Title: “Capture the Flag” by Pete Muller, Mack Meller, and Andrew White
Prompt: The meta for this puzzle is a band whose name is depicted six times in the grid.
Answer: Florida-Georgia Line, found by 273 solvers
Grid: untimed
Meta: DNF
Spot-the-pattern meta this month; I usually do well on these but managed to miss this one. You sense the pattern is there, even with the presence of long entries like WACKA FLACKA FLAME and BARGAINING AGENTS….Only strategy for these is to let your eyes wander over the grid and hope the pattern pops out. Wide-open 16×15 grid, and I thought I saw some things here and there (like a lot of F’s) but couldn’t put it together. Asked a friend for a nudge like a coward and his nudge got me to the finish line. The thing to notice was the six pairs of FL and GA bigrams, separated in each case by two black squares. So GEORGIA-FLORIDA LINE it is. Notice the “bonus” FL/GA pair vertically in the upper-right. Not separated by black squares as the others are, so clearly just a bonus.
Alright, so I’m now 0-for-4 (!!) on the Muller Meta in 2026. Will have to go into crisis mode next month…not even sure what that means but I vow to go 8-for-8 to finish of the year, whatever it takes!
4.35 stars.
Thanks Matt!
273 correct answers this month.
A surprisingly large number of folks submitted BLACK FLAG, which might have been an acceptable answer if “Flag” was not part of the puzzle title.
8 for 8 – if anyone can do it you can!
Not to be “that guy”, but Florida-Georgia Line? Who are they?
I would’ve submitted Black Flag myself, but agreed in my comment that it was inelegant with the word “flag” in the title. Then with what I thought was a flash of insight I came up with The White Stripes, since the letters of FLAG (albeit in reverse order) are all on what would be the white stripes of a flag. Is this reasonable enough for some credit?
Same boat here both with lack of knowing the band and not submitting BLACK FLAG. I’m telling myself this was too US-centric for me to get but I think I might have been able to google it if I’d noticed they were state abbreviations
I was one of the Black Flag submitters. I was hoping it would be considered to be “not really wrong” enough that it would be accepted.
I understand the “Flag” duplication in BLACK FLAG and the puzzle title being a disqualifier, but if that weren’t true, I think it would have been perfectly acceptable. Six times, the puzzle has an expanse of black surrounded by the letters F-L-A-G. I could see BLACK FLAG being the desired answer if the title of the puzzle were different.
I submitted White Stripes also. Never heard of Florida-Georgia Line.
The “Flag” in the title was enough to make me question my answer of BLACK FLAG, but seeing nothing else, that’s what I submitted. Isn’t the first rule of meta crosswords that there are no rules in meta crosswords?
I can’t find my marked-up screenshot of the grid (and I’m not sure I could post it here anyway), but I highlighted in Across and Down answers with an upside-down L shape FLEG, FLOG and FLUG, plus three others. I saw the flipped L’s as flags on poles and figured the letters that spelled something other than “flag” had captured it.
I also saw the FLEG, etc, and one FL(turn)AG
So I looked at the letters surrounding (catching) that F, L, A, G, and saw the other GA above it … and likewise above the other FL’s
Georgia? Florida? Google that for a band … bingo
The meta for this puzzle is a COUNTRY MUSIC DUO whose name is depicted six times in the grid. That would have helped, since we’ve seen too many times that metas have no rules, like the answer won’t contain part of the title.
Also, I think Matt is having us on this year.
There’s like 2 or 3 famous country music duos… and the answer NOT being part of the title is a pretty steadfast rule, even in the zany world of meta puzzles. You got it wrong, it happens.
The clue/answer for 1A was the big hint
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Matt’s write-up has the title of this puzzle as “Triple Bypass.” Say what? My version’s title was “Capture the Flag.” Was this puzzle released under two different titles?
“Triple Bypass” was the title of the March puzzle. I suspect operator error.
I thought about entering The La’s as there are 6 LA in the across entries, but unfortunately the down entry LAG pushes it to 7…..
I listen to the country radio station every once in a while in the car, so I was familiar with the band. When I was staring at the finished grid and thinking about the puzzle title “Capture the Flag,” all the FL’s jumped out, and I immediately thought “Florida-Georgia Line.” Then I looked around and saw all the GA’s, so I submitted my guess. It was only later I counted them (six pairs in the acrosses) and realized each GA was over an FL (with the “border” in between).
Pretty clever – unlike the band name, in the puzzle Georgia gets top billing geographically.
Very easy meta for me. When I saw the state postal IDs oriented geographically I recalled 1A which evoked state line. I enjoy country music; I don’t like bro-country music at all. This group is basically a one album wonder that got a *lot* of play in the early 2010s
Thanks all
In hindsight, it would have been better if we had made the prompt something like a country music band.
They’re not really my jam, but I liked the idea enough of the state borders to give it a try.
Pete
PS As some of you know, I always do a cover song for the meta answer, and it was tricky to figure out what to cover this month. I took one of their songs and did a simple piano/vocal rendition and was happy with how it came out…
I never heard of Florida Georgia Line but stumbled upon their name with some Google help. Black Flag immediately came to my mind also but I dismissed it due to the word flag being in the puzzle title. I recognized the two state abbreviations long before I even realized they also spelled flag (duh!).