Solution to Evan Birnholzs Oct. 24 Post Magazine crossword, Sea Changes

Celeb Gist

Today features the second of three metapuzzles in a row in The Washington Post Magazine. I was aiming for an easier meta this weekend since last weekend’s “Multiple Choice Test” puzzle proved to be pretty challenging. Here, the instructions say we’re looking for a well-known sea. The theme answers should jump right out since they’re wacky phrases:

  • 23A: [“Got any plans to pick up rapper Hammer?”] is “WILL YOU CARRY MC?”
  • 30A: [Ice cream purchase that’s completely safe?] is NO-HARM CONE.
  • 35A: [Fabled figure captured on a video recorder, briefly?] is CAM LEGEND.
  • 56A: [Bath powder for bovines?] is CATTLE TALC.
  • 65A: [Annual award for a snack?] is COOKIE OF THE YEAR.
  • 77A: [Great pitcher that you and I genetically replicate?] is ACE WE CLONE.
  • 97A: [Malign mallards?] is SLAM DUCKS.
  • 99A: [Rugby formation where the facts emerge?] is TRUTH SCRUM.
  • 114A: [Religious branch that forms covenants?] is SECT OF THE PACTS.

You’ll notice that each of these answers contain at least one letter C. The original phrases that they’re based on have had certain letters changed to a C … because “C changes” = “sea changes.” If you change the C’s back to what they are in the original phrases …

  • “WILL YOU CARRY MC?” → “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”
  • NO-HARM CONE → NO HARM DONE
  • CAM LEGEND → “I AM LEGEND” (the 2007 film, or the 1954 book of the same name)
  • CATTLE TALC → TATTLETALE
  • COOKIE OF THE YEAR → ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
  • ACE WE CLONE → “ARE WE ALONE?”
  • SLAM DUCKS → SLAM DUNKS
  • TRUTH SCRUM → TRUTH SERUM
  • SECT OF THE PACTS → SEAT OF THE PANTS
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… you get the MEDITERRANEAN Sea, our meta answer.

I gave myself two constraints while building this puzzle. First, the C’s in the theme answers could be the only C’s in the whole grid. Since the name of the game is “change C’s to other letters,” then I thought it would be odd to have stray C’s elsewhere that don’t change. Second, I wanted the crossing Down answers to become real words when you change the C’s to the correct meta letters. CAIN at 24D, when you change the C to an M, becomes MAIN; SEC at 13D, when you change the C to an E, becomes SEE; and so on. Both of those constraints gave me several headaches, but fortunately not so many that I had to abandon the plan.

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One clue of note: As a Chicago Bears fan, I’m legally obligated to mention how much I both liked and loathed writing the ROADIE clue at 21A: [Green Day packer?]. The wordplay seemed to work well, at least if you’ve heard of the band Green Day … but then I was brutally reminded how much more successful Green Bay’s franchise has been than mine for almost my entire life. This had to happen one weekend after the Packers beat the Bears yet again, of course.

Now, a word about next week’s meta: It’s a special kind of puzzle that’s spread out over two pages in the print Magazine. We’re currently working on how to present this puzzle for online solvers since it’s not a traditional kind of crossword, and that’s coming along nicely. It’s going to test you and challenge you in several different ways big and small. But if you can stick with it and work out its tricks, I think you will enjoy it. Good luck.

What did you think?

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