(erratum 30 March 2026, 6:36 am Australia time: i'm fixing something)

The right word can really tie a sentence together. (Warning! This puzzle is rated R!)

This sort of thing has been called a "meta-matching" or "mixed meta" or other things. The idea is, you get a bunch of "answers," which you have to use as inputs for a bunch of little "metapuzzles."

Word Bank (alphabetical)

• The physical ____ of love. Coitus.
• People forget that the ____ is the biggest erogenous zone
• When you get divorced, you turn in your library ____?
• My thinking about this ____ has become very uptight.
• I'll suck your ____ for a thousand dollars.
• Is it being prepared to do the right thing, whatever the ____?
• Strong men also ____.
• Fighting in ____ is very different from fighting in canopy jungle.
• Sometimes you ____ the bear...
• He ____ the cable?
• The beauty of this is ____ simplicity.
• Mister Treehorn treats objects ____ women, man.
• You're not dealing with ____ here.
• She ____ money all over town, including to known pornographers.
• The Supreme Court has ____ rejected prior restraint.
• Just because we're bereaved doesn't make us ____.
• Three ____ years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax...
• I will not abide another ____.

1. "I am the Walrus."

String together five words in alphabetical order. Then take out the indicated letters in the indicated order, and spell a quote. The answer to this sub-puzzle is the person who originated the quote.

Let me give you an example: If the five input words were ABOUT, FLASH, RECESSED, SPHERE, and WIFI, and the clue string was...

7 19 23 24 _ 21 22 9 3 4 25 5 13 14 8 10 17 18 15 11 16 20 _ _ 6 1 2 12

...then the answer would be LOUISE BELCHER.

But those aren't the right words, and that isn't the right clue string. The correct clue string is...

_ _ 13 _ _ 16 17 _ 2 1 14 _ 4 3 9 _ _ 11 _ _ 10 6 7 15 8 _ 12 _ _ _ 5 18 19

(But... Dude. What if the answer really was LOUISE BELCHER?)

2. "Could you slide your shorts down, please?"

The shortest ones available. Straight down the middle.

• E...
• A...
• I...
• T...
• C...

3. "You are entering a world of plain."

I'm sorry. That should say "pain."

• Flan, maybe, or a brownie (7)
• Effect preceder (5)
• Load of nonsense (5)
• Makes a cracking sound (5)
• Land-sea border (5)
• Brigham Young's followers (7)
• Gave a d—n (5)

Answer Checker: Check

Hints for getting started: This is a The Big Lebowski puzzle.. All the sentences in the word bank are quotes from The Big Lebowski with words missing. Those missing words are the inputs for the other puzzles.

Hints for "I am the Walrus": I don't know how you can figure out which words are inputs for this puzzle except by process of elimination. So finish the other two first.

Hints for "Could you slide your shorts down, please?": This puzzle uses the shortest words as inputs. Five of the input words are three letters long. The first letters are given, and you want to read what comes right after each of them.

Hints for "You are entering a world of plain.": The real quote from the movie is "You are entering a world of pain." Each word being clued is one of the input words with an extra letter inserted.

Solution/Explanation