MEOW #93 - Read Between the Lines

[MarkWoychick]

Thanks, Cap'n Rick - great puzzle as always, and the cat is out of the bag

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 1 - Apparently this mystery hasn't been too difficult to solve, as 34 Muggles' bags have become cat-less:

Abide (TS)
Al Sisti (TS)
Whimsy (TS)
Cinny
benchen71
boharr
hoover
JM
Hector
Schmeel
rjy
HeadinHome
Mr Tex
KayW
ChrisKochmanski
woozy
DIS
Carolyn
oldjudge
Cindy Weatherman
MaineMarge
Meg
Gutman
Bbaack
DebbieC
CPJohnson
Tyrpmom
BrennerTJ
edestlin
Dplass
Darth
SJMcK
MarkWoychick
Dave C

Keep up the good work!

[lbray53]

Cat is out! Late start. Missed the list.

[Ergcat]

The Cat is Free! Fun little mystery to the end!

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 2 - Five more cats are out of their respective bags:

Laura M
lbray53
andeux
Ergcat
Darrell

[jhseeman]

Cat's out of the bag.

Fun one, and one of my favorites.

Thanks Cap'n

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 3 - Three more cats have escaped:

markhr
jhseeman
DrTom

That make 42 so far...

[Cap'n Rick]

Okay, it's Nudge Saturday here on the MEOW. I think three should be sufficient for this easy read.

The mystery novel was written by Agatha Christie (67-Across).

Per the title, find some lines and read between them.

As an old sea captain, I can tie a good sturdy bowline.

Please feel free to PM me if you're still stuck.

[Dow Jones]

The cat has been nudged from the bag. Thanks for this excellent challenge, Cap'n Rick.

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 4 - Three more cats are on the prowl:

Byron
Dow Jones
LindaPRmaven

That makes 45 and counting...

[ReB]

I'd already figured out the first nudge and the second just nudged me to do what I'd tried before, except that this time the answer leaped out at me. Actually the answer was the novel that had first came to mind, except that I'd remembered the title incorrectly until this fresh look. Now where's that cat gotten to...?

[Cap'n Rick]

Day 5 - Four more Muggles' bags are feline-free:

ReB
Sharkicicles
Snood
BarbaraK

That brings our solver total to 49.

[woozy]

As an old sea captain, I can tie a good sturdy bowline.

But Can you tie a dragon bowline? And can you do it behind your back

[Cap'n Rick]

As an old sea captain, I can tie a good sturdy bowline.

But Can you tie a dragon bowline? And can you do it behind your back

Haven't tried (or tied) that one yet, @woozy, but I have tied a double BOWLINE.

[woozy]

It's a joke. You talk about a dragon bowline and get people to say "ooh, what's that" and you make a regular bowline with a long bitter end and you drag it behind you and say "That's a draggin' bowline".

[Cap'n Rick]

It's a joke. You talk about a dragon bowline and get people to say "ooh, what's that" and you make a regular bowline with a long bitter end and you drag it behind you and say "That's a draggin' bowline".

Ah, you got me, @woozy. I had Googled it earlier to see if there was an instruction video, and I saw some idiot running with a line trailing behind him. I thought it was just some Internet garbage, and I still didn't get the joke. I can be a little naive sometimes...

[Cap'n Rick]

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is "And Then There Were None", a mystery novel by Agatha Christie (see 67A).

To solve this mystery... er meta, solvers first had to figure out what to do with the title - "Read Between the Lines". It turns out I was being very literal with this one by symmetrically placing 10 grid entries that can become different types of "lines" (i.e. 1A - BEE; 10A - SIDE; 17A - BOW; 19A - HARD; 32A - FENCE; 44A - BREAD; 61A OPEN; 65A - HOT; 69A - SNOW; and 71A - SKY). The entries were arranged in parallel pairings between which appeared the mystery title and meta answer - "AND THEN THERE WERE OOO". As you noticed, I had to replace "NONE" with "OOO" to maintain symmetry, and I hinted at this via the clue and answer at 13D - Doesn't END AS expected (has a twist).

I would again like to thank @madhatter5 for asking me to fill in for him on MEOW, and I wish him well in all of his future endeavors. Hurry back to the forum, Josh!

Smooth sailing, everyone!
Cap'n Rick

[hoover]

But one of those doesn't rhyme with the others!

Also, I completely missed the lines, but AND THEN THERE WERE NONE jumped right out at me anyway, especially when I saw AGATHA.

[rjy]

Also, I completely missed the lines, but AND THEN THERE WERE NONE jumped right out at me anyway, especially when I saw AGATHA.

Same, turned out to be a much more clever construction than I realized… really nice, Cap’n!