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Order? I'm out of order? You're out of order! This whole [#four-letter word#] puzzle is out of ..... alignment

◆◆ · By woozy · Published 2024-02-12T21:20:49.217Z

Meta Prompt
The answer (which is longer than average) is something I sincerly hope for you to have
So I figured this one may be hard but I hope it has a good AHA moment and then (if you remember that this is a standard meta with usual metaisms) you can real it home safely. Once you get the aha, that's where all the difficulty is.
I thought of several ways I'd do this and considered even making a grid where all the clues were four letter words which would have been... well, trouble is the clues can't be precise that we. This grid has a few trouble corners where I had to make up absurd entries, but for the most part I tried really hard to make the clues straightforward.
Sort of a pre-nudge: I had originally intended to have a 16 x 16 grid where the lower right 15x15 were reasonable and symmetric "real" grid and the left and top edge would be assymettric four letter entries all with the clue "An arbitrary selection of four letter" (and I'd provide the letters). Then I thought I wouldn't need to. But I forgot I had a reason to.
Nudge 1: So there are 17 entries that are somehow grouped together in groups of four or five. They are the key. Figure out why they are grouped together
Nudge 2:Oh. It just occurred to me that some might assume that because the group entries are four in a group (except one that is five) that that might have something to do with four letter words. But the number of entries in each group is not relevant. It's not entirely a coincident must of them are four but it's not significant. Some of my earlier drafts had groups with only three or two entries but I didn't find them satisfactory.
Nudge 3: Again try to figure out why the entries are grouped together the way they are. Each grouping has something to do with four letter words and order.
Nudge 4 I said the answer is somewhat longer than average because I hate prompts that say something like "The meta is a 17 letter phrase".... But the meta is a 17 letter phrase.
Checking for previous play data...

Leaderboard (updated hourly)

  • Pair O Ducks solved 2024-02-14T02:57:30.533Z
  • Hector solved 2024-02-15T17:58:53.002Z
  • Cindy Weatherman solved 2024-02-15T20:14:16.788Z

Comments

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  • Hector 4:06 · 2024-02-15T18:09:26.582Z
    Confused by the trappings, though. It seems that nothing at all in the puzzle is out of order or needs to be put or knocked or aligned into a different order. And so the mechanism is not helpfully assimilated to the misspelling one.
    • woozy constructor · 2024-02-15T20:25:40.224Z
      What's out of order was the letters of the meta word with four letters that has multiple arrangements and .....
      Okay.... so my first intent was to have a 16 by 16 grid which would have along the edges 4 asymmetric four letter entries with the clues: "Arbitrary four letters: ACER" and the four letters in alphabetical or arbitrary order and the "out of order" would refer to point them in many different orders. But I couldn't get the grid aesthetically. Then I thought I'd try something with the clues were all four letter words. They wouldn't be grouped but you'd find the clues that came from the "arbitrary order" edge entries. But I worried the nature of four letter clues would make the grid too arbitrary and hard. I went back to normal clues and alternative entries and thought. "Hey, the grouping should be enough; we don't need the edge entries and the letters. It'll be harder but with ZUNI being obviously TAOS and others it'll be doable". But then I forgot I actually had other reasons I wanted to edge pieces. One of the cases where you concentrate hard an a minor detail you forget one to the basics that inspired the puzzle.
    • Hector 4:06 · 2024-02-15T18:00:45.555Z
      Good meta concept!
      Play today's daily mini crossword
      1A
      Minister to (see 4D; 9D; 29A)
      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
      Across
      1. 1A
        Minister to (see 4D; 9D; 29A)
      2. 5A
        Send forth (see 10A; 12D; 27A)
      3. 10A
        Notable period (see 5A; 12D; 27A)
      4. 13A
        Region
      5. 14A
        Poetically above the Donkey in that 2022 Polish-Italian movie??? The black and white cookie that only exists on-line but just to be different I put the prefix at the second letter??? The classic car in its antiquated British language edition??? I don't know. Just fill it in and make up your own definition
      6. 15A
        Orchid growing sleuth Wolfe
      7. 17A
        Large bodies of water
      8. 18A
        Goody; small indulgence
      9. 19A
        Banned insecticide and its variants
      10. 20A
        Conceal from view (see 23A; 70A; 71A; 72A)
      11. 22A
        ----- Abu-Jamal, whose criminal conviction is a hotly divisive political issue
      12. 23A
        Nefarious (see 20A; 70A; 71A; 72A)
      13. 25A
        Cornered. Force to confront
      14. 27A
        Very little bit (see 5A; 10A; 12D)
      15. 28A
        Poetically reveal what's inside
      16. 29A
        Conveyance for one reducing ones carbon footprint (see 1A; 4D; 9D)
      17. 31A
        In the style of
      18. 32A
        New Mexico art colony (see 45A; 50A; 56A)
      19. 34A
        Set apart for specific use
      20. 36A
        Promise not to reveal info to others
      21. 39A
        Sixth sense
      22. 40A
        Forward looking ideology
      23. 45A
        About that (see 32A; 50A; 56A)
      24. 49A
        Swiss peak
      25. 50A
        Covered entryway (see 32A, 45A; 56A)
      26. 53A
        V.T. Hamlin's caveman Alley
      27. 54A
        In a 1964 obituary the L.A. Times described this actor as "Carpathian mountain boy who became a professional ogre, sleepy-voiced comedian, and bon vivant"
      28. 56A
        Good grains for fiber (see 32A; 45A; 50A)
      29. 57A
        Some three letter acronym for some professional sports league. I think this is for the game where you run around bouncing orange rubber balls and not the one where you whack at leather balls with a stick.... but don't hold me to it.
      30. 58A
        Attempted
      31. 59A
        Sear
      32. 61A
        Bees home
      33. 62A
        Casual Chinese greeting
      34. 64A
        elpmaxe rof, "mehelhteB fo nwot elttil hO" or author Uris
      35. 67A
        Laudatory ver .... I don't need to finish? Okay, just make sure you put in the plural.
      36. 68A
        "Gad, this grid and this layout is such - ----. How am I ever going to fit words into it?"
      37. 69A
        Major Latin bear
      38. 70A
        Engage in existing (see 20A; 23A; 71A; 72A)
      39. 71A
        Repugnant (see 20A; 23A; 70A; 72A)
      40. 72A
        First name of actress who played Anne of Cleves (see 20A; 23A; 70A; 71A)
      Down
      1. 1D
        Ones who often teach the introductory classes
      2. 2D
        Prior to poetically
      3. 3D
        Countryside hamlet on the western end of the Dollis Hill ridge.
      4. 4D
        Hurry (see 1A; 9D; 29A)
      5. 5D
        When Dorothy's little dog pulled on curtains, or jumped out of bicycle baskets, everyone said that was -- -----
      6. 6D
        Long underwear specific for Lima's country? (That makes sense doesn't it?)
      7. 7D
        So, um, this is probably going to be one of those "Oh, God. There goes woozy again" definitions, but this is an actual significant memory for me. Throughout my life for various reasons and in various stages, I've driven up and down the Oregon coast. There's this one beach where there's an incredible wreck of a ship just there on the beach just in the wet sand. It forms the most impressive metal abstraction. I mean just look at this photo:http://tinyurl.com/mtu2553p. So throughout my life I'd be on a trip to visit Seattle or on a camping vacation and I'd say "Hey, let's go to this beach" and then I'd see it and say "Oh, right! I remember this". The thing is I never planned on it, I'd always just find myself there. So... I'm making this meta and I need to fill in the grid and I've got one of these tough areas where you have to hit the words with a hammer to make them fit in. And OneLook says I can fit this proper name in for the letters I need. So I do but I have to Google to see if it'd be a fair entry. I get a hit that says it's the name of the author of "The Kamikaze Hunters" (whatever that is). But then three hits lower I see its the name of this ship whose wreck drifts into my life when I'm not expecting it: "The Peter -------". It drifted into my life unexpectedly once again.
      8. 8D
        Meadow
      9. 9D
        Farm unit (see 1A; 4D; 29A)
      10. 10D
        Eventually turn out
      11. 11D
        Good protein and iron source for those okay with eating animals
      12. 12D
        Object, thing (see 5A; 10A; 27A)
      13. 16D
        Honshu city; site of 1970 World's Fair
      14. 21D
        Yay!
      15. 22D
        There are 31,622,400,000 of them in a leap year.
      16. 23D
        woozy's favorite uncle who died in 2011 and is still greatly missed.... What?.... Oh, okay. Singer and guitarist Scaggs... or Victorian artist known for "Sketches by ---"
      17. 24D
        Subject of Satyajit Ray film trilogy
      18. 26D
        Pointer used to indicate the place during Torah readings
      19. 30D
        Wenn Schweine fliegen
      20. 33D
        Opp. of Dom.
      21. 35D
        Software computing interface that is not named for bees nor for Nepalese peaks
      22. 37D
        Hoodwinked
      23. 38D
        Uninterested in dating
      24. 40D
        Everglades state
      25. 41D
        Against the current
      26. 42D
        Annoy
      27. 43D
        Hides away
      28. 44D
        Chooses someone inappropriate for a role
      29. 46D
        Strangely, Hon, orchid growing sleuth Wolfe is not the protagonist (cryptic)
      30. 47D
        Steal from
      31. 48D
        Department founded in 1970 for ecological concerns
      32. 49D
        Howevs
      33. 51D
        Particular and fussily selective
      34. 52D
        Rowboat propeller
      35. 55D
        Witherspoon of "Best Laid Plans"
      36. 60D
        Traditional capital of Transylvania, ---- Napoca
      37. 62D
        1÷0 output on some calculators
      38. 63D
        "--- little teapot"
      39. 65D
        WWII-era spy org.
      40. 66D
        Li'l --- X, "Old Town Road" rapper
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