There's a Time and a Place

Answer: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Explanation: Two things are going on here, one perhaps more obvious than the other. 1. There are four symmetric clues that reference a "certain amount of time": FEB2OOO, FORT, SEPT, ONEWEEK. Those certain amount of times - 29, 14, 30, and 7 days - give us a grand total of 80 days when added together. 2. A series of words surround the grid, all clued in a somewhat anodyne way: WIDE, BANK, MUSIC, CUP, CITY, POWER, TOUR, BOOK, PEACE, MAP, VIEW, WEARY. All of these words can be preceded by WORLD to make a new legitimate word or phrase (note the current clue also makes sense when that occurs).

Very nice; thank you!

i saw the outer edge of WORLDS... but i failed at math... instead of normalizing all the certain amount of time to the same common unit of days, i added 2 for february + 20 for the year + 14 for the fortnight + 9 for september + 7 for the week = 52... 52 sounded important... there are 52 weeks in a year! i'm like that can't be a coincidence... reading your explanation is much more satisfying (i like how feb 2000 you accounted for the leap day! which is oddly and exception to an exception to an exception... every 4 years (exception 1), except every 100 years (exception 2), except every 400 years (exception 3))... great puzzle - the border must've been difficult to fill

Extra clever one. Thanks, Mikey.

That was fun! Thanks, Mikey.

Fun puzzle! I took a chance after finding the "time," and didn't even notice all the "places." I took a moment to appreciate them after reading your explanation, though. Nice work.

I knew those cats reminded me of something! Excellent, Mikey! (I didn't make any math mistakes but instead on my first submission I made a typo! :-P)

Fun one, Mikey! I confess, though, that I never saw the second part (World Wide, etc.) Just saw "80 Days", and that book was the first one I thought of. Thanks for the Saturday afternoon diversion!

Yet another extremely clever numerically themed meta from MikeyG! I found the WORLD AROUND the grid, er, missing from around the grid. Now to backsolve the 80 days! (Or just read the comments :) )

I finally got an early guess in (10% of grid filled) based on the number ! After that I knew where to look and that helped filling the toughish lower half. Nice one!

It was the answer I WANTED it to be, but I needed your explanation to understand how it all fit together. ;) Thanks, Mikey.

Very well done!! Oddly enough, this "level 2" was much harder for my particular brain than last week's "level 4". I didn't think to add all the days together until I remembered that you are very good at matching the meta theme to your puzzle number. I wondered if they could all add up to 80, and - tada! Thanks for another puntastic meta!

Ah... now I get it! Wow.... that was clever! but had to take wild flights of guesses... that worked! Wow, though! That's pretty amazing even for you.

A win's a win and I'll take it but I'm going to try and think this through before I peek at the explanation..... Hmm.... So how are the 80 days in four clues somehow around a world (and in what sense are they "in" the days).... hmmmm.

But.... (you know I have to nitpick) ... isn't this "The World Around 80 days in the World"?

This was the answer I was hoping it would be, but I added 29+14+7+21 (the actual date mentioned in the EWF song). I got 71, and when I couldn't find anything to give me a 9, I tried anyway. Thank you for the explanation and brilliant construction!

Finally decided to add up all the days and got 80. Guessed from there. Didn’t see the World- entries until pointed out. Fun one!

Nice!

I guessed and backsolved to the mechanism. This is so clever in retrospect and explains why some of the clues felt incomplete.

I was fixated on the fact that there were six years in the clues as well as six (actually seven if you counted both Japan's) in the clues. I wasted a lot of Google time trying to connect the years and places!

Leap day... leap day! Argh. 80, not 79. LOL. Good one, thanks Mikey!

Hoo boy. I struggled. Didn't think to add up the days (probably would have gotten it earlier if I had). Didn't notice the border words (had to get a nudge). Was distracted by the word "time" in the ESPN clue. And, yeah, last week's I got in like 30 seconds. But this one was a workout!!

Just found this puzzle last night. Very nice!

I do NOT know why it took me so long to see this. The odd clues on the periphery (didn't see them all until I saw the first one or two that were odd "POWER" "PEACE" "BANK" - they seemed "unfinished"). A kind muggle told me to add things up, but I was killed adding 29+366, and the 99 reference in the Sept answer made me want to add that too. I also will admit to spending lots of time with 2/2000 and 9/99. Finally when I got the WORLD going "around" I knew I had to find a way to make things add up to 80 days (and I should have known because I said "7 days, 14 days" for other clues). Anyway, another fun Mikey that is oh so easy when you see it, but oh so hard when you don't - although they always vex me I do love the Mikey Twists.

got it at the last minute...needed to be nudged