"Hidden Track" August 23, 2024

[Plymouthrock]

Not accustomed to such low hanging fruit. I’ll have something with some citrus. I know! A juicy hazy. Sierra Nevada.

[Grover]

Solved a couple moons ago, finally decided I better join the beach crowd. I owe my solve to having teen age kids in the 80s. I came to enjoy the MTV videos and lament how far off the track MTV has gotten. Come to think of it, does MTV still exist?

[JoeS]

Ashore. Thanks to Google. I'm 71 but I guess my musical tastes were different back then.

[DBMiller]

Already posted I was ashore. But today I really am ..

Is that a red drum over your right shoulder?

Nope large cement block with a eye hook in the top. 15 minutes earlier it was mostly above water.

[Dickie_Dunn]

Count me ashore! Fun one! So clever to arrange these puzzles. Water or beer…. Tough decision after this weekend.

[Notbitter]

Ashore.

[Bob cruise director]

Our final count is 2 on the ship and 240 on the shore.

Good luck winning the mug and have a safe week.

[femullen]

Just in case anyone needs a refresher - or a primer, for that matter - on 80's pop culture, I give you the following CliffsNotes version. This video always brings a smile to my face and it never fails to trigger all the nostalgia. Surely I'm not the only one!!

This clip reminded me of the sound track of the movie Forrest Gump, which, for my génération, must evoke similar memories of youth. But i hope this video evoked memories more joyous. Society in the 80th was less fraught than that of the 60s. Youth in the 60s grew up with assassinations, riots, political instabilité, SDS, séparatistes, and the gamut of revolutionaries--may they all find peace in grandparenthood and bourgeois retirement!

But I was not so old in the 80s that I did not find in this video some faint and familiar echo of times well lived. The 80s, for me, we're sea duty, grad school, then raising children. Pop culture had little room to intrude, but we were not entirely cut off. I recognised this song, though I had the lyrics entirely wrong. But the mere tune dredged up something of that era heartwarming. Cheers, Muggles, and I mean it.

[LadyBird]

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I am still on the ship since so many have said it was slEASy. Trying to catch a cool breeze on the sTERn deck. After quite a nice solving streak, my hopes of a mug this week are suNK. A very busy weekend, so not much time for thinkING. Might have a BIt of time to look, but I may be aboaRD for the duration.

[Ann]

On the shore!

[Ann]

On the shore!

[Rad26]

Long weekend. Just got to it. Hour to spare. On shore.

[WSJosh]

Still asea

[kgiano]

Ashore! Clarendon Hills 2011 Astralis

[Colin]

Four minutes to spare,
And my brain then got in gear.
Ashore with a beer!

[hcbirker]

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

What other songs did everyone consider when filling the grid or starting on the solve?

I noticed the ARK pattern before I saw the whole thing, and with the first or last letter being D in the first three themers, I was wondering if I was going to get to "Dancing in the Dark", which would have fit nicely with the "Hidden Track" title. Then I saw that MARK was in all five themers, but it was forwards, backwards, or all mixed up. Very funky, one could say. Could it be a song by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch? (Turns out they were early 90s.)

But with Boy George being all over MTV in the
80s, it was obvious enough once I noticed the full five repeated letters.

[escapeartist]

My Hail Mary was Martika - Toy Soldiers

[Scooby]

Several RAMA's made me think of Bananarama: 'Cruel Summer.' But didnt find any 'banana.'

The only reasonable solution left was 'karma.'

[HeyMikey]

Going native with a Coconut Hiwa Porter from Maui Brewing.

If you get it from (or near) the brewery it's really rather good. Sadly, my experience is that the version you can get on the mainland is typically old enough that it's not the same.

We can walk to the Kaanapali brewpub from our timeshare. The first one is amazing! Then diminishing returns kick in so I switch to Big Swell IPA.