2015 Mega-Meta

29 Dec

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The final contest puzzle of 2015, the “mega-meta” is now published – you can find it here. The meta for this puzzle is the mega-meta for the 2015 contest, a classic rock hit. 

Since so many people (80!) have gotten the mega-meta already, I’ve included an additional challenge in this final puzzle, worth one bonus point:

Use the blue squares shown here to give you 12 alternate 9-Downs, read in top-to-bottom, left-to-right order. Then anagram the 12 letters to get an alternate song by the mega-meta band and the first name of one of the band members who played on that song.

Enter your solution to the meta in the box below, where you can also rate the puzzle and/or leave a comment. If you’re taking the additional challenge, submit the alternate song title AND the mega-meta on the normal submission line, separated by a slash (order doesn’t matter). Please do this even if you’ve already sent in the correct answer to the mega-meta.


The submission deadline is 11 pm Sunday, January 3.

SEND IN YOUR ANSWER TO THE META:
E-mail address:
Answer:
Rating:          Difficulty:
Comment:
If I use your comment in the write-up, I will attribute it to your screen name. If you would like me to use your real name instead, please put it in the comment box.

Click + to see notes on this year's MMMM

2015 MMMM notes

In addition to the usual rock and pop metas, there will be at least one jazz and one classical meta this year.

Musical taste and experience vary. You may not have heard of some of the meta songs or bands, but they will always be gettable via an online search once you figure out what’s going on in the puzzle. (I expect the first two metas will fall into this category for some solvers.)

The first few metas will start off pretty easy. Difficulty will grow throughout the year, with a slight pullback in December.

I’ve started putting the meta text in the pdf and puz files, copying an innovation Peter Gordon started for his metas – thanks Peter!

The 2015 contest once again features a mega-meta, hidden in the 12 monthly puzzles. You can enter your solution to the mega-meta in the box at the right at any time during the year. The scoring for the mega-meta has changed a little bit. Full details can be found in the Contest Rules.

Because the reward is so large for getting the mega-meta before the final puzzle, there may be some tricks designed to throw solvers off the track, like last year’s red herring. Consider yourself warned. Click here (SPOILER ALERT) for the write-up on last year’s mega-meta (and here for the 2013 mega-meta).

You need to get 9 out of 13 metas to qualify for the Grand Prize drawing.