Shoot, that's a valid answer and a bad oversight by me. Sorry to the folks that got hung up on this!
Charles Montpetit 🤓1:26 · 2023-02-05T22:45:14.640Z
I too ended up with TONE... but I must have absentmindedly entered NOTE in order to end up here, because I fail to see how else one can arrive at the latter. Other than subconsciously feeling that NOTE is more appropriate (because it alludes to a notepad), what is the mechanism which confirms that this is the "right" answer?
Using those same extracted letters in order of the original theme entries yields NOTE.
Gutman 2s · 2023-02-05T15:27:59.636Z
Well done.
Qmark 5s · 2023-02-05T15:14:29.781Z
Thanks Will!
boharr 2s · 2023-02-05T15:41:37.626Z
Thanks, Will.
DebbieC 🤓10:32 · 2023-02-05T15:55:59.317Z
Lovely construction. Fresh take on tried and true metanisms!
Bbaack 🤓12:26 · 2023-02-05T15:43:36.399Z
Nice one, thanks!
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2023-02-05T16:13:03.359Z
Fun! Thanks, Will.
ajk 🤓7:22 · 2023-02-05T16:13:13.622Z
Very fun, thanks.
Tyrpmom 2s · 2023-02-05T17:38:41.094Z
Very clever.
Sfull411 4:23 · 2023-02-05T18:15:02.142Z
Thank you!
Bird Lives 3s · 2023-02-05T18:49:30.661Z
Nice puzzle. Logical construction. I entered a wrong answer at first. Now I know why those nubs are on the F and J.
Darth 🤓13:39 · 2023-02-05T19:48:30.976Z
Nice! The meta hint at 34A was a clear directive on what to do! ;)
whimsy 🤓11:51 · 2023-02-05T19:56:48.698Z
A couple of wrong 'uns -- first because I couldn't keep my story straight, and then TONE -- wasn't concerned because the alternative route was right there and NOTE made a lot more sense. Liked it a lot in any case -- Thanks Will!
Laura M 🤓16:04 · 2023-02-05T19:44:43.903Z
Loved it! Ironically, solved on my phone without writing anything down :-)
Carolyn 4s · 2023-02-05T20:19:30.797Z
Also fell into the TONE trap! Note does make more sense though.
As others have noted, I also found that the mechanism yielded two possible answers, but fortunately I started with NOTE as that seemed more in accord with WRITE and SCRATCH PAD. (TONE seemed to be too far a stretch, e.g. "tone of voice" as a way to "write off" something??)
The mechanism was very well in keeping with the central hint. Nice meta.
THC 🤓4:14 · 2023-02-06T12:54:43.655Z
Well done, Will!
Joe 🤓6:30 · 2023-02-06T14:55:36.046Z
I also had the NOTE/TONE conundrum, but NOTE seemed much more appropriate to the meta's vibe.
MatthewL 🤓6:22 · 2023-02-06T17:04:26.200Z
Fun one. Took a second, but finally got it. Thanks!
As I sat there composing a PM to Will because I was lost, lost, lost I saw the PADS and then it all became clear and MUCH less complicated than I was making it of course, It is always good to write things down on a scratch pad, or a PM as it turns out. Nice AHA Will.
Meta World Peace 4s · 2023-02-11T02:34:38.524Z
A ton(e) of fun and not(e) too many scribbles required on my scratch pad to figure out this week's puzzle--thanks, Will!
Joshua 🤓4:28 · 2023-02-11T03:44:34.183Z
Nice! I got TONE at first but it wasn't a very satisfying answer so I realized NOTE must be correct :)