Crosshare
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A belated happy Thanksgiving! I am stuffed (like my turkey).
It was surreal to watch one of my dreams come true with my guest stop on MGWCC #755 last week - a hearty thank you to all of you for solving and for the boundless encouragement you've given me these past two years! Here's to more puzzling to come!
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Puzzle #42 recap
Puzzle #42 answer: FACETIOUSLY
Correct entries: 43
While I'm not the biggest fan of anagramming in a meta, since I like there to be a systematic way to spell out any meta answer, that was unavoidable here - but the last clue LESS implies that there are only 11 of something in this grid.
The something in question are the letters themselves! Maybe a casual puzzle with a lot of common letters and crosswordese will get to 16-18 unique letters, but for a puzzle to contain only 11 unique letters is certainly suspect (especially with a couple common letters, "N" and "R," nowhere to be found).
Once we recognize there are only 11 letters (ACEFILOSTUY in alphabetical order), the only step left is to rearrange them into our answer. The prompt tells us we have a single word, one that likely ends in the letters "-LY" based on the prompt, and it was convenient that all six vowels (even including "Y"!) come in alphabetical order in the word! That semi-known factoid applies to the meta answer FACETIOUSLY, which is definitely how I clue!
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A super shout-out to @whimsy on this, who was able to test-solve and give feedback in the eleventh hour! So much appreciated!!!
43. Each Gobbler
The answer to the meta is a phrase that I wish applied to solving crosswords.
The deadline is Monday, December 5 at 1 PM ET.
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Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!
Mikey G
