#633 - "Harmonize"

[FrankieHeck]

So far I’ve found two great red herrings but no sign of a rabbit. I also have an idea what I’d like the answer to be, and I’m trying to not get stuck forcing that to work.

Just printed a nice fresh copy so I can go back to square one

And hoping the post enlightenment fairies will once again grace me with their presence.

I keep cluttering up this thread, hoping for post enlightenment! May it work better for you than it has for me.

Earlier this evening I decided to toss my (nonexistent) solo solve to the wind, and invited another muggle who is working on this puzzle to a zoom brainstorming meeting. It was fun to compare ideas, though we'd both had most of the same ones. I pulled up the puzzle and highlighted everything we saw, and it was basically a big mess at the end, but it was fun, even if we aren't any farther along.

And for those of you who have seen but not heard me on the group Zooms...I did talk! Perhaps even rambled. I think I just find it easier to talk in groups smaller than three

[Al Sisti]

So far I’ve found two great red herrings but no sign of a rabbit. I also have an idea what I’d like the answer to be, and I’m trying to not get stuck forcing that to work.

Just printed a nice fresh copy so I can go back to square one

And hoping the post enlightenment fairies will once again grace me with their presence.

And for those of you who have seen but not heard me on the group Zooms...I did talk! Perhaps even rambled. I think I just find it easier to talk in groups smaller than three

I'll believe that when I see/hear it tomorrow...

[FrankieHeck]

So far I’ve found two great red herrings but no sign of a rabbit. I also have an idea what I’d like the answer to be, and I’m trying to not get stuck forcing that to work.

Just printed a nice fresh copy so I can go back to square one

And hoping the post enlightenment fairies will once again grace me with their presence.

And for those of you who have seen but not heard me on the group Zooms...I did talk! Perhaps even rambled. I think I just find it easier to talk in groups smaller than three

I'll believe that when I see/hear it tomorrow...

You won't hear it in a room of 20!

[burak]

I kinda lucked into the answer in multiple half-assed steps, and was thinking "well, this doesn't click at all". I saw the entire thing after the fact and went "whoooooa".

In retrospect, not the most impressive meta structure but my solving experience turned it into a very enjoyable one. So yay!

[tonyrobots]

Earlier this evening I decided to toss my (nonexistent) solo solve to the wind, and invited another muggle who is working on this puzzle to a zoom brainstorming meeting. It was fun to compare ideas, though we'd both had most of the same ones. I pulled up the puzzle and highlighted everything we saw, and it was basically a big mess at the end, but it was fun, even if we aren't any farther along.

That other muggle was me, and it was indeed fun to talk things out, but I’m sorry that it didn’t end in enlightenment. Still scratching my head over here, though I’ve had a few more thoughts since we spoke. Hoping for a stroke of lightning sometime soon, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

[Laura M]

And for those of you who have seen but not heard me on the group Zooms...I did talk! Perhaps even rambled. I think I just find it easier to talk in groups smaller than three ;-)

If I could join these Zoom gatherings and just lurk (preferably muted and camera off), I'd totally do that! But I realize that might make people uncomfortable and/or make me appear even weirder than I actually am :-) I've found lately that I don't do well in online meetings, even smallish ones. There are only about 6 people in my usual work meetings, but they're all big talkers and it's even harder to interrupt remotely than in person, so I'm pretty much resigned to emulating a 19th-century child and not speaking unless spoken to...

[BarbaraK]

I submitted something that I can only partially justify, but I think it has a good chance of being the right answer... It's a 5-letter musical instrument, anyway! If I'm right, I was overcomplicating things somewhat but the rabbit was still hiding really well.

Update: Woohoo I'm on the board! Still looking forward to the solution to see what I missed.

I think I was where you were. Had enough to be pretty sure what the answer had to be, but it didn’t seem like that could really be all there was.

Then all of a sudden, the rest popped out.

I’m beaming up. May not see a leaderboard update til near noon, but I’m quite confident.

Thank you post enlightenment fairies!

[FrankieHeck]

Well I finally saw the correct path due to the kindness of muggles. I think I'll just take the L on this one, though. In retrospect, I should have had someone clue me in earlier, because suddenly I feel overwhelmed with meta puzzles! And did we just have a weekend I just missed? If I'm not quietly sitting in my square on the Zoom meetup, it's because I'm desperately trying to solve a meta or two. (Or more likely it's dinner time. Or both.)

[cherikee]

Hi all - first time solver here, although I did a couple easy ones that Matt sent before I signed up. This one is a different animal though, and I am stumped! Staring at a few spots, hoping for something to materialize... and nothing. Will gladly take a nudge (however that happens) if anyone would be so kind. Thanks!

[Dplass]

Hi all - first time solver here, although I did a couple easy ones that Matt sent before I signed up. This one is a different animal though, and I am stumped! Staring at a few spots, hoping for something to materialize... and nothing. Will gladly take a nudge (however that happens) if anyone would be so kind. Thanks!

Same.

[spotter]

Struggling to gain any traction on this one before the deadline

[spotter]

Ahh man. I was not close. Nice meta actually, but I'd have needed more of a hint than "Harmonize".

[streakchaser]

Would have never gotten this. Did anyone else notice that there were exactly five across answers that included the sound of musical notes?

ADOBO
WHOSOEVER
GETATME
TIRADE
TITOV

DO, SO, MI, RE, TI. Really tried to use those, ugh.

[Big Mac]

DefLAte and bLAb did too ^ that's what threw me off. I got stuck on the solfege track too long and never recovered.

[rexthree]

Would have never gotten this. Did anyone else notice that there were exactly five across answers that included the sound of musical notes?

ADOBO
WHOSOEVER
GETATME
TIRADE
TITOV

DO, SO, MI, RE, TI. Really tried to use those, ugh.

same with me. i couldn't get those out of my head either.

[Dplass]

Ahh man. I was not close. Nice meta actually, but I'd have needed more of a hint than "Harmonize".

I think there was a similar mechanism in WSJ last year sometime.

[Laura M]

Turns out I got less than half of it (but still enough)! I was staring at SAN JOSE and thought, banjo, that's a 5-letter musical instrument, maybe there are more? So I found the 5-letter ones but didn't look for or see the others. Also, it turns out that the four 5-letter instruments are hidden in 7-letter words, so I thought that was intentional and hinted at by SEVEN-B*.

Definitely spent a lot of time in that solfege rabbit hole. I couldn't get past all of those LAs (4 of them) in the upper right. Also the E-flat (or, chromatically, D, E-flat, E) in DEFLATE. Also, ABUT is TUBA backwards!

*Also thought that might have been pointing to a guitar chord thing and spent some time trying to learn about those...

[BarbaraK]

Herrings, herrings, everywhere...

Harmonize suggested backup singers to me, so I started off sure that I was going to find something reading backwards. 3D STOP -> Tops - famous band. Ooh, must me on to something. Nope. And 12D ABUT -> tuba - that must be it. Nope. (And even looking at that and thinking about it didn't get me to notice the TABA right next to it.)

Next up, I noticed gotabadRAP and agoniSING (apparently I can't spell in Spanish or English) That must be the key and I just needed to find three more - hmmm, DJ(?), CALL(??) HOOT(???) Nope, getting ridiculous.

That chain of L's in the middle looks kinda sorta, if you squint just right, like a musical note. And??? Nothing.

Lots of LAs and OOs and that stuff that harmonizers sing.

Oddly enough, what finally got me on to instruments was ADOBO. Reading aloud, I heard the oboe in there. So maybe things that sound like instruments, or maybe add a letter. Kept going and two rows later, there was FLATE - just a U away from a 5 letter instrument. From there, I reasonably quickly found the other 5 letter instruments, and that gave me B, E, U, G. So I was pretty sure it would be bugle and I needed an L somewhere, probably in the lower left corner. But I was still so stuck on 5 letters. I even googled to see if there were variants called the U-Lyre, or the Lyre-D or the I-Lute. Finally thought about how the substituted letters worked in the crossing words, found the 4- letter instruments, and realized Lute/Lyre was it after all.

Could I have made it any more difficult?

[LesY]

SANJOSE was my entry point, too. This would have been a good later-in-the-year MMMM.

[Bird Lives]

H
Oddly enough, what finally got me on to instruments was ADOBO. Reading aloud, I heard the oboe in there.

When I saw ADOBO, all I could think of was DOBRO.