meta: DNF
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OK, so my strange meta-year looks like it’s continuing: I went 9-for-9 during the first three-quarters of 2025, and now, unless I pull a rabbit out of a hat, I’m going to follow that up by going 0-for-3 on the year’s final quarter. Come on, little rabbit! Show yourself!
Usually with a tough meta it’s a matter of not enough (or not any) leads, but this one feels like the opposite: so many rabbits I don’t know which to chase first. For example:
***Pete gives us three clues that end with an asterisk, and then two clues that end with two asterisks:
16-A: [**Vanquish] = CONQUER
37-A: [**Dominate] = TOP
46-D: [**Defeat] = BEST
Note that all six of these (3 one-word clues + their answers) are synonymous, so any of the six clues/answers could clue/be an answer for another.
There’s also a pair of singly-starred clues:
47-A: [*Go head-to-head with] = COMPETE
24-A: [*Contend with] = VIE
Same with these: those two clues/answers could be switched and still work as standard crossword clue/answer pairs.
That’s all for the asterisks, but there are other breadcrumbs strewn about:
9-D: [Drawing aid…or, in a way, what needs to be changed to solve the meta] = T-SQUARE
There’s one more noteworthy clue, and I can’t tell if it’s just whimsy or something suspicious: at 40-D we have NEVER clued as [Word between “Angels” and “Call” in a ‘Til Tuesday song title…or how often a crossword constructor should use a word that’s part of a clue, typically]
I scanned the page for obvious clue/answer dupes and didn’t find any, so I’m classifying this clue (for now) as mere whimsy. But I’m still suspicious…
OK, so let’s go back to that Vanquish/Dominate/Defeat/Conquer/Top/Best complex. What are some other synonyms for these? BEAT is an obvious one, and a musical term as well. The only other good one I see is TROUNCE so we’ll keep that in mind as well.
Well, nothing jumping out at me, so let’s pivot back to that T-SQUARE clue. I notice that T-SQUARE and thematic CONQUER form a T-square in the grid. Any others? Not really, at least not clean 7-7 squares crossing at the third down letter like T-SQUARE and CONQUER do.
Hmm, lots of promising stuff but I’m not seeing how it all fits together. Let’s take a deep breath and another swig of iced coffee and see if I’ve missed any clues. Scanned the clues for hidden words, but nothing. Hmm. Just sorta stumped.
OK, let’s go back to those six synonymous clues/answers and see if anything jumps out on another look:
CONQUER
TOP
BEST
VANQUISH
DOMINATE
DEFEAT
Those were the doubly-starred; the singly starred were COMPETE [*Go head-to-head (with) and VIE [*Contend (with)]. So a little transitive/intransitive thing there with the second one. Slightly odd…
How about the title, “Five for One”? Could be a Roman numeral thing, like replacing a letter I with a letter V. Don’t see anywhere would this would work, though.
Here’s something: The title is “Five for One” and 1-Across, which is five letters long, is SENOR, with a ONE reversed inside it. But that trail appears to end right there.
OK, almost ready to throw in the towel, but let me look at the doubly-starred [**Vanquish] [**Dominate] [**Defeat] and [*Compete] [*Contend (with)] complexes one more time. Oh wait! I’ve been overlooking a third singly-starred clue! 1-D is [*Vigorously debate (with)] for SPAR. Actually I have SPAR circled on my solve, so I did notice this early on but then forgot about it. So we indeed have three singly- and three doubly-starred clues, which makes more sense (I guess?). Let’s see if focusing on that SPAR at 1-D pulls out the win for us.
Welp, nothing happened there either so time for me to throw in the towel. Was I anywhere close? I feel like I must’ve been. Just 91 right answers with 17 minutes to go so i”ll send in a guess…how about Journey as a random five-member band? I submitted but got the thumbs-down from autocheck! Oh well. Extremely interested to see what the answer is on this one. My 9/9 and 0/3 year goes into the books. It all started off so promisingly…
–Matt
This one defeated me too, but I did notice two dupes: the clue for 8-D includes “never” (40-D), and the clue for 19-A includes “oil” (48-D). Significantly (?), 8-D and 19-A intersect at a “T square.” Someone needs to post the solution here soon because it’s driving me bonkers. :-)
BTW, my WAG was “HEART,” which is a *Five*-letter band name that ends in “T,” and…never mind. I got there via a far too convoluted path.
DNF also. I thought I was off to a solid start when I noticed TWITS could be changed to MATCH WITS to form a synonym with the 1* answers. (and MATCH is substituted for T, 5 for1). Similarly, I came up with OVERT changing to OVERPOWER, a synonym for the 2** answers. Seemed like the 5-letter replacement words would spell the name of a band, but it felt like I ran into a brick wall. Early on, I was keen on TRIUMPH being the answer because their ALLIED FORCES album with the song MAGIC POWER, is nearly a synonym for MATCH POWER, but felt like too much of a stretch. Finally submitted AC/DC although it is two types of current but they do have 5 members to form 1 group.
Oh, I also had a later thought that OVERT could become OVERTHROW, but that gave me even fewer ideas of the answer.
Hoping to hear the right answer and sharing my partial solution. But defeated I think for the 5th time this year by the triumvirate! This was a tough year!!
You were actually very close.
Change the first T in TWITS to MATCH and get MATCH WITS, and that corresponds to the single-starred clues.
Change the same T in the crossing Down entry OVERT to MATCH and you get OVERMATCH, which corresponds to the double-starred clues.
The T –> MATCH switch occurs at box 20, making the meta answer MATCHBOX TWENTY.
Thx so much! I thought about Matchbox 20 while doing searches, but never noticed that T was in BOX 20! And overmatch is not really a normal word in my vocabulary. Oh well, now I can sleep…
ps. Thanks for your “I’m Thinking of a Number” today. I can still solve some meta puzzles! Enjoyed it!
Ah, that’s a novel and clever idea! Now it all comes together (T-square) and the sets of synonyms. Wish I had gotten it.
There’s something delightful about watching one meta creator step into the ring to attempt to vanquish (to use a clue word!) a conundrum! I hypothesize the best writers are avid readers, and I presume the best cruciverbalists are eager solvers also!
Agree on the rabbits – but they did all come together in the end!
Thanks Matt
Only 90 correct this month.
This one played tough!
Puzzle: Muller; Rating: 5 stars
It was tough indeed but pedestrian compared to the puzzles I recently read about at your PDT offices!
Those were really fun to build!
Here’s a link to the article
Behind a Bloomberg pay wall unfortunately
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-12-04/new-york-city-hedge-fund-hides-puzzles-on-its-office-walls?embedded-checkout=true
Very creative mechanism! My only thought led to The Beatles because BEAT was a good synonym for all the two-asterisk entries. Also, there was PETE contained in 47A and BEST right there in 46D.
ditto
How about “J-O-U-R-N-E-Y” as a 5-letter band?
I still don’t really understand this one. I understand how the word “match” ends and begins phrases that mean “defeat” and “compete,” respectively, but was there some additional clue that “match” was the word wanted to insert somewhere in the grid? Or was it that we knew we needed to replace _some_ “T” with _something_, so we just needed to iterate over all the “T”s until we found something that would work in both directions?
I went down the inescapable rabbit hole of switching VIE/VAR to TIE/TAR with the confirmation that TAR could swap out for OLD SALT. Especially with Five to One and V being 5 in Roman Numerals.
Even though I thought 9D hinted that it would be an original T square changing away, rather than a square switching to a T, there were too many coincidences for my mind to let go of and start fresh. At least there’s still the Mega Meta to try to solve
I’m starting to think I should throw in the towel. The instructions were to look for a “famous” rock band. Am I the only one that never heard of them? Please be honest. This is not a complaint. It was really a good meta. I’m just wondering, am I too old for this —-? Is there anyone else out there that is in my situation?
I’m 66. I don’t think I could name a single Matchbox 20 song, though I might recognize one if I heard it.
I know of the band, those. Not that helped me with the meta, which I never came close to solving.
Thanks Eric, it helps a little.