MEOW #213 What Would Santa Say

[DrTom]

Solvers who opened their present:

1 Dave C 
2 kymike 
3 markhr 
4 Darth 
5 Berto 
6 benchen71 
7 KayW 
8 woozy 
9 Tom Wilson 
10 HeadinHome 
11 LarsCaine 
12 DIS 
13 Mr Tex 
14 Pair O Ducks 
15 Carolyn 
16 lbray53 
17 Hector 
18 I K Snamhcok 
19 whimsy 
20 Kent 
21 SaltySlice 
22 Cindy Weatherman 
23 boharr 
24 Tyrpmom 
25 heidi 
26 DCBilly 
27 CPJohnson 
28 Jordan W 
29 MatthewL 
30 Meg 
31 FedexPope 
32 Madhatter5 
33 Mwoychick 
34 Bird Lives 
35 omnilynx 
36 Jeremy Smith 
37 ajk 
38 Sendhil Revuluri 
39 JM 

Santa says you have all been good little boys and girls this year, and I certainly cannot disagree.

[DrTom]

I gave the cat to Santa. Thanks Dr. T for all the joy you bring!

I remember bringing Joy to a christmas party...of course my girlfriend at the time, June, was NOT happy about it!

Thank you Meg

[Cinny]

Cat is out. It took me a while even though it was one i had test-solved. I came up with the same answer I had then, but remembered that you had a second part to the mechanism and a different answer. I must have missed the final round of changes. But it was the perfect puzzle for Christmas Day. Thanks, Dr Tom!

[Qmark]

Cat's out of the bag...thanks DrTom! Merry Christmas everyone!

[DrTom]

Cat is out. It took me a while even though it was one i had test-solved. I came up with the same answer I had then, but remembered that you had a second part to the mechanism and a different answer. I must have missed the final round of changes. But it was the perfect puzzle for Christmas Day. Thanks, Dr Tom!

I think I thought, "It's Christmas Tom, don't make life difficult!" That is why it was a kitten, but it was made WELL before Christmas so even I am having trouble remembering what it was at first.

Thanks for both solves!!!

[DaveG]

Cat: No longer in its box
Thanks for the puzzle... Sure help make working this day after Christmas all that much more tolerable. It's pretty slow around here as people have basically shut down for the week, so I'm thankful that I had a distraction!

That said, thank you for all the puzzles. Very sincerely appreciated and enjoyed. Even when they p!$$ me off. lol

Hope all have a great Christmas/New Year.

[rjy]

Merry Christmas +1, all! Test solver here, revisiting the puzzle, and it is much different than what I solved earlier. Tells you something about DrTom’s efforts on these - he’ll run it past several test solvers, iterate and incorporate feedback, and then still continue to keep reworking them!

(…in this case he kittenized it from what I saw months ago, so of course I tried to make a lion out of it!)

[sharkicicles]

I gave the cat to Santa. Thanks Dr. T for all the joy you bring!

I remember bringing Joy to a christmas party...of course my girlfriend at the time, June, was NOT happy about it!

Thank you Meg

If it was a month later you could have spent Christmas in July…

[rjy]

I gave the cat to Santa. Thanks Dr. T for all the joy you bring!

I remember bringing Joy to a christmas party...of course my girlfriend at the time, June, was NOT happy about it!

Thank you Meg

If it was a month later you could have spent Christmas in July…

………

[DrTom]

I gave the cat to Santa. Thanks Dr. T for all the joy you bring!

I remember bringing Joy to a christmas party...of course my girlfriend at the time, June, was NOT happy about it!

Thank you Meg

If it was a month later you could have spent Christmas in July…

Good sense dictates I say nothing but Good One!!!

[DrTom]

Some additional revelers unboxed the answer on Boxing Day:

40 rvkal 
41 Just 4 Laffs 
42 Avlan 
43 SJ 
44 Tim 
45 rjy 
46 Cindy Heisler 

Thank you!

[DrTom]

NUDGES:

I think the main thing I can tell you is DO NOT OVERCOMPLICATE this. If you have seen something and said "Oh that can't be it" you are probably wrong.

There is no second step, there was in the original but there is not now.

What do we KNOW Santa always says, it's kind of his catch phrase and the homophone of countless jokes.

Well this time he says it three times, though you will get credit if you just put it in once.

[DrTom]

Five more folks pre-nudges:

47 edestlin 
48 Qmark 
49 Lance 
50 Lauren C 
51 Trixxi 

Well this is making me very happy!

[DrTom]

The Christmas Spirit is still alive:

52 Sharkicicles 
53 Susan 

[Cap'n Rick]

Fun one, @DrTom!

[DrTom]

Last but not least:

54 frostyjhammer 
55 Capn Rick 

Yeah, double nickels! Thanks everyone for solving my little Christmas kitten.

[DrTom]

Well that was fun! 55 of you solved the puzzle and only one incorrect submission:
SRCRYSCDS
which of course is the first letters of the clues with HO in them. Obviously someone familiar with my work who tried to make it harder than it was. Interestingly, if they had done the original they would have gotten MERRY XMAS because that WAS my original mechanism when I thought, "don't be a Grinch!!!". From the number of people who said they made it harder than it was I can see that a lot of folks thought the same way.

There were some multiple submissions, but with so many Ho's it was hard to decide what was needed I guess. Plus, sever people though I was going for the next part of the phrase, "Merry Christmas". Regardless there were a lot of you who said they enjoyed it and that is really why I make these things.

Tomorrow's puzzle is a little harder - and may be REALLY hard if done with a bit of a "leftover" reminder of the night before, but it isn't more than a Calico really or at tops a Persian.

[DrTom]

Good gosh, there are still people solving for Santa! Makes me SO SO SO happy:

56 Darrell
57 ELSavage