The answer to the meta is what we're counting down to
It's time for another week 5 meta! Hopefully you've got a bit of leisure time to devote to this puzzle. This one has it all: a challenging grid (well, maybe only in places. I didn't want to make it too difficult!) and it's a pangram to boot. Then, once the grid is filled in, good luck searching for the answer to the meta which is what we're counting down to. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=190610#p190610
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!
Yeah, I figure it should have symmetry but when you associate meaning rather than shape to words, I just couldn't see PROPERTY for the first half dozen times even when knowing what to look for. I had to know I was looking at a word ending with Y and PROPERTY was the only one and I was sure I had already ruled it out six times.
Inferred from the prompt, but no idea what happened so I look forward to the explanation! Thanks for all the puzzles and happy new year to all!
HeadinHome 🤓7:08 · 2025-01-01T02:15:03.243Z
And to you!!
ELSavage 🤓13:05 · 2025-01-01T03:20:25.648Z
Thanks Ben!
A few distractions and false starts, but once it occured to me to look for numbers in the theme clues, I knew what numbers to look for, and then a last round of distractions and false starts before finding the (partial) solution.
Never would have gotten there without the nudges, novel mechanism. I tried ever count down I knw to know avail. I figured it would be 10 letters (countdown) and since you had JEN (Top Right) and 1st (well IST - Bottom left) I went for JANUARY 1st. Good idea, and technically right, but not the answer. Happy New Year Ben!