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Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:43 pm
by Cap'n Rick
Day 3 - The Wednesday Nudges and
@CPJohnson helped 16 more Muggles off their respective couches:
Snood
benchen71
SeamusOL
Johnny Luau
Carolyn
DebbieC
DavyGravy
haydendog
KayW
Sharkicicles
Dow Jones
woozy
jbird
Laura M
bhamren
Cinny
That brings our solver total to 58. If we play our cards right, we should be able to break 60 by tomorrow morning.
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 6:23 am
by cbarbee002
Should be over 60 - - think I'm there.
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:25 pm
by michaelm
Off the couch.
Not before the puzzling, devilish diversions of Sin City, Cap'n Rick!
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 1:44 pm
by hoover
I should not have needed all of those nudges, but I'm off the couch now with an imprint of a foot in my back.
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2022 10:28 pm
by Cap'n Rick
Day 4 - Ten more Muggles have separated from their settees:
LindaPRmaven
cbarbee002
ferdibarda
Emma Oxford
Pair O Ducks
michaelm
hoover
Richard
Rufus T Firefly
ChemBrewer
That brings our solver total to 68. Can get to 70? Only time will "tell".
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2022 6:44 pm
by Laura M
Full disclosure: I was really oblivious on this one and needed all the nudges. Very nice puzzle, thanks!
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2022 6:49 pm
by Cap'n Rick
Laura M wrote: ↑Fri Sep 16, 2022 6:44 pm
Full disclosure: I was really oblivious on this one and needed all the nudges. Very nice puzzle, thanks!
Thanks for solving, Laura. And you're not alone; this puzzle fooled more than a few Muggles. I will have to use this mechanism again in the future.
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2022 11:10 pm
by Cap'n Rick
Day 5 - Seven more Muggles successfully solved today:
Tobonic
Naptown Kid
Dawn Landry
Joe Pickett
Landon Kimmel
Anonymous Crossharer
MaineMarge
This brings our solver total to 75! Keep it rolling, Muggles!
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2022 9:45 am
by MaineMarge
Cap’n says I can get off the couch now. Just in time, as I don’t really like this guy’s choice of shows
Great metanism Rick!
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2022 10:07 pm
by Cap'n Rick
Day 6 - Only one more Muggle found the hidden Vegas secrets today:
BrennerTJ
That brings our total to 76. Stay tuned for the big reveal tomorrow!
Re: Straight Outta Vegas
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2022 8:24 am
by Cap'n Rick
Ahoy Muggles!
The meta answer is
"POKER", and the "straight" out of Vegas is an ace-high straight formed by the last words of 1A - Air Force
ace; 24A - German
king; 40A - Honorees of the
queen; 55A - Western actor
Jack; and 71A - Graded on a scale from one to
ten. The first letters of the answers to these five clues spell the meta answer -
"POKER" (see below).
I was a little concerned that the poker hand would stand out like a sore thumb among the clues, so I included a few gaming red herrings in the grid (e.g. LOTTOGAME, SALEMSLOT, BETTHERANCH, KNIGHTS (as in Golden Knights of the NHL), etc.) The ATFACEVALUE entry at 63A was intended to hint at the "face cards" in the straight, and the "Make straight" - ALIGN clue/answer at 11D was intended to hint at the linear poker hand descending from the NW to SE corners of the grid.
Thanks for solving, everyone!
Until next time,
Cap'n Rick