puzzle 8 minutes; meta DNF, feel like a total chump (Matt)
OK, hate to pull this on you but I have no idea what the solution to the Muller Monthly Music Meta is for June. This is my second fail this year so I guess we can retire the notion that I’m some kind of meta-solving genius a la Jeffrey Harris aka Jangler because that’s clearly not the case. Nevertheless, I’m pulling for Holland in the 2014 World Cup so let’s traverse a similar sure path to failure aka my stab at solving the June Muller Meta.
Instructions ask for the last line of a children’s song, and the three theme entries (clued simply as [Line 1], [Line 2] and [Line 3] are:
24-a [Line 1] = ACDC NORTH DEPART
36-a [Line 2] = TRASH CAN THOU HUG
44-a [Line 3] CFLAT ONE CHARITY
Not to put too fine a point on it, but: what this means, I have no idea. I tried synonyms for all these words (BI for AC/DC, UP for NORTH, GO for DEPART, etc.) but it led nowhere. And then I didn’t really get anyplace from there.
So I know the answer is some interpretation of those three theme entries that I can’t suss out, but I don’t know what it is.
Someone, put me out of my meta-misery in comments.
oh so close…
BI for ACDC is correct, as is GO for DEPART…all you needed was an N for NORTH to get BINGO…the second and third lines give you the same thing…
62 people got there this month, and an additional 2 may get partial credit for submitting BINGO instead of “And Bingo was his name-o”
thanks Matt (I’m going to step out of the way now while you are kicking yourself)
BIN (trashcan) G (thousand) O (hug, as in xoxox)
B (Cflat) I (One) NGO (Charity)
It’s weird how metas strike different people differently. I got this in less than a minute and was sure it was very easy. Not the case, judging by the number who got it correct.
I’m also a Holland fan, Matt.
Cruyff for the win
After finishing the grid I figured it was either ‘Bingo’ or ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It.’ (‘Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands’ isn’t as popular.) IYHAYKI has multiple ending lines, so I was 99% sure it was Bingo. I just didn’t see the pattern right away and almost forgot to submit. I thought the first line was I (for current) N GO – i.e. maybe substituting a clap for the B. It all finally clicked when I figured out BIN for trash can.
Ditto, Patrick—had it narrowed down to those two songs from the title, and it was TRASHCAN=BIN that opened it up for me. I never clicked to ACDC=BI, but I was already sure of my answer from Lines 2 and 3.
I’m so accustomed to Pete’s puzzles requiring musical knowledge to figure out the meta that I considered the substitution approach, but didn’t pursue it far enough since no musical knowledge was involved (except the c-flat/b equivalence). Seeing AC/DC as the first thematic material reinforced this notion. Oh well, totally fair (and, as usual, great) meta.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda submitted “Bingo was his name-o” based off of CLAP YOUR HANDS. Cute meta Pete.
Matt, if you had kids you probably would have gotten it quickly. This seemed like the easiest MMMM ever, but I still missed it. I was one of the two that didn’t remember the directions and submitted just “Bingo”. Feels like being disqualified in a contest for using blue ink when black is required.
you’re going to get partial credit…found one more solver that submitted B-I-N-G-O so there are three of you blue-pen types
Posting to show my ineptness – I tried clapping along with the beat of the words in lines 1-3 and it sounded just like “All around the cobbler’s bench” etc. Well, not quite. BINGO is obviously right now that i see the recap. See Matt, you’re not alone!
I got tripped up for a while trying to use longer substitutions and fretting it may be a song I didn’t know well, but didn’t take long to suss it out.
I did quite like the BI-N-GO, BIN-G-O, B-I-NGO, rippling break of it- though maybe it’d fit the song better if the first part got increasingly longer or shorter down the puzzle (i.e., the lines were in a different order). Pretty swell, though.
THOU is a hard one in cryptics — it gives a lot of options: G, K, M. Maybe YOU or U.