to my mind down. After trying to break down Printer Paper into 3-letter words to no avail, I did get lucky with Carbo Loading and once I rearranged the words I got out of it, voila. I then for a while tried to create some random words from the remaining 24 3-letter words (not recommended), then eliminated them to 8 thinking "oh maybe the missing symmetrical pairs are a key" only then to realize "oh you stupid goof just look at the clues!"
                                                  Again, wow.
                                                  • Sendhil Revuluri 🤓4:47 · 2024-01-13T23:27:40.910Z
                                                    I just listened to podcast episode 6 where Will described the metanism and had to type in the answer just to come back to reality. That is insane! Right now it seems like this level of mechanism will be forever beyond my capacity, but at one point I couldn't solve a Thursday NYT. So I'm going to keep trying!
                                                    1A
                                                    Grocery carrier, often
                                                    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
                                                    70
                                                    71
                                                    72
                                                    73
                                                    74
                                                    75
                                                    76
                                                    77
                                                    78
                                                    79
                                                    80
                                                    81
                                                    82
                                                    83
                                                    84
                                                    85
                                                    86
                                                    87
                                                    Across
                                                    1. 1A
                                                      Grocery carrier, often
                                                    2. 4A
                                                      "The White Lotus" airer
                                                    3. 7A
                                                      Genre for Drake
                                                    4. 10A
                                                      "Life Kit" airer
                                                    5. 13A
                                                      Conspiracist's observation
                                                    6. 14A
                                                      Eat nothing but ginger ale and saltines, perhaps
                                                    7. 15A
                                                      Sunrise direction
                                                    8. 16A
                                                      Wepner's 1975 opponent
                                                    9. 17A
                                                      "Umbrella" singer, to fans
                                                    10. 19A
                                                      Scarlet
                                                    11. 20A
                                                      Caribbean island with a French side and a Dutch side
                                                    12. 22A
                                                      Dunder Mifflin's supply
                                                    13. 25A
                                                      Eons
                                                    14. 26A
                                                      Considered to be
                                                    15. 27A
                                                      Source of citrus zest
                                                    16. 28A
                                                      "Put your money ___ your mouth is"
                                                    17. 29A
                                                      Omar of Minnesota, e.g.
                                                    18. 30A
                                                      "Spare the ___ and spoil the child"
                                                    19. 31A
                                                      Baseball bat wood
                                                    20. 33A
                                                      CIA predecessor
                                                    21. 34A
                                                      Mulligan
                                                    22. 36A
                                                      Bother, over time
                                                    23. 38A
                                                      Prepare flour for a recipe
                                                    24. 41A
                                                      Certainly
                                                    25. 47A
                                                      Put up with
                                                    26. 49A
                                                      Mauna ___ Macadamia Nuts
                                                    27. 50A
                                                      Lipton rival
                                                    28. 51A
                                                      Dietarily preparing for an upcoming race
                                                    29. 54A
                                                      Cannabis
                                                    30. 55A
                                                      Paradises
                                                    31. 56A
                                                      "That would never happen!"
                                                    32. 58A
                                                      Some browser extensions block them
                                                    33. 61A
                                                      Lividness
                                                    34. 62A
                                                      Certain environmental contaminant, for short
                                                    35. 64A
                                                      Oceanic taco ingredient
                                                    36. 66A
                                                      Big name in electric razors
                                                    37. 68A
                                                      Joust
                                                    38. 70A
                                                      Oxygen-needing lifeform
                                                    39. 73A
                                                      Chooses
                                                    40. 74A
                                                      Vinyl item first created in 1957
                                                    41. 76A
                                                      Song in which Stevie Nicks sings "Will you ever win?"
                                                    42. 78A
                                                      Throw in
                                                    43. 79A
                                                      Magnum competitor
                                                    44. 80A
                                                      Lead's table neighbor
                                                    45. 81A
                                                      ___ grievances (complains publicly)
                                                    46. 82A
                                                      #Me___ movement
                                                    47. 83A
                                                      Get 100% on
                                                    48. 84A
                                                      Beguiling
                                                    49. 85A
                                                      Pig's locale
                                                    50. 86A
                                                      Erase something important, say
                                                    51. 87A
                                                      Tierra and Fuego connector
                                                    Down
                                                    1. 1D
                                                      Belches
                                                    2. 2D
                                                      In flames
                                                    3. 3D
                                                      More like a TV-MA show, say
                                                    4. 4D
                                                      Elk : herd :: ___ : husk
                                                    5. 5D
                                                      Boozy suffix with Weizen- or wit-
                                                    6. 6D
                                                      Veteran
                                                    7. 7D
                                                      Like bonds with the lowest risk of default
                                                    8. 8D
                                                      Tingling sensation produced by whispering, for short
                                                    9. 9D
                                                      Class action group?
                                                    10. 10D
                                                      "Becoming Cousteau" channel, for short
                                                    11. 11D
                                                      Tooth yankers of old
                                                    12. 12D
                                                      Washes without soap
                                                    13. 15D
                                                      Bristol-based broadcaster
                                                    14. 18D
                                                      Item used in a lazy river
                                                    15. 21D
                                                      "We're number 1!"
                                                    16. 23D
                                                      Red ___ (bureaucracy)
                                                    17. 24D
                                                      Help
                                                    18. 28D
                                                      Humpback, for one
                                                    19. 30D
                                                      Leslie's boss in "Parks and Rec"
                                                    20. 32D
                                                      Burns, as citrus juice in a cut
                                                    21. 35D
                                                      Hamilton or Burr, for one
                                                    22. 36D
                                                      Morales of "Ozark"
                                                    23. 37D
                                                      Group with a specific mission
                                                    24. 38D
                                                      Agency created after the 1929 crash, for short
                                                    25. 39D
                                                      Get your ducks ___ row
                                                    26. 40D
                                                      HST was one of his vice presidents
                                                    27. 42D
                                                      "Bummer"
                                                    28. 43D
                                                      Turf
                                                    29. 44D
                                                      AC measurement
                                                    30. 45D
                                                      ___ Paul (guitar model)
                                                    31. 46D
                                                      Midwesterner's "sure"
                                                    32. 48D
                                                      He sculpted "The Thinker"
                                                    33. 52D
                                                      Like many a ranch house
                                                    34. 53D
                                                      Get
                                                    35. 57D
                                                      Chilled movie theater beverage
                                                    36. 58D
                                                      Ends, as a mission
                                                    37. 59D
                                                      TV personality who started his career on Oprah's show
                                                    38. 60D
                                                      Smooth and glossy
                                                    39. 62D
                                                      ___ for the course
                                                    40. 63D
                                                      Make
                                                    41. 65D
                                                      Thingamabob
                                                    42. 67D
                                                      E! alternative
                                                    43. 69D
                                                      Caps' NHL rival
                                                    44. 70D
                                                      Intensity
                                                    45. 71D
                                                      Harper who wanted to "bring a title back to DC" even after he signed a contract with Philadelphia
                                                    46. 72D
                                                      Word before Corsair, Pacer, or Villager in car models
                                                    47. 74D
                                                      Apt rhyme of "fit"
                                                    48. 75D
                                                      Fragrance
                                                    49. 77D
                                                      Lil ___ X
                                                    Loading...