XWord Muggles Forum

Off the couch. I didn't think I had the right answer, so I never submitted on Crosshare. I just kept trying to get a different answer. I think my brain was still trying to recover from MikeyG's week 5!!

woozy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:00 pm Um... are you nudging the same puzzle that I did? If so, I missed something major!

I see you brute-forced the answer by guessing right on the fourth attempt. Over 40% submitted a wrong first answer.

If you want further clarification, I direct you to the Crosshare comments.

woozy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:00 pm Um... are you nudging the same puzzle that I did? If so, I missed something major!

I'm with you.

Abide wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:17 pm

woozy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:00 pm Um... are you nudging the same puzzle that I did? If so, I missed something major!

I see you brute-forced the answer by guessing right on the fourth attempt. Over 40% submitted a wrong first answer.

If you want further clarification. I direct you to the Crosshare comments.

Holy cow! I leap-frogged right past that. I guess this is one of those times it was better to be lucky than smart. Very nice touch!

I’m actually now more intrigued by the nudges and responses… got the mechanism early from a certain clue but still haven’t actually worked it out.

Another day, another 4 solvers vacating their couches

CPJohnson
Cindy Heisler
SeamusOL
SJMcK

And if we had a list for those who’d already got the answer but were nudged to the full mechanism, sounds like there’d be a few people added to that one too.

If anyone who’s stuck after the first step (or before) wants a private nudge, PM me.

Abide wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:17 pm

woozy wrote: ↑Wed Aug 02, 2023 6:00 pm Um... are you nudging the same puzzle that I did? If so, I missed something major!

I see you brute-forced the answer by guessing right on the fourth attempt. Over 40% submitted a wrong first answer.

If you want further clarification, I direct you to the Crosshare comments.

It wasn't brute force. It was one wrong idea, one right idea and two typos. I have a dead lock-cinch for how it works. But there are a few things I didn't understand. But I'll read the Crosshare comments.

Off the couch with a little help from @BarbaraK . I didn't see the first step, which the nudges assume you got.

Okay. Now that I see how the meta worked I have to admit it reminds me of this

@Eric Porter has a good point. So I’ll add

nudge #0

If you don’t see what the theme entries have in common, try saying the last parts out loud

Got nothing even with the nudges.

(I edited this because looking back it seemed to be a bit flippant, which I didn't mean.)

I really tried hard to make the answer much more complicated than it was. Thanks, @Abide and @BarbaraK! Hope you collaborate again!

Today’s new solvers:

jbird
Eric Porter
DebbieC
Darth
cbarbee002
bhamren
JR
DavyGravy
maturin
OGuyDave
Matt A

Thanks everyone for solving! And there are a couple more days to go! Tell your friends!

Finally got it after another look at the nudges.

I’m delighted to see that people are still finding their way off the couch!

Four more solvers today:
BrennerTJ
Jimbo
BethA
Katiedid

@haydendog, I don’t see you on the list. Different screen name? Or crosshare update lag? Or submission lost in cyberspace?

Got this with a couple of nudges!

A few more off the couch before the deadline:

Tane
Rufus T Firefly
Haydendog
Annabelle

The big reveal will be posted tomorrow.

How do you like your morning crossword, especially if solving with children? NYT Editor Margaret Farrar coined the term "Sunday Morning Breakfast Test", an unwritten rule that kept crosswords family-friendly and free of unpleasantness. This is why you rarely see HITLER, CANCER, or @#*! at 1-Across.

This puzzle had a basic Step 1 (homonyms of the last theme words) that sent you to a word (DIRTY) that could not reasonably fit the prompt. Looking at the clue and entry for 66-Across suggests the opposite. Implementing the alpha-numeric code A=1, B=2 yields CLEAN, a "not dirty" word.

TL; DR
@BrennerTJ explains it beautifully here:


Eighty-four solvers, with a few still entrenched at Step 1. Kudos to my collab partner @BarbaraK. Hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks to everyone who solved or attempted this puzzle! It was great fun to make, and Peter @Abide is wonderful to work with. And lovely reveal graphic, @BrennerTJ.

One of the perennial questions in metas is, which order do we use? Theme entries or the other grid pieces? The crossword gods smiled on us in this case; it didn't matter because the letters of "dirty" are alphabetical.

Great puzzle!