crossword 11 hours to write
Matt here filling in for joon, who’s desert-surfing in Namibia this week.
Six theme entries, each consisting of four-three letter words. Make an empty box out of each quartet, then find that selfsame box in the grid somewhere. Take the six letters in the middle and they spell out contest answer BAGELS, found by 374 solvers.
You had me at “desert-surfing in Namibia.”
I loved this meta! The grid took about a million years to complete and then I stared at it for about ten minutes to no avail. Suddenly I saw some of the three-letter words elsewhere in the grid and starting circling them et voila, boxes! I think this is a classic example of Matt’s SAD rule, nothing if you don’t see it, easy if you do. Good thing I was able to print this week though, or I never would have gotten it.
Wow, just WOW!. Didn’t get but appreciate the talent of Matt.
Just terrific puzzle. Hard grid but no wonder. Got the boxes but never went looking for them. My bad. One of the best metas of the year. Brilliant.
I thought this meta was really a work of art. It took me forever to see that you could make boxes out of the six key answers, and even longer (way too long) to realize that the boxes were also in the grid encircling “BAGELS.” If I had not had the “O-X” to key off in “HOAX,” I might never have realized I was staring right at one of the boxes in the grid while I also wondered if the boxes could possibly fit into the grid. Really something!
Looks so easy now. :v(
I saw some of the words (at first I thought it was just the verbs) but then saw more but was stuck on what was left in the word, like OUT(S) or WAS(P), and when that pattern failed, gave up on that. Really cool meta.
Brilliant meta. And let’s all enjoy what will likely be the one, the only time that “SHOE APPS” is a necessitated entry!
I second the, “Wow, just WOW!” comment, with a, “Holy cow!” to boot.
I completely agree that this was brilliant, but also thought that it was really, really tough. Yet 374 people got it?? THAT’S hard to believe…