"Hidden Track" August 23, 2024

[KayW]

[whimsy]

I thought it was just me with my New England accent who always heard it that way!!

"...you come and go, you come and go..." -- so a song about using the old Oxford comma or not?
(Just trying to rattle those Oxford comma chains again.

[DBMiller]

I thought it was just me with my New England accent who always heard it that way!!

"...you come and go, you come and go..." -- so a song about using the old Oxford comma or not?
(Just trying to rattle those Oxford comma chains again.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is KARMA CHAMELEON by Culture Club. The word KARMA is hidden anagrammed in each of the five theme answers.

An unusually popular and successful contest this week. We had 1,901 entries, with about 94% correct. Our solvers are a very cultured club!

The smattering of incorrect answers included GOOD VIBRATIONS (6), INSTANT KARMA (5), WE ARE THE WORLD (2), and CRAZY TRAIN, DER KOMMISSAR, RIDE ON TIME, ST. ELMO'S FIRE (all 1 each) and sundry others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Frank Liu of Los Angeles, Calif.!

[ELSavage]

Did anyone else go back to the grid to look for references to red, gold and green? That would have put this puzzle on the next level.
Or maybe they were there and I didn't find them?

[SewYoung]

Your Rabbit’s furry little back is to the wall on this one. Not only is the mechanism of Mr. Gaffney’s “Hidden Track” puzzle of the most standard variety, yielding no nominees, but the answer has already resulted in a number of videos of the answer.

Still, your Rabbit is up to the challenge with TWO videos of his own this week! Let's go for a ride on a merry-go-round with KARMA CHAMELEON played on a Mechanical Organ.



And second, a clip from your Rabbit’s favorite Woody Allen movie: It’s "THE CHAMELEON DANCE" from Zelig. Until next week, then.

Another Meridian "connection" -- The Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum where I work part time is located in an old steam engine factory. Our main fundraising event is the Soule' Live Steam Festival (first weekend in Nov.). All the steam engines up and running and other steam related machine brought in by people from all over. Also the Carousel Organ Association holds their annual meeting there at the same time. I will have to look up that organ and see if the owners brings it to that event.

[SewYoung]

Oh... I see that James Dundon is in the UK so he probably does not bring that organ to Meridian, MS. They do come from all over the US, though.

[CdnMG]

I originally saw a lot of scrambled "Mark"s in the puzzle so considered Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson as the answer. Unfortunately, the "Mark"s were not mirror images, so I ended up discarding that possibility.

[woozy]

Well, my solve story is only interesting in how much I talked myself into non-solving.

When I saw the prompt was eighties music I thought "Oh, great". I'm actually the perfect demographic for eighties music but I never did the generational zeitgeist branding think of thinking somehow the music you listen to (or even that you will be listening to this) in you twenties somehow defines or speak to you, and I've always be slightly turned off by that concept. I mean popular music was in the background and I heard it be mostly I wouldn't know who did it or what the title was or what the nondiscernible lyrics were.

I'd figure I'd probably know it but it wouldn't be the "Oh, yeah, that's such a firm fixture in the language lobe of my brain" euphoria it was probably intended. And I figure I had a 40% likelihood of the most unpleasant out come that I might actually see the themers and the mechanism and maybe know the song but just not be able to spell it out because.... titles of eighties music just don't have that firm fixture in the language lobe of my brain.

So... and see the anagrams of MARKA etc... "Oh, great, I need to recall some title that has an anagram of AMRAK in it and I'm supposed to jostle a recall. Well, that's just not going to happen". So I start to type a pessimistic post about everyone on the beach without me even though I know exactly what to do, and as I'm typing and thinking of rearrangements of the letters I see they can be arranged to KARMA and... well, like I said, I am the perfect demographic....

I was going to claim my drink of Chamomile Tea in reference to the recent MGWCC but I'd figure that could be construed (accurately) as a hint so I changed it to Herb Tea (with hidden flask of bourbon).