LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Opening Kickoff” by Mike Graczyk
Prompt: Read the instructions herein to solve this puzzle’s meta.
Answer: PUNT, found by 215 solvers, 134 of which were solo solves
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
After last week’s guest meta, another stellar effort by Mike Graczyk, I fear I am in danger of becoming your second-favorite meta-writer with the initials M.G.! As a result, Mike will be henceforth banned from these pages and I will wage a merciless propaganda campaign against him to tarnish his meta-reputation.
On second thought that sounds like a lot of effort, so I’ll let the author himself explain this meta in his own words, as he sent it to me before publication:
Four ten-letter themers are in the puzzle:
UMATHURMAN
DISORDERLY
STAGEMONEY
ALTRUISTIC
Note the clue for HALF: First ___ (what to kick off to help solve the meta).
Well, kicking off the first half of the entries don’t seem to do much. What now?
You’ll have to play around with these entries for a bit, but the “first half” actually refers to the first half of the alphabet A to M! (Note the subtle nudge in A to M = ATOM, also referencing “half” in its clue).
Removing (kicking off) the A-M letters in these entries produces four new entries:
UTURN
SORRY
STONY
TRUST
What now? The usual! Find alternates!
UTURN = Abrupt adjustment = FLIP
SORRY = Classic board game = CLUE
STONY = Expressionless = BLANK
TRUST = Confidence = FAITH
Well, okay…but FCBT is definitely not a four-letter word…so what now?
Do it AGAIN! Remove the “first half” (A – M) in each entry. Or, alternately, take the only letter in the N – Z category!
FLIP = P
CLUE = U
BLANK = N
FAITH = T
This gives us the word PUNT, the apropos answer to the meta!
Nicely done, and solvers dug it:
Alex Bourzutschky writes:
Wow! Really beautiful meta; extremely impressive to find four innocuous 10s that reduce to common 5s under that transformation. And to have the second set of entries all across and in grid order too! Gorgeous.
Ale M says:
My goodness, how tricky! Really fun once you see it and get going. Nice one!
BrainBoggler writes:
Nice puzzle, Mike! I knew I was missing something when dropping 5 letters from the longest across entries didn’t really leave much to work with. Then the ATOM clicked and kicked things off for me.
Tony Antonakas says:
Wow. If correct, my first 4 out of 4 in several years.
Voice-over: “It was.”
paul coulter writes:
Came in late, but so many great World Cup games give me a good excuse why I had to PUNT doing this until today. Fantastic meta, loved the added layer
And finally, Pair-o-Ducks parses the meta answer amusingly:
(PUN)T of course, knowing the constructor!
Thanks again, Mike! Now it’s time to switch gears on the difficulty-o-meter…
Today’s puzzle is Week 1 of 5 in July. No instructions given here since there are no-instructions solving options available.
Good luck & Happy Fourth!
–Matt