XWord Muggles Forum

Feline unsacked. I kind of liked the rabbit hole. I wanted to change the prompt and use my two 5-letter names. Then someone reminded me to pay attention to the title, which then allowed me to appreciate the beauty of this one. I love the contrived entries and their contrived clues.

I'm still looking for the other half.....there must be one. Might have to wait for official nudges.....

Well, it's Nudge Eve. And in my family traditions, we always got to open at least one present on Nudge Eve.
So let's start with the de-ribboning!

#1 My working title for the puzzle was Family Trees.

stay tuned......


More presents!

#2 There's a reason why this puzzle absolutely had to be a MEOW puzzle!

Since my propensity for posting pictures has necessarily been thwarted this week, I'll rectify that by doubling down with this nudge --

Well done whimsy.

FINALLY got there with a nudge to basically do what I had been trying to do.

Great construction with a nice little twist.

Me, contemplating this puzzle...

Great puzzle, whimsy!

The answer to the meta is KILMER.

There were names of 6 (actually 8, but that was just bunnies scuffling up dirt) trees embedded in entries at:

• 35A OAK

• 40A FIG

• 53A OLIVE

• 66A MAPLE

• 85A ELM

• 86A CEDAR

Climbing up these trees vertically and respectively (but probably not respectfully) were the names of 6 types of felines:
KITTEN, LION, LYNX, PUMA, OCELOT, and TIGER. Their intersection gave you the letters KILMER -- as in Joyce, not Val. (And don't call me Shirley!)
Madhatter5 supplied the title, packing the marvelous portmanteau of LITTERATURE to point the way toward, first, the kitties, and eventually the literary connection.

Thank you, everyone, for going a-hunting!
Next time, we wear the camo!

Who'll admit to googling something like "Val Kilmer cats"? Certainly not I.

And littérature is the French way of spelling literature, plus the potential connection to garbage, so for me the individual cats had to emerge before I understood the title.

Trees BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

--I think we may be in Wildfire territory--

Hector wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:21 am Who'll admit to googling something like "Val Kilmer cats"? Certainly not I.

Well...I found that Val Kilmer starred in Willow....only a short leap to pussy-willow. But we need a 6 letter word and pussy-willow's branch carry CAT-KINs. Fortunately Whimsy reminded me that I had pageanted myself when I didn't need to.

For those who googled Val Kilmer, let it be known that Joyce Kilmer was Alfred Joyce Kilmer, a dude.

hoover wrote: ↑Tue Jun 29, 2021 2:36 pm For those who googled Val Kilmer, let it be known that Joyce Kilmer was Alfred Joyce Kilmer, a dude.

Wow. I was today old when I first knew that.