May 05 2011
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MGWCC 152: Drinking Game
I got to play DASH last weekend, and the puzzles were quite good. Each DASH his improved in this area over its predecessors, and now at DASH3 it has become an excellent hunt. Well done, authors/reviewers/editors/playtesters!
As far as paper puzzles, I’ve been doing mostly variety cryptics, including Mark Halpin’s latest Sondheim-themed cryptic which was fun.
Matt this week gave us a nice tricky meta. It’s always good to have an aha that also has the “you can gradually claw you way there” aspect, which this seemed to have. I did better than usual on the fill, not having too much trouble finishing. All told, about 41 minutes to get the answer.
The puzzle is here and my solving log is after the cut.
Log:
- 0:00:00
- Puzzle’s printed out, starting.
- 0:00:28
- 20A GREAT, 18D NAPES?
- 0:01:34
- yuck, some maybes… jumping around now.
- 0:03:24
- lots more maybes all over… pretty sure 71A is SPY
- 0:05:35
- 15A INERT?
- 0:05:50
- 5D ANT? (assume ? on almost everything, probably)
- 0:06:27
- 4 BALDS/BIGTOE
- 0:07:18
- 3D EDIE
- 0:07:40
- FOE/FOGG/ODOR
- 0:08:20
- 16A is COMET or VIXEN, I assume. Or SANTA
- 0:08:59
- Tring OVA/VIXEN
- 0:09:36
- REMO/OPERA?
- 0:09:56
- makes EXIT, PITSTOP, good so far
- 0:10:09
- GOING TWO AT A TIME
- 0:10:42
- 19D TOLD/PRO
- 0:11:00
- 26A LIT/IRON, 38A OPRAH
- 0:12:04
- 28A could be -ROAST, guessing 34D SAVER, 42A UVA, 35D THATS
- 0:12:57
- ARUBA, ABET
- 0:13:21
- 40A, the central answer, is BESTMAN [Not a hint this time, though]
- 0:14:11
- 31D TOTAL and 32D NOMADS don’t both work. hmm
- 0:14:55
- i like 37A INTO, so 32D NOMADS wins.
- 0:15:57
- 47A -DOLLARS
- 0:18:34
- 31D UTTER
- 0:19:00
- 45A HEAP/APOP
- 0:19:21
- SPIT/LISTEN/ALTER
- 0:19:36
- 58A SERBS ??
- 0:20:38
- BLIP? ROSS? SEXY? so 62A is -TROLE? um, maybe… I guess 68A is part of the meta?
- 0:21:35
- hey, two I know, LARGE, ORSON.
- 0:22:50
- looks like numbers 3 and 4 can be in 28A and 47A? THREE POUND ROAST, COST? FOUR DOLLARS
- 0:24:18
- 28D THEAC/HOES? maybe
- 0:25:41
- ENE/REELS? putting in COST
- 0:26:30
- 66A supreme court?
- 0:27:27
- hmm, I guess 62A could be FIVE PERCENT RULE. it fits.
- 0:28:00
- 57D KCAR, 55A OAK, OBOE, AFB
- 0:29:13
- 52 AVON/AFEW
- 0:29:44
- VILE, OVEN, ATANEND, ELENA, WENDY
- 0:30:03
- and ADLAI to finish the puzzle. only one word and one letter crossed out (did it in pen, was cautious early)
- 0:30:27
- ok, now, we have TWO through FIVE in the long answers, we have that weird clue about SIX… we have “one” in a clue, “four or five” in a clue… but I think the TWO through SIX should be what I focus on.
- 0:31:20
- Rereading 68A versus the TWO through FIVE answers.
- 0:32:35
- ok, looked at FIVE P, FOUR D, THREE P, TWO A….then FIVE PERCENT, FOUR DOLLAR, THREE POUND, TWO A
- 0:33:14
- Which are the symbols on my computer keyboard numbers! simul-blogging FTW! [It’s best to have the device which gives away the critical meta Aha right in front of you while solving, is what I always say.]
- 0:33:33
- SIX is a CARET, at least on my keyboard. But that’s not the question.
- 0:34:52
- after we “skip that one”, we get AMPERSAND, ASTERISK, OPEN PARENTHESIS, CLOSE PARENTHESIS… not an answer either.
- 0:35:24
- What do I do next? pondering.
- 0:35:50
- if we skip six, the next one, SEVEN/AMPERSAND, has to matter. we don’t just stop at FIVE PERCENT. hmmm
- 0:38:35
- lots of V,E,N in the bottem left, but that’s not obviously helpful
- 0:39:20
- I guess I should google for an AMPERSAND beverage?
- 0:40:16
- SIX can also be called a WEDGE or a CHEVRON, according to wikipedia… enh, not interesting.
- 0:41:02
- maybe the drink has & like GIN & TONIC…. OR!
- 0:41:13
- SEVEN AND SEVEN! that has to be it. Submitting.
3 notes /
