Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I've done the NY Times and USA Today puzzles on flights, and even the gaps in my American knowledge were easy to fill in. There's no way you can expect to go from just basic, quite simple general knowledge puzzles to the Listener. I think really the competitors need to take this up with their MIT people : they are the ones to blame for this : they've set an unrealistic project and as a result people are coming and begging for the complete solutions on here. And at the end of that; suppose we just send you a scan of the whole grid ? How much have you learned ?

fair enough! i agree that whole solutions are absolutely inappropriate to request and hope that you understand that wasn't my intention and i realize now that hints piecemeal probably won't help someone of my level of experience with this type of puzzle. i'm admitting defeat but i'll study up on the mechanics and start smaller.

have an excellent evening, everyone. happy puzzle solving!

Okay.
1) Always look at the title of the puzzle. And if you're a regular solver always look at the setter. Generally, however much they try not to, they continue various traits through their puzzles.
2) So you've got 'mixed emotions', you've also got 6 entries without clues. So have a guess what's going to go into those entries. Not just one emotion, since the title indicates plural. And then those emotions are going to get mixed.
3) Of the clued entries : Across 8, 18. 24, 29, 34, 37 ; Down 1, 7, 9, 16, 19, 33 entries are entered after an emotion has been removed from the answer of the clue. Here's a starter : 18A answer is LIMEWATER, entry is LIMTER. What has been removed is AWE.
4) Later in your solving, you'll get some ideas, due to intersecting entries you've already made, as to some of the words that might make up the unclued entries. And this is part of the reason for my impatience with you. If you had properly read through the whole thread you would have understood this already.
5) Finally you will see that 2 emotions are left over. They are to be anagrammed for the 'Final answer'.
Good luck. Your last good president was Jefferson.

You might be amused to know that the Mystery Hunt puzzle was called "This Year's Hardest Crossword" and involved solving another crossword first -- a rather simple non-cryptic. Once complete, it spelled around the edges SOLVE TODAY'S LISTENER NOW.

As the solution to the Hunt puzzle is part of a larger meta-puzzle, this year's Hunt creators would need to have known it in advance. So they got this puzzle put in the Listener on this exact date. Rather clever, that.

The difficulty is on par with other Hunt puzzles. It's a very challenging event meant for teams, some of over 100 people. In fact it started Friday at noon EST and no team has completed it yet, to my knowledge.

I'm a fan of cryptics, but far from expert. This thread was very helpful and I will likely return when banging my head against more Listeners. Cheers.

I think I deplore that the Listener is going along with this kind of charade multi-puzzle assault course. When, as we know, the entrants are simply asking us for scans of the completed puzzle. The problem stems from people reading too much into solving what is just a puzzle. It's just a puzzle, but once solved, a certain kind of person then feels all of a sudden that he is a match for Albert Einstein or Alan Turing. When, in reality, he's not on the same planet.

So much false kudos and pride attached to having the mental capacity to make a few deductions. I mean we're all born with a brain, so do we need to celebrate quite so much the fact that it works ? Similarly the whole thing about sending in correct solutions for the full year and gaining some kind of esteem for that...dear me...if you need the esteem that badly then I suppose I shouldn't object...

The Hunt has thousands of participants. I believe you were asked for the final solution by exactly one. Who was, by his report, a child.

Those who participate in the Hunt do so for the same reason I assume you solve the Listener: it's fun!

Nevertheless, apologies for the disruption to your forum. Hunters use all tools at their disposal and (like all things MIT) can get a bit intense and in the weeds in the wee hours of the morning. I'm quite sure I couldn't have solved this without your help, especially without a Chambers.

Well that was a rollercoaster.
Another good puzzle. 2018 is going well.

Rather than treat the MIT posts as an intrusion perhaps some of us might look upon it as an opportunity. I would be interested in putting together an entry for next year's MIT mystery hunt. Any regulars interested can contact me at rsatcormanserdotcom.

MindofWinter - where can the fun be in being given a scan of the solved puzzle ?

Smartie, I don't regard this as an intrusion. Simply, I objected, as did some others, to the way in which the approach was made, and I disagreed with sending off the whole solution. As you can see, I went to some trouble to explain to EmilyJ (a physiotherapist, not a child) how this puzzle works.

Four students were given the task of obtaining the height of a block of flats. The first dropped an object from the top and saw how long it took to fall to the ground. The second used surveying equipment and trigonometry. The third measured the height of one storey and multiplied the answer as necessary. The fourth asked the caretaker, who happened to know the height.

Did the last student cheat? No - he simply did what was asked of him in the simplest way. And I think it's the same with this MIT challenge, which I assume was to get the answers and not seek enjoyment or prove competence in solving clues. I think the person who asked for the complete answers showed cunning and initiative. But I also think we were right to refuse him!