Welcome to Phil's Crossword Corner (PCC)! Philip Chow (aka Phil) is an auditor at NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation who makes crossword puzzles for fun in his free time. A new meta puzzle posts every other Saturday weekend on Crosshare.
Phil’s metas will usually include immediate nudges, a great tool for new solvers. You can reach him at pchow13@gmail.com
Please see below for the latest puzzle PCC#24 - "Phil in the Blank"
[Level 1.5] Meta prompt: The answer to the meta is a famous Phil (bonus points if you can spell his name without looking it up)
Many thanks to FrankieHeck and Abide for test-solving!
Note: the level is the intended difficulty I had in mind when I designed the puzzle, but may play differently since every solver has their own area of expertise... what one person may find easy, another may find difficult.
Have fun and keep in mind if you're ever lost at sea, google is your best friend (actually, I don't know if you'd get internet service in the middle of the ocean)
-Phil
Hint #1: 9 clues have a parenthetical number after it... what do the numbers mean?
Hint #2: Perhaps a more helpful title would be "Phil in(dex) the Blank"
Hint #3: Consider the nth letter of the answer where n = number in parenthesis... For example, Phil ___ (author of this puzzle) (3) would yield the third letter of CHOW = the letter "O"
Hint #4: The famous Phil is not a person... He's also not that great at predicting things and has an overall success rate of about 40%
Hint #5: The famous Phil is associated with a US holiday celebrated on February 2... He hails from a borough in Pennsylvania with a rather difficult name to spell
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: 9 Phils are in the grid and the parenthetical numbers in their clues point to which letter to take from their last names... the 3rd letter of MCGRAW, the 3rd letter of HARTMAN, the 2nd letter of COLLINS, and so on... this spells out GROUNDHOG... and so the meta answer is the name of the groundhog that uses his shadow to predict an early spring or a late winter: Punxsutawney Phil, popularized by the Bill Murray movie "Groundhog Day."
Constructor notes: if this puzzle had a familiar feel to it (deja vu?), this has ALMOST the exact same grid layout as PCC#19 the state nickname puzzle (9 theme answers spelling out a keyword)... I actually constructed the groundhog puzzle before the state nickname puzzle... when Abide encouraged me to submit something for the MMM, I was going through my puzzles thinking what could make a fun puzzle and thought of using the groundhog puzzle as a template for the state nickname puzzle...
Last edited by pchow13 on Sat Jan 27, 2024 3:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Check out "The MOAT MEOW Mashup Pack" here. US$10 for 14 metas that don't always abide by the "rules" of the game: asymmetry, 2-letter words, uncrossed letters, who knows. And this time there's a mega-meta!
Rounded the corner x 2 This time without nudges though.
Shannon PS: If you want help with a meta, PM what you have so I can help without spoiling too much. I've received lots of help in the beginning and I love to pay it forward!
hcbirker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:04 pm
I put my answer in Crosshare and it didn't accept it. And I looked up how to spell it!
Heidi - I've revised the submission guideline [REDACTED].. you should show up on the leaderboard soon - just give the site some time to update. Thank you for solving!
hcbirker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:04 pm
I put my answer in Crosshare and it didn't accept it. And I looked up how to spell it!
Heidi - I've revised the submission guideline [REDACTED]... you should show up on the leaderboard soon - just give the site some time to update. Thank you for solving!
hcbirker wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 4:04 pm
I put my answer in Crosshare and it didn't accept it. And I looked up how to spell it!
Heidi - I've revised the submission guideline [REDACTED].. you should show up on the leaderboard soon - just give the site some time to update. Thank you for solving!
haha that accounted for half of my incorrect submissions as well
)
Turned the corner! No nudges needed, but DEFINITELY no bonus points for me. Thanks for a fun puzzle!
This time without nudges though.
