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#25 - "A Fresh Start"
[Level 2] Meta prompt: The answer to the meta is a fruit that begins with the letter P
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
Note: If you noticed that the pdf below has a different look to it, that's because it does! The Party Planning Committee has decided to change the font from Roboto Condensed to Nunito Sans... besides being cool to look at, it has the added benefit of asterisks (if used) to stand out more! Who else has run into difficulty solving a meta before because they missed an asterisk?... I feel your pain.
Hint #1: You might not have heard of this fruit before... this is where Google (or your favorite search engine) comes in handy
Hint #2: OERSIMMONS is such a weird entry...
Hint #3: "A fresh start" is a new beginning... there are six grid entries whose first letter can be changed to make a fruit
Hint #4: All these fruits begin with the letter P... OERSIMMONS --> Persimmons... NINEAPPLES --> Pineapples
Hint #5: "Dragon fruit" doesn't begin with a P... but it goes by another name that does (back to hint #1)
Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:
Answer explanation: Answer explanation: There are six grid entries whose first letter can be changed to make a fruit beginning with the letter P... DEARS --> PEARS, REACHES --> PEACHES, ALUMS --> PLUMS, GOMELOS --> POMELOS, OERSIMMONS --> PERSIMMONS, NINEAPPLES --> PINEAPPLES... Taking the first letters of these entries in grid order spells out DRAGON... dragon fruit doesn't begin with a P, but it goes by another name that does, which is the meta answer PITAYA
Constructor notes: Pitayas look really pretty, but they don’t taste that great (in my opinion)… they aren’t very sweet and kind of tasteless... they seem to be gaining some traction in the U.S. market as an exotic health food... there's also a bit of confusion regarding pitaya/pitahaya/dragon fruit which is explained here: https://thefoodiephysician.com/dragon-f ... ifference/ and https://mysliceofmexico.ca/2018/07/23/p ... -pitahaya/
Happy Chinese New Year! (Feb 10, 2024 Year of the Dragon)
Last edited by pchow13 on Mon Feb 26, 2024 11:46 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Funny story. I was all set to enter Par for the course for the CrossHare midi contest for April but I mistakenly thought midi meant 7x 7 and not 11 x 11. Oops. Well.... Here's a complex but **small** meta on the subject of golf.
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!
(Feb 10, 2024 Year of the Dragon)
Turned the corner. Fun meta, thanks!
