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"Graven" representation

Across

1A
"Graven" representation
6A
Initials that will get you called "anal"
9A
Name for a perp on "Criminal Minds"
14A
"___ circus, ___ clowns..."
15A
China's Chou En-___
16A
Boogie to a Brazilian beat
17A
Program for aspiring astronauts
19A
Make it up as you go along
20A
Word often associated with X-ing
21A
What vegans try to convince carnivores is a good protein source
22A
Acronym for stockbrokers
23A
A short dog, for short
24A
Something found in either a wall or a barn
27A
"Cola" front
30A
Trick of scoring three hockey goals
31A
DIstributor of bad corn
34A
What you have when the issue does not warrant having a cow
36A
On the waterfront, say
39A
Description of any of five members of a deck that will help you play the meta game
41A
Workers who are dyeing to get paid
42A
"Hidden Figures" actress Janelle
43A
Owns
44A
Bart Simpson's grampa
45A
"Living" compensation
46A
Actor Neeson who got "Taken" three times
48A
A 90-degree right or left turn (which you might have to make to position all the 39As)
50A
"Hunny" hoarder
53A
10% of MMDX
55A
Anaheim MLB team, on scoreboards
58A
Elroy's dog
59A
Handing out cues
61A
Good start
62A
Described by :(
63A
Spaghetti sauce you are welcome to
64A
Don't give ___; British "whatever"
65A
Cloth thrown over a chest
66A
"Get it?"

Down

1D
Clouseau or Gadget: Abbr.
2D
Plod along
3D
Just ___ (hardly any)
4D
Big inits. in trucks
5D
"We don't see ___..." (disagree)
6D
Frozen Snowman (as if they all aren't)
7D
French philosopher and author Albert
8D
Doofus
9D
Age old sides
10D
It means nothing to an awful lot of people
11D
Common size letters
12D
Auction action site
13D
Gilbert's (of Gilbert and Sullivan) ballads
18D
The last part of an address given to techies
23D
"Ancient" diet
25D
Citizens of Siam, now
26D
Technical abbreviation for a high-flying attack drone
27D
A real find
28D
LPGA great Lorena
29D
Sagan and Sandburg
31D
Elton's 1997 "candle"
32D
"What ___ it is getting old", Stones lyric
33D
Scarlett's fiddle follow-up
35D
Razorbacks
36D
What "two" meant to Mr. Revere
37D
Newt's name when he was young
38D
"Bad mood" look
40D
Israel's Netanyahu. familiarly
47D
Jazz legend Carmen
48D
Means of throwing shade that can be a nightmare
49D
Apt to sass
50D
11th grader's exam, for short
51D
Other to Oscar
52D
City laws: Abbr.
54D
A substitute for usual letters, like "J=10, Z=26" for example
55D
Broke #9
56D
Home services site
57D
Eyes wide open
58D
Shout when you see a possible path, or even a part of one
59D
Time out in the Napa Valley
60D
"La La" accompanier

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Darth 26:28 · 25 days ago

Interesting meta, DrT! Loved it!

InAJelly 11:42 · 25 days ago

I got it, but I don't really know how I got it. Trying to backsolve now, and noticed the crossing of IMAGE and GMC spell out the meta answer if you change the M, but not sure if that's truly what we are going for...

DrTom constructor · 25 days ago
Well no that is not where I was going, though I had not considered what you said. The letters almost had to appear close to each other because the 3 x 5 "themers" were all in the format:

A X A

X A X

X X X

X X X

X X X

Once you got the letters you used the clue that told you there was a "code" (54D) to let you know to substitute numbers. When you take the numbers of those letters in grid order the corresponding squares spell MAGIC. The graphic actually shows you the "marking" pattern. BUT any solve is a good solve, obviously your were thinking along the right lines to even see MAGIC where you did.

T

Mwoychick 15:13 · 25 days ago

Got it - no hints needed

ajk 16:12 · 25 days ago

got it after the nudges and a group solve that helped spot the pattern. Still not sure I'm fully understanding it. :)

DrTom constructor · 25 days ago
Once one sees the "pattern" you tease out B, C, D, A, G. Like "marked" cards, the pattern reveals to the "magician" what card that really is without them having to see the card. In a marked deck they might know that (here is where the code comes in) A is 1 (in cards, an Ace), B is 2, etc.

But we are meta solvers and B, C, D, A, G cives us 2, 3, 4, 1, 7 and we all know what to do when a meta gives us numbers...in those squares (and in the order the numbers appeared in the grid) you will find MAGIC.
- ajk 16:12 · 24 days ago
  OK, that's what I did, thx. It was recognizing the pattern that I wasn't sure I did properly. :)

woozy 22:24 · 25 days ago

Wow. Stare at it long enough you see it eventually

Ergcat 20:28 · 25 days ago

The nudges gave me a start but Needed help from discord group too! Thanks, DrTom!

Serafin 21:46 · 25 days ago

Funny enough, when i hit my wall pre-nudges(needed nudge 6 in the end), I was going to guess MAGIC just as a free throw and then try to backsolve, but I decided to wait til I could try again after work. Great puzzle! Don't feel discouraged with Pumas, they're so fun.

HeadinHome 4:23 · 24 days ago

i wagged MAGIC but still don’t see the way to get it by the number code thing … maybe I’m misunderstanding your explanation. So, for example, EYE is 5-25-5 (5th letter of alphabet, and 25th), so in this puzzle square #5 is E and square #25 is T. (neither of those letters is in MAGIC). ?

DrTom constructor · 24 days ago
But the triangle of letters in each "card" is B,C,D,A,G and that translates to 2,3,4,1,7 - look in those squares in the grid. This is pretty fancy for me so I am not surprised people are not getting the last step.
- HeadinHome 4:23 · 22 days ago
  I figured out what I had been missing.. I had not been constraining my collection of 3x5’s to those having a “triangle” of that outer letter (all three sides of the central letter) — but went for simply having a palindrome on one edge. So instead of the DAD card, I had seen the palindrome of the card lying on its side just below that DAD row, where EDE makes up the end of a 3x5. The lack of symmetry of using that EDE card (lying sideways instead of upright) should have tipped me off, but it didn’t for some reason. Also never noticed the fact that all the others (except for NW) had a triangle of the same letter! duh.

kurtalert 🤓9:38 · 24 days ago

Wow - super cool. Took me a bit to figure out why the upper left corner wasn't included while the lower right was. Initially I did not have either of them, but figured I was missing something as I only had 4 cards.

woozy 22:24 · 24 days ago

My I attempt an explanation?

So first off there are many (much more than 5) 3x5 blocks. We need to find 5 of them that have a similarity. the first one (with IMAGE, EYE, and SPACE) is NOT one of them. The similarity is that in these 3x 5 blocks when reoriented have an 3 square edge (I like to think of it as a bottom row with a central pivot) that is of the form of a palidromic center letter girded by two of the same letter. These "girding letters" (I like to think of them as rivets) also appear above the center letter. So we have BAB with a B to the left, COC with a C beneath, DAD with a D beneath, AHA with an A to the right, and GOG with a G to the left. (EYE fails as there is an M and not an E to the left of the Y) These "girding" letters BCDAG in alphnum code are 2-3-4-1-7 and the cells of 2-3-4-1-7 spell MAGIC.

HeadinHome 4:23 · 24 days ago
AHHH — I was not limiting myself to 3x5’s that had the panlindrome ends on them AND the matching “girding” letter by the middle letter also. So I had HSIDE ECARD MONAE circled, because of the EDE… but that area should be the vertical 3x5 with DAD at top and IDE below it. When I did that, I saw the BCDAG, which does indeed create magic!!

What I'm not really getting is the nudge about the graphic. If those cards are marked it's not clear how.

HeadinHome 4:23 · 24 days ago
I’m thinking “Slight” in the title his homophone to “sleight” - like sleight of hand, so his reference to the graphic was — this person is doing a card trick (“pick a card… any card…”) — or doing sleight of hand. Card tricksters often use marked decks of course… so that’s the connection to the graphic. ?
DrTom constructor · 23 days ago
There are 6 of the 3 x 5 squares and only the NW corner does not count as one of the "marked" cards. The Mx is that on all of the "marked" card there is a "triangle" formed of the letter, so :

B X B

X B X

THEN

C X C

X C X

ETC.

Those 5 letters get translated to numbers and those 5 numbers point to squares with letters that spell out the answer.

As for not seeing the marking, well they are there, but that is the goal of a marked deck; the "magician" knows what to look for but to everyone else they look the same. Take a look at the left side of the graphic, do you see that the 1st card has the triangle pattern with three "bicycle" wheels, but the subsequent cards below it do not until you get to the 7th and 8th card.
- woozy 22:24 · 23 days ago
  "do you see that the 1st card has the triangle pattern with three "bicycle" wheels, but the subsequent cards below it do not until you get to the 7th and 8th card." Well, no. I don't see that at all. I specifically looked for things like that but they are too subtle. And even if you point it out I don't see any such thing at all.

Tyrpmom 30:29 · 22 days ago

Yay! I finally finished.

omnilynx 🤓37:00 · 13 days ago

The top left corner tripped me up. I was anticipating it to be symmetrical.

DrTom constructor · 13 days ago
BELIEVE me I tried!!!!
- omnilynx 🤓37:00 · 12 days ago

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