XWord Muggles Forum

Cat has been let out. I had the the first three spoilers solved and part of the fourth but did not know where to go after that.

The cat is gone. Great movie!

Cat needed the nudge to get moving.

Finally! The cat is out. Needed the last nudge.

Cat is out -- needed that last nudge for sure. Thanks Ben!

We are amused --

Bag is devoid of cat!

Totally out of sync with this one from start to finish. To the point where I didn't even interpret the prompt properly. Ah well, these things happen.

Got there eventually, and fun idea. Thanks.

I should have seen that. Interesting that such a small grid can generate an equal amount of meta puzzlement.

Cat's headed down the street with help of the nudges, and then after I had a last minute stumble over a branch that I suspect I was the only one to find (explained on Crosshare).

Nudged out of the exquisite little bag. Had the first three parts, but needed spoiler #4. Thanks Ben!

Cat's out of the bag with the help of the last hint. Like others, I had figured out the first three already. I think I only understand half of it, despite attempting to Google what I think must be the intended path.

Nudges helped! 38 solvers join the initial 6, to bring us up to 44:

woozy
SeamusOL
Ergcat
Philip Chow
rjy
Carolyn
Darth
hoover
Jeremy Smith
Dow Jones
Laura M
Pair O Ducks
Cindy Weatherman
lbray53
boharr
Meg
Cindy Heisler
Mwoychick
Jaclyn
CPJohnson
Katiedid
dannyvee
MatthewL
ajk
DCBilly
whimsy
Abide
Tyrpmom
ReB
Steve M
KayW
JM
merlinnimue
Johnny Luau
Gutman
laymans terms
DrTom
kurtalert

Just two more solvers:

MrTheHan
Bird Lives

That's 46. Next (and final) update before the answer reveal, Tuesday morning (Australia time).

Berto wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2023 7:09 am It’s only 7am ET!

Sometimes, I'm going to bed then.

Meg wrote: ↑Thu Oct 12, 2023 8:13 am The cat is gone. Great movie!

Think my mom wanted me to see this one! I'll have to make a list for winter break!

Also, Ben, hope you like these bunches of random numbers I'm trying. Definitely at the first or even second step...hmm.

No further solvers, so here's the solution to "Peck+Hepburn":


My goal for this puzzle was to implement a 2-step meta in a 5x5 grid. As I said in the puzzle intro, the basic form of the meta came to me one night. I saw the grid, I could see how HO+LID+AY would fit, and how the clue numbers would add to 20. I even came up with the puzzle title, with its use of "+" as a mechanism hint.

The next day, while putting the grid together (during a German extra, that is, while supervising a class which was not my usual class) I found that I could clue DO in the bottom-right corner with a meta hint. Then, once the puzzle was complete, I messaged DrTom about slotting it into the MEOW schedule. When he agreed, I realised that I would have 3 MEOW puzzles in a row, one of which would be the #150.

So I redid as much of the grid as was needed to get CL into the top-left corner! All this to say, almost 50% of the grid is thematic!

Everything in this grid is doing double duty:

• the title points to the famous movie starring these two actors, but also indicates the addition mechanism

• DO points to "Roman", the first word of the movie title, but also indicates the use of Roman Numerals (and the Italian penchant for greetings involving two kisses!)

• HO+LID+AY forms the second word of the movie title, but also the clue numbers add up to provide you with a number

Probably as a result of all this doubling up, the puzzle played harder than I expected. In hindsight, perhaps I should have titled it "Pec+Khep+Burn" to really emphasise the addition aspect. It didn't help that the letters RO and AN feature symmetrically in the grid, with that enticingly missing M, which is, of course, a Roman numeral!

There's another Benchen71 MEOW coming your way later this week. Hopefully, that one will be more straight-forward!