XWord Muggles Forum

This puzzle had been mostly finished for a while, but with the revival of the SSS I dusted it off and decided to finish it. With significant help from @Cap'n Rick that improved the fill (and eliminated yet another of those wee crimson fish), it finally became sufficiently presentable. Thanks as always to @Joe Ross for tech support.

This one might play a little choppier than the average SSS, but fear not, nudges will surface soon. Solution on Saturday.

The meta answer is a plural noun.

Hope you enjoy!
cheers,
Alan

Wrapping Paper
crosshare
PUZ
PDF
spreadsheet

Nudges here

Sssolved - thanks for the puzzle!

Sssolved! Thanks for the fun puzzle, Alan!

Sssolved. Thanks, Alan. Nice start to the day.

Very clever idea, Alan! Thanks for the SSS!

Sssolved. Thanks, Alan!

SSSolved...fun puzzle, thanks Alan!

SSSolved. Thanks Alan.

Doing cryptics helps a lot sometimes. Very clever, Alan!

SSSolved!

Fun! Thanks, Alan!

Sssolved. Thanks for the puzzle, Alan!

SSSolved! Thanks for the SSSunday puzzle!

Thanks for the kind words so far. Nudge time:

The title has two words. Both are helpful.

One of them appears in several clues.

OK, we have 5 clues with the word paper in them, cluing the long acrosses. Now what? Try applying both title words to those entries.

Each of those long acrosses is 'wrapped' in a type of paper (each of which is 4 letters).

OK, now we have 5 new words. Did any of them come to mind while you were filling out the grid?

You need to find 5 alternate entries

Solved pre-nudges! Thank you for the puzzle!

"Oh, boy" woozy thinks at midnight "a chance to do an SSS before the nudges are out".

"Oh, man" woozy thinks a half hour after midnight "I almost see it but... shoot"

woozy goes to bed.

"Okay, time for the nudges" thinks woozy at 9:30 the next morning. "Whoa, ELEVEN people got it pre-nudges. Better look again with fresh eyes"

"Yeah" says woozy at 9:31 "The fresh eyes think has never not even once ever worked for me in my entire life"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure" says woozy as he reads through clues 1 and 2.

"But that only works for one entry" says woozy as he reads nudge 3 "I never hear of anything that fits other entries. Although some are 'close but no cigar' almosts"

"Did I grow up on another planet?!" wonders woozy as he finishes the clues "I never heard of any of those"

"Rats" he says. "No closer."


=====

"Ah geez" says woozy and 10:01 just after he posted an embarassing post about not seeing anything "now I see it"

=====

"Except that doesn't lead to anything" thinks woozy and 10:12 as he kicks his laptop across the room.

======

"Ah, geez" thinks woozy as he studies his IRA performance. "That wasn't right at all"

Then as a final humiliation he enters a singular noun and gets a rejection and then tries two appendages to that singular noun. Then with a dope slap he enters the plural form of his noun.

"Great," he says "Success. I can finally end that ridiculous post"

====

And the ten minutes after correcting several typos and misspelling and double words and omitted words and weird disconnects of strange homonyms, he does finally end that ridiculous post.... for now....

SSSolved!
Using some nudges and something that first came to mind.

Thanks for the Sunday session, Alan!

SSSolved (with nudges) Well done, Alan - take a bow! (but maybe not this one)

Sssolved without nudges. Very clever! Thanks, Alan!

Aaah! Finally got there with hints. Nice Sunday meta, Alan.

Sssolved! Finally had time to do this. Very fun Alan!