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Attraction (Meta)

◆◆ · By benchen71 · Published 2025-02-11T05:00:36.698Z

Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is a song from the early '80s
I really didn't know what to call this one; and I don't really know how to introduce it, either. So I guess these vague sentiments will just have to do! The answer to the meta is a song from the early '80s. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=195217#p195217
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...

Leaderboard (updated hourly)

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Comments

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  • benchen71 constructor · 2025-02-11T05:00:36.698Z
    This meta was partly inspired by the Dire Straits song "Tunnel of Love", which explains why BOAT was clued with the words "low ride". Check out the music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAirINwjaxE.
    • lbray53 3s · 2025-02-11T13:02:34.934Z
      LOVED this one. Great graphic in the grid.
      • Darth 7:56 · 2025-02-11T14:25:47.880Z
        I went from In the Dark (Billy Squier 1981) to Upside Down (Diana Ross 1980) and Endless Love (Ross/Richie 1980)... until I finally saw the light at the end of the "tunnel"! ....I guess I missed the boat! :D Thanks, Ben. Happy Valentine's "week"!
        • Meg 1:53 · 2025-02-11T15:30:45.548Z
          I thought it was a house…… of love….or something like that. Finally figured out how to include attraction. Nice one, Ben.
          • Alvibu67 6s · 2025-02-11T23:03:41.206Z
            I thought it was Love Shack by the B-52’s but that was late ‘80s. Great song, too!
          • MatthewL 🤓5:56 · 2025-02-11T17:57:01.536Z
            Had to try Opposites Attract first (who doesn't love MC Skat Kat), but then realized where you were going with this once I saw the LOVE and BOAT. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
            • woozy 9:34 · 2025-02-11T19:19:38.568Z
              Yep. Never heard of the song. But had to visualize what it is and .....
              • DCBilly 3s · 2025-02-12T00:28:32.719Z
                I saw the visual pretty soon after filling the grid. Before solving I was worried that the shape was going to be a video game controller, which would be death for me. But instead it was a tunnel! Of love! With a boat floating through! And I knew the song from my years of spending too much of my spare change on these things called Compact Discs.
                • benchen71 constructor · 2025-02-12T01:51:16.463Z
                  I have a large collection of CDs and I still buy them. (And when I can't buy them I burn my own!)
                • KayW 🤓2:02 · 2025-02-11T22:04:49.139Z
                  LOL. I saw the title "Attract", and all the LOVE clinging it to it. And got it stuck in my head that the big black shape was a LOVE MAGNET (a song I never heard of, circa 1979.) Then I saw the BOAT and tried to enter THEME FROM THE LOVE BOAT in as many variations as possible. Then I focused on the 2 long across entries and tried LOVE ON THE RUN and TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. A whack on the head from Ben helped me see the light at the end of the TUNNEL. Nice one, Ben - thanks for the remedial help!
                  • DrTom 3s · 2025-02-11T18:27:44.226Z
                    Well I lucked into this because I saw LOVE BOAT and the LOVE BOAT theme came out in the early 80's (late 70's). I saw the "magnetlike" shape and figured it was "attracting" the LO and VE above it - BRILLIANT, but wrong. "Hmmm, what is that Southern Hemisphere trickster up to..." then I saw the other LOVEs making a tunnel...TADA!!! I had some great other ideas (CARDIOVASCULAR ASBESTOS - Hearts on Fire, Frankie AVE/ALON "Fever", MATINEEIDOL ARON "Elvis Presley Burning Love". Luckily I saw the tunnel!!
                    Great construction
                    • ELSavage 🤓9:30 · 2025-02-11T20:12:29.175Z
                      I was thinking House of Love (but that's a band formed in 1986), Love Shack (1989), and then the image and BOAT finally suggested Tunnel of Love, but I was dissuaded at first because I was thinking of the Bruce Springsteen song from 1987. Tried it anyway, just in case there was an earlier version I wasn't familiar with - and there was.
                      • DrTom 3s · 2025-02-12T05:47:21.106Z
                        Well I’ll be darned, Springsteen did Tunnel of Love too.
                        • hoover 5s · 2025-02-13T07:16:25.030Z
                          Yeah, that's the one that fills the top of the results when you search for "Tunnel of Love."
                        • Shaun 13:37 · 2025-02-13T05:55:58.668Z
                          Needed nudge #2 to solve the meta. Fun one thanks.
                          • Carolyn 7s · 2025-02-13T13:17:54.619Z
                            Thanks for the nudges!
                            • Mg305 3s · 2025-02-13T13:45:33.631Z
                              Tunnel of Love is a Bruce Springsteen hit from 1987. Not the early 80s. Threw me off. I get the Dire Straits song of same name was released in 1980 but that’s a sort of obscure song in comparison and not even close to the Boss’s song in terms of cultural relevance…
                              • benchen71 constructor · 2025-02-13T20:02:26.544Z
                                You forget that I am an Australian and the Dire Straits song was huge Downunder. I personally have never heard the Bruce Springsteen one!
                              • HeadinHome 🤓1:20 · 2025-02-13T14:03:00.615Z
                                Okay, well after submitting anything I could find on Billboard top 100 for 1980-1985 containing anything remotely related to LOVE or cars (my guess at the blob), I submitted your shove-nudge, et voilà. Google says it was released 1987 (not “early” 80s - so I think I would have gotten this by my chart-scan method but for that one word in the prompt. Still, this was a creative puzzle and I salute you getting the letters to do that!!
                                • ajk 6:46 · 2025-02-13T19:40:48.716Z
                                  lol cute. definitely needed all the nudges, and even then took a second to see the LOVEs.
                                  1A
                                  Garden paradise
                                  1
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                                  57
                                  Across
                                  1. 1A
                                    Garden paradise
                                  2. 5A
                                    Wheel shaft
                                  3. 9A
                                    Relating to the heart and blood vessels
                                  4. 16A
                                    Off's opposite
                                  5. 17A
                                    Former fireproofing
                                  6. 18A
                                    Pa's partner
                                  7. 19A
                                    Sciency place
                                  8. 21A
                                    Polish-German actress and singer Natalie ___
                                  9. 22A
                                    Gentle touch
                                  10. 23A
                                    Moody music genre
                                  11. 25A
                                    Sch. in Petersburg
                                  12. 27A
                                    ___-Ration (dog food brand)
                                  13. 29A
                                    Muppet who went to Grouchland in a 1999 movie
                                  14. 32A
                                    Breeze through
                                  15. 33A
                                    Young man
                                  16. 34A
                                    Oct. follower
                                  17. 35A
                                    Vintage
                                  18. 36A
                                    Luminescence, in ads
                                  19. 37A
                                    "C'est la ___"
                                  20. 38A
                                    Feel off
                                  21. 39A
                                    Low ride in an amusement park attraction
                                  22. 43A
                                    Cockney's "shell-like"
                                  23. 44A
                                    Seat (with an ottoman) in MoMA's collection
                                  24. 49A
                                    Actively pursue a Valentine's Day bouquet? (and a Dan Fogelberg song from 1982 which is not the answer to the meta!)
                                  25. 53A
                                    Swoon-worthy male actor, especially in films of the 1930s and 1940s
                                  26. 54A
                                    Symbol for the element cobalt
                                  27. 55A
                                    Sizes before and after M
                                  28. 56A
                                    Managed to access the contents of a tightly-closed jar, say
                                  29. 57A
                                    First square on a Monopoly board
                                  Down
                                  1. 1D
                                    Environmental science (abbr.)
                                  2. 2D
                                    Fox's "X-Files" partner
                                  3. 3D
                                    "Um..."
                                  4. 4D
                                    Confidentiality contract (abbr.)
                                  5. 5D
                                    The green and gold, in Olympic standings
                                  6. 6D
                                    Big size
                                  7. 7D
                                    Tibetan monk
                                  8. 8D
                                    The E of QED
                                  9. 10D
                                    Golfer ___ Aoki
                                  10. 11D
                                    "Heads" side of a coin (abbr.)
                                  11. 12D
                                    Geese formation
                                  12. 13D
                                    Language used in the movie "CODA"
                                  13. 14D
                                    Susan ___-Helit (Death's granddaughter in the Discworld series)
                                  14. 15D
                                    Ceremonial meeting of the members of a university, for short
                                  15. 20D
                                    Generous and kind
                                  16. 22D
                                    What Aussies call "jumpers"
                                  17. 24D
                                    1 cc
                                  18. 26D
                                    Symbol for the element selenium
                                  19. 27D
                                    Roo's mother
                                  20. 28D
                                    Food-poisoning bacteria
                                  21. 30D
                                    Sasha Obama's sister
                                  22. 31D
                                    More peculiar
                                  23. 39D
                                    Artist's cap
                                  24. 40D
                                    Prefix meaning "bone"
                                  25. 41D
                                    Have ___ on one's shoulder
                                  26. 42D
                                    American comedian Robin ___, creator of "A Black Lady Sketch Show"
                                  27. 45D
                                    Not worth ___ (valueless)
                                  28. 46D
                                    Stereo forerunner
                                  29. 47D
                                    Elvis ___ Presley
                                  30. 48D
                                    Intraocular lens (abbr.)
                                  31. 49D
                                    Hotel units (abbr.)
                                  32. 50D
                                    Rival of Delta and American (abbr.)
                                  33. 51D
                                    Heart test, briefly
                                  34. 52D
                                    American actress and singer Phillipa ___
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