MGWCC crossword 3:25
meta DNF 
[4.00 avg; 7 ratings] rate it
hello, and welcome to episode #900 (!!) of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, a week 5 puzzle called “Go Figure”. the instructions this week tell us that we are looking for a six-letter word okay. what are the theme answers? there are five acrosses with *ed clues:
- {*He “bonded” with his fans?} ROGER MOORE.
- {*From January 1st to December 31st} EVERY DAY.
- {*What’s happening, briefly} THE INFO.
- {*”Weed”} MARY JANE.
- {*Satan} THE EVIL ONE.
what are we to do here? i don’t know. the answers to these clues don’t appear to have anything in common. the clues themselves are a little wonky—in particular, the clue for EVERY DAY looks more apt for an answer like ALL YEAR or YEAR-ROUND or something. THE INFO is also not really a phrase in my idiolect—i might have said THE LATEST or something. the ROGER MOORE clue is a little weird, too, and of course even if you don’t reinterpret it, there are several other actors who played james bond. likewise there are a handful of other appellations for satan and other slang terms for marijuana.
finally, there’s the last across clue, {Useful divisor} FOUR. this isn’t *ed, but it does look like it’s probably thematic, because that’s a weird clue and the title suggests either arithmetic or geometry. are there four-sided figures we’re supposed to look at? i did glance at the clues whose numbers are multiples of four, but i don’t see much to go on there. maybe listing them here will cause something to jump out at me:
- 4d {Verify the truth of} SWEAR TO.
- 8d {Caterpillars and such} LARVAE.
- 12d {Cherbourg color} BLEU.
- 16a {Org. with a Statue of Liberty logo} ACLU.
- 20a {Long short form of “short form”} ABBREV.
- 24d {Aced the test} GOT AN A.
- 28a {*From January 1st to December 31st} EVERY DAY / 28d {Keep watch over} EYE.
- 32a {Say ___ (reject)} NO TO.
- 36a {When to expect someone} ETA.
- 40a {Brad in “The Client” and “Sleepers”} RENFRO.
- 44a {*”Weed”} MARY JANE.
- 48a {Get more inexplicable, as a mystery} DEEPEN / 48d {Adele et al.} DIVAS.
- 52a {Encouraging words} GO GIRL.
- 56a {*Satan} THE EVIL ONE.
- 60a {Poet who knew the Roman Emperor Augustus} OVID.
- 64a {Sailing speed} KNOTS.
well, this hasn’t really gone anywhere.
last thing: the clue for 51d THIN is {Belonging to you}, which is … well, that’s not what THIN means. THINE used to mean that (although a more precise clue would be {Belonging to thee}), which leads me to wonder if we’re sticking an E below the bottom of the grid. that wouldn’t be a totally unheard-of mechanism, but it appears to be the only such letter—none of the other clues at the edge of the grid are a one-letter-missing mismatch for their answers. so while this missing E kind of has to be part of the meta mechanism—otherwise i feel we would have gotten an erratum email like we did for the clue for SHOJI at 33-down—it is, so far, a dead end. so i don’t know.
well, i didn’t get very far this week. let me know what i missed.
Each starred entry is associated with a three-digit number:
ROGER MOORE –> 007
EVERY DAY –> 365
THE INFO –> 411
MARY JANE –> 420
THE EVIL ONE –> 666
Since this is MGWCC 900, if you divide 900 by 4 (per the [Useful divisor] clue) you get 225. That’s a key number because a 15×15 crossword has 225 squares. If you imagine that each square in this puzzle was subdivided into four squares each (so square 1 = positions 1-4, square 2 = positions 5-8, … square 225 = positions 897-900), you can map out the letters using the three-digit numbers.
Position 007 –> square 2, P
Position 365 –> square 92 (7th row, 2nd column), O
Position 410 –> square 103 (7th row, 13th column), L
Position 420 –> square 105 (7th row, 15th column), I
Position 666 –> square 167 (12th row, 2nd column), C
We have POLIC … plus the external E below the grid which would aptly be in position 911 to make POLICE.
Wow.
Oh no, that’s frustrating–I made the grid from 1-225 and divided by 4, but I used integer division so my letters were all offset (positions 1, 91, 102, 105, 166). I was wondering what to do with the remainder. Unfortunately it’s the sort of assumption that is hard to walk back, so I moved on to other ideas (including repeating the grid 4 times to make a 30×30 grid, etc.).
This is pretty much exactly what I did, except I tried dividing the three-digit numbers by 4 and then rounded up or down. I ended up with gibberish like PNLIC, so I abandoned it rather than tweaked the approach. I needed a helpful push or two from a friend to get me back on track.
My intention with those was that all four numbers would (mentally) go in that square, so the upper-leftmost square is (1,2,3,4), the square to its right is (5,6,7,8), etc.
This is where I got PENCIL from:
ROGERMOORE = 007/4 = 1.75 = 2 = P
EVERYDAY = 365/4 = 91.25 = 91 = N
THEINFO = 411/4 = 102.75 = 103 = L
MARYJANE = 420/4 = 105 = I
THEEVILONE = 666/4 = 166.5 = 167 = C
??? = 911/4 = 227.75 = 228 = E from 51d THIN(E)
So I lost my streak because of a rounding error?!?
I’ll send it to the panel for a ruling today, but is there any order to your solution? It’s not in PENCIL order?
Anagram for the win! But don’t bother the panel. I’m just annoyed that I got so close!
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 4.5 stars
The answer makes lots of sense; it is honestly on me to start at 1 and not try starting from 0 in my grid. Zero- vs one-indexing is a massive headache in the programming world. It just still feels raw; perhaps if I hadn’t been occupied with the Galactic Puzzle Hunt until Tuesday I might have caught myself. It is a beautiful math meta, as far as they come.
I got the numbers, the FOUR, the extra E, and even using the 900 —> 225.
But assigning four numbers per block was a step I just could not muster up.
Thanks joon (and Evan! — was just about to type this out but he beat me to it).
146 correct entries received, of which just 20 were solo solves.
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
Sometimes, I have a lot to say. This time, I’ll just let the rating speak for itself.
Wow.
Update: Matt’s stat confirms this is the lowest solo percent since that stat started being tracked. Kudos to you 20!
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
Kudos to the solvers! This was a streak breaker for me. I was pretty close to getting that 💯. But I guess there’s still a chance for me since we have 100 more MGWCCs!
I’m not sure where else one asks… but in my IRL world, I know only casual solvers- I’ve introduced metas to some and they typically like the weeks 1-2 challenge, but don’t seem to want to put effort into the tougher ones. Any suggestions on how to find a couple people who like to collaborate on these solves?
I am one of them. Very disheartening when you can’t do Week one or two. Forget the rest. No way. Have been at this for several years. tried muggles but never get an answer for a hint. Pretty much just go through the motions. Love MG but I am totally inept. I solve many, many crosswords every week. Just don’t think Metas are good for me. M
Oh no! I’ve been at them for years and frequently don’t get the final answer, but solving a toughie is one of the most satisfying feelings ever!
Jim Q. There are a a few of us (3) that often collaborate when the puzzles get harder. Feel free to reach out and I can elaborate. The more heads the better!
[email protected]
Thanks!!
Lookie here:
Perplexity AI: If I have a 15×15 grid where the first grid box holds the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the last grid box in the last row holds the numbers 897, 898, 899, and 900, how can I calculate which grid box I can locate these numbers in, easily?
007
365
411
420
666 https://www.perplexity.ai/search/if-i-have-a-15×15-grid-where-t-scDRWN7KSG2gqcGW2dS1dw
Before I went with this idea I wanted to see how cumbersome it would be to calculate the location of six 3-digit numbers within the grid. It didn’t seem too bad: after about 2 minutes with pencil and graph paper I had most of it mapped out; did all the ones on the leftmost and rightmost squares in the grid, and then you just calculate the ones you need mentally from those outer limits six times. Didn’t seem like it would take more than two minutes.
That’s really frustrating. I had POLIC — basically dividing each three-digit number by 4 and taking the closest grid square — but then I thought the last three-digit number had to be 900, which gives the R in the bottom right square, so obviously that couldn’t be it. What is cluing 911, and what the heck is the “external E below the grid”? I’m not seeing that in the PDF. Is it the E in “Useful”? That doesn’t look to me like it’s in the right position — it’s below the E in KENS, not the N.
The external E is right under 51d. The grid entry should be THINE in order to match the clue. That additional E is in the hypothetical square 911, if you add another row to the bottom of the grid. 911 is the confirmation for POLICE.
Pedantic comment here I know: 666 is the number of the beast, and the beast is Nero. Not Satan.