meta DNF
Screenshot
- {“I don’t understand this”} IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME.
- {“Actually, you know what…?”} COME TO THINK OF IT.
- {“We tried our best”} YOU CAN’T WIN ‘EM ALL.
- {Relax and have a great time} LET IT ALL HANG OUT.
- {Hemingway book, minus its opening definite article} OLD MAN AND THE SEA.
i’m not sure what exactly we’re supposed to count. if we’re just counting words, it’s five every time, which feels like it must be the start of the solve. if it’s the number of letters in each answer, it’s 33522, 42522, 34323, 32343, and 33333, respectively, for the five themers. that would be quite a similar mechanic to a recent patrick berry fireball meta, though.
with 5×15 squares worth of theme content, i don’t think there’s much room in the grid for additional theme material hidden in the fill. i could be wrong about that, but that’s my instinct. so i think we’re supposed to do something with just these theme answers.
unfortunately, i don’t know what that is, and i don’t have a ton of time to devote to blogging it this week since i’m traveling. so i’m going to have to chalk this one up as another DNF. let me know in the comments what i was supposed to do.
(Addendum from Matt G. –> adding Gridmaster T’s solution grid here.)
The entry numbers index two of the five words in each themer, such as “SEA MAN”. A seaman is a TAR. Similarly, ITS ME = HEY, TO COME = ANON, WIN WIN = BAD (the clue fits both), and HANG OUT = IDLE. So, HABIT.
The mechanism is very similar to a Patrick Berry meta that he wrote for Fireball about a month ago.
https://crosswordfiend.com/2024/06/23/fireball-contest-june-19-2024/
Linked above. I hadn’t seen it when I wrote mine, but a solver pointed it out to me afterwards.
Great minds think alike! It’s fascinating how similar they are – but also how different. Both brilliant constructions, but I think I might give the edge to yours: the mechanism of combining two words from familiar five-word phrases is really something!
Oh that’s a good one! I never would have figured it out without any other nudges in the clues/grid so I’m glad I didn’t spend too much time on it. It feels more like a Week 4 than Week 3.
I figured something was up with the vague clue for BAD, tried to connect it with NO-WIN or WIN-WIN, but never got anywhere after that. I always forget that the numbered squares might be significant.
Definitely not a week 3 IMO.
Any idea on how the title plays into this?
Maybe a hint to use the grid numbers as word counters (or indexes). After all, the 15 (1•5) is literally on the word IT.
Once you figure it out, “hey! that’s why there was so much terrible fill in here!” is the immediate response.
Throwing something in the clues about college basketball uniform numbers would have been a nice touch. :)
One minor gripe I have is that the [Cambridge-based software company] for MOTU at 23D is not very crossworthy. I’m a Cambridge resident of 20 years and live within a mile of their office, and I work in the software industry, but I’d literally never heard of them before this puzzle. The clue is technically correct, but not get at all gettable without google. (And we’re talking about the same Cambridge, MA here, not the one across the pond in the UK or any of the other lesser-known Cambridges.)
MOTU is obviously very constrained by the theme, but it could be clued as Masters of the Universe instead.
Otherwise an excellent puzzle.
My issue was with HEARTIE, I couldn’t find any google results for that one.
I’ve heard of them, though I didn’t know they were in Cambridge. I think they’re pretty known in certain music circles.
Not me only using the second number to get ME COME WIN OUT MAN *facepalm* so close!
WOW. So impressed with this meta, and with those of you who solved it. The level of mastery to put this together is something else, from having the idea, to finding 5 15s with 5 words, to making the grid so their entry numbers do what you want, to having the resulting two word phrases actually be real phrases, to placing even more theme content in the grid whose first letters AND clues do what you need…standing ovation.
i go so, so stuck on how some of the long entries could be re-parsed into different words, like WINE MALL or TOME…. which obviously led nowhere
Was it a coincidence that they all start with the same words as Beatles songs? It’s All Too Much, Come Together, You Can’t Do That, Let It Be, Old Brown Shoe. This is why my guess was GOT TO.