"In Bed By 9" - December 18, 2020

[DrTom]

Well, I think I have an answer, it is 6 letters and it really fits well with the theme BUT I am quite unsure because it is not 100% and this looks like one of those where it will be 100%. I will probably submit it anyway because I can make an argument. I will not be cowed and will holler long and herd in the dogied way I do when I have a beef (Oh, come on you certainly didn't expect I'd quit the puns yet, I mean I was rhealy challenged a few posts back!). Oh, and if I do not submit the puzzle creator's solution but win the argument I'll no doubt yell Whoopie Ti Yi Yo!

Maybe you need to "steer" at the puzzle a little longer Dr. Tom.

Well, it had me buffaloed for a while but eventually I was able to meat the challenge. I'm glad because if I had missed this it would have been a pain in the rump.

Shanks for all your concern though always good to have a tri tipping the balance. As it turns out I was skirting the answer for quite some time but after I went to my friend Porter's house the answer beefell me. OK, I'll stop before someone tries to chuck me out the window and I hit the ground round my front door.

[DrTom]

Dr. Tom probably hasn't "herd" your response. If he has, he's be"side" himself.

Seems the name "Tom" on this bboard implies an affinity for puns? You and Dr. Tom had better gird your loins for a pun-off, and hope they don't get tender. Whoever wins will be knighted Sir Loin!

There is a meating of punsters each year, they hold it at the European Headquarters of a popular computer company; Dell Monaco. You really have to be careful driving there though because though the streets are small, being the site of the Grand Prix people drive very fast and it is easy to get t-boned.

[Bird Lives]

Dr. Tom probably hasn't "herd" your response. If he has, he's be"side" himself.

Seems the name "Tom" on this bboard implies an affinity for puns? You and Dr. Tom had better gird your loins for a pun-off, and hope they don't get tender. Whoever wins will be knighted Sir Loin!

There is a meating of punsters each year, they hold it at the European Headquarters of a popular computer company; Dell Monaco. You really have to be careful driving there though because though the streets are small, being the site of the Grand Prix people drive very fast and it is easy to get t-boned.

One of those unfortunate vehicles was full of tourists from Canada, all RCMP. In the capital, it was known as the mountie carload.

[Joe Ross]

[DrTom]

Seems the name "Tom" on this bboard implies an affinity for puns? You and Dr. Tom had better gird your loins for a pun-off, and hope they don't get tender. Whoever wins will be knighted Sir Loin!

There is a meating of punsters each year, they hold it at the European Headquarters of a popular computer company; Dell Monaco. You really have to be careful driving there though because though the streets are small, being the site of the Grand Prix people drive very fast and it is easy to get t-boned.

One of those unfortunate vehicles was full of tourists from Canada, all RCMP. In the capital, it was known as the mountie carload.

Yes but the laws there are written to protect the Principality so the rule let them off the hook which put a whole new spin on things because although they had the perpetrators they couldn't hold em. The remaining Canadians had no way to get home as I remember so they put them on the Chemin de Fer, after they carded them of course. They have talked about improving safety by having all machinery fitted for a device that would keep them aligned with a groove in the road to better insure they stayed on track, these will be called slot machines.

[Joe Ross]

[SewYoung]

My Catnaps usually take place in a chair rather than in the bed, but I got this one, anyway. Saw the unusual number of "Z"s right away but wondered why they were all on the left side of the grid. Counting to the right from each "Z" explained it.

[Jeanrosz]

I think the more appropriate title is Awake by 9!

[JRS51]

I didn’t think 11 down and 34 down were great clues
The title and the 6 Zs in the grid led me to the answer

[mbryant]

Too clever for me. I submitted ZODIAC because each of those letters were in the nine o'clock position of an across and down clue embedded (in bed) in the other - but it only worked because I misspelled ZOLA as Zole - Lopez, Ontap - pant, Drruth - thru, Ipa - imapc, Apo - atop, Cpas - scraps. Anybody else see that? Thought it was topical because the winter solstice and the recent de-cyphering of one of the cryptic clues from the Zodiac killer.

[Softie]

Well this week, thanks to a helpful nudge from a fellow muggle, I learned that a standard snooze time is 9 minutes (my hazy recollection was 10). I have to say, if I hadn't been told that, I still would not have been able to make sense of the "official" explanation.

[Trey]

Bob...........rowing is tough for this old salt, but I do wake up from time to time! Marion cracked the whip and we got there. Now for the mugggggg

[escapeartist]

For me, all the Zees were a clear indicator that something was going on with them.

And the fact that the 3 pairs of them were all separated from each other in some sort of "super knight" chess move frustrated me for a while, but proved useless.

The only letter in any direction that the Z's shared in common was to the right, so I got "zo ze zo ze zo ze", but I guess that's more about which vowels work with z unless you're coming up "zilch".

We get it, these are all unique. It just took me a while to finally get it!

[escapeartist]

gimme that mug!

[sharkicicles]

I didn’t think 11 down and 34 down were great clues
The title and the 6 Zs in the grid led me to the answer

disagree, I needed 34 down to Google the standard snooze time in order to get the puzzle.

[pddigi]

Ashore after putting some pieces together. Those of us familiar with a certain feature of the iPhone may be slightly advantaged in finding the solution.

The iPhone borrowed the 9-minute interval from alarm clocks that preceded it. There’s a great word, which unfortunately I have forgotten, that refers to newer technology retaining features of forerunner technology although it’s unnecessary, usually because the older technology has become so familiar that users expect it. An example would be digital clocks that add sounds made by old clocks. In any case, the iPhone 9-minute snooze interval is akin to that: they could certainly choose to make it whatever they want, but mechanical clocks had it at 9 minutes, so they kept that.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/1479471 ... e-minutes/

A more complete investigation into “why 9 minutes?” here:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... es-not-ten

[802puzzler]

I finished the grid, but stayed at sea all weekend. Now that I see the solution it finally makes sense why all the Zs were on the left. Nice construction MG, and good solve to those who got it!

[PQ63]

I have often wondered why the snooze button adds 9 minutes and not 10, but have been too lazy - yes, I hit “snooze” every morning without fail - to Google the question for an answer. This puzzle finally got me off my butt and now I know. I’m convinced this is the reason this one came to me so easily.

[Streroto]

I seem to recall a note from Matt in MGWCC a week or two ago saying that a puzzle or a solution description was delayed because he overslept. I thought perhaps that was the inspiration for this one. Enjoyed it very much.

Stay well all

[FirstMax]

I got the gist of theme very quickly, but I thought (and still think) that it made more sense to count the distance between each snooze (Z). So I spent a bit of time counting such as starting on the first Z to the next Z (something like 54 squares), using black squares or not, including the Z squares in the count or not, and my favorite Starting the count at box 9 because that’s when you went to bed and set the clock.