Sometimes you just don't have the energy to finish your exclamations of dismay. If you can relate, then this puzzle is for you. The answer to the meta is a ten-letter word. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=124532#p124532
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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Leaderboard (updated hourly)
BarbaraK solved 2023-03-21T01:52:45.623Z
Hector solved 2023-03-21T04:27:23.156Z
SporcleMirror solved 2023-03-21T07:10:03.898Z
Laura M solved 2023-03-21T07:13:58.905Z
kieranjboyd solved 2023-03-21T09:26:54.007Z
Cindy Weatherman solved 2023-03-21T09:39:31.683Z
boharr solved 2023-03-21T11:43:08.370Z
Ergcat solved 2023-03-21T12:17:12.678Z
Alex Sisti solved 2023-03-21T13:19:28.682Z
DCBilly solved 2023-03-21T13:26:02.631Z
lbray53 solved 2023-03-21T13:30:29.370Z
Adam Doctoroff solved 2023-03-21T13:31:22.046Z
edestlin solved 2023-03-21T13:38:49.858Z
Meg solved 2023-03-21T13:40:49.215Z
rjy solved 2023-03-21T13:44:43.371Z
Darth solved 2023-03-21T13:51:34.363Z
Tyrpmom solved 2023-03-21T14:19:28.076Z
DIS solved 2023-03-21T15:10:22.445Z
JHSeeman solved 2023-03-21T16:12:21.043Z
woozy solved 2023-03-21T16:12:58.671Z
ChrisCross solved 2023-03-21T17:00:14.011Z
I K Snamhcok solved 2023-03-21T17:18:17.092Z
heidi solved 2023-03-21T17:39:22.804Z
Mikey G solved 2023-03-21T18:23:16.173Z
ajk solved 2023-03-21T18:24:27.182Z
Qmark solved 2023-03-21T18:41:05.077Z
KayW solved 2023-03-21T19:41:54.291Z
whimsy solved 2023-03-21T19:44:36.375Z
markhr solved 2023-03-21T19:55:38.678Z
MatthewL solved 2023-03-21T20:41:17.089Z
Pair O Ducks solved 2023-03-21T21:00:18.300Z
ReB solved 2023-03-21T21:28:32.832Z
Bird Lives solved 2023-03-21T22:12:20.314Z
Darrell solved 2023-03-21T23:21:15.574Z
Jaclyn solved 2023-03-21T23:57:42.200Z
dannyvee solved 2023-03-22T00:04:22.437Z
jbird solved 2023-03-22T00:25:34.701Z
Jeremy Smith solved 2023-03-22T00:27:20.928Z
Bbaack solved 2023-03-22T01:36:29.551Z
Charles Montpetit solved 2023-03-22T02:41:52.551Z
Deb W solved 2023-03-22T03:17:58.712Z
rvkal solved 2023-03-22T03:43:17.454Z
Mr Tex solved 2023-03-22T04:10:21.591Z
Carolyn solved 2023-03-22T08:16:32.295Z
Cindy Heisler solved 2023-03-22T14:33:41.110Z
Jeff G solved 2023-03-22T21:02:24.465Z
CPJohnson solved 2023-03-22T22:37:47.043Z
oldjudge solved 2023-03-22T22:43:29.749Z
dplass solved 2023-03-23T01:36:39.467Z
DrTom solved 2023-03-23T14:18:03.830Z
Abide solved 2023-03-23T22:13:15.378Z
PuzNewbie solved 2023-03-24T16:09:30.675Z
Dow Jones solved 2023-03-24T16:39:20.981Z
SeamusOL solved 2023-03-25T07:27:30.654Z
THC solved 2023-03-25T14:41:40.869Z
Gutman solved 2023-03-25T16:24:29.862Z
Sharkicicles solved 2023-03-25T21:00:28.805Z
Comments
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Hector 3s · 2023-03-21T05:00:53.177Z
Cool construction!
Laura M 🤓6:37 · 2023-03-21T07:14:58.885Z
Nice little twist!
Ergcat 14:41 · 2023-03-21T12:21:04.227Z
Good one, Ben! Had me going for a while trying to get 10 letters from the 4 long answers… got the first step but then what? Aha! do “it” again!! Puzzled by last “s”, was that just the middle letter of “I’d say” ? Or first letter of “sass”? Thanks, Ben! Have fun camping!
Ergcat 14:41 · 2023-03-21T13:36:26.155Z
Never mind! Went back and I see my error… in my scribbling notes I had “helperS” instead of just “helper”! Now I see both s’s came from”SASS”!
Obviously I’m not as clever as you are!
Had to backsolve E-C- though. Got stuck on MINCE and thinking "Dang, that Ben. Doesn't he knew CARVE is to cut in broad strokes with an implied final shape and MINCE is to chop tinily with implied reduce to atoms" but I should have had more faith.
"I am speechless. Speechless! I have no speech." Brilliant!
ajk 5:15 · 2023-03-21T18:26:47.101Z
LOL couldn't find the match for 24A initially, so I spent like 5 minutes hunting for the AxCx word before I realized that A was supposed to be an E :D
Qmark 3s · 2023-03-21T18:41:36.022Z
Loved it...thanks Ben!
KayW 8:01 · 2023-03-21T19:42:24.627Z
And yes I am indeed! Wow what a construction. Fantastic meta, Ben!
whimsy 🤓11:31 · 2023-03-21T19:47:32.139Z
To self: "Pay attention to the title!" Very, very nice, Ben!
MatthewL 🤓6:09 · 2023-03-21T20:42:37.138Z
Very clever, Ben! Needed the slightest of nudges to get started, but finally it all became clear.
ReB 4s · 2023-03-21T21:29:45.132Z
How ODD - nice repeat on the mechanism.
Bird Lives 7s · 2023-03-21T22:16:45.396Z
Very nice. Like others, I was stalled by the 4/10 disparity. I was pretty sure what the answer was, but it took a while to backsolve, and when I did get it, I was at a loss for words, so to speak.
Bbaack 11:52 · 2023-03-22T01:38:23.654Z
What the! Great construction, thanks for the fun!
Charles Montpetit 🤓1:41 · 2023-03-22T02:51:28.832Z
Same remark as Woozy. Also, if you will allow a nitpick, I thought it was a tiny bit inelegant to clue 28a's RAD with the term RADian. Or was that a throwback to last week's "Unnecessarily Repetitive" puzzle?
Carolyn 3s · 2023-03-22T08:18:20.940Z
Very nice! I love it when my guess works out to be the right answer. Cool mechanism.
Jeff G 1:12 · 2023-03-22T21:08:22.420Z
Clever mechanism! Lots of fun.
oldjudge 13s · 2023-03-22T22:45:35.483Z
The puzzle could have been improved if there was only one synonym for carve. Maybe it couldn’t have been helped but I think MINCE should have been replaced somehow. Great idea otherwise.
Yeah I landed on MINCE at first but the resulting letters said it could not be (plus it gave 11 letters) since I needed an E and C (SPEECHLESS was the only possible thing at that point). Besides mincing and carving are really not the same unless you are a REALLY bad carver (OK, OK, so you've seen me at Thanksgiving I guess)
Well that describes my feeling about the construction! Amazing Ben. You may be up a lazy river this weekend but getting to the end of the solve was a hard row for me. I tried everything with odd except what I was supposed to. It's maddening because I saw DINNER in DJINNINFEAR a ways back but it did not click. I wanted so much to make CLAWREVIEW (drop the first odd letter) LAWREVIEW. Then I used all of the odd numbered entries, then all of the odd clues (i.e. every other one (1,3,5,7...) hoping to spell out an instruction. I needed a nudge to get there but I am glad I did not throw up my hands in defeat, it was a very nice puzzle.