XWord Muggles Forum

foiledthrice wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 7:27 am Thought it might have been double par, but I suppose I see the logic here. Don't really care for the prompt though, there's a high dependency on where you go golfing, not just the fact that you are

BarbaraK wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 7:46 pm

debbierudy wrote: Sun Apr 20, 2025 7:21 pm Ashore! This was a fun one.
Just got back from an eventful sail. As we were about to leave the dock my phone slipped out of my pocket and into the water. My husband secured the boat and waded into the cold water after it, dove down and came up with it in his hand.
Happy Easter, everyone!

And,...? Does the phone still work?

Cindy N wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 1:54 am I found everything, but took RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS to be directing us to EAGLES, especially since it has already been mentioned, that there is another rare bird in golf. Gaffney has violated his "no red herrings in the puzzle" and "no answers in the title" in recent puzzles, as well as some other misdirections in recent puzzles, so I submitted EAGLES instead.

Craven_Mug_Craver wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 9:42 am

Cindy N wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 1:54 am I found everything, but took RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS to be directing us to EAGLES, especially since it has already been mentioned, that there is another rare bird in golf. Gaffney has violated his "no red herrings in the puzzle" and "no answers in the title" in recent puzzles, as well as some other misdirections in recent puzzles, so I submitted EAGLES instead.

I did not think it could be EAGLES so went with multiple eagles which gets you to ALBATROSS. Or, possibly CONDOR though that is effectively impossible in the real game.

Yoda66 wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 10:20 am

Craven_Mug_Craver wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 9:42 am

Cindy N wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 1:54 am I found everything, but took RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS to be directing us to EAGLES, especially since it has already been mentioned, that there is another rare bird in golf. Gaffney has violated his "no red herrings in the puzzle" and "no answers in the title" in recent puzzles, as well as some other misdirections in recent puzzles, so I submitted EAGLES instead.

I did not think it could be EAGLES so went with multiple eagles which gets you to ALBATROSS. Or, possibly CONDOR though that is effectively impossible in the real game.

I debated for a while on the same thing and the AI overview feature on chrome search seemed to support that since it stated: "In golf, "rare bird encounters" doesn't refer to actual wildlife sightings. It's a way of referring to rare scores on the course, specifically a score of three strokes under par, which is called an albatross."

But the more I thought about it (especially since MG used the word "occasionally" in the clue) the more the rare bird answer was the right one, since the chances of hitting an albatross in a round are 6 million to 1. So on average, a golfer would need to play millions of holes before making an albatross (not quite the occasional experience). The Rara Avis was another confirmation for me.

Plymouthrock wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 9:52 am Did anyone else notice how many car names there were in this puzzle, starting with Bronco? Loved this one.

woozy wrote: Mon Apr 21, 2025 10:57 am Well, I did wonder if RARE BIRD ENCOUNTERS was far enough, but I assumed if it didn't go far enough that "rare bird encounters" might have a specific meaning in golf talk I had never heard of. Googling I figured it didn't. Vague references back to EAGLES (which was key in doing the meta in the first place) or to non-specific birds EAGLE, ALBATROSS, or CONDOR would not be valid and I never considered them.