The other day I was waiting at a traffic light, watching the stream of cars passing in front of me. And every car was on the monochromatic spectrum from white to black, via various shades of gray. (I was sitting in a bright red Mazda 3, so I felt very conspicuous!) I just had to ask (misquoting the old Pete Seeger song) "Where have all the colours gone?" Well, perhaps you will find out in this puzzle. The answer to the meta is a 5-letter word. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=199030#p199030
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)
Danny K Bernstein solved 2025-03-18T05:54:33.266Z
Tom Wilson solved 2025-03-18T08:49:54.115Z
Berto solved 2025-03-18T11:36:51.783Z
Pair O Ducks solved 2025-03-18T12:03:53.933Z
Lance solved 2025-03-18T12:33:04.207Z
Cindy Heisler solved 2025-03-18T12:41:21.271Z
Darth solved 2025-03-18T13:00:00.292Z
LarsCaine solved 2025-03-18T13:00:03.602Z
boharr solved 2025-03-18T13:19:19.314Z
Moreo5 solved 2025-03-18T13:44:11.779Z
SJ solved 2025-03-18T13:44:54.361Z
FedexPope solved 2025-03-18T13:50:35.145Z
JHSeeman solved 2025-03-18T13:56:32.455Z
Hector solved 2025-03-18T14:03:14.524Z
imontoo solved 2025-03-18T14:28:41.924Z
Alex Sisti solved 2025-03-18T14:39:36.313Z
I K Snamhcok solved 2025-03-18T14:44:15.784Z
kurtalert solved 2025-03-18T15:04:32.383Z
Carolyn solved 2025-03-18T15:06:15.585Z
CPJohnson solved 2025-03-18T15:06:32.048Z
hoover solved 2025-03-18T15:20:17.495Z
kymike solved 2025-03-18T15:24:56.777Z
woozy solved 2025-03-18T15:59:35.042Z
Tyrpmom solved 2025-03-18T16:28:46.054Z
markhr solved 2025-03-18T16:46:46.914Z
DIS solved 2025-03-18T16:48:26.077Z
Dave C solved 2025-03-18T17:13:12.731Z
ajk solved 2025-03-18T17:28:54.252Z
heidi solved 2025-03-18T17:30:00.466Z
Serafin solved 2025-03-18T17:41:43.035Z
Johnny Luau solved 2025-03-18T17:54:12.722Z
MatthewL solved 2025-03-18T18:09:07.826Z
Meg solved 2025-03-18T18:34:11.699Z
Tim solved 2025-03-18T19:41:59.970Z
Mr Tex solved 2025-03-18T20:05:46.049Z
lbray53 solved 2025-03-18T20:27:43.011Z
Cindy Weatherman solved 2025-03-18T21:16:21.038Z
whimsy solved 2025-03-18T23:29:13.186Z
Brendan G solved 2025-03-19T00:31:55.276Z
Polyagonist solved 2025-03-19T00:34:41.804Z
axmszr solved 2025-03-19T00:46:05.572Z
Abide solved 2025-03-19T01:52:01.378Z
HeadinHome solved 2025-03-19T02:55:41.682Z
Mg305 solved 2025-03-19T03:08:49.994Z
eleanor48 solved 2025-03-19T09:22:54.583Z
KayW solved 2025-03-19T14:23:43.736Z
DrTom solved 2025-03-19T15:08:14.259Z
iceman solved 2025-03-19T19:47:26.302Z
shalmanezer solved 2025-03-19T23:30:52.708Z
minimuggle solved 2025-03-20T11:19:43.913Z
DCBilly solved 2025-03-20T12:09:02.705Z
Susan solved 2025-03-20T14:01:37.476Z
Me solved 2025-03-20T20:38:41.767Z
Patrick P solved 2025-03-21T16:18:59.078Z
Lola15 solved 2025-03-22T11:57:32.922Z
Anonym00se solved 2025-03-22T14:09:45.691Z
Darrell solved 2025-03-22T19:49:01.192Z
Capn Rick solved 2025-03-23T13:56:34.867Z
omnilynx solved 2025-03-25T21:33:17.481Z
SJMcK solved 2025-03-26T00:41:17.987Z
Comments
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Cindy Heisler 5s · 2025-03-18T12:43:06.541Z
That was my first answer, but I was so sure you were looking for my other submissions! Never good to second guess oneself! Thanks, Ben!
As soon as I read the Myst clue I had an idea with the metanism would be. But it took me a while to get connect RED with CARDINAL. Still note sure of the order (not grid, not clue)
I'd like to think I would have seen it eventually. But I didn't so... we'll never know.
Dave C 3s · 2025-03-18T17:14:58.842Z
Nice one. I saw the connection with the missing colors and the colors in the clues, but didn't get the correct order for a while.
lbray53 3s · 2025-03-18T20:29:56.892Z
Had to anagram to solve, then backsolved to ROYGBIV or at least ROYGB!
MatthewL 🤓7:48 · 2025-03-18T18:13:51.350Z
That was quite fun. Got all the letters and saw the solution, but took me a while to see that they were in the order of ROY G. BIV. I'm assuming that CYAN encompasses all 3 of BIV? In any event, thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
I'm pretty sure I recall a Gaffney that did something with ROYGBIV, too.
HeadinHome 🤓1:20 · 2025-03-19T03:05:51.463Z
saw the rainbow order (If you start at Red and go up to Orange at top, then circle around to the bottom and go up again for Y,G,B — and since rainbow is too many letters, I thought “prism” immediately. Came here to find out what the real method was. ( : Then it was fun to go colo(u)r hunting. Thanks, and hope the school outing was funner than it sounds! (I would love to do that with family and friends… with a bunch of 10th-years not so much maybe!)
It's going fine. (I have internet at my current camp-site.) Glad you enjoyed the puzzle!
KayW 🤓4:19 · 2025-03-19T14:24:59.169Z
Very creative, Ben - thanks!! I was stuck for a long time because Google told me SPANISH ORANGE was a thing, and I initially had AMBER for yellow. Finally got my eyes adjusted.
I too thought of PRISM immediately, just because of the recurring FB (and elsewhere) joke: "Where do evil colors go? To Prism, but don't worry they get a light sentence while they reflect on what they did." Then I saw the colors and thought, OK maybe Ben is spelling something. When it was evident you were not I went with my gut. I am afraid I do not follow the "ordering" discussion because you start with ORANGE and of course that is not how prism (rainbow) starts. I did like the RBG in there though and the other colors referenced (RESIN, POPE, etc.) so I'll be interested to see the post-mortem.