Age is just a number, they say. True, but we still like to celebrate birthdays! It's nice to enjoy those sort of milestones when they occur. Anyhoo, on with the meta, the answer to which is a number. If your meta answer is not accepted: Despite the title and 38 across you do not have to do any addition. Those things refer to something else! Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=130237#p130237
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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Nice one, and just the speed I needed after the Aussi slang puzzle. Thanks Ben! (Also, loved the clue for 35D).
Bird Lives 4s · about 2 years ago
I got fooled by "Collectively" both as a tital and as the clue for 38A (IN TOTAL). So I guessed the total of the themers: 400.
Tyrpmom 2s · about 2 years ago
Don’t forget 35D.
imontoo 3s · about 2 years ago
That’s what I did to, initially, guess 500.
ReB 4s · about 2 years ago
Oh, I did the same and then went further with then including 35D (500) and then trying to include a modified 17A (A 'C' Note) for 600 - and then felt I had to decipher 63A on symmetry grounds. Then I tried binary - and finally sent a PM to Ben, who told me that all this addition was unnecessary. It's a shame that the WSJ Rabbit doesn't take stories from other metas because I have a truly classic tale.
Ergcat 🤓15:17 · about 2 years ago
Merry too! Adding up all sorts of things!
Tyrpmom 2s · about 2 years ago
First added in 20 for score and ten from Athena and missed century. So, a complete mess. Quickly regrouped and submitted 100.
What were some incorrect guesses last week? I tried cutie and quota.
"Shoot" and "Chute" were very common; but in the list of wrong answers I can see "Snake", "Yobbo", "Yurwe", "Chuth", "Today", "Emu" (this is not even a 5-letter word), "Towel", "Chewy", "Cuter", "Cheetah" (neither is this), "Child", "Cheat", "Osbun", "Judea", and "Check".
I also first submitted 400 due to 38A (didn't think about adding 35D though). Congrats and thank you for 100 great metas!
Bbaack 🤓12:43 · about 2 years ago
That was a fun one. "C" ya!
I K Snamhcok 2s · about 2 years ago
I too first submitted 400. “Collectively” might imply that we should up the 100s. But no complaint. Fun puzzle. Thanks, Ben!
whimsy 🤓12:21 · about 2 years ago
Like this a lot -- probably because my tendency to treat the grid and themers as "impressionistic" or "interpretive" art paid off for a change, instead of it being the usual me going out on some silly limb ! :) Thanks Ben!
KayW 🤓7:35 · about 2 years ago
That was fun! Wow!! 100! Congratulations Ben Thanks for all the puzzles including this one
ReB 4s · about 2 years ago
I was totally led into a deep rabbit hole between the title (COLLECTIVELY) and 38A (IN TOTAL), which led me into adding up the various hundreds (and other creative branches) instead of just answering with the evident 100. I needed Ben to tell me that this was an inadvertent red herring. It was still fun in retrospect.
Ergcat 🤓15:17 · about 2 years ago
Thank you for the hint…. Because I was adding… thank you, Ben!
PuzNewbie 16:55 · about 2 years ago
Very fun and clever!
hoover 3s · about 2 years ago
My first guess was 400, because there were 4 variations of 100, and the middle entry says "in total." I didn't get I SENT YURI until I just saw it typed that way by woozy below/above. :)
HeadinHome 🤓11:24 · about 2 years ago
very straightforward, and entertaining to boot! Did someone turn 100?
HeadinHome 🤓11:24 · about 2 years ago
Ahh… just saw the list of 100 on muggle forum. Congrats! That’s quite an achievement. Thanks for sharing your talents!
Frangelico? I thought sure you would have used one of the three ultimate British imports (Nutella - the other two being Marmite and Vegemite). I was also surprised not to see 35D be “Number of acres in a certain woods” since there was neither a Milne nor an Oreo reference and I thought by law they had to be included. Well at least you snuck in an Ali reference. Fun one Ben!
ChrisCross 🤓6:49 · about 2 years ago
Congratulations on 100 puzzles! I think I enjoy MOATs more than the WSJ crossword puzzle, your metas are very diverse in mechanism and really fun. Thanks for the source of entertainment!