PUZZLE POTLUCK 3
Solution – Iron Man
ANSWER – FLATTERY
by Bradley Wu (Clues written by Darren Yin, Lindsey Shi, and Bradley Wu)
The first part of this puzzle involves filling out a crossword grid of cryptic clues.
D 1 | B 2 | I 3 | R 4 | D 5 | E | R 6 | C 7 | A 8 | N 9 | S 10 | P 11 | I | P 12 | E 13 |
E 14 | A | S | E | I | S 15 | H | A | M | E | T 16 | I | B | I | A |
J 17 | E | E | P | S | L 18 | Y | R | A | U 19 | R | G | E 20 | N | T |
A 21 | G 22 | E | U 23 | K | E | T 24 | A | R | T | U | F 25 | F | E | S |
V 26 | E | R 27 | B | S 28 | T | H | F 29 | O | R | T | I | F | Y | M 30 |
U 31 | N | I | L 32 | A | V 33 | M 34 | E | T 35 | A | S | B 36 | L | U | E |
A 37 | I | M | I | P 38 | A | S 39 | T 40 | E | L | T 41 | H 42 | U | G 43 | A |
G 44 | U | C 45 | C | I | L 46 | U | R | E | D 47 | E | I 48 | V | A | N |
I 49 | S | H | B 50 | E | E | M 51 | A | V 52 | E | N | J 53 | I | F | T |
N | T 54 | A | U | N | T | K 55 | N | I | F | E | A | A 56 | F | T 57 |
G 58 | I | F | R 59 | I | F 60 | E | C | M 61 | A | R | B | L | E | A |
F 62 | R | E | E | W 63 | A | R | E | S 64 | U | I | T 65 | P 66 | E 67 | N |
G 68 | A | I | T | R 69 | U | R | A 70 | L | L | F 71 | R | Y | E | R 72 |
A | N | A 73 | T | A | N | Y | R | A | T | E | I 74 | R | L | A |
S 75 | A | F | E | P 76 | A | T | T | Y | S 77 | A | X | E 78 | S | T |
As clued by the flavortext and grid coloring, the grid represents a hole on a golf course. In the completed grid, a key observation is that there is only a single ‘O’, which represents the golf ball in its tee off location. This is further reinforced by clue 35 Down, which says “Adolescent lost tail where Tony takes his first swing”, with ‘TEE’ as an answer and the ‘O’ directly on top of it. The next step is to figure out how to hit the ball into the hole.
Golf balls should be hit by golf clubs, and Iron Man’s favorite set of clubs is naturally the numbered irons. These are represented by 9 words in the completed grid that end with ‘FE’, the chemical symbol for iron, with ‘CARAFE’ being the 4-iron that is initially adjacent to the ball. In this puzzle, “the longer your club, the farther the ball goes” (which is unlike normal golf irons where a lower number means the ball is hit farther). Specifically, the ball will travel the same distance as the number of letters preceding ‘FE’ in each golf club word.
To solve this puzzle, the solver must “swing” each iron club to successively hit the ball (with each club’s iron head) until it reaches the hole. By looking at the letter that the ball lands on after each swing, we get the final solution: FLATTERY.
| Golf Club | Distance Traveled | Landing Spot |
|---|---|---|
| CARAFE | 4 | F |
| TARTUFFE | 6 | L |
| GAFFE | 3 | A |
| KNIFE | 3 | T |
| TENERIFE | 6 | T |
| SAFE | 2 | E |
| CHAFE | 3 | R |
| RIFE | 2 | Y |
Here's a breakdown of all the cryptic clues (the definition part of each clue is italicized):
| Across | 2 | Communist supporter, looking back, becomes one who might enjoy tits, boobies, and hooters casually? (6) | BIRDER | RED (communist) + RIB (supporter), all reversed (looking back) |
| Across | 7 | Counter endless snack sacks (4) | CANS | rev. (counter) SNAC[K] (endless) |
| Across | 11 | Pull contents out of EpiPen to get something hollow (4) | PIPE | hidden in (pull contents out of) ePIPEn |
| Across | 14 | First off, stop, tail off (4) | EASE | [C]EASE |
| Across | 15 | Actor follows direction, movie ultimately results in disgrace (5) | SHAME | HAM (actor) after (follows) S (direction), plus E (moviE ultimately) |
| Across | 16 | After start I bit back a bone (5) | TIBIA | A (After start) + I + BIT, rev. (back) |
| Across | 17 | After losing two articles, Japanese blows up vehicles (5) | JEEPS | JAPANESE - A - AN, anag. (blows up) |
| Across | 18 | Constellation obscured by revolutionary military leaders (4) | LYRA | hidden (obscured) backwards (revolutionary) in militARY Leaders |
| Across | 19 | Desperate? Run and get treatment! (6) | URGENT | anag. (treatment) of RUN + GET |
| Across | 21 | Time to mature (3) | AGE | double definition |
| Across | 23 | Island musicmaker shortly zaps ends off (3) | UKE | NUKES (zaps) with first and last removed (ends off) |
| Across | 24 | Stars endlessly stuffed inside French religious hypocrite (8) | TARTUFFE | [S]TAR[S] missing ends (endlessly) + contents of sTUFFEd |
| Across | 26 | Word reversed, back to back, in front (4) | VERB | REV (reversed) reversed (back) + first letter of BACK (in front) |
| Across | 28 | Starts to see, then hears something abbreviated (3, abbr.) | STH | initials (starts) of 'SEE THEN HEARS' |
| Across | 29 | For Tiff, I said, Make the drink stronger (7) | FORTIFY | Sounds like 'For Tiff I' |
| Across | 31 | A word that knights say follows you to school (3, abbr.) | UNI | U (you) + NI (word that knights say, as in, the Knights Who Say Ni) |
| Across | 32 | Headless Eastern European head (3, abbr.) | LAV | [S]LAV |
| Across | 34 | Teams cracked puzzles combining answers (5) | METAS | anagram (cracked) of TEAMS |
| Across | 36 | Like a risque picture, using oil and stuffing the front bits into the back bits (4) | BLUE | oil is LUBE, but putting the front LU into the back BE |
| Across | 37 | I worked into the morning hours to target my goal (3) | AIM | I in AM (morning hours) |
| Across | 38 | Pale color father allows back (6) | PASTEL | PA (father) LETS (allows) in reverse (back) |
| Across | 41 | The first embrace is criminal (4) | THUG | T (first letter of The) + HUG (embrace) |
| Across | 44 | Luxury fashion brand is all good, slangily (5) | GUCCI | double definition |
| Across | 46 | Drawn using slide rule, somewhat retro (5) | LURED | hidden (somewhat) backwards (retro) in sliDE RULe |
| Across | 48 | Terrible ruler terribly vain (4) | IVAN | anagram (terribly) of VAIN |
| Across | 49 | His got scrambled, somewhat colloquially (3) | ISH | anagram (scrambled) of his |
| Across | 50 | Sounds like a mark worse than a competition (3) | BEE | homophone (sounds like) of B. B is a mark (as in grade) worse than A |
| Across | 51 | Expert men received input (5) | MAVEN | MEN takes AV |
| Across | 53 | Peanut butter brand sounds like 58-across, to some (3) | JIF | Sounds like GIF (58-across) |
| Across | 54 | Make fun of relative after tea (5) | TAUNT | AUNT (relative) after T (tea) |
| Across | 55 | Stab king with nickel and iron (5) | KNIFE | K (king) + NI (nickel) + FE (iron) |
| Across | 56 | Back on a ship after stopping just past halfway (3) | AFT | just over half of AFTER (stopping just past halfway) |
| Across | 58 | Image format featuring member of army force (3, abbr.) | GIF | GI (member of army) + F (force) |
| Across | 59 | Ready to go from soft to loud everywhere (4) | RIFE | RIPE (ready), replacing the P with an F (P, short for piano, and F, short for forte, are soft and loud, respectively, in musical notation) |
| Across | 61 | Sculpting material miserable without echo and is blown up (6) | MARBLE | anagram of MISERABLE without IS and E (Echo in NATO) |
| Across | 62 | Open battle before leader of engineering program released without a charge (8) | FREEWARE | FREE (open) + WAR (battle) + E (leader of [E]ngineering) |
| Across | 64 | Musical set, missing the ultimate hearts (4) | SUIT | SUITE (musical set) minus its last letter (missing the ultimate) |
| Across | 66 | Imprison writer (3) | PEN | double definition |
| Across | 68 | Splitter of basketball mostly backwards way of walking (4) | GAIT | TIAGO (Tiago Splitter, a former NBA player) with the last letter off (mostly), and reversed (backwards) |
| Across | 69 | Country put right in front of mural Mike removed (5) | RURAL | R (right) in front of MURAL - M (Mike removed). The definition of country is in the "country living" sense. |
| Across | 71 | Tuck in the woods sounded like a small chicken (5) | FRYER | homophone of FRIAR (Friar Tuck from the legend of Robin Hood) |
| Across | 73 | Regardless, a confusing treaty hides article (2 3 4) | ATANYRATE | A + anagram of TREATY contains AN (article) |
| Across | 74 | Girl loses her head shortly in meatspace (3, abbr.) | IRL | GIRL losing head -> IRL. Definition is a short way to refer to "in meatspace" |
| Across | 75 | Stored back in refashioned vault (4) | SAFE | hidden (stored) backwards (back) in R[EFAS]HIONED |
| Across | 76 | Girl ground meat (5) | PATTY | double definition |
| Across | 77 | In exasperation over instrument (3) | SAX | hidden (in) backwards (over) in eXASperation |
| Across | 78 | NYC Dec. time offset (3, abbr.) | EST | anagram of SET ("off" SET) |
| Down | 1 | Familiar feeling, taking two characters each to debug Java vulnerability (4 2) | DEJAVU | two characters each of DEbug JAva VUlnerability |
| Down | 2 | Sweetheart oddly brazen (3) | BAE | odd characters of BrAzEn |
| Down | 3 | Overheard cold and slippery phrase of understanding (1 3) | ISEE | homophone (overheard) of ICY (cold and slippery) |
| Down | 4 | Country to criticize without evil population (8) | REPUBLIC | REVILE (critize) subtracting (without) EVIL + PUBLIC (population) |
| Down | 5 | Kids corrupted hard drive (4) | DISK | anagram (corrupted) of KIDS |
| Down | 6 | Mashup of odd T-Shirt and unending hymn creates catchy beat (6) | RHYTHM | anagram (mashup) of odd letters of TsHiRt and HYMn without its last letter |
| Down | 7 | God is found in coffeeshop drink container (6) | CARAFE | RA (god) reversed (back) put into CAFE (coffeeshop) |
| Down | 8 | Alcohol knocked back, oh god! (5) | AMARO | O (oh) + RAMA (god), reversed (knocked back) |
| Down | 9 | Nature ruined and left bland (7) | NEUTRAL | anagram (ruined) of NATURE, plus L (left) |
| Down | 10 | Rush, but stopping halfway between street and back street parades (6) | STRUTS | half (stopping halfway) of RUSH between ST (street) and TS (back street) |
| Down | 11 | Scoundrel left half of bird (3) | PIG | left half of PIGEON (bird) |
| Down | 12 | Woody taking pinky, swapping fourth with fourth of index (5) | PINEY | PINKY, replacing fourth letter with E (fourth of index) |
| Down | 13 | Snacks on snacks, the first two are gone (4) | EATS | TREATS (snacks) removing the first two letters (the first two are gone) |
| Down | 18 | Recalled part of telephone call requiring new service (3) | LET | hidden (part of) backwards (recalled) in TELephone |
| Down | 20 | Heartless elf with vial; disease inside is related to invisible emanation (9) | EFFLUVIAL | EF (ELF heartless, or with center letter removed) + VIAL, containing FLU (disease) |
| Down | 22 | Brought up appealing drug, going inside brains (6) | GENIUS | SUING (appealing) reversed (brought up), E (drug) going insde |
| Down | 25 | Lie covered by thumb if reversed (3) | FIB | inside "thumB IF" reversed |
| Down | 27 | Mir orbiting the outer reaches (3) | RIM | reversed (orbiting) MIR |
| Down | 28 | Snipe a confused singular human (6, nonstandard) | SAPIEN | anagram (confused) of SNIPE A |
| Down | 30 | Suggested in extreme antiquity (5) | MEANT | hidden (in) extreME ANTiquity |
| Down | 33 | Tax covers the French servant (5) | VALET | VAT (tax) contains (covers) LE ("the" in French) |
| Down | 35 | Adolescent lost tail where Tony takes his first swing (3) | TEE | TEEN (adolescent) loses last letter (tail) |
| Down | 37 | Silver gram hiding in the process of growing older (5) | AGING | AG (silver) G (gram) with IN inside (hiding) |
| Down | 39 | Last part of a retro musing?! (3) | SUM | last part of reversed MUSING. Also, the clue is an &lit (the full clue is both the definition and the wordplay) |
| Down | 40 | Back third of orchestra (a bit noisy) came before Claude's first and last Reverie (6) | TRANCE | TRA (back third of orchesTRA) + N (a bit Noisy) + CE (Claude's first and last) |
| Down | 41 | Spanish to have provided economic start to make Spanish island (8) | TENERIFE | TENER (Spanish for "to have") + IF (synonym for "provided") + E (Economic "start") |
| Down | 42 | Veil made from Hawaiian Punch (5) | HIJAB | HI (Hawaiian) JAB (punch) |
| Down | 43 | It's a mistake for spotted mammal to lose iridium (5) | GAFFE | G [IR] AFFE |
| Down | 45 | Bistro took on extra height to rub you the wrong way (5) | CHAFE | CAFE + H |
| Down | 47 | Failures used flat blend (8) | DEFAULTS | anagram USED FLAT |
| Down | 50 | Butter mixed with bit of egg in glass tube (7) | BURETTE | anagram (mixed) of BUTTER + E (bit of Egg) |
| Down | 52 | Enthusiasm is one in five thousand (3) | VIM | I (one) in V (five) M (thousand) |
| Down | 54 | Illuminati ran around enclosed European capital (6) | TIRANA | Illumina[TI RAN A]round |
| Down | 55 | At the outset, "Kick every Republican running!" yelled former Secretary of State (5) | KERRY | [K]ick [E]very [R]epublican [R]unning [Y]elled |
| Down | 57 | Blatantly hides color (3) | TAN | hidden in blaTANtly |
| Down | 60 | Sofa: unable to hide a group of wild animals (5) | FAUNA | so [FA UNA] ble |
| Down | 63 | End of the shoot sounds like a knock (4) | WRAP | sounds like RAP (knock) |
| Down | 64 | What Beyoncé might do, for example, around 50? (4) | SLAY | SAY (for example) around L (50). Definition-wise, it's a reference to her hit song "Formation" |
| Down | 65 | Kids' meal is first two of tray nine (4) | TRIX | TR (first two of tray) + IX (nine, in roman numerals) |
| Down | 66 | Happy relationship hides pile ready to burst into flame (4) | PYRE | hidden in "hapPY RElationship" |
| Down | 67 | Slippery, tailless, backwards fish (4) | EELS | SLEEK (slippery) - K (tailless), backwards |
| Down | 68 | A large group of actors turned up: a good time (3) | GAS | SAG backwards is GAS |
| Down | 70 | Shakespeare's second person is dirty 72-down (3) | ART | anagram of RAT (72-down). Also, the definition is ART as in "thou art..." |
| Down | 72 | Varmint hiding inside grate (3) | RAT | G[RAT]E |
Authors' Notes
- We were excited about this puzzle because of its unique extraction but also worried that many teams would get stuck and frustrated because of it. We tried to make sure the cryptic clues were more accessible and provided extra references in the flavor text that helped nudge teams in the right direction. In the end, we were pleased with the number of teams that were able to solve this puzzle and hope you had fun with it!
- The grid was a puzzle in itself to construct, given the limited set of words that ended in ‘-FE’, allowing only one ‘O’, and trying to keep the grid compact enough. As such, we ran out of time (and energy) to reconstruct the grid to address some of the inelegancies such as the path of the ball crossing over itself.
- Solvers also helped us discover a few more unintended inelegancies as well, such as the two scrambled ‘PUTTER’s in the grid… 🤔
- Best Wrong Answers:
Wrong Answer Submitted by: PUTTERAROUND The Most Serene Republic of Dan Mari COMEONWEHAVETHEFULLGRIDTHEBALLTHETEE Time Vultures IHAVELOSTALLMYBRAINCELLS Escape Clutchers of /r/PictureGame NOBODYLIKESGOLF Keep Potting and Nolucky Explodes THIRTYFOURACROSSISVERYMETA no gnus is good gnus
Stats
- 333 solves
- 913 incorrect guesses
- Most common incorrect guess: FLATTER (guessed 48 times)
- First solve: Aviation Laws in 2 hours, 35 minutes, and 7 seconds