Tag: Meta

The eight solutions to the feeder puzzles were ABEILLE, ACTUARY, CORRUPT, CUE BALL, LETTERS, SALTANT, SAUSAGE, and SURGERY. Each of these answers is exactly seven letters long, and solvers may notice that they share many of the same first and last letters. In fact, the words can overlap these letters to form two separate squares, which can overlap to make this eight-pointed star:

From this star, reading the intersections, colored here in green, clockwise from the L spells out the answer LAUREATE, a person who is honored for their intellectual achievement, as each of you should be. Depending on how solvers arranged the words, it may be necessary to read either clockwise or counter-clockwise, but there is only one eight-letter word to be found in these letters.

The seven words given in this metapuzzle can be paired up with the answers to the previous puzzles as members of seven different categories:

• The Empress / Judgement = Tarot cards of the Major Arcana
• Gordon / Samson = Thomas & Friends trains
• Hydrogen / Silicon = Chemical elements
• Monroe / Garfield = US Presidents
• Squirtle / Beedrill = Pokémon
• Taurus / Aries = Zodiac signs
• Zeta / Psi = Greek letters

A closer look will show that each of these groups has an ordering, and most of them are numbered. Further examination reveals that each of the seven words given here hold a unique position between first and seventh in their sets. Sorting the list by those numbers gives the following table:

In this order, the positions of the puzzle answers in the sets can be converted to letters, with 1=A, 2=B, etc., to make the phrase NATO TWO. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, the second member is BRAVO. Bravo to you for solving this metapuzzle!

This metapuzzle requires the answers from the previous two months. They are GRIT, ESCAPES, BUY, DEUCE, COVERT, FIST, HOSE, and INFECTION. The metapuzzle provides eight clues, which do not define these eight words. The breakthrough comes in realizing that the clues all describe the puzzle answers with an additional letter added – the “missing piece” of the puzzle title. The clues and their corresponding answers are:

• Change – CO[N]VERT
• Figure out – DE[D]UCE
• Former prisoners – ESCAP[E]ES
• Home – HO[U]SE
• Modulation – INF[L]ECTION
• Original – FI[R]ST
• Support – BU[O]Y
• Swindle – GRI[F]T

These extra letters don’t spell anything in the order given, but that order is merely alphabetical by clue. Solvers will notice that the answers begin with the letters from B through I. Putting the answers in alphabetical order gives the following:

• BU[O]Y
• CO[N]VERT
• DE[D]UCE
• ESCAP[E]ES
• FI[R]ST
• GRI[F]T
• HO[U]SE
• INF[L]ECTION

In this order, the added letters spell out ONDERFUL. The lack of a word starting with A suggests adding a letter to the front of this to form the answer WONDERFUL, as in “You did a wonderful job in solving this puzzle!”