The answer to the meta is an appropriate last word
Albert Camus famously said, "Somebody has to have the last word. If not, every argument could be opposed by another and we’d never be done with it." See if you can complete this grid and then puzzle out who has the last word. If you succeed, you will arrive at the meta answer which is an appropriate last word. Answer and explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=80923#p80923
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!
Cryptic clue surprised me so it took awhile. Clever puzzle. Thank you.
markhr 🤓16:43 · 2022-01-26T02:19:14.644Z
Same here. Not being a big cryptic guy, I didn't recognize the clue as such for a while. The one word finally made me suspicious. Clever puzzle.
Hector 12:10 · 2022-01-26T02:55:47.259Z
It's cool that the first step gives you "Seventeen across," so that you can be pretty sure you're on the right track. And EPILOGUE works fine even though it is not in the business of being itself a last word. Thank you!
Laura M 🤓22:11 · 2022-01-26T05:02:33.228Z
Whew! I finally had the thought to look up "undressed" in a cryptic context, I'm really not familiar with these things. A very clever and enjoyable puzzle! But also IMHO maybe just slightly unfair :-)
Yes, the cryptic bit might be a bridge too far. Then again, I was thinking of this puzzle as a "week 4", so it was always going to be more challenging!
Bbaack 20:30 · 2022-01-27T17:44:36.844Z
The long clue for Molly (which could be a person's name) had me confused for awhile, but I finally decided to ignore it and parse the cryptic clue. Very challenging, thanks for the fun!
I use an online anagram solver all the time! Definitely no shame in that!
rjy 2s · 2022-01-30T16:20:17.202Z
Very cool, Ben! Really enjoyed it!
Holmes 22:35 · 2022-02-01T22:25:55.896Z
I enjoy your puzzles, but I'm extremely frustrated to have to wait a week for the meta solutions. I wish you would provide a way for those of us who don't take this too seriously to enjoy your efforts right away instead of waiting. I've done all your puzzles and when I go look at older puzzles to see what the meta was, I've forgotten everything about the puzzle, forgotten what I was trying to piece together and the experience is lost. It's too bad, because I believe you put alot of effort into your puzzles and I can't give you the appreciation you deserve.
Another nickname for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy
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Orizzontali
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Another nickname for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, commonly known as ecstasy
6A
Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton movie, "Something's ____ Give"
11A
Reagan National Airport's code
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"Old MacDonald" refrain
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Mistake
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Janis ___, who won a Grammy for "At Seventeen"
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Camping under the stars
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Part of a journey
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Place in Scotland that Macbeth becomes thane of before becoming king thereafter
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City in Northern Italy, home to the headquarters of Benetton
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___ Guler, Turkish photographer known as "the Eye of Istanbul" whose work I recently came across
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Wine grape, that can be red or white
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Allowed by law
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9.46 trillion kms
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Type of screwdriver used by Doctor Who
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German town, that can be found in "Germany" if you drop three letters
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Earthy pigment
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7 downs (or possibly a grp. of ninjas?)
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Last word in an argument
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___ West, who appears in a "Famous" music video lying in a bed with 11 other people, all undressed
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Song from Handel's Messiah, "___ That Tellest Good Tidings to Zion"
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Paul ___, who will be playing the Riddler in the upcoming Batman movie, according to the teaser-trailer drop
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41 across, for example
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Press down, as tobacco in a pipe
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Epic historical Hindi film that dramatises the early life of an emperor of the Maurya dynasty (but definitely not Ahsoka, the best character in the whole of the Star Wars canon)
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Test redo
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Stag's partner
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Indicated that someone else should take over the news broadcast
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Australian name for the classic whodunnit boardgame
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"___ little teapot, short and stout"
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Completing the process
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Partner of vigour
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Australian landmark previously known as Ayers Rock
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___ Horan, member of "One Direction" whose first name begins with an "N"
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Distinct period of history
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Charles Bukowski quote: "___ learn or ___ die"
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___ Dingo, Aboriginal Australian actor, whose first name is "Irene" rearranged
Verticali
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Mexican liquor
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Paintings that utilise an alternate medium to water colours or acrylic
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Wiggle room
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Didn't tell the truth
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"Hi Dad!" (but waaaaay cooler)
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Prefix for -X (me), -Y (Millenials) and -Z
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Nonprofit's URL suffix
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Bike that you stand up on and use to descend Swiss alps
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Series of gigs for a band
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Peasants' or workers' cooperative in pre-revolutionary and Soviet Russia
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Showing conscientiousness in one's duties
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Las Vegas hotel and casino, ___ Palace
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African country, whose capital is Luanda
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Beverage with added whiskey, but it's not coffee
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Crashes in front of the TV, perhaps
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"Me neither!"
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"___ Samba" (a jazz standard with a rather monotonous melody)
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Colony in what is now North Carolina whose population mysteriously disappeared
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___ but time poor
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Weep
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HBO competitor
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Photo with an elongated field of view
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Old muscle cars
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Northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
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Grammatical case used to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action
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Donut-croissant hybrid
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Village in Iran that you will not have heard of, that is also an anagram of "agenda"
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Absolute values (in maths)
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Those who have the last word in this grid
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Worse than bad
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Thing that indicates you're pregnant if it appears alongside the other one
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Scrabble piece
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"To unite" in French (Google Translate is the best!)