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 about 2 years ago
Hector solved about 2 years ago
SporcleMirror solved about 2 years ago
Laura M solved about 2 years ago
kieranjboyd solved about 2 years ago
Cindy Weatherman solved about 2 years ago
boharr solved about 2 years ago
Ergcat solved about 2 years ago
Alex Sisti solved about 2 years ago
DCBilly solved about 2 years ago
lbray53 solved about 2 years ago
Adam Doctoroff solved about 2 years ago
edestlin solved about 2 years ago
Meg solved about 2 years ago
rjy solved about 2 years ago
Darth solved about 2 years ago
Tyrpmom solved about 2 years ago
DIS solved about 2 years ago
JHSeeman solved about 2 years ago
woozy solved about 2 years ago
ChrisCross solved about 2 years ago
I K Snamhcok solved about 2 years ago
heidi solved about 2 years ago
Mikey G solved about 2 years ago
ajk solved about 2 years ago
Qmark solved about 2 years ago
KayW solved about 2 years ago
whimsy solved about 2 years ago
markhr solved about 2 years ago
MatthewL solved about 2 years ago
Pair O Ducks solved about 2 years ago
ReB solved about 2 years ago
Bird Lives solved about 2 years ago
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Bbaack solved about 2 years ago
Charles Montpetit solved about 2 years ago
Deb W solved about 2 years ago
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Mr Tex solved about 2 years ago
Carolyn solved about 2 years ago
Cindy Heisler solved about 2 years ago
Jeff G solved about 2 years ago
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oldjudge solved about 2 years ago
dplass solved about 2 years ago
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Abide solved about 2 years ago
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Sharkicicles solved about 2 years ago
Lola15 solved 2 months ago
Comments
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Hector 3s · about 2 years ago
Cool construction!
Laura M 🤓6:37 · about 2 years ago
Nice little twist!
Ergcat 14:41 · about 2 years ago
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 · about 2 years ago
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 · about 2 years ago
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 · about 2 years ago
Loved it...thanks Ben!
KayW 8:01 · about 2 years ago
And yes I am indeed! Wow what a construction. Fantastic meta, Ben!
whimsy 🤓11:31 · about 2 years ago
To self: "Pay attention to the title!" Very, very nice, Ben!
MatthewL 🤓6:09 · about 2 years ago
Very clever, Ben! Needed the slightest of nudges to get started, but finally it all became clear.
ReB 4s · about 2 years ago
How ODD - nice repeat on the mechanism.
Bird Lives 7s · about 2 years ago
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 · about 2 years ago
What the! Great construction, thanks for the fun!
Charles Montpetit 🤓1:41 · about 2 years ago
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 · about 2 years ago
Very nice! I love it when my guess works out to be the right answer. Cool mechanism.
Jeff G 1:12 · about 2 years ago
Clever mechanism! Lots of fun.
oldjudge 13s · about 2 years ago
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.