MGWCC #890

MGWCC crossword untimed; meta ~2 days off and on [4.90 avg; 5 ratings] rate it

Hiya! (or should I say ¡Hola!…see below), Dave here for a vacationing joon, pinch-hitting with fellow Fiendsters Amy and Erica. Let’s see if three minds can equal the meta-solving chops of one this week and next, shall we?

This week we have an oversized (17×17) puzzle entitled “Places, Everyone!” and our meta clue asks for “the clue that completes a set of 11.”

Before we dig into the grid itself, let’s think about both the title and the meta clue. “Places” gives us the sense that geography is involved with these 11 “things” and perhaps the “Everyone” part implies that demonyms are involved. The meta clue implies clue(s) are involved, but if it were only clues, it seems counterintuitive to think one of these 11 clues could be considered a “final” one that would complete the set.

So we’re left with the idea that 10 of this set live in the grid and the 11th in a clue. So is there a famous set of 11 places? Thinking about pipers piping, the cast of Ocean’s 11 and soccer and football squads, none of these are in the world of geography. There are 5 oceans in the world, 7 continents, 8 planets and many more than 11 members of NATO or the EU. Guess we need to dig into the grid then, are any entries places?

Two of the longer down entries both reference a place: 13d: [Amman is on it] for ZARQA RIVER (the Jordan River is the more common one) and, more obliquely (and also an uncommon name): 44d: [Noted MIT climatologist] for JUDAH COHEN. (Judah is associated with an ancient kingdom of Israel and the provenance of the religion Judaism). The two long across entries, 19a: [Rave attendee’s comment, maybe] for I FEEL SO ALIVE and 82a: [2025 song by Charly Black] (another unfamiliar name to me) for YOU’RE PERFECT don’t explicitly reference a place, although Charly is from Jamaica.

Since we have 11 things to find, we must start looking at the shorter entries (and clues). Here we find many more places (or demonyms), starting in the clues:

• 21a: [You are, in Uruguay]
• 49a: [Tempe sch.]
• 71a: [About 540 theaters in the U.S.] (my spidey sense triggered here as the U.S. seems forced)
• 2d: [Scot-free punishment, perhaps] (Scot with the leading capital seems an intentional misdirection and NO FINE is an awkward entry)
• 4d: [West from Brooklyn]
• 5d: [Fla. airport]
• 13d: [Amman is on it] (mentioned above)
• 14d: [Alaskan islander, often]
• 32d: [___ Dhabians] (why not just Dhabi?)
• 33d: [Yucatán yeses] (why not clue SIS as a family relative instead?)
• 44d: [Noted MIT climatologist] (mentioned above, M stands for my home state of Massachusetts)
• 69d: [Oman’s largest city] (MUSCAT is the capital as well, wondering why its size was referenced in the clue?)
• 74d: [Maastricht’s river]

And fewer in the grid entries:

• 91a: BOGOTÁ
• 40d: BORA (of BORA BORA)
• 69d: MUSCAT
• ZARQA RIVER and JUDAH COHEN mentioned above
• 29d: BOSTONIANS

Some clues bothered me and hinted at some meta import:

• 1d: [He became a grandfather in May] for EMINEM, as this happened in March, not May. Also grandfather is duplicated as the clue for 68d with one of a few Spanish entries: ABUELO
• 16a: [Hard dozen] for MOLARS is inaccurate in my case anyway as I only have 9 with 3 impacted wisdom teeth removed when I was young, also would “hard” be the first adjective that comes to mind for them?
• 31a: [So much dough] seems oddly phrased for MEGABUCKS
• 53a: [Meiji, for example] is a very unique way to clue ERA and hints at Japan
• 8d: [Casual greeting] is generally Hiya! but here it’s HOLA, again putting my mind to Spanish entries
• 11d: [Last part of a drink, sometimes] is quite wordy for the simple ADE
• 43d: [Suffix meaning “condition”] for ESIA is all kinds of ugly
• 3d: ALEKEG, another piece of bad fill
• 72d: [Flavored like flank steak] for MEATY – why flank steak in particular?

Finally, we started thinking about letter distributions since there were exactly 2 Z’s, J’s, Q’s, K’s and V’s and 1 X, F and W. But didn’t know where to take this.

OK, a breakthrough! I noticed the string LIMA in the clue for MIT cLIMAtologist and it got me thinking of four-letter capital cities, which didn’t get me far, but it did get me thinking about the country of PERU which I found in the phrase yoUREPerfect backwards! Are there other four-letter countries found backwards in other entries, I asked myself. And indeed there are:

• eNAMOr
• ifeelSOALive
• megABUCks
• dalaILAMa
• bOGOTa
• zarQARIver
• quEUINgup (Niue on this page is not listed as a UN member, nor is Guam)
• sceNARIo
• juDAHCohen, aha, that’s why he’s in the grid!

So along with Peru, that makes 10. Missing are FIJI and GUAM, but Matt may have good reason to omit GUAM as it’s a US territory. (Somerset MAUGham, anyone?) And sure enough, we find FIJI in 53a: meIJI, For example ! Very nicely hidden with the F in “for example,” and a good reason to include such an obscure ERA. Whew!

As you can see, we went down many dark alleys on our way to the meta answer, hope many of you didn’t struggle as much with this one as we did!