Dude, I'm Baked
◆ · Por DrTom · Publicado 2024-07-03T11:30:57.100Z
Meta Prompt
The answer is a word a Brit might use to describe our obsession with metas
This was made a while back, and was pretty thoroughly tested. I am guessing it will be about a Kitten or a Calico but it is an implied answer and sometimes those play harder. I have been saving it because I thought it most apropos for this time period, something I hope all the solvers will "get".
KITTEN*
CALICO*
Persian
Puma
Lion
I got scads of help from my testers: edestlin, Cap'n Rick, rjy, Snood, and I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. If there are any quirky parts of the puzzle it is NOT their fault, I probably just did not listen.
With that, I'll leave you to your own devices. If you do not get the cat out immediately don't worry, kitty will probably stay in the bag to avoid all of the people shooting off fireworks.
There will be Friday nudges, or sooner if needed.
𝙎𝙊𝙇𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎 𝙋𝙇𝙀𝘼𝙎𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿: Disregard 52D which was written when there was only one letter missing from the Grid. In edits I changed a word and lost the one instance of the letter (W) I had. So 52D does not work as written because there are TWO missing letters...unless of course you look at this note and see that there was supposed to be a W in the grid.....
NUDGES (in increasingly pushy order):
Sorry, had an eye appointment today and I can finally see well enough to post nudges...
Nudge 1] Baked might just as easily refer to a cooking technique as a stoner term
Nudge 2] There are 7 instances of the meta mechanism symmetrically throughout the puzzle.
Nudge 3] One prominently placed "instance" is slightly different than the other 6 in terms of preceding versus following
Nudge 4] If you were watching "Capital Fourth" last evening, or actually if you were almost anywhere, you heard one of the mechanism words
Nudge 5] The graphic actually holds a hint, I've been cautioned to stop that but this was made before that caution. Look at some of the snacks in the picture, are they anywhere else?
The Reveal:
Six symmetrical clues could have the word CRACKER appended to them (like FIRE which was the impetus for the puzzle and the tie in with the 4th).
SODA
OYSTER
SAFE
RITZ
ANIMAL
FIRE
The middle entry, though indeed another CRACKER, was a nudge clue of sorts because here CRACKER comes in front, but I thought people may think CRACKER JACKS, of course and then go back to the others.
All this led to the meta answer - CRACKERS (which I might add are baked!). Which is a term for "crazy" that came to us from the British Navy referring to firecrackers in one's head, originally as "he's got the crackers" and then "he's gone crackers" before the present "he is crackers".
One nudge clue (52D) went awry due to a grid change. Originally the lower left corner had REGINA and GREW.
When I changed the grid (Regina was a more obscure answer than RETINA) I got rid of the W making BOTH Q and W a missing letter. The original idea was that with only the Q missing people would pick up on the name for the duck being QUACKER.
For a graphic representation of the solve please go to:
Comprobando datos de juego anteriores…
