I pondered a bit when I saw ALLA, BREVE, OSKAR and was glad that there were no book title by PAPA Hemmingway. But the ALLA BREVE (which I did NOT know) was not symmetric (RECONNECT had no NATO alphabet even close) so I finally decided on all my other phonetics which were all Roman numerals.
PuzNewbie 14:41 · 2023-03-07T21:24:42.581Z
Yes, I wondered the same! That answer set off the NATO alpha in my head and the rest fell into place, lol.
Meg 2s · 2023-03-06T13:33:06.409Z
ALLA to ALFA, ROSEO to ROMEO. A few interesting rabbit holes… Thanks Jay!
Bird Lives costruttore · 2023-03-06T13:47:27.920Z
Next time -- a meta built around Italian cars. RAMBO LAMBO, FLAT FIAT, etc.
Lots of long fill! Filled in numbered squares corresponding to # in alphabet 3, 4, 9, 12, 22, 24. Got to STATE D... (DAMN) if that D had been an F... lol Was that intentional? Thanks for the additional movie workout, Bird.
hoover 2s · 2023-03-06T18:27:52.041Z
With the title, once I had VICTOR and XRAY, the jig was up.
Whew, I was afraid this was going to be my last dance! I had just finished my bartending shift and was puzzling over the meta when it hit me like a pole. So I stripped off all my excess baggage and just ground away at it until all was revealed.
I must say I tried to use the letters and the numbers together ERDRON but of course that was nothing, and would be more than 9 letters. It was when I was writing out the other letters I V X L C D that it hit me they were all Roman numerals! From there I spent way too much time looking for movies called NILE 500 or DENTAL 10 until I realized there was yet another Roman numeral, M or MIKE and I two stepped home.
Thanks for the puzzle Jay.
wendy walker 4s · 2023-03-06T20:08:41.305Z
Very familiar with this alphabet as I used to crew at glider races for my brother, Jae Walker. "Juliet Whiskey one mile out" was a welcome message from him at the end of a long day of radio silence!
Ha! Clever! I thought the roman numerals in the clue would indicate grid square numbers....
But this is really good.
whimsy 14:59 · 2023-03-06T21:53:22.693Z
Totally missed the Roman numerals -- made things too difficult by going the "STATED" route -- finally solved via brute force and trial and error --
High Sierra, Damn Yankees, Last Tango, Rio Bravo.... Yeah, so I can't count...
Very nice composite, Jay! (Now that I've seen the light.)
Bird Lives costruttore · 2023-03-06T23:33:06.116Z
Hmmm. Sounds like a meta in the making..
KayW 8:48 · 2023-03-06T23:24:49.109Z
BRAVO Jay - thanks! I got to make use two sets of usually useless knowledge that rattle around in my head.
HeadinHome 🤓5:14 · 2023-03-07T02:31:51.009Z
I also was trying to make words out of the letters you’d have to change in some of the entries to get a NATO letter/word: alla, breve, oskar. Not sure what made me then notice the sequence of ROMAN numerals in the real themers and abandon that hole. Fun idea, well executed!
Solved without fully understanding what the sequence was. Now that I get it, I'm even more impressed!
Snood 🤓2:26 · 2023-03-08T15:59:18.860Z
Lots of fun! Thank you!
Bbaack 🤓21:24 · 2023-03-08T16:39:39.749Z
Needed the first nudge to get me focused, then it all fell into place. That meta was neato (or NATO)! Thanks for the fun!
ajk 11:29 · 2023-03-08T17:28:34.733Z
Burned too much time focusing on either the 6 across 9s or those plus DENTALXRAY and ROSEOFLIMA. Never thought to exclude ALLABREVE and RECONNECT. As soon as the nudges focused me there it was instant. Embarrassed because I hang out in frequent flyer groups and regularly listen to ATC transmissions. :D Great stuff
Found DELTA and got hung up on the other alphabet that uses that before having the light bulb go off. Nice puzzle, Jay!
sarahlou28 🤓4:10 · 2023-03-11T14:04:56.595Z
A beginner here. All these comments seem to be about how they figured out the meta, or what confused them. Could somebody explain what the meta is? What letters or clues in the puzzle lead to "Magic Mike"?
Bird Lives costruttore · 2023-03-11T16:21:21.508Z
Hi sarahlou and welcome to the wonderful world of metas. A meta is a puzzle that is derived from the puzzle. In this puzzle, the prompt says that the answer is a 9-letter movie title . Unless you have unusual psychic powers, you first have to solve the puzzle in the traditional way. Then, the filled-in grid (or part of it) will allow you to derive the answer to the prompt.
For example, last week Matt Gaffney posted a puzzle (on his own website, not here) with the prompt, “The answer is a well-known TV show.” To get that answer, again barring the psychic shortcut, you have to fill in the grid. When you do, you will see five long Across entries:
EAST RIVER,
ELECTRIC RAZOR,
EARLY RETIREMENT,
EDDIE REDMAYNE,
EASY RIDER.
So the TV show derived from these five entries is E.R. Most meta puzzles are not that easy.
All the people posting here got to this page by solving the meta. They had at least some idea about the connection between some of the entries in the grid and Magic Mike. I don’t know how you managed to get here if you had no understanding of that connection. In any case, for a full explanation of this one, check the Muggles forum tomorrow, where all will be revealed.
https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=2096
sarahlou28 🤓4:10 · 2023-03-12T01:48:42.920Z
Thank you very much for your reply. I'm familiar with meta puzzles to the extent that I subscribe to Matt Gaffney's puzzles and often can solve them, especially the easy ones like ER. I refer to Joon Pahk's Crossword Fiend when I can't figure them out, although often the explanations are over my head. Sometimes I can also get the WSJ and others Matt often refers us to. But after the entry time is up I go to Joon's explanation and he tells us how he figured out the meta. The people on this site were discussing how they were misled, etc., but nobody actually explained how the meta worked to reach that solution. Perhaps i looked into it too soon, before the entry time was up. Somehow I recently started receiving the Crossshares puzzles, which I am enjoying solving, and I guess the comments posted are not giving explanations because it's too early. I will definitely check the Muggles forum tomorrow. Thanks again for taking time to talk to a beginner.