XWord Muggles Forum

Dragged kicking and screaming off the couch!

Leaderboard Update

Another 5 Muggles have joined the flock:

PuzNewbie
Darrell
@hoover (who was dragged kicking and screaming )
BarbaraK
Trent Huber

This brings our solver total to 78. Reveal tomorrow!

I'm off the couch with nudges. I'd forgot to look for a MMM xword until I saw the crosshare email. Thanks Rick!

Leaderboard Update

Two more Muggles bring our final total to 80:

Prog
Eric Porter

Thanks for solving, everyone! Now for the reveal...

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is the common "CROW". To solve, you first needed to heed the puzzle title and find 6 symmetrically-placed "birdies" in the grid (i.e. 14A GROUSE, 16A TEAL, 28A CRANE, 55A GOOSE, 70A WREN, and 72A TURKEY). These birds all had non-avian clues and contained a single letter E, so "Watch the Birdie" was actually "Watch the Bird E". The placement of 31D EREADER off the E in 28A CRANE was intended to hint at this step.


But what to do with these 6 Es? Well, according to another bird-related entry smack dab in the center of the grid (41A DESCENT), you needed to look down or below the Es to uncover the letters M-U-R-D-E-R - the collective term for a group of crows. So, while you thought you were doing some harmless birdwatching, you were actually solving a murder mystery!

Oh yeah, some additional confirming hints included 8D MOBSCENE - ("mob" is another collective term for crows), 42D SYNONYMS (boast and brag are also synonyms for crow), and the golf meaning of "birdie", which is "one under" par on a given hole.

Thanks for solving, everyone!

Until next time,
Cap'n Rick

Well, got MURDER early on, but never connected that to the term for a group of crows . . . . my bad. Good one Rick!

Wow, great meta. Sad that I couldn’t get quite over the finish line…