Explanation: This could be as SAD as it gets: the 8 squares with an 8 in it (8 through 78) contain the letter "V." Well, there's your V8, haha.
There is more, however, likely hinted at by some weirdly worded clues. All of the clues that intersect at the Vs have clues that start and can be combined to form the name of one of the 8 vegetables. For instance, LEAVE and VANISHINTOTHINAIR start with "Watercr-" and "Ess-," and they concatenate to form "watercress," one of the eight vegetables. All 8 V-intersections play out this way, and catching some of that awkwardness along the way might be another in if you don't notice the Vs right away.
Also, it's the 8th month, so you knew I would try to celebrate with something related to it somehow! Also note the middle third column of the grid, which is where I tried my utmost to make it look like an "8" with the white and black squares. Furthermore, I do not think I've ever had a V8 in my life. That is all.
KayW 🤓12:40 · 2024-08-03T17:44:27.014Z
Wow! I coulda had a one ...much earlier if I wagged my hunch instead of finishing the grid and then counting :D Nice one, thanks!
I noticed the vegetables but failed to notice that all the V’s landed in an 8 box (8, 18, 28, 38, etc)… so really special puzzle just got extra special
Meg 3s · 2024-08-03T19:31:32.867Z
IN is in the grid 10 times plus the title! I really thought that was something.
Yes! And the cryptic message about strange beginnings or patterns in the grid somehow got me thinking of 9 (which is what finally led me to thoughts of numbers and the v's) Spine, diner, cuisine, line, Frankenstein, Nein, etc. Only off by one!
This is likely playing like a Level 4, I'd say. The giant 8 in the middle of the grid art is screaming to me, but if you don't know it's there, you likely won't see it! I should do a poll afterward and see who's actually had a V8, haha.
Tyrpmom 28:24 · 2024-08-08T19:03:54.739Z
I didn’t take note of all the V’s for quite awhile. I found moon teas diagonally to be pretty interesting.
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2024-08-08T19:15:08.155Z
Great construction. I was sure this was going to be a beverage I had never heard of, but we drink V-8 all the time!
hoover 7s · 2024-08-08T20:07:56.173Z
I pushed the laptop far enough away from me that I could see a giant 8, which was enough to go take a fifth look at mechapuzzle to see that there were, in fact, 8 Vs in the puzzle. Sheesh! I had tried highlighting TEA, ALE, VEG, INGREDIENTS, INT, and several other combinations of letters. Nice one!
Whoa, someone did find the "8"! Okay, that's awesome.
whimsy 🤓4:39 · 2024-08-09T20:56:36.111Z
I didn't see "the big 8" -- obviously the younger cousin of "the big W." I did see the v's but was trying (oh, so close) to make them spell vegetable, or something along those lines. Which leads me to ask -- Are we really not surprised that the veggie ingredients are arrived at by con"cat"enation of the pairs of clues!
What I did see in the grid was -- WASABI, in the WASI/SAAB crossing area; and NUTELLA, in the IFIFELL/NUT/TIA area. Maybe Campbell's will consider tossing those in as secret ingredients!
A wonderfully and oxymoronically elaborate "simple and difficult" production. Thanks, Mikey!
My first thought was that if you combine the RUMS with all the Gingers in the clues and you could make a dark 'n' stormy.
After the hints, the only thing that stood out was that a lot of the clues (but not quite 16 of them) started with the letter W. But if you took all the clues that contained WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, or WHY there were exactly 16! I figured those had to be the 16 clues that had something unusual about the phrasing, mostly early in the clue. (They were not.)
It took a further nudge to look at letters and a trip back to Mechapuzzle (which I had already used and saw there were WAY more Is and N's and Geneva make a great gin and ILIKEIT (a G&T) OVERICE. Of course there is also a drink called a F-104 (46A) and the Meta # and several drinks with gin and other possible ingredients interpolated from the grid that have a 16 letter name. I can truly say I never would have gotten this. Perhaps if I had reviewed Mechapuzzle more carefully or, as Darth did, said WOW that is a lot of V's for a puzzle (cause we know those are hard). I can also say that I would never have arrived at the answer the "long" way. Innovative puzzle and interesting because I had thought of a V8 puzzle long ago but was just goign to have the veggies hidden in the grid or clues...MUCH more mundane. Thanks Mikey!
Oh, my other HUGE rabbit hole. INT in the middle crossing UNI and about twice the normal number of I's and N's for a puzzle that has All the INgredients. I was taking words with IN in the clue or IN in the Grid (there are a lot) but of course never got anywhere.