Welcome to this week's Summer Sunday Substitute! I don't want to tell you too much about its origin right now, as that would provide a big hint. Thanks to Abide for the title and a little reworking. I hope you have fun with it -- just don't get carried away! Nudges will appear early this afternoon. Deadline is Saturday morning.
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This is a contest/meta puzzle. To submit your answer, first finish solving the grid (or reveal it if you get stuck or solved offline).
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
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Comments
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Very nice! I did have to go back and reread the instructions about not getting carried away before I caught on. But in my solving travels this AM, I did learn about Queenie the waterskiing elephant and Twiggy the waterskiing squirrel, so there's always something positive. :-) Thanks, Wendy!
"Don't Get Carried Away" was actually the original title!
ReB 3s · almost 2 years ago
That title I suspect would have led me more quickly to the mechanism, once I started to think about what could carry you away. (I certainly wouldn't have been trying in vain to construct lines within the grid.)
Another winner, Wendy! Based on your comment (about getting carried away), I was looking for that answer. But needed to be nudged into the metanism current. Thanks!
Good job! Like I told Whimsy, "Don't Get Carried Away" was my original title for the puzzle!
Bird Lives 4s · almost 2 years ago
My first guess -- "Rip current undertow" -- was incorrect. I figured you can't have too many summer hazards. Then I limited it to just one.
(I just now looked at the nudges, and even if I'd looked at them first, I'd still have made the same mistake.)
First three nudges just confirmed what I'd seen; I had to do a bit of free association with the last nudge before the AHA moment hit me. Well done.
Regarding the title, while TOE is a homophone with the multiple TOs, I don't quite see what the phrase TOE THE LINE was supposed to lead to. I kept trying to find lines between the TOs that spelled out something (+/- "E"s). Was that phrase intended as a prompt for TOW LINE? Or something else?
So glad you solved! During our vacation in the Outer Banks the strong winds really whipped up the surf and we were warned repeatedly, every place we visited, about the dangerous rip currents -- which actually have nothing to do with the tide, it turns out!
Ergcat 5:40 · almost 2 years ago
I guess the title “under tow” would have been too obvious!
I have a big backlog of regular and meta crosswords, but hadn’t tried any SSS before, so gave it a try yesterday afternoon. A quick stress-free solve! Yay! Have to say that I got another AHA just before submitting here, when I checked dictionary.com to see if the answer was one or two words! Well, maybe a HA-HA and an AHA!! I hadn’t quite made the connection to undertow. Thanks for the puzzle!
Argh. Saw all the TOs, but foolishly was focused just on the letter below the T for some reason, didn't see anything obvious there, and moved on. What a dummy!
Red faced I admit I needed all the nudges and more. I got stuck with trying to move the words to the end of the line. and then putting TO and summer hazard together (particularly in light of the recent QB death in Florida) and coming up with UNDERTOW. Stupidly I did NOT think to look under TO. My other guess was TOENADO!
Lordamighty. I entered every variation of STUBBED TOE(S) I could think of. Then entered UNDER TOW. And then finally thought to look UNDER the TOs. Headslap!
(I just now looked at the nudges, and even if I'd looked at them first, I'd still have made the same mistake.)