Hello, Operator

[Dow Jones]

Nudged off the couch. Excellent puzzle, Mark. Great meta !!

[MarkWoychick]

Updated leader board with a slight reshuffle in positions 32-36 (I forgot to check the Crosshare stats yesterday, so I didn't sync it with the posts here and inbox messages). If I missed you, please let me know.

32 Johnny Luau
33 Ergcat
34 Carolyn
35 edestlin
36 Mikey G
37 bhamren
38 Joe
39 JHSeeman
40 MikeM000
41 minimuggle
42 hoover
43 benchen71
44 Snood
45 ajk
46 BrennerTJ
47 Teamdoubletow
48 markhr
49 CPJohnson
50 Cindy Heisler
51 Dow Jones
52 dot

[michaelm]

This slacker just belatedly finished Mark's brilliant and fun MMM.
Faith in math and metas fully restored.
Thanks Mark!

[mkmf]

Unofficially off the couch. Wonderful construction! I solved belatedly without the nudges. But I just checked out the nudges now, and they are really well constructed and paced.

Have you ever thought of providing post-deadline nudges for unsuccessful solvers of the WSJ or MGWCC?

[OGuyDave]

My first MMM. Done, but needed the nudges. Fantastic puzzle, and you can bet I'll be doing more!

Is this the way we submit our entries, via the forum?

TFTXWD


Edit: Intense searching revealed (from the calendar) that submission is by PM to the puzzle creator. Done.

T (again) FTXWD

[ajk]

Edit: Intense searching revealed (from the calendar) that submission is by PM to the puzzle creator. Done.

For more instant gratification you can also submit via the Crosshare link and get immediate confirmation:
Hello Operator Crosshare

[hoover]

Edit: Intense searching revealed (from the calendar) that submission is by PM to the puzzle creator. Done.

For more instant gratification you can also submit via the Crosshare link and get immediate confirmation:
Hello Operator Crosshare

Also, if you prefer to solve via PDF (print and solve on paper) or PUZ (Across Lite), you can still submit via Crosshare after using the Reveal link to fill in the grid for you.

[ajk]

Edit: Intense searching revealed (from the calendar) that submission is by PM to the puzzle creator. Done.

For more instant gratification you can also submit via the Crosshare link and get immediate confirmation:
Hello Operator Crosshare

Also, if you prefer to solve via PDF (print and solve on paper) or PUZ (Across Lite), you can still submit via Crosshare after using the Reveal link to fill in the grid for you.

I was going to add that, but wasn't 100% sure it was true. Thanks.

[MarkWoychick]

A second-to-last leader board update before tomorrow's final list and reveal:

53 DIS
54 david
55 michaelm
56 mkmf
57 OGuyDave

[MarkWoychick]

Unofficially off the couch. Wonderful construction! I solved belatedly without the nudges. But I just checked out the nudges now, and they are really well constructed and paced.

Have you ever thought of providing post-deadline nudges for unsuccessful solvers of the WSJ or MGWCC?

Thank you, @mkmf, and I'm glad you liked the nudges even if you didn't need them. Interesting idea about post-deadline nudges on the other puzzles. I hadn't thought of it - maybe I will bring it up on the Tuesday Muggles Zoom meeting.

[MarkWoychick]

Thanks to everyone for solving and for all the kind comments about the puzzle. Thanks also for indulging yet another math puzzle, with numbers in parentheses to boot! Little did I know when this puzzle was scheduled that it would appear on the heels of the rhyming pasta and square root puzzles.

We had 57 solvers who found the answer, DO THE MATH, discovered by applying the operators in the grid to the clue number and number in parentheses. Congrats to the winner of the City of Trees Challenge t-shirt: @Darth!

49D SLASH 7 = 7D -> DRAMA -> D
14A PLUS 1 = 15A -> OTRO -> O
63A OVER 3 = 21A -> TRIM -> T
26A LESS 4 = 22A -> HIDEIN -> H
9A TIMES 3 = 27A -> ERIE -> E
28D SUM 2 = 30A -> MANN -> M
31D AND 9 = 40A -> ASA -> A
44A ADDUP 3 = 47D -> TETONS -> T
55A MORE 4 = 59A -> HUMILIATE -> H

You may have noticed connections between songs and operators in the title and long answers in the grid:

- Hello, Operator by the White Stripes
- Operator by Jim Croce
- Smooth Operator by Sade

And just for fun(?) there were two additional telecom-related answers One Plus and iOS

[Darth]

Excited to have won the City of Trees Challenge t-shirt!

Thanks so much, Mark -- and may the Forest be with you!

[hoover]

I had a blind spot, but I got over it. Off the couch!

Now that the answer is out...

I could tell that I was supposed to TIMES 3, SUM 2, etc., but I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to multiply by 3, until I looked again at what I had written down in my notes:

Code: Select all

 9A TIMES 3
14A PLUS  1
26A LESS  4

etc.

[vandono]

Oh, man. I never did figure out what to do with the operators and parenthesized numbers, but now that I see it I have to say this was a very clever construction. Well done!