As I write this "The Aristocats" is trending on TikTok for people mimicking the goose-waddle scene. But the line that stuck in my mind was when Duchess says to Thomas O'Malley, "Oh, c'est tres jolie, monsieur. Very poetic. But it is not quite Shakespeare." That wasn't the seed for this meta puzzle but it will do for the introduction! The answer to the meta is a Shakespearean play. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=167168#p167168
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$10 gives you access to 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game. You won't quite know what to expect: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, sometimes all of those, and sometimes none! One thing is for sure, these are some of the more creative metas my brain has been able to come up with. And there's more: this time there's a mega-meta!
Controllo se esistono file di gioco salvati...
Classifica (aggiornata ogni ora)
woozy solved 2024-05-14T06:20:42.461Z
Dow Jones solved 2024-05-14T06:55:37.924Z
Tom Wilson solved 2024-05-14T08:35:37.072Z
Danny K Bernstein solved 2024-05-14T09:55:57.135Z
Pair O Ducks solved 2024-05-14T11:06:49.346Z
Berto solved 2024-05-14T11:17:38.628Z
Ergcat solved 2024-05-14T12:04:50.059Z
boharr solved 2024-05-14T12:15:56.271Z
DCBilly solved 2024-05-14T12:41:21.338Z
edestlin solved 2024-05-14T12:47:08.279Z
Cindy Weatherman solved 2024-05-14T12:51:56.821Z
JM solved 2024-05-14T12:56:49.578Z
LarsCaine solved 2024-05-14T12:57:21.918Z
MatthewL solved 2024-05-14T13:09:00.737Z
Meg solved 2024-05-14T13:30:22.579Z
lbray53 solved 2024-05-14T13:30:34.617Z
I K Snamhcok solved 2024-05-14T13:41:26.862Z
kymike solved 2024-05-14T13:42:01.525Z
Dave C solved 2024-05-14T13:52:15.698Z
Hector solved 2024-05-14T14:00:17.248Z
ajk solved 2024-05-14T15:22:26.547Z
Carolyn solved 2024-05-14T15:28:51.466Z
DrTom solved 2024-05-14T15:31:13.521Z
Darth solved 2024-05-14T15:34:59.527Z
rjy solved 2024-05-14T15:50:26.920Z
kurtalert solved 2024-05-14T16:05:11.918Z
heidi solved 2024-05-14T16:06:49.496Z
CPJohnson solved 2024-05-14T16:06:56.801Z
Cindy Heisler solved 2024-05-14T16:11:23.311Z
Alex Sisti solved 2024-05-14T16:30:13.227Z
Tyrpmom solved 2024-05-14T16:41:50.374Z
DIS solved 2024-05-14T17:01:24.024Z
Steve M solved 2024-05-14T17:15:45.064Z
Jaclyn solved 2024-05-14T17:22:47.817Z
Philip Chow solved 2024-05-14T17:53:11.641Z
BMW solved 2024-05-14T17:59:14.937Z
Devoid solved 2024-05-14T18:00:35.850Z
An Ephemeral Collation solved 2024-05-14T18:55:37.712Z
The seed for this puzzle was encountering CAPLET in someone else's crossword and thinking, "Oh, that's one letter short of CAPULET. That could be a meta puzzle!" But it wasn't until I was on a school camp accompanying 10 high schoolers as we canooed down the Murray River, sleeping in tents on beaches at night, that I started working on the puzzle properly. What was significant about this was that there was absolutely no internet. So I had to dredge my mind for Shakespearean character names that still formed valid words when you drop one letter. Pretty early on I worked out I wanted to spell MUCH ADO with ZIP/NIL in the centre of the grid. Of course I already had the U. PU(C)K came pretty easily, as did VIOL(A) and ROME(O). But I was stuck on M, H and D. Then one restless night (I didn't sleep very well on the wafer-thin semi-inflatable microscopic "mattress" I had been given) I came across (D)UNCAN and its clue involving whoop-ass. I considered (H)ORATIO, but could only think of ORATORIO so dismissed it. It wasn't until I was back in civilisation (somewhere with internet) that I was able to confirm ORATIO as a (Latin) thing and discover that (M)ARIA was a Shakespearean character, albeit somewhat obscure.
Nice one. As a big Shakespeare fan I didn't need the asterisks except for M ARIA, who is indeed a bit obscure (though once pointed to ARIA I got it immediately). Tumbled to the mechanism basically immediately upon entering CAPLET, but still fun to complete. Also missed the ZIP/NIL (but did notice the news on the RIALTO). Fun stuff, thanks.
Meg 2s · 2024-05-14T13:31:57.315Z
Pronunciation is everything. I kept pronouncing MUCHADO like MUCHACHO. Ha ha!
me too!! i forgot about the prompt as i was doing the puzzle and thought the answer was a shakespeare character... so i was like who is muchado?? must be some character from a play i'm unfamiliar with... great puzzle ben thanks!
I was Leary at first but I Shrewdly found the way to the Hamlet of Verona and across the bridge. Unfortunately I got a spot on my tunic Bottom. Luckily I was able to find a cleaner who, in a Tempest, yelled "out, out damn spot!' and it miraculously disappeared. Thanks for the puzzle but I have to go now, it is thundering, lightning and raining and I have two friends to meet...my turn to bring the cauldron. Cheers Ben.
Wow, like others, I did not connect ZIP/NIL I just knew it was Much Ado About Nothing. An extra masterful touch. Doing this from memory must have been a labor of love, and that is not lost on us.
OK... so, silly me found WAY more characters hidden in here. Here's my total list:
Maria (love's labour's lost and twelfth night)
deNnis (as you like it)
capUlet (romeo & juliet)
pucK (a midsummer night's dream)
CLown (had to add 2 letters, doesn't fit perfectly)
poEt (timon of athens)
Page (richard iii)
violA (twelfth night)
Duncan (macbeth)
Biron (love's labour's lost)
romeO (romeo & juliet)
There was also Duke Senior (as you like it) and Earl of Kent (King Lear) which needed a little more addition.
Fortunately- when I arranged MNUCHCLEPADBO or MNUCHEPADBO vertically, I was able to sort of see MUCH ADO in there- but it took me way longer than it should have. LOL.
I saw a lot of words I could change as well, but I stuck with the "But soft, what light from yonder asterisk breaks..." and that leadeth me home.
Steve M 44:00 · 2024-05-14T17:26:58.220Z
I really enjoyed this, despite not knowing a lot of details about Shakespeare plays. Noticed (H)ORATIO, ROME(O), and CAP(U)LET, and Google helped with the rest. Thanks for the fun puzzle!
Very, very well done! My only comment even resembling criticism being that 4-D intersects 24-A in a way that if you don't know 24-A (which I certainly did not - seems to be outside of my region?), you could argue that an N in that place instead of a D would also satisfy the 4-D clue. Luckily, there are so many ways that 4-D could be clued that could avoid that alternative interpretation. Loved the puzzle and how natural the meta was. Thanks again!
This is what I get for having absolutely no interest whatsoever in literature in high school, and having to rely on Google to give me a list of all 1200+ characters from Shakespeare's works- I think the only ones I spotted on my own were Romeo, Capulet, and Horatio. I was pretty sure RIALTO was going to be one, and possibly PRAC and TICS... NOPE. Sigh.
Oh lord. LMAO. All that searching and I miss the obvious thing staring me right in the face.
KayW 🤓6:45 · 2024-05-14T20:36:21.275Z
Bravo, Ben! That was clever and so much fun! Thanks
Laura M 🤓9:34 · 2024-05-14T21:17:18.883Z
Very nice! Almost managed it without Google, but I didn't remember Maria and wanted to confirm, though with the other letters it was easy to guess. (I thought Ariel for a minute, but wrong spelling!)
HeadinHome 🤓5:28 · 2024-05-14T21:30:32.018Z
No google needed (English major and former English teacher), though I did not remember Maria. I thought maybe I was misremembering how to spell Ariel, but the other letters cleared that up. Such a fan girl I named several batches of hens after Shakespearean heroines. A couple are still living (Bianca and Kate). I have had two Desdemonas suffer tragic fates so I retired that name…
We have chickens, too, and yes, it is very tempting to give them old-sounding names!
imontoo 4s · 2024-05-15T03:58:24.181Z
Very enjoyable. Thanks, Ben!
Eric H 🤓8:36 · 2024-05-15T17:24:47.704Z
I’m not sure what name is hidden in 1A. I originally thought you had misspelled ARIEL, which gave me a nonsensical meta answer. Is there a Shakespearean MARIA?