I had to use an online thesaurus to find a synonym for “migrating” .. was there a way to find it using the grid? (In retrospect that should have been easy to think of, but my brain this morning! cataton-ic!)
I assume the superfluous 'desert-wandering' in the clue for 1A was supposed to be a tip? That's what put NOMAD into my head anyway. Although I also went the thesaurus route (but failed at it :D)
Imo I figured the answer had to fit the theme so the synonym had to end with IC (and begin with N... and have nine letters) I've often looked in thesaurus when I should have had to but this wasn't one of them.
Very fun. Thanks folks. Originally I thought the 1A clue was worded to hide the number 40, so played with that for a bit. Also thought SEA SALTs and SEA G(U)ALL and SEA M[I]ST before I finally decided that was too messy. Then tried putting C places, and finally decided to use the whole title. :)
So I figured it out, kinda…
Found the list of words you could append IC to, which spelt MIGR-TING, so there was NO-A.. and I guessed NOMADIC - what elegance am I missing?! Nice puzzle tho. Had me perplexed for a while!
I actually applied the title a little too literally at first. I turned 18A-LEGAL into L-IC-IT. Didn't get any further with that approach. Might be an idea for a future meta. Nice job, Chris and Rick! Thank you!
doh!! needed the nudges but not sure why - my meta brain seems to be AWOL this week. Fantastic construction and fun solve. Love the title, too, in hindsight. Thanks guys!
Nice diversion with all those ICs in the clues. Intentional? (Basic, Thick, Brick, Classic, Clickable, graphic, Germanic, picture, Munich, electronic - did I miss any? lol.) Got a little manic, didn't panic, now time for some loud music and a gin & tonic.
Thanks IChris and ICap'n!
Yep, only needed one synonym for this one, Jay. Thanks!
merlinnimue 🤓6:58 · 2023-07-20T01:45:56.581Z
I absolutely did not see it without the nudges, I was mainly stuck on trying to add C to the beginning of words (notably 12D, 30D, 32D, 36D). I thought I was getting the hang of what you geniuses were laying down, maybe one day I'll learn my proper place.
Thanks, Elaine. Yeah, more than a few folks had trouble finding that one. We don't usually use the Downs that way, but with SYNONYM going across the middle we had to go vertical to maintain symmetry.
Thanks IChris and ICap'n!