XWord Muggles Forum

Finally got it... phew! Needed the nudges, tho in this case I knew all but Nudge 2, but that was enough to eliminate myriad rabbit holes. There's such an art to nudging, and I'm always happy when they preserve the remaining challenge and the aha!

Kudos to DrT and MikeyG - puns and cluing were such a treat, and the meta was challenging while still gettable - and quite elegant at that. Really nice puzzle... hope it's the beginning of a fruitful partnership!

The cat finally fought his way out of the bag. I went down a few rabbit holes, before seeing my way. Solved prior to nudges, although it was close!
Thanks Dr Tom and Mikey.

Cat nudged out of the bag at last. I guess it was...


Thanks for a great meta! But now I think I need an ap-pun-dectomy.

rjy wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:03 am Finally got it... phew! Needed the nudges, tho in this case I knew all but Nudge 2, but that was enough to eliminate myriad rabbit holes. There's such an art to nudging, and I'm always happy when they preserve the remaining challenge and the aha!

Kudos to DrT and MikeyG - puns and cluing were such a treat, and the meta was challenging while still gettable - and quite elegant at that. Really nice puzzle... hope it's the beginning of a fruitful partnership!

Oh, I'm sure you'll see future collaboration. But for right now, as the Larson cartoon says, "Can I be excused, my brain hurts!"

KayW wrote: Fri Jun 30, 2023 11:02 pm Cat nudged out of the bag at last. I guess it was...


Thanks for a great meta! But now I think I need an ap-pun-dectomy.

Do you feel like you were PUNched in the gut?

My cat is grateful to @Cinny for helping me to release him! Great clues; several made me laugh!

Sorry, missed posting the updated solver's board yesterday:

33 SJMcK
34 andeau
35 benchen71
36 cinny
37 KayW
38 CPJohnson
39 JM
40 woozy

So, a nice respectable 40 solvers. Nobody new in 24 hours so that may be it. I'll leave ti open with the reveal on Tuesday in case there are those still wishing to get punneled (it is like pommeled but slightly less painful)

Well since I know I am going to be busy tomorrow, I'll post the reveal now. I'm pretty sure everyone who was going to solve it has tried by now so this will not spoil anyone's fun.

The PUNishment is over and the two PUNGEON masters have actually been delighted over the response to the puzzle. When we started we had the idea for anagrams but needed a way to make it reasonable since hiding an anagram of a word in among the other words of a clue was going to be almost impossible for a solver to detect, and how would people even know they were supposed to be looking for anagrams?

So our idea was:
(1) two different things made from the same material would certainly describe an anagram
(2) cut from the same cloth probably describes our humor and personalities
(3) one word clues from the two "Chatty Kathys" would HAVE to send up a flare
(4) DIARY and DAIRY were so close that your mind, even if it was a subconscious message, would say, "hey, didn't I just see that, they are milking it for all its worth"
(5) A meta answer of TAILORED was perfect, and Mike's prompt of "...a fitting word" was a stroke of genius.

The solve was a little tough, not because of the difficulty of the fill, but rather the difficulty trying to understand our quirky humor. "Student to whom I might offer a Mento", "Type of suspenders Dorothy's Aunt in the Wizard of Oz accepts enthusiastically", "Clearly, this violin is heavy. So, now, ___". All of these had us rolling in the aisles while making, and caused rolling in the eyes while solving. We would apologize for them, but that would imply we would not do it again and that is CLEARLY not the case.

So here is the graphic of the solved grid: