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hello and happy december, everyone! welcome to episode #393 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, “The Sands of Time”. for this easier-than-usual week 2 puzzle, matt challenges us to find one of a familiar seven. the theme answers this week spell out a four-part question: IT ALWAYS SEEMS AS / THOUGH IT IS WHICH / DAY OF THE WEEK FOR / DROMEDARY CAMELS? why, that would be hump day, aka wednesday.
if last week was tougher than usual for a week 1, this certainly feels easy for a week 2. the only way to miss it, i guess, is to never have heard of “hump day”. although there’s nothing actually broken about this meta, i didn’t love it and probably in a few months i won’t remember it. the phrasing of the riddle is pretty awkward, i assume to get it to fit into 15-letter chunks and save the identifying clue (DROMEDARY CAMELS) for the end. and the punch line didn’t do a lot for me.
in the fill, i did like seeing the jocular THIRDED and the curious (possible) etymology of {Beast possibly derived from the Etruscan god Orcus, an eater of humans} OGRE. i definitely had ORCA there for a while, and i assume cluing it as a “beast” was a deliberate trap by matt.
that’s all i’ve got. have a great week, everybody!
Maybe easy, but I still liked it.
I had never seen (or heard of) the Geico ad that used this joke. But the ad is amusing.
That’s one of the best ads ever.
If you’re Matt Gaffney, you construct delightful crossword metas. It’s what you do.
Was ‘Humpday’ submitted and/or accepted?
Just wondering.
It was for me. I didn’t contemplate submitting anything but, since it doesn’t work as a joke otherwise.
I figured both would be accepted, but went with Wednesday because I’m boring. I imagine that hesitating over this question was the only delay anyone had in solving this meta.
I submitted both, just to be sure.
What happened to Cenarius and Vraal?! Surely their epic streaks wouldn’t be stopped by this challenge.
Vraal’s entry was corrected (and his/her streak restored), but I can’t speak for Cenarius.
Hey Matt Matt Matt Matt! Guess what day it is