Re: #32 - "Hodgepodge"
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 11:39 am
I do agree with that (and would have said it in my first reply to you, except that it probably would have been construed as a spoiler).damefox wrote: ↑Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:18 amAl Sisti wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 5:42 pmI hear what you're saying, but in looking at my notes from the beginning, I had written down two... well, let's just call them "things" until tomorrow... that should have kicked me towards the trick, but for some reason I got away from them. Looking back, knowing now what I know, and now knowing what I didn't know I knew then (still with me??), I really believe he gave us enough to solve it. Maybe a MGWCC Week 5 difficulty, but definitely solvable.damefox wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:59 pm Wow, so many people wanted to pay it forward. Thanks guys! I'm pretty sure I got it.
I have to say, I think there's a fine line between "meta crossword" and "inside joke the constructor has with himself." Without the hint, this puzzle is very much in the latter category. With the hint, IMHO, it's still only straddling that very fine line.
Much easier to comment now that the solution is out, so I don't have to do back-flips to avoid spoilers. I should rephrase "inside joke the constructor has with himself" to "inside joke the constructor has with himself and everyone who's been solving these puzzles since week 1." Maybe not impossible to figure out if you're new to PGWCC, but I think people who were already familiar with past mechanisms definitely had a leg up. I started at week 28, so nothing that hearkened back to older weeks stood out to me (maybe I should've recognized KURTWEILL at 31, but that wasn't enough). I won't dispute that it's a very well-constructed puzzle and extremely impressive that he was able to fit all of that in there, but I think it's a little bit of a bummer for new solvers that it doesn't stand alone.