Spot The Vikings (Meta)
◆ · By benchen71 · Published 2023-08-15T06:00:29.427Z
Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is a name
As you will soon find out when you dive into this puzzle, I was working on this meta late on a Friday afternoon/evening and I think it shows: some of the clues are on the chatty side and I really let my punctuation slide. Let me say right at the outset that the metanism is not in the clues! Hopefully you will enjoy this puzzle as much as I enjoyed the G & T I had as I was constructing it. The answer to the meta is a name.
Plus, for the first time ever for a MOAT, there's a prize! The randomly-drawn name will win a MOAT Music Meta Pack valued at $US10. (If that randomly-drawn name is someone who already purchased the Pack, then they can nominate someone else to receive their prize.) Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=139371#p139371
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!
Checking for previous play data...
1A
Pose a question
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
Across
- 1APose a question
- 4A___-a-brac
- 8AHigher on the Mohs scale you know closer to the 10 end
- 14AAll Things Considered network which is not in Australia but I enjoy the occasional Tiny Desk concert on YouTube
- 15ABig Audio Dynamite song that starts with If I had my time again and has that weird talky bit involving rhythm and melody and thus an earworm is launched
- 16AWhat a very insistent French yes-man might say
- 17AItalian bread that's really yummy which is hardly fair if your taste buds differ to mine
- 19AClause modifier that often ends in -ly grammatically speaking
- 20ALove symbol that you can make with two hands aww that's so cute
- 21AMoves quickly from one place to another
- 23AMore ___ approximately
- 25ALike 45 across because your vocal chords aren't involved not because there are lots of esses
- 28AAbout-face from NNE
- 29ASocial media request also the second track from the Chumbawamba album that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest album title I didn't need that second part but it was an interesting factoid
- 32AMix-a-Lot's title maybe that was enough to get Baby's Got Back playing in your head
- 33ADo you use ___ thyme in your turkey stuffing?
- 35AActress ___ Davis of The Long Kiss Goodnight where she plays an amnesiac who thinks her amazing knife skills makes her a chef yeah that tracks
- 37ANorse god who has nothing whatsoever to do with the meta in case you were wondering
- 39ASecond word of the play where Dogberry is hilarious O villain thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this rofl
- 40ADo ___ others
- 41AMaterial popular with gold miners in the 1850s
- 42AChinchilla for example
- 44ATV series with David Tennant playing a serial killer scarily well
- 45ASlightly-longer-than-normal attention-getting sound
- 46ANonprofit's URL suffix
- 49ALibyan capital the city not their money that's just cruel
- 52AProvides protective metallic covering spelled the US way
- 55ASynagogue candelabrum with seven candles
- 58ARoad featured on the cover of an album that had no band name or title on it whatsoever
- 59AReduce as enthusiasm by throwing metaphorical water on the situation
- 61AHannibal if he'd been born in modern times the one who invaded Italy with elephants not the one in Silence of the Lambs
- 63ASelf-help guru ___ Chopra
- 64A___ on me when you're not strong and I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on now that song's in your head you're welcome
- 65ADefense advisory grp this is ridiculous fill in a crossword constructed by an Aussie I'll just outright tell you it's NSC
- 66AHightails it out of there
- 67ASports cable channel that I've never watched nope never
- 68AThe S of DOS the use of the abbr means the answer is also abbr in case you didn't know
Down
- 1DDried poblano chili or the first two syllables of my favourite fishy pizza topping
- 2DAgents like 007 and Perry the Platypus but referred to using a verbal form not a noun I actually thought that might be a better clue than Agents and moles which is what Crosshare was suggesting but what do I know now you can choose
- 3DSouth African villages
- 4DNaughty children like Bart Simpson and Dennis the Menace for example
- 5DMetaphorical image for a boring routine
- 6DAbbr for a narrow strip of land also an anagram of a Jedi's opponent
- 7DBye said the Spaniard informally
- 8DHusky-voiced like how Shohreh Aghdashloo sounds in The Expanse my favourite sci-fi show of the last decade and Arcane an animated series that my daughter recommended it's also really good
- 9DMiddle word of the band referred to in the clue for 15 across so yes this is a dupe but I don't care because I remember that song from my youth it's awesome
- 10DMyst sequel
- 11DSings some songs at a coffee shop or seedy bar I guess it doesn't have to be seedy
- 12DNorth of Afr east of the Atl
- 13DChest bone that Adam donated so God could make Eve actually this is a mistranslation of the Hebrew but you'll have to read John Walton to learn the details
- 18DCold beer slangily I have never used this word in real life
- 22DMuzzle loaders that are paragons of straightness
- 24DYield to gravity
- 26DEl ___ weather phenomenon that plays havoc with countries around the Pacific
- 27DI forget the words but it goes something like this ___-la-la
- 30DOpening of a letter to a knight yes I know this is technically another dupe but I'm constructing this on a Friday afternoon after a looooong week and I'm too tired to redo the grid or worry overmuch about punctuation
- 31DExtinct birds whose carcasses were over-stuffed by taxidermists who didn't know what they were doing leading us to think they were on the porky side
- 34DOrient one's weapon in the direction of one's target I'm eschewing two word clues whenever possible this has nothing to do with the meta remember
- 35DRev as an engine
- 36DPuts in a crypt
- 37DLook like a creep
- 38DNot quite boiling
- 41DDichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane for short
- 43DGreek vowel that crops up in a lot of crosswords also an anagram of a beverage that's popular in England
- 45DCarelessly throws something down in the singular it's also British slang for cheap wine
- 47DRed-breasted birds that are harbingers of spring apparently must be a northern hemisphere thing
- 48DAdjective that describes the proverbial pole leading to career success
- 50DPig in a kids TV show which had one episode banned in Australia because it encouraged children to think spiders were not dangerous (!?!)
- 51DEarly hour of the morning when I occasionally get meta ideas like the one in this puzzle
- 53DActor ___ Wilson of The Office if you're a fan of that show the clue could simply be Dwight
- 54DHarmonizes like singers in a boy band if I reference Bye Bye Bye that will get yet another earworm going
- 56DBe suffix that combines to form someone in the band referenced in the clue for 58 across let's just keep the dupes coming although now I think about it it's a valid cross-reference forget I said anything
- 57DTints or sounds like something belonging to that English actor who starred in Four Weddings and a Funeral a very funny movie btw
- 59DOrthodontist's deg it could also be a librarian's acronym if they use the Dewey decimal system but that's yet another dupe
- 60DAbbr of Truman's nuclear agency if you're like me you'll have to resort to Google sorry
- 62DAfternoon snooze that I really would have profited from today but you get these chatty clues instead so there's that