Grid: 45 minutes; Meta: DNF 

Peter Gordon’s Fireball contest, “Half and Half” — Conrad’s writeup

This month, we’re requested, What eight-letter phrase is hinted at by this puzzle? My  writeup was delayed a bit as a result of whiffed on this one (and didn’t submit a solution). All of my fixing associates missed it as properly. So I waited to see Peter’s resolution earlier than posting. Apologies for the delay.

There had been 4 lengthy theme entries, every comprised of two phrases:

• [Citrine, e.g.]: YELLOWQUARTZ
• [New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, today]: WESTERNUNION
• [One of Time’s two 1983 Men of the Year]: YURIANDROPOV
• [1. d4 d5 2. c4, familiarly]: QUEENSGAMBIT

Alphabet conversion desk

I attempted a bunch of mathy stuff to the themers and generated waves of noise. Seeing no solvers, Peter despatched this extra trace: New 1-Across clue (new half in daring):
A standard one (which you could use earlier than and after doing the maths) is A = 1, B = 2, C = 3 … Z = 26.

The trace didn’t assist me, and I spun my wheels for awhile earlier than dropping by the wayside and ready to see Peter’s resolution. It seems my first thought was the right rabbit gap (however I had no thought on the time): take the variety of the primary letter of every themer phrase. I began to divide every quantity by two, however bailed after I noticed they had been all odd numbers. So shut. Here’s what I missed: divide them by two (half), after which add 1/2 (the opposite half within the title). For instance: Y =25, 25/2 = 12.5. 12.5 + 1/2 = 13. Then map that quantity to the conversion desk proven above.

FB Contest – 10.12.2022

• (Y)ELLOW -> 25/2 = 12.5 -> 12.5 + 1/2 = 13: M
• (Q)UARTZ  -> 7/2 = 8.5 -> 8.5 + 1/2 = 9: I
• (W)ESTERN -> 23/2 = 11.5 -> 11.5 + 1/2 = 12: L
• (U)NION -> 21/2 = 10.5 -> 10.5 + 1/2 = 11: Okay
• (Y)URI -> 25/2 = 12.5 -> 12.5 + 1/2 = 13: M
• (A)NDROPOV -> 1/2 = .5 -> .5 + 1/2 = 1: A
• (Q)UEENS -> 17/2 = 8.5 -> 8.5 + 1/2 = 9: I
• (G)AMBIT -> 7/2 = 3.5 -> 3.5 + 1/2 = 4: D

The mapped letter spell MILKMAID, our contest resolution. I used to be shut, however had no thought. In hindsight: it is a pretty simple meta. My problem with metas like that is that each potential the 1st step yields dozens of potential step twos (for me), and the rabbit holes multiply (like, um… rabbits) and turn into chaos principle. I battle to decide on which one to stay with. If you solved this: please let me know the way you discovered the trail. For everybody else: what number of rabbits did you chase? Let me know within the feedback.