Here's another MEOW from Down Under! This one is definitely on the harder side, I think. But there are hints to be had for those paying close attention. The answer to the meta is a composer (and it's not one of the composers in the image above!) Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=148272#p148272
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!
Nice... I should have seen the key word on my own without needing to resort to an anagram solver... le sigh... I was partly distracted by seeing Gemini in the first across... as apparently i cant get any hints on my own I am curious WHAT the last across clue is referencing
Wayyyy too big brain for me... that really doesn't say much in my case but I digress... thanks again for the puzzle
boharr 2s · 2023-11-15T13:38:40.265Z
Thanks
whimsy 12:42 · 2023-11-15T15:42:56.978Z
Had fun solving this and then doing some research. Still not certain I've gotten the hints mentioned, but look forward to learning more later through nudges/reveal. Thanks, Ben!
Nice! Brings back memories, Nimrod was one of my conductor's favorite pieces back in the band days. We played it for him at our last concert with him. Very emotional performance.
MatthewL 🤓7:01 · 2023-11-15T19:49:47.167Z
Well, I solved it (thanks, Google), but not sure I picked up on all of the clues and Easter Eggs. Will look forward to the reveal. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
71A is referring to the fact that the E of MEOW is "Enigma"!
Tyrpmom 2s · 2023-11-15T23:04:33.931Z
That was fun. Thanks.
HeadinHome 🤓1:44 · 2023-11-15T23:08:08.715Z
Endlessly googling composers whose name starts with ENG… MIN… GAN… Came close with An-Ming Wang, a Chinese composer! Finally got it by thinking … maybe there was a famous crossword puzzle called “Enigma” that he’s shouting out the composer of. Of course in googling that idea, Elgar popped up. Duh!
Wow, I was all over the place. I first saw MEGA in the beginnings of all three words but of course the letters were not together. So I went with three megas, or in my addled mind, "pigs" and found a "The Three Little Pigs/Beethoven's 5th Symphony"...too much a stretch. Then I got IMAGINE from the first two and THOUGHT I saw it in the third, so voila John Lennon...NOPE. Finally I saw ENIGMA in all of them, but did I think "variations", no I did NOT, I googled Three Enigmas and a composition by Colin Matthews came up. Well, who is better known than Colin Matthews (71A everyone screamed out!). Could be I suppose, and Enigma makes you ask "what" so...NOPE. In abject frustration I "called a friend" and they said to keep going with one of my ideas. So I looked at the only foothold I had, and Googled Enigma composition and of course Variations on a Theme immediately came up. It is odd because I had already run across Elgar in an earlier panic (looking for English Generals, during which phase I had offered up Albert Sullivan) but dismissed him because he was not a general and the tune I knew best was Pomp and Circumstances. So long way to get home and only got there with a tow, but certainly appreciate the puzzle and the mechanism. What is the "Generally" supposed to bring to mind though? Anyway, now where is that jigger and the gin bottle.... (Oh, and as an American serviceman, I've heard that saying before, not during WWII of course and not in Australia of course, but I can tell you we were NOT overpayed)
Anagrams are my weak spot (or rather, one of several), so once I figured from 1A that they were involved I decided to wait for nudges. After nudge 2 I got to ENIGMA quickly of course, and knew that it was the E in MEOW, but needed nudge 4 to hit on the correct google phrase. Fun one, thanks.
Eric Porter 24s · 2023-11-18T03:00:21.108Z
When I saw the letters anagrammed to 'enigma', I thought that the answer was "benchen71". Haha
He is a composer (of crosswords) and given the title of the puzzle, I thought it was worth a shot.
That's funny. I should have been able to get that one without nudges. I had already noticed most of it, but didn't think to Google it, even though the description says to. For some reason I only thought that "Corinth Letters" was saying to look at Greek letters, but didn't look at the other words in the row of the other Med Cities.