RichA2 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 4:20 pm
Questions for those who got this one, particularly the experienced solvers:
1. What led you to look at the artists’ first names for the meta solution? Is this a standard puzzle construction technique or just an inspiration based on having done so many of these and knowing how to think creatively?
2. Is the answer to the meta puzzle always a single short word, or are the answers sometimes longer? I get that the description sometimes specifies a number of letters and that each theme answer then supplies a letter in some way, but for puzzles with no length specified can the answer be a phrase or even a sentence? In this case, I tried to fashion a solution using the theme answer letters that were not used in the artists’ names. I got to some interesting formulations several words long, but nowhere close to GRAPES. Was I wasting my time even contemplating a longer solution?
Thanks for any insight you might have. Congratulations to the many who got to shore. Hope to join you one of these weeks.
1. I got the artists' last names quickly enough and tried first to see if their initial letters spelled anything. Nope. Then I tried several things with the remaining letters, hooking them up, anagramming them, etc. Nope. It was only after I ran out of those rabbit holes that I tried the obvious first names (all of which I knew), and saw that their initial letters spelled a fruit (in order, as Matt's do 99+% of the time).
2. When I used to get more wrong than right, it was because I was trying to force a text-like answer, rather than (again, usually) a word or phrase that is spelled out. Like I'd say "there are seven entries that involve, or could involve if you squint your eyes and skip/add letters, someone named John" (completely ignoring the fact that there are almost always themed entries; usually the long acrosses, and/or almost always symmetrically placed). Those answers never "click," and that usually/always means they're wrong. Again, almost always, the number of letters in a word or phrase that the constructor is looking for will match the number of themed entries; generally yielding one letter each. Don't worry; you'll learn the tricks, and the usual spots to look, and even constructors' styles. And with every meta you do -- whether you solve or not -- it will result in your adding another "mechanism" to your tool box. And before you know it, you'll be the one answering someone's questions.