#574 - "Search Party" - May 31, 2019
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Laura M
- Posts: 1419
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:49 am
Like several of you, I feel like I should be almost there, but I just can't get to anything that looks like a solution--or even make a decent guess. On the plus side, this is closest I've come to solving a real Week 4 or 5!
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Thurman8er
- Posts: 393
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:05 pm
- Location: Fresno, CA
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balshetzer
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:56 am
I've taken four steps so far. They work so well it can't possibly be wrong. And yet, I'm stuck. No idea where to go next. Sigh, it seems so silly to come so far and not make it to the end...
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Al Sisti
- Posts: 2090
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
Sounds like that's where a few of us are. 62 people have solved but 20 (~25%) have submitted and gotten it wrong... sounds like there's not an obvious "click" (Not trying to draw nudges here!)...I've still got a little more time to see what I haven't seen yet.balshetzer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:58 am I've taken four steps so far. They work so well it can't possibly be wrong. And yet, I'm stuck. No idea where to go next. Sigh, it seems so silly to come so far and not make it to the end...
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Leslie
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 2:18 pm
It is very frustrating to be 26A and not be able to connect that 78A!
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LesY
- Posts: 691
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:21 pm
The intuitive leap required to finish this one must be just a foot or two too far for me. Sadly this is 2 weeks in a row I've been sitting (likely) one step away and haven't seen it.
Oh well, Peter's puzzle will be up soon - hopefully it'll be a tough one (yet solvable) to restore the confidence!
(And like Al I'm not looking for nudges. Towel thrown, a la Anthony Joshua.)
Oh well, Peter's puzzle will be up soon - hopefully it'll be a tough one (yet solvable) to restore the confidence!
(And like Al I'm not looking for nudges. Towel thrown, a la Anthony Joshua.)
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balshetzer
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:56 am
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BarbaraK
- Posts: 2661
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 2:37 pm
- Location: Virginia
I know that feeling - having worked too hard and come too close to not get that last step. When I'm there, that's when I start asking my puzzle buddies for a nudge.balshetzer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:58 am I've taken four steps so far. They work so well it can't possibly be wrong. And yet, I'm stuck. No idea where to go next. Sigh, it seems so silly to come so far and not make it to the end...
I'm not there this week though. I haven't worked that hard, and I don't think I'm anywhere close. The best first step I have smells more like red herring than white rabbit. So I'm content to just wait and read about it at noon. May send in a last minute random guess, just to amuse Matt.
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FrankieHeck
- Posts: 839
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
- Location: West Virginia
I got a nudge and am now probably stuck at the same point as some others.
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FrankieHeck
- Posts: 839
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
- Location: West Virginia
Honestly, this answer is sounding as good as any of my guesses right now!
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Al Sisti
- Posts: 2090
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
As of now, solve rate is ~62%... and it even took Peter Washington until 45 minutes ago to solve. I'm curious now to see if I was hovering around the answer or hurtling at breakneck speed through space. (I am still hoping my subconscious has figured something out that the rest of me didn't).
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Hector
- Posts: 1297
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:15 pm
- Location: San Francisco
- Contact:
PGW explains the solution on the Crossword Fiend blog: LANCELOT. Way difficult. Is "Search Party" an allusion to the Grail, then? I had BERIBERI and PAGO PAGO but the idea of looking for ASTD in the grid didn't and would not in a zillion years have occurred to me. Congrats to all who got this one!
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FrankieHeck
- Posts: 839
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
- Location: West Virginia
I feel better now, because I never would have found that. Made it to Pago Pago/American Samoa/Beriberi/Thiamine Deficiency. Had noticed the weird use of "last" twice in those answers, but pretty sure another week of staring at the puzzle would not have taken me down that path. And if it had, I would not have heard a click. In all the metas I've tried so far (only 32), I felt like I was in tune with what the constructor was thinking, even if I didn't quite get to the answer. Not the case here. Congrats to all who got it!!
And at least I didn't spend *too* much time trying to convert all the dashes and periods in the clues to Morse Code
And at least I didn't spend *too* much time trying to convert all the dashes and periods in the clues to Morse Code
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LesY
- Posts: 691
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 4:21 pm
As I posted earlier, I thought the last intuitive leap would be too far for me. And it was.
I did think for a short while on ASTD (in that order because PAGO was before BERI so that was fair), and I thought lastdot/lastdance were weird early on, but so obviously so I thought they were a red herring - sadly I didn't return to them. I even highlighted the areas with theme entry so I definitely could have looked at the part with no theme material. Just didn't come together.
In the end, it's just one puzzle and there will be more soon. Already excited to see Peter's next offering today. And the MMMM just came out! Totally forgot that one was coming out today!
I did think for a short while on ASTD (in that order because PAGO was before BERI so that was fair), and I thought lastdot/lastdance were weird early on, but so obviously so I thought they were a red herring - sadly I didn't return to them. I even highlighted the areas with theme entry so I definitely could have looked at the part with no theme material. Just didn't come together.
In the end, it's just one puzzle and there will be more soon. Already excited to see Peter's next offering today. And the MMMM just came out! Totally forgot that one was coming out today!
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Al Sisti
- Posts: 2090
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
I just got my third dose of humility/futility in two weeks: Missed two straight MGWCCs after 53 straight, and just now got my first MMMM wrong since June 2016. I think it's time I go back to the TV Guide Crossword (1 Across: "The Dinah Shore Sho_").
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Laura M
- Posts: 1419
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 11:49 am
Wow! I never would have gotten this one, although I think it was fair. I never spelled out ASTD, only DATS, and I didn't look for either in the grid. Like many, I noticed LAST DANCE/LAST DOT but never found anything that made me look closer at that pairing. (But I like FrankieHeck's idea of using Morse code!) Anyway, kudos to the smart people who solved it, and also to the smart people who didn't quite get there! And also to the smart person who created it :-)
I saw the rhyming clues first, then eventually stopped trying to unscramble the double PAGOBERI and matched it up with AMERICAN SAMOA and THIAMINE DEFICIENCY, but then I had no idea what to do. I tried to do something with their clues, which all had 4 words, but that didn't go anywhere. Then I found there were 8 B-words in the grid, so I was trying to do something with those. Since it's a B deficiency, maybe replace the Bs with another letter? Bile rhymes with isle, and has the same letters with the B replaced by S, so that looked promising for a minute. Or maybe all the Bs should be replaced by Ps because of Pago Pago? That worked well enough for some words (BASTE becomes PASTE which could also be clued by "School tool") that I spent a bunch of time on it. Sigh.
Edited to add: Also, I was 100% convinced that the answer was a person who had something to do with Google or possibly another search engine. But the names of the Google founders and CEO don't have eight letters, so I was curious about who it could be. Just more proof of how off-base I was...
I saw the rhyming clues first, then eventually stopped trying to unscramble the double PAGOBERI and matched it up with AMERICAN SAMOA and THIAMINE DEFICIENCY, but then I had no idea what to do. I tried to do something with their clues, which all had 4 words, but that didn't go anywhere. Then I found there were 8 B-words in the grid, so I was trying to do something with those. Since it's a B deficiency, maybe replace the Bs with another letter? Bile rhymes with isle, and has the same letters with the B replaced by S, so that looked promising for a minute. Or maybe all the Bs should be replaced by Ps because of Pago Pago? That worked well enough for some words (BASTE becomes PASTE which could also be clued by "School tool") that I spent a bunch of time on it. Sigh.
Edited to add: Also, I was 100% convinced that the answer was a person who had something to do with Google or possibly another search engine. But the names of the Google founders and CEO don't have eight letters, so I was curious about who it could be. Just more proof of how off-base I was...
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Leslie
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2019 2:18 pm
I think I was never going to get this one. I looked at the ASTD initials on Friday, but had abandoned that when it didn't seem to lead anywhere. I thought the "search party" answer might turn out to be an explorer, because of all the islands, etc., in the grid, but like Laura I also looked at Google when I noticed that PAGO and BERI were each one letter off from the founders Larry PAGE and Sergey BRIN. Since Google doesn't have enough letters, I considered ALPHABET (the parent company), which was reinforced by all those Greek letters scattered around the grid, but that seemed too close to last week's puzzle. Lancelot was never on my radar.
Anyway, I'm amazed and impressed by all the people who were able to get the answer. Well done!
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FrankieHeck
- Posts: 839
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:57 pm
- Location: West Virginia
Oh no!! I have completed the grids for today's two metas, but I think Matt broke my brain. I don't see anything yet, and just looking at them is making my eyes twitchy. I think I'm going to put them away, get some exercise and/or coffee, and maybe take a few hours away from crosswords!
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TMart
- Posts: 824
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 7:13 am
- Location: Malvern, PA
I got this pretty quickly for some reason. First thing I noticed was that the grid was 19x19 - bigger than usual. Matt had a lot of stuff to hide in it. From the title, I figured it would be a word search. After finding the 16 rhyming clues and the 4 words they pointed to (ASTD?? WTF??), I highlighted all 20 words in the grid. There was a big empty grid area with no highlights in the middle left sector, and I noticed the crossing ASTDs in that area. Definitely a weird meta leap that made no sense whatsoever. But I went with it, and found a cross with Lancelot’s name in it. Must be the Holy Grail! I guess he was a "party" to one of the greatest "search"es in literary history? I can see why people didn't like this one - the last step made no sense whatsoever, and I had to convince myself that "Lancelot" made sense before I submitted it. Didn't like this one at all, but happy that I got it so quickly. Note to self for the future - always print, always highlight.