XWord Muggles Forum

Ahoy, Muggles!

It's great to be back on MEOW and this time with a special treat - a collaboration puzzle with everybody's favorite Aussie - @benchen71! One of the best things about creating meta puzzles is the occasional opportunity to team up with another constructor - particularly one as talented as Ben. Now if you've solved some of our past metas you may have noticed a few differences in our respective styles and techniques. This puzzle, which was rejected at MMM and even at SSS (by that new anal-retentive editor over there ), reflects and even highlights some of those differences. Ben and I hope that you have as much fun solving as we did constructing!

The meta answer is a hyphenated 12-letter term.

The Odd Couple
Crosshare
PUZ
PDF
Spreadsheet


Difficulty: Probably a Calico/Persian or 2.5

Nudges are here.
Solution is here.

Good luck!
Rick & Ben

Cat was outnumbered but not outsmarted. Thanks, guys.

I'm starting to really fear the words "hyphenated x-letter word"!

Cat flew out. I hope this isn’t a spoiler, but this puzzle seems perfect for @Wendy Walker.

Thoughts as I do this MEOW

Ancestor - is something that is very old like (we'll discuss that later". Ancestor is not something I used in college and the first 5 years of work.

More later

Bag sans cat!

Much fun!

Got it in a second look. Fun stuff, thanks.

Love the concept and execution and reference to a TV classic.

Had one idea and tried two executions with no luck. Maybe a third....?

Had to make more than one guess on Crosshare, but finally hit the right one! Good joint effort, you two!

Update: I put my MOAT solve in the wrong place!
Cat is still in bag as I am
Still puzzling over “The Odd Couple”!

Leaderboard - Day 1

Well, @benchen71, according to Crosshare over 100 people have completed the grid, but only 15 (including 4 testers) have solved the meta.

Abide (TS)
whimsy (TS)
Mark Woychick (TS)
DrTom (TS)
Hector
boharr
Meg
ChrisKochmanski
LarsCaine
ajk
Pair O Ducks
JM
HeadinHome
Gutman
Ergcat

How about we give folks an early Nudge to help get things started?

The cat is out of the bag! Kudos and thanks to the both of you.

Couldn't get to this one til this morning. Great debut for this feline ODD COUPLE - thanks!

Cap'n Rick wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 8:58 am How about we give folks an early Nudge to help get things started?

Yes, please.

MatthewL wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:58 am

Cap'n Rick wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 8:58 am How about we give folks an early Nudge to help get things started?

Yes, please.

Well, Ben is probably sleeping now since it's early tomorrow morning in Australia. Let me offer up this subtle Nudge to get the ball rolling:

We probably should've made the title "The Odd Couple?"

Okay. I have half of it. But just halve

Cat is finally free and is giving me some serious side eye for it taking so long (needed multiple nudges on this from a kind Muggle, 'cause I just wasn't seeing it). Thanks for the puzzle, Gents!

Throwback Thursday.... ....and out of the gunny sack.

Thanks Rick and Ben!

I had a dream last night that I was posting nudges to this forum. When I awoke this morning (it's currently 8:10am Friday morning, here in Australia), I discovered that I very much should have been posting nudges in real life! And I just can't post one: I'm going to post them all. And then it's up to you, dear struggling solver, how many of these nudges you reveal!

So here they are: nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:

1. The puzzle title is your main hint. That said, two clue/entries (18A and 16D) should have drawn your attention to the difference between the left and right side of the grid!

2. Two constructors were responsible for this grid! A hint regarding who did what: the right side constructor *really* should have crossed AHOY with GDAY.

3. The puzzle title should get you looking for a repeated sequence of letters in the grid (which are symmetrically placed, even given the mess on the right side!)

4. A meta involving two constructors really should involve two meta mechanisms!

Well, I needed the hints, but finally got there. I was looking in the totally wrong direction. Well done gents!