Fireball contest — May 9, 2018

Fireball Contest – 5.9.18 – Solution

Peter asks, “What typographical character is hinted at by this puzzle?” Let’s see:

• [19a: Like plastic silverware]: OXYMORONIC
• [23a: Survivor of the  atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima or Nagasaki (literally, “explosion affected person”)]: HIBAKUSHA
• [28a: Actress who delivered the line “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”]: ALI MACGRAW
• [38a: Arabian racer]: DROMEDARY
• [48a: Click, so to speak]: KILOMETER
• [61a: Freshwater fish of New Zealand]: COCKABULLY
• [67a: “Almost Like Being in Love” musical]: BRIGADOON
• [75a: Sightseeing tourist, informally]: RUBBERNECK

At first glance, I got nothing. So here’s what I do: first, write out all the themers (or what appear to be themers) in a list, then see if there’s anything else that jumps out at me. I did that, and out jumped a bunch of capital cities hiding in the entries (marked with [?] if nothing immediately came to mind):

[?]
BAKU
LIMA
ROME
[?]
KABUL
RIGA
BERN

That didn’t seem to suggest anything, so then I wrote out the countries of which those cities are capitals, on the principle with a metapuzzle that when you have a list of things that might suggest another list of things, write out that second list (note: totally okay to Wikipedia the frak out of this mofo):

[?]
Azerbaijan
Peru
Italy
[?]
Afghanistan
Latvia
Switzerland

Reading out the first letters, I have what looks like a word: ?API?ALS. Gotta spell out CAPITALS, right? Because that’s what those cities are. So to do due diligence (lol [Cleaning up after your dog?]: DOODOO DILIGENCE), I look for two countries, starting with C and T respectively, that have capitals that look like they could be hiding in OXYMORONIC and KILOMETER. Pro crossword blogger tip: the Wikipedia list of sovereign states is super helpful here. And, eureka! MORONI is the capital of Comoros, and LOMÉ is the capital of Togo.

Peter is asking not just for a letter, but specifically for a typographical character. I took an informal poll of friends in various meta-solving groups and tweeter feeds, and some felt that there could be several plausible answers. The title is “Star Map” — and yeah, CAPITALS are represented on some maps as stars, so could the answer be the asterisk? Also since there are eight themers and you make the asterisk by doing shift/capital-8. But why would that be the answer if it was suggested so blatantly by the title? Another friend thought the dollar sign, as representing CAPITAL, was a possibility (though I think none of the countries on the list have the dollar as their form of capital). But no: the meta answer is staring us right in the face: CAPITAL-S.

tl;dr my meta-solving tips:

• Write out things that look promising in lists. I have a little notebook where I do all my meta-solving, so I can flip back and reminisce about, e.g., that insane MGWCC from November.
• If lists of things seem to suggest corresponding things, write out those things in another list. Do the first letters line up to anything?
• Take the title literally, but also figuratively. Does it seem to command you to do anything? (If the command is “invest in an off-shore banking scam” — ignore it.)
• Wikipedia’s various “Lists of things” article-types are your friend (particular my favorite, the List of lists of lists).
• Join a solving group, or make friends with someone with whom to bandy about your ideas, or coerce an existing friend to start solving metas with you. Having another brain for ideating on solutions is super helpful and also fun.
• If you do join a group: Give as much as you take. Sure, everyone gets stumped and needs hints, but be generous in paying it back and also forward.
• And if you do give hints: Just give hints, ffs, and don’t spoil the solution.