The meta answer is HANGOVER (Hint: Find an 8-letter noun.)
The 8 theme answers, all with bracketed clues, were some form of cocktail or alcoholic beverage or spirit (that one might conceivably enjoy on New Year's Eve!) From top to bottom, they were VERMOUTH, TEQUILA, RUMPUNCH, GLOGG, BIJOU, NAVYGROG, BELLINI, and RIESLING.
The New Year's Event countdown-themed title, "Ten! ... Nine! ..." hints that the meta answer can be found by "completing" the countdown, starting with eight and ending with one.
Thus, the countdown is completed by starting with letter #8 of the first theme answer--the H in VERMOUTH--and moving on to letter #7 of the next theme answer, then letter #6 of the next theme answer, and so on, until you reach letter #1 of the last them answer, the R in RIESLING. In order, they spell HANGOVER, an 8-letter noun that's associated for many with the New-Year's-Day morning after a New Year's Eve celebration (ha!) that satisfies the puzzle's hint.
Thanks Cindy! I think I've just about posted all of my backlog of metas... then you'll probably see one once every two months (to match of the timing of when they're published in the Comet). Cheers!
rjy 18:20 · 2024-12-11T20:34:18.932Z
Nice one, Cory. Working my way thru your metas, just 3 remain for now. Impressed with how different they all are - kudos!
VERY nice! I thought at first that the alcohols would be 10 letters, nine letters, etc. Then I went to the clues and counted starting with 10 and got WINCE IE and my mind went into overdrive.."something like a wince", a shrug, a shrub drink, a gin shrub = 8 letters noun...NAH too many steps and assumptions. I finally went back and thought, well it cant be the drinks themselves because they are not 10 letters long, longest I have is 8 letters, HEY wait a minute Ten!...Nine!...EIGHT!!!! by the time I got to HANG I had a headache. Nice fill and good clues. You've got style Cory!
Dang, thanks! This might be the most connected a meta title of mine has been to the mechanic you need to use to solve it (though how obvious that connection is is another matter.) Thanks again for the kind words and the feedback!