#569 - "Weird Neighbors" - April 26, 2019

[Jeremy Smith]

Ugh! I’m trying to not overcomplicate this, but I’m lost in space on a Week 2!!! Metas can definitely be humbling!

[Laura M]

9 in a row! With a Week 1 and Week 2 ahead of me, I have high hopes for 11. After that? I'll need some luck.

Same.

[Jacksull]

This one came to me right away, after I spent the weekend striking out on the WSJ puzzle. They were probably about equal in difficulty, but not for me.

[Jeremy Smith]

This one came to me right away, after I spent the weekend striking out on the WSJ puzzle. They were probably about equal in difficulty, but not for me.

And I got the WSJ right away, but can’t get the MGWCC. Funny how that works sometimes.

[BarbaraK]

I'm not sure I want to admit this, but hey, we're all friends here, right? You all will be laughing with me not at me.

So I got through the grid (though between the countries and a bunch of proper names, it took a while.) And based on the title, the first thing I thought of was neighboring countries. I knew for USA it was Mexico and Canada and saw enough overlap with AXONACADEMIC that I checked for anagrams, and sure enough it worked. OK, I don't like anagrams, but when you know exactly what you're going from and to, I can manage. So I googled the neighbors of the other two countries and found them too.

And then, there was some kind of disturbance in the space time continuum and a giant blind spot appeared, right in front of IGABAERIALLY. It totally disappeared from my view.

I knew I was looking for two countries with their letters scrambled together. But the longest remaining answers in the grid were only 7 letters, which would require 3 and 4 letter countries, and there are hardly an 3s - USA, UAE - and they didn't work. So it must be that I have to combine two entries to get the last one. Yuk!! Did I mention I don't like anagrams. If Matt's doing that to us, at least he'd use symmetrical or adjoining words, right? So I started going through the grid, looking for anything that might work, and grumbling mightily.

Having no luck, I decided to approach it from the other end and found a list of 7 letter countries with exactly 2 neighbors. Only half a dozen or so, so that should be doable, right? So I went through the grid again, looking for anything that might possibly work. (In case it ever comes up, Columbia and Peru can turn into Malibu and recoup. Fortunately, recoup was not in the grid.)

Finally, finally, finally, IGABAERIALLY reappeared and I realized I was totally nuts and tried to make it way harder than it really was.

I think I need to change my avatar to a dunce cap.

[hcbirker]

I'm not sure I want to admit this, but hey, we're all friends here, right? You all will be laughing with me not at me.

So I got through the grid (though between the countries and a bunch of proper names, it took a while.) And based on the title, the first thing I thought of was neighboring countries. I knew for USA it was Mexico and Canada and saw enough overlap with AXONACADEMIC that I checked for anagrams, and sure enough it worked. OK, I don't like anagrams, but when you know exactly what you're going from and to, I can manage. So I googled the neighbors of the other two countries and found them too.

And then, there was some kind of disturbance in the space time continuum and a giant blind spot appeared, right in front of IGABAERIALLY. It totally disappeared from my view.

I knew I was looking for two countries with their letters scrambled together. But the longest remaining answers in the grid were only 7 letters, which would require 3 and 4 letter countries, and there are hardly an 3s - USA, UAE - and they didn't work. So it must be that I have to combine two entries to get the last one. Yuk!! Did I mention I don't like anagrams. If Matt's doing that to us, at least he'd use symmetrical or adjoining words, right? So I started going through the grid, looking for anything that might work, and grumbling mightily.

Having no luck, I decided to approach it from the other end and found a list of 7 letter countries with exactly 2 neighbors. Only half a dozen or so, so that should be doable, right? So I went through the grid again, looking for anything that might possibly work. (In case it ever comes up, Columbia and Peru can turn into Malibu and recoup. Fortunately, recoup was not in the grid.)

Finally, finally, finally, IGABAERIALLY reappeared and I realized I was totally nuts and tried to make it way harder than it really was.

I think I need to change my avatar to a dunce cap.

Been there done that Barbara! Except that's when I give up! (Heidi)

[JJD]

Barbara,

I had that same blindness for a couple minutes, too.
Luckily I figured it out quickly.

-James