MEOW #144 Face the Music

[DrTom]

So, Day 1 and a pretty good showing. The meta is living up to what I expected; some are finding it a walk in the park, others a walk in the park after four feet of snow and in the dark. Keep at it intrepid solvers, I know that come 4 PM tomorrow the MEOW will become a cry in the distance as everyone struggles to get the WSJ and then gets ready for the MG. The MG should be less demanding this week, but of course I say that after having having dropped the ball on one of the most solved WSJ puzzles in a while last week. Anyway, I digress...solver list for today:

1 Benchen71
2 Hector
3 Schmeel
4 boharr
5 lbray53
6 ChrisKochmanski
7 CPJohnson
8 SamKat9
9 woozy
10 MatthewL
11 Meg
12 MikeyG
13 markhr
14 Philip Chow
15 merlinimue
16 Trypmom
17 hoover
18 Cindy Heisler
19 Gutman

[rjy]

DEBAGGED! Finally! Really great construction and challenge, Tom, with a rewarding aha when I finally caught what you were up to!

[schmidzy]

Fun and easy one.

I *always* try this metanism for these type of metas and no-one ever actually uses it until now.

I KNOW! I came up with it after trying it on another one where it did not work.

Thanks for solving

Now *I'm* going to have to construct a puzzle with the mechanism I always try for these puzzles!

Got to this one a day late, but the cat didn't mind too much, he says he enjoyed his nap in the bag but is demanding his dinner now that he's out.

[hcbirker]

Cat's out! Nice one Dr. Tom!

[BarbaraK]

I faced the music and freed the cat. Thanks, Tom!

[DrTom]

End of day two, a few more cat fanciers:
20 Laura M
21 rjy
22 JM
23 Pair O Ducks
24 Heidi
25 BarbaraK

[DrTom]

FRIDAY NUDGES:

When you hear the word "Face" where does tha make you want to look for something?

Isn't clue 32A just the silliest thing you have heard? (well OK, this is one of my puzzles so probably not the silliest by a longshot, but still...)

It might have helped if I had Julie Andrews sing you the clues?

[HeadinHome]

Got it now, but nudges didn’t help (I had all that). Just took a look again and thought of a new technique… and then found that it confirmed the answer from a technique I had already tried (but had been using an error so hadn’t quite landed it). Turns out, there are TWO amazing ways to arrive at the same answer. IF this was intentional, this is one brilliant puzzle!! If not intentional, maybe the most remarkable coincidence in the history of muggledom.

[Ergcat]

Cat is free! Thank you, DrTom!

[DrTom]

Got it now, but nudges didn’t help (I had all that). Just took a look again and thought of a new technique… and then found that it confirmed the answer from a technique I had already tried (but had been using an error so hadn’t quite landed it). Turns out, there are TWO amazing ways to arrive at the same answer. IF this was intentional, this is one brilliant puzzle!! If not intentional, maybe the most remarkable coincidence in the history of muggledom.

Well....I'd like to opt for intentional, but it might be intentional for the wrong reasons.

[HeadinHome]

Well you who have solved look at Crosshare comments because this was one incredible coincidence! I’ll try to remember to post it here when time is up!

[DrTom]

Another 7 have hoisted the "release the Cat" banner:

26 Cindy Weatherman
27 DIS
28 andeux
29 HeadInHome
30 Ergcat
31 MrTex
32 DCBilly

[DrTom]

Saturday Nudges:

Consider the Solfège system for a minute, it is composed of those "syllables" made famous in "The Sound of Music"

Still considering? Good! Now, the magic of those "syllables" is that each corresponds to a note on the scale A - B - C - D - E - F - G

One more left for Sunday

[ajk]

Quickly got to the point of nudge 4 (before the nudges), but never would have gotten the answer without nudge 5, due a deficiency in my knowledge base. Fun stuff, thanks.

[whimsy]

Really debagged! (Who forgot to close the door to the luggage hold?)

I pretty much just had to straighten out and fly right.

TFTXW, DrTom!

[ReB]

Cat is out of the bag finally.

[KayW]

The cat is happy to be out and facing the music at last. I saw everything from the beginning but what was revealed in Nudge #5. Thanks for a wonderful puzzle!

[MarkWoychick]

Had a quiet moment to come back to this one. Needed the hints and learned something from them! Cat is out of the bag! Thanks, @DrTom!

[DrTom]

So, seven more join the board:

33 Darrell
34 ajk
35 whimsy
36 ReB
37 KayW
38 Katiedid
39 MarkWoychick

[DrTom]

Last nudge

If a constructor was being sneaky, he could swap out a syllable for a note!! Now certainly we don't know anyone sneaky enough to do that but, it is possible