MEOW #44: No Loose Ends
- sharkicicles
- Posts: 1057
- Joined: Fri May 10, 2019 12:03 pm
- Location: Chicago
- MamaE
- Posts: 334
- Joined: Tue May 05, 2020 6:15 pm
- Location: Maryland
Finally got it with lots of nudges! LOL
- Just puzzling it out here in Delmarva
-
- Posts: 673
- Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:48 pm
Solution:
The central entry DISCOVER CLUES was the crux of the puzzle, and is meant to be parsed literally. You need to dis-cover the clues of the starred entries - i.e., remove their covering letters and keep only the inside letters.
So we have:
ETHER -> THE
SHOUT -> HOU
ENDOW -> NDO
IF THEN -> F THE
ABASE -> BAS
SKEW -> KE
ORVILLE -> RVILL
NEST -> ES
The resulting letters spell out the answer, The Hound of the Baskervilles
The central entry DISCOVER CLUES was the crux of the puzzle, and is meant to be parsed literally. You need to dis-cover the clues of the starred entries - i.e., remove their covering letters and keep only the inside letters.
So we have:
ETHER -> THE
SHOUT -> HOU
ENDOW -> NDO
IF THEN -> F THE
ABASE -> BAS
SKEW -> KE
ORVILLE -> RVILL
NEST -> ES
The resulting letters spell out the answer, The Hound of the Baskervilles
https://pandorasblocks.org/crosswords-for-cancer
- woozy
- Posts: 2550
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
Wow... did not see that... don't see why I didn't see that came close. Spent most of the time looking at the grid and kept thinking "end" meant last letters. Still should have seen it. But didn't. Good puzzle.
Just because it's intimidating, is no reason to be intimidated.
Putting together the unput togetherable: Fugue State
Putting together the unput togetherable: Fugue State
- Al Sisti
- Posts: 2124
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
Outstanding! I was looking for a DISC OVER (the) CLUES; like adding an "O." Excellent puzzle.
-
- Posts: 1739
- Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:09 am
Before the nudges I was looking for alternate clues that matched the started entries but could only find 2.
- woozy
- Posts: 2550
- Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:40 am
I look for all sorts of stuff Disc Over Clues (so the CD in aneCData) or D is C over Clues which is ... which is weird or Disc Over C Lues (homophone of loose) and other garbage. I think I even thought of Dis Cover Clues thinking somehow I had to put dis into the grid ans..... oh my god.... when you said "clues" you actually meant the puzzle's clues and not the entries that were clues to meta. Somehow that Clues could refer to .... clues.... utterly never occurred to me until I was in the middle of typing the sentence: "I think I even thought of Dis Cover Clues thinking somehow I had to put dis into the grid answers".
Just because it's intimidating, is no reason to be intimidated.
Putting together the unput togetherable: Fugue State
Putting together the unput togetherable: Fugue State
- Beth Tyrpin
- Posts: 541
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:11 pm
Maybe if the title was Lose Ends and the central clue was uncover clues. Nudge three wasn’t a bit useful, but is pretty funny.
-
- Posts: 1739
- Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:09 am
Hm. Nudge 3 gave me the whole mechanism...Beth Tyrpin wrote: ↑Tue Oct 05, 2021 8:17 pm Maybe if the title was Lose Ends and the central clue was uncover clues. Nudge three wasn’t a bit useful, but is pretty funny.
- CPJohnson
- Posts: 1184
- Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2019 1:38 pm
- Location: Kingsport, TN
- boharr
- Moderator
- Posts: 3365
- Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:57 am
- Location: Westchester, NY
Same as the solution. Drop first and last letters to form new words.
- whimsy
- Posts: 3065
- Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:51 am
- Location: Hopkinton MA
^^
Just about to answer also --- Spells out "Maybe this is useful" -- Kinda ???? since you have to know the mechanism already to be able to decipher!
Just another jokester-ism! (I had test solved and it took me a minute or two to figure out what was going on! )
Just about to answer also --- Spells out "Maybe this is useful" -- Kinda ???? since you have to know the mechanism already to be able to decipher!
Just another jokester-ism! (I had test solved and it took me a minute or two to figure out what was going on! )
- Al Sisti
- Posts: 2124
- Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:28 pm
- Location: Whitesboro NY
I just have to chime in again, since i don't think I praised the cleverness of this meta strongly enough in my first post... this was a great meta/mechanism! I'm fairly familiar with cryptic puzzles, but nowhere near as familiar as Josh is; "Cover," as cryptic wordplay meaning "the outside letters," is one I hadn't seen in solving past cryptics. But it was fair, made sense, and made for a very clever puzzle.