Grid: definitely had to look up a few answers; Meta: not today people! rate it
Fireball Contest: “Figureheads” by Paul Coulter – Jeffmiz’s write-up
Howdy Crossworld. I apologize, this might not be the longest nor most upbeat review. I’m currently in Florida about to attend the funeral of my beloved niece, Kyra Samson, who succumbed to her battle with glioblastoma this week at only 28 years old. What a horrible, horrible disease. I know many of you have had this kind of tragedy strike; the only way to put a stop to it is to find a cure. I would encourage you to donate to organizations like the one below to help in this fight.
https://fundraise.gbmresearch.org/campaign/812889/donate
Back to our regularly scheduled programming. Today’s contest asks us to find an four letter verb hinted at by this puzzle. Given the title, “Figureheads,” my brain conjured up an image of the Easter Island statues!
Really tough grid for me today. Had to use Mr. Google’s help with a few answers, such as ORGAN DIE, EDNA, and A RAGE. Definitely a thorny solving experience.
The meta portion completly stumped me. Tried parsing parts of the answers, reversing them, synonyms, pretty much the entire gamut of meta solving cues. Alas, no luck to be had today.
It turns out, theme answers beginning with two-letter Roman numerals transform into other words when you fuse the entry at that number to the rest of the word. For instance, VINTAGES becomes 6 NTAGES. Since PERCE is the answer starting in Box 6, the word becomes PERCENTAGES. This maps to the fill word SHARES, clued as “Portions.”
Boy, was I off. At least the “themers” were placed symmetrically…but gosh did I have no change recognizing these!
The whole set is:
LINGERER → 51 NGERER → MALINGERER → FAKER (Goldbrick)
IVES → 4 ES → SITES → URLS (Surfing destinations)
VINTAGES → 6 NTAGES → PERCENTAGES → SHARES (Portions)
XIAN → 11 AN → ALLAN → EDGAR (EAP part)
From top to bottom, the first letters of FAKER, URLS, SHARES, and EDGAR spell the
answer to the puzzle: FUSE.
Thanks for tuning in! See you next month.