Solving Really Hard Puzzles

MGWCC 147: What’s in a phrase?

Working and doing lots of non-blogable puzzle solving lately, so not much posting here.  I did have some time over the weekend to solve this tougher-than-usual MGWCC meta.  

The puzzle is here: http://crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/2011/03/mgwcc-147-friday-march-25th-2011-whats.html and my solve is after the cut.

Log:

0:00:00

Printed out puzzle, heard it’s a tough meta…. 6 letter surname…

0:00:14

starting solve. in pen.

0:00:26

1A is easy, that’s nice. SCOTT.

0:00:46

none of the downs work. it’s a trap! Or I’m just bad at this.

0:01:11

14A PANAM? not sure…

0:01:53

let’s just do all the ones I know. 42A BONO

0:02:10

53A ION

0:02:25

54A EAU. Very funny.

0:02:45

64A KEN

0:03:04

18D LONS

0:03:38

52D DCIV

0:03:59

ok, let’s cross those.

0:04:40

51A MED 42D BONEDRY

0:05:34

50D/A WEEK/WIT?

0:06:07

30D INADDITION

0:06:44

61A ENO so 47D MILNE 47A MILAN

0:07:19

41A STDS.. (wtf is “Twirled protector”… hmmm)

0:08:17

in W, THIS, REST, TRIADS, ISAAC all pretty clear. so PARASOL and HENRI from the letters.

0:09:06

24A PUNTA? a spanish word, anyway… so TALMUDIC down and MOE across

0:10:39

is 44A DODOED…. would make 34D ALOE… let’s put ALOE in anyway.

0:12:11

23A ADA?

0:12:59

49D TIMEY…. feeling a bit dense and slow…

0:13:44

65A OYVEY

0:14:13

48A must be ADCAMPAIGNS

0:14:48

62A… I don’t know the words it crosses. so I’m stuck there til I get (or google) it

0:15:32

is 55D ANNA? I thought it might be, earlier. 56D USER.

0:16:15

SONAR… what is +40 written out? hmmm.

0:18:29

trying 3D OOHS gets me 14A ALOHA. THO, CLOD, SAGA, GOHOLLYWOOD follow.

0:19:45

3 theme answers, all 2+9 letters…. GO, IN, AD

0:20:33

6D ASYET, AWW, AAMCO, SWIRL, MIOS, CROWBAR, OLDMAN

0:21:21

26A BAAED?

0:22:12

34A … with A??R might be AFOR. 32D is UOMO?

0:22:59

25A starts ALFONS… so LUANDA for the capital and DODOES for the mauritians

0:23:33

27D ADORERS, I guess.

0:23:57

with 35A OTTO, I’m saying ADA is wrong and BECREATIVE is 11d. so GO,BE,AD,IN

0:24:30

of course, we want a 6 letter word.

0:25:46

CCR? ERA? BAR… don’t know NE corner… still trying.

0:26:35

Nope. moving on for now

0:27:01

E: TAUT,ONES,REVUE,BRIAN,BERETS,BRENNANS,heh, 100 for 60.+40. very sneaky.

0:27:55

oh, 48A ETONS… Once I learn all the crossword words this stuff will be easier.

0:28:30

oh, duh. APE, TRIPE, D’AMATO in S

0:29:18

googling, I guess, to get NE…. yes, CCR.

0:30:52

even if 12D is R, BA?, RE? and ?AR? have me stumped. wow.

0:31:46

just looking for the great lakes city in wikipedia.

0:32:36

GARY. so BAG.. which I like…. REY for 23A? or ROY? or RAY? I don’t even know. But anyway, meta time.

0:33:06

“What’s in a Phrase?” GO HOLLYWOOD, BE CREATIVE, AD CAMPAIGNS, IN ADDITION. I like the idea of putting one 2 letter word into 2 others, like GO IN AD BE to make ADGOBE.

0:33:55

Which is not the right answer, but maybe another combination works.

0:34:05

BEGOAD, BEAGOD, GOADBE, GOBADE, GADOBE… not loving it.

0:36:24

just thinking about the terms… HOLLYWOOD/CREATIVE/CAMPAIGNS… ADDITION and AD…

0:38:14

ok, well 3 of them ANAGRAM to BOEING… which is a well-known surname. buy why ignore AD?

0:45:14

At least I have a guess, if I don’t get it. [Fortunately I didn’t make this wrong guess]

0:47:48

Let’s see, 4 O’s 3E’s, 3 A’s, 3 I’s… then double L and D (and 2 Ns)

0:49:06

Looks like it’s bedtime (Friday night…) stopping the clock.

0:50:18

hmm, on my way just noticed we have KEN SCOTT and GARY in the corners… and ANNA one away from the other.

0:52:07

all 4 go with FISHER to make wikipedia pages…. but I haven’t heard of any of them. so I’m skeptical.

0:52:28

Ok, seriously. bed.

0:52:29

Back Sunday night for a few minutes….

0:52:38

Looking for a last name, let’s assume those 2 letter things are important… GO/BE/AD/IN…

0:52:56

They could be: initials [I meant first/middle here, which was close]… country codes / domains… prefixes/suffixes to the same word….

0:54:56

Wow, this has a lot of first names…. SCOTT, GARY, MOE, 23A-RAY maybe, HENRI, OTTO, BRIAN, ISAAC, ELI, KEN, ANNA. other names include BONO, DAMATO, ENO, BOOP, BRENNANS, EGON.

1:00:31

No idea what those first names could mean…. oh there’s also OLDMAN (near GARY, even)

1:02:41

left column reads SAGA THIS WEEK…..middle column… has ALFONSE.

1:03:02

ok, we have ALFONSE+DAMATO we have GARY+OLDMAN. That can’t be a coincidence.

1:03:25

We even have AD and GO in the two letter words, their initials. That’s a good sign. We need to find BE and IN

1:03:55

So, BRIAN ENO, simple. ISAAC… is there NEWTON in the grid?

1:07:47

(It didn’t take me that long to check, had to do a work thing…I think I’m going with NEWTON.

[Matt pointed out by email that the entry is AD CAMPAIGNS and Campaigns goes with Al D’Amato. Similarly Gary Oldman and Hollywood.  Nice. Not sure I would have noticed it, but fortunately there aren’t too many famous Isaac N’s.]

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