MEOW #133 Cast Away

[Qmark]

Cat's away! Loved it, Cap'n Rick!

[Schmeel]

Cat's gone.
It took me a while to see.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Updates

Okay, I'm going to try to maintain two separate leaderboards for the meta and Easter eggs. Please let me know if I miss anyone on either board!

Meta Leaderboard

Abide (TS)
Al Sisti (TS)
boharr (TS)
MarkWoychick (TS)
DrTom (TS)
benchen71
markhr
hoover
Dow Jones
rjy
Tom Wilson
Cindy Weatherman
BarbaraK
Meg
whimsy
Iopmueller
ky-mike
JM
Tim
MaineMarge
ChrisKochmanski
JHSeeman
Bird Lives
MatthewL
lbray53
Carolyn
kurtalert
Bbaack
DIS
Ergcat
SJMcK
woozy
Johnny Luau
andeux
dudeski
BrennerTJ
Andrew Bradburn
DebbieC
imontoo
ajk
Jaclyn
Tyrpmom
hcbirker
KayW
Gutman
Mr Tex
Darth
SewYoung
Deb W
Qmark
Schmeel

That makes 52 including test solvers. We're off to a great start!

Easter Egg Leaderboard

benchen71
Dow Jones
rjy
whimsy
ky-mike
Bird Lives
MatthewL
lbray53
BrennerTJ
Andrew Bradburn
DebbieC
hcbirker
KayW
Gutman
Darth
Tyrpmom
Schmeel

That makes 17 successful egg hunters so far! Keep looking, and remember to send me a PM.

[schmidzy]

I think the cat got stuck in the Easter eggs and is refusing to come out.

[HeadinHome]

Embarrassingly long swim to shore — UH, I mean long time on the couch. Thoroughly enjoyed reminiscing.

[Cap'n Rick]

Meta Leaderboard Update

Joe
THC
HeadinHome
Berto
Sharkicicles
Qmark
dsbened

That makes 59.

Easter Egg Leaderboard Update

Joe
Cindy
Carolyn
boharr
MarkWoychick
THC
HeadinHome
Berto
Sharkicicles
Tyrpmom
Qmark

That makes 28 successful egg hunters.

Mrs. Cap'n and I are celebrating our anniversary in Newport, RI this week, and Im trying to manage everything via my cell phone. Please let me know if I've missed anyone!

Thanks

[Cap'n Rick]

Friday Nudges

There's definitely something fishy about 48 Across.

Those entries at 20 Across and 69 Across are worth a million bucks.

Don't skip 11 Down!

58 Across is pure genius!

29 Down is also missing someone.

[CPJohnson]

Solved, with a suggestion from @Cinny. Still working on the Easter eggs. Thanks, Cap'n Rick!

[schmidzy]

The cat has fallen out of the bag by coincidence!

[Cap'n Rick]

Meta Leaderboard Update

Four more solvers bring our total to 63:

CPJohnson (any relation to 58A? )
Pair O Ducks
Laura M
schmidzy


Easter Egg Leaderboard Update

(No change)

[Cap'n Rick]

Meta Leaderboard Update

Happy Father's Day, everyone. Three more solvers bring our total to 66

ReB
mimka
PuzNewbie


Easter Egg Leaderboard Update

And three more have found the Easter eggs bringing that total to 31:

ReB
schmidzy
PuzNewbie


Reveals tomorrow!

[Cap'n Rick]

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is "LOUISE", as in "Tina Louise" the actress who played movie star "Ginger Grant" in the sitcom "Gilligan's Island", which aired on CBS between 1964-67. Tina is currently 89 years young and is the only living cast member from the show.

To solve, puzzlers needed to find the last names of the other cast members (i.e. castaways) in the grid including Bob DENVER (Gilligan), Alan HALE, Jr. (the Skipper), Natalie SCHAFER (Mrs. "Lovey" Howell), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann), Russell JOHNSON (the Professor), and Jim BACKUS (Thurston Howell III). LOUISE was the only one missing and hence the meta answer. Since it was a relatively easy mechanism for those of us "of a certain age", I tried to push the envelope a bit with the Easter eggs. Originally I had about a dozen, which I've highlighted in the show's theme song lyrics and below.

ATSEA, they were definitely lost!
LIFE / RAFT, a handy item to have when you're shipwrecked
THELMA, who is missing a different "LOUISE"

Following release I received several additional suggestions from the Muggle community pushing the total north of 20 eggs:

OAHU, last port of call for the "S.S. Minnow" (Thanks, @benchen71!)
ATILT and ALIST, describing the position of the MINNOW after she ran aground
JIM, as in Backus
JACK Arnold, the show's director
MERLIN, the "Mind Reader" who taught Ginger how to do magic tricks
ZAC Turney, who played Gilligan on “The Real Gilligan’s Isle”
LIL Abner, Tina was in a Broadway stage production with Julie Newmar; also "Li'l Buddy" was the Skipper's nickname for Gilligan
SHOE, "Cuz Gilligan’s white sneakers are just iconic"
ISAAC, "for the thematic perfection of this one" (BTW, those last two were courtesy of @HeadinHome )


Finally, as an added bonus, the first letters of the clues associated with the cast members' names spell "G-I-N-G-E-R".

Thanks for solving, everyone! Congratulations to @Beth Tyrpin - the randomly-selected winner of the Easter egg hunt who will receive a special "S.S. Minnow" coffee mug!!!

Until next time,
Cap'n Rick

[sharkicicles]

This is honestly one of the most fun metas ever.

I probably skew slightly younger than some folks here but WGN 9 Chicago played this so often I probably saw each episode at least a few times during my childhood.

[HeadinHome]

I didn’t even see the first-letter-of-the-clues thing! Man this was one tight meta. Kudos again.

[CPJohnson]

Meta Leaderboard Update

CPJohnson (any relation to 58A? )

Nope, no relation. Mr. CPJohnson's folks were from Sweden.

[jhseeman]

@Cap'n Rick I had mentioned my dad looked like the Skipper (alan hale)...realized I didn't have a great picture of my dad (mainly because he like myself was smart enough to take pictures not be in them). But here's one at my graduation from college I did have.

[Cap'n Rick]

@Cap'n Rick I had mentioned my dad looked like the Skipper (alan hale)...realized I didn't have a great picture of my dad (mainly because he like myself was smart enough to take pictures not be in them). But here's one at my graduation from college I did have.

Thanks for sharing your Dad's photo, John. He's definitely the spitting image of the "Skipper"!

[DrTom]

Craziness has been reigning at the Burnakis household and I did not get to circle back and thank Cap’n Rick for this amusing, tight, and generationally targeted (delightfully so) meta. Ricky’s metas are always so complete I try not to follow him out of fear of comparison.