26. Father Figures

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1. Puzzle #25 recap

Puzzle #25 answer: FAIR

Correct entries: 22 (maybe not as FAIR as I would have liked!)

A lot of these puzzles for the Summer of Solves were written for the summer, but some I just had the backburner and wanted to try to clean up and use. I also typically like to have one "mini-meta" a month, where the grid is less than 15-by-15.

My suspected logic was to note the central spanner with the simple clue of "Four" (matching the title), which would allude to the fact that we're looking for two-by-two squares (whose area is also four). And these squares can't just be random, of course; there has to be rhyme and reason to them.

And what better rhyme or reason (so I thought) to have the two-by-two squares spell out words that complete the phrase "SQUARE ___." Yes, SQUARE AWAY is a bit of a stretch, but I had to for the meta and this wasn't random. Our family says that a lot, especially in regard to IOUs, haha. (Also, it's worth noting here that SQUARE AWAY beats out two of the other three in terms of commonness.)

The initial four entries spell out FAIR, the answer to the meta, and - of course - this alludes to FAIR AND SQUARE, so the meta answer is not completely random!

The main "problem" is that pesky MEAL that appears almost right in the center of the grid. Granted, this shouldn't be here, and I take responsibility for that (note its "order" doesn't match the other either). However, it's worth nothing that a few solvers this helped them continue the hunt and get the answer! So, c'est la meta vie, I suppose.

2. We have this meta just in time for Father's Day, and it'll be interesting to see if this is any harder, though I think it's likely going to be a tad easier than the last one. We'll put it again at Level 2 or 2.5.

Good luck!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is a father figure.