MEOW #197 Popular Numbers

[hoover]

Six more:

21 HeadinHome
22 lbray53
23 SJ solved 
24 Anonymous Crossharer
25 VivienJustJ 
26 LarsCaine

I can't say I'm not a little disappointed, I really had fun creating this meta and thought it tied together really well, maybe if the WSJ one is not too hard I'll get some more takers.

Well, I can't speak for the rest of the Muggles, but as for me, I keep coming back to this thread in hope of some nudges. It's not that I don't *want* to solve it; it's that I see step 1 and can't get past it.

[benchen71]

Well, I can't speak for the rest of the Muggles, but as for me, I keep coming back to this thread in hope of some nudges. It's not that I don't *want* to solve it; it's that I see step 1 and can't get past it.

And I don't even see step 1!

[DrTom]

OK, it appears we might need to release the nudges early. As per Ben, these are in increasing order of "nudginess".

NUDGES:

Quick, sing the first line of almost any of the themers

Given the Title of the meta what part of that do you think is important

Now you have some bits of information that point you to something

How do you usually resolve that conundrum

I know, I know the earworms abound, but you are unlikely to forget what day it was in the park or the day you heard about Billie Joe McAlister and his leap. I mean it was, after all, a sleepy, dusty delta day...

[edestlin]

I needed the first nudge and then I was off to the races. Don't feel bad... it was a fantastic idea, superbly executed, and a wonderful click. And I am grateful for the earworms!

DrTom you might enjoy my first submission, due to a silly transcription error that led to what might be an appropriate, if incorrect, answer.

[CPJohnson]

Finally got it...thanks, @DrTom!

[benchen71]

The cat took one nudge but then decided to escape!

[DrTom]

Solver Update:

27 KayW
28 DCBilly 
29 Johnny Luau
30 Carolyn
31 edestlin 
32 hoover
33 LB800 
34 CPJohnson
35 lukadisgre 
36 Mr Tex
37 benchen71

Well that's a little better. As per usual, the meta I thought was a gimmie is not. It may be a generational thing at work, but the nudges appear to have helped. Thanks to the solvers and especially brand new ones (like lukadisgre who I assume is a Crossharer but not a Muggle?) who said it was his first of mine he tried. Probably a better one to try than some of my earlier ones. At any rate I appreciate all those who get some amusement from these little diversions.

[DrTom]

Sunday solvers:

38 MikeyG
39 Morendil
40 Sharkicicles

A few more folks willing to play the numbers! I appreciate the support for this little endeavor and I am very flattered by all the positive comments on Crosshare and here. Thanks everyone.

[DrTom]

Well unless there is a massive rush to complete tomorrow, it looks like 40 will be the count for this one. I'll toss out one more nudge, well actually more of a "Here's how you solve" for those on the verge:

"September"has the line "Do you remember the 21st night of September" and "Ode to Billie Joe" has "It was the third of June another dusty, sleepy delata day". With the 4 other songs can you see how you might get 12 letters out of those?

[DrTom]

Well unless there is a massive rush to complete tomorrow, it looks like 40 will be the count for this one. I'll toss out one more nudge, well actually more of a "Here's how you solve" for those on the verge:

"September"has the line "Do you remember the 21st night of September" and "Ode to Billie Joe" has "It was the third of June another dusty, sleepy delata day". With the 3 other songs can you see how you might get 10 letters out of those?

[DrTom]

This puzzle was well liked by those who solved it, and that always makes me happy. It came to me on a road trip while listening to Sirius (I know what channel Sirius calls it, but they are not oldies to me!). After the third song with a date it hit me, "Hey I'll bet I can turn that into a mechanism" and darn it if I wasn't right.

I particularly liked it because the Title suggested what actually happened. The songs were so popular that their numbers became popular as well. Plus they were all music with dates (so dated music) and music from a past era (so dated music).

Tomorrow's puzzle I predict will be MUCH easier to solve and then after next week you get another Tom holiday and Benchen71 will do a few MEOWs, so look forward to that.

[ajk]

Ha, I think I tried all other possible permutations of using those two numbers to pick letters. Can't understand how I didn't try this one. Oh well.

[Bird Lives]

This one went totally over my head though I knew three of the five relevant lines. I never would have thought of converting dates to (US-style) mo/day numbers. Great puzzle.