Very nice puzzle, Capn! Although I think you messed up the grid entry for 16A -- had a hard time cramming ADAMA in there, but I made it work. Thanks for the Monday puzzler!
Oh... wait. Now I do of course! One of the curses of doing metas on-line. Not seeing the forest for the trees. !NICE! Placing. Makes for a brilliant puzzle. Missing the spacing... makes for an adequate but meh puzzle. But the placing... brilliant!
Glad you enjoyed it, DrTom. I had no idea that you were a big Star Wars fan. With "Ad Astra", this is number 2 of 3 in my little trilogy of outer space metas. Not sure when or where I'll be releasing the third one...
Oh I like anything space Sci Fi related. Loved all the Star Treks as well (all versions). I kept trying to find Will Robinson somewhere in the grid with the title.
Or, upon further review, they just might be X-wing fighters. (Thanks, HeadinHome!)
HeadinHome 🤓3:23 · 2023-10-10T00:30:59.699Z
Good thing CrossHare allows multiple attempts. Tried SPACE BETWEEN, SPACE JAM, and a few others, before doing the classic: first letters, of course! And are these two X-wing fighters? ( :
Those were some pretty good guesses, Wendy, but no it's the classic first letters dismount. And now that you mention it, that could very well be two X-wing fighters!
lol needed the second hint to persuade me to properly execute the first thought I had on Monday morning. I think I was just focusing on the accrosses in the wrong areas of the grid and somehow managed to miss both AIR and AGE. Even when I was looking with renewed purpose this morning it took me a few beats to see those for some reason. And then another few to find the downs. TRIPLE and ROCKET were last. Very nifty puzzle and impressive construction, as always. Thanks. :)
Thanks, Alan. Yes, this one is a little unconventional with the before-and-after and Across/Down themer placements. Always looking to push that meta envelope! :)
Ergcat 14:48 · 2023-10-11T17:02:32.907Z
BTW Don’t know why I didn’t think of the “first letters” in the first place …. Duh
Thanks, Elaine. Yes, this mechanism fooled more than a few people.
Ergcat 14:48 · 2023-10-11T17:00:36.844Z
Had the “stars” early on but struggled with the next step! Nice aha! Thanks, Cap’n !
ReB 5s · 2023-10-11T19:27:15.601Z
Tried really hard to not see the answer even when it was staring me in the face, but I finally had to give in. I guess you could say I was star-st[r]uck.