MEOW #150 Peck+Hepburn

[lbray53]

Cat has been let out. I had the the first three spoilers solved and part of the fourth but did not know where to go after that.

[Meg]

The cat is gone. Great movie!

[boharr]

Cat needed the nudge to get moving.

[Cinny]

Finally! The cat is out. Needed the last nudge.

[MatthewL]

Cat is out -- needed that last nudge for sure. Thanks Ben!

[whimsy]

We are amused --

[ChrisKochmanski]

Bag is devoid of cat!

[ajk]

Totally out of sync with this one from start to finish. To the point where I didn't even interpret the prompt properly. Ah well, these things happen.

Got there eventually, and fun idea. Thanks.

[Abide]

I should have seen that. Interesting that such a small grid can generate an equal amount of meta puzzlement.

[ReB]

Cat's headed down the street with help of the nudges, and then after I had a last minute stumble over a branch that I suspect I was the only one to find (explained on Crosshare).

[KayW]

Nudged out of the exquisite little bag. Had the first three parts, but needed spoiler #4. Thanks Ben!

[MarkWoychick]

Cat's out of the bag with the help of the last hint. Like others, I had figured out the first three already. I think I only understand half of it, despite attempting to Google what I think must be the intended path.

[benchen71]

Nudges helped! 38 solvers join the initial 6, to bring us up to 44:

woozy
SeamusOL
Ergcat
Philip Chow
rjy
Carolyn
Darth
hoover
Jeremy Smith
Dow Jones
Laura M
Pair O Ducks
Cindy Weatherman
lbray53
boharr
Meg
Cindy Heisler
Mwoychick
Jaclyn
CPJohnson
Katiedid
dannyvee
MatthewL
ajk
DCBilly
whimsy
Abide
Tyrpmom
ReB
Steve M
KayW
JM
merlinnimue
Johnny Luau
Gutman
laymans terms
DrTom
kurtalert

[benchen71]

Just two more solvers:

MrTheHan
Bird Lives

That's 46. Next (and final) update before the answer reveal, Tuesday morning (Australia time).

[MikeyG]

It’s only 7am ET!

Sometimes, I'm going to bed then.

[MikeyG]

The cat is gone. Great movie!

Think my mom wanted me to see this one! I'll have to make a list for winter break!

Also, Ben, hope you like these bunches of random numbers I'm trying. Definitely at the first or even second step...hmm.

[benchen71]

No further solvers, so here's the solution to "Peck+Hepburn":

My goal for this puzzle was to implement a 2-step meta in a 5x5 grid. As I said in the puzzle intro, the basic form of the meta came to me one night. I saw the grid, I could see how HO+LID+AY would fit, and how the clue numbers would add to 20. I even came up with the puzzle title, with its use of "+" as a mechanism hint.

The next day, while putting the grid together (during a German extra, that is, while supervising a class which was not my usual class) I found that I could clue DO in the bottom-right corner with a meta hint. Then, once the puzzle was complete, I messaged DrTom about slotting it into the MEOW schedule. When he agreed, I realised that I would have 3 MEOW puzzles in a row, one of which would be the #150.

So I redid as much of the grid as was needed to get CL into the top-left corner! All this to say, almost 50% of the grid is thematic!

Everything in this grid is doing double duty:

• the title points to the famous movie starring these two actors, but also indicates the addition mechanism

• DO points to "Roman", the first word of the movie title, but also indicates the use of Roman Numerals (and the Italian penchant for greetings involving two kisses!)

• HO+LID+AY forms the second word of the movie title, but also the clue numbers add up to provide you with a number

Probably as a result of all this doubling up, the puzzle played harder than I expected. In hindsight, perhaps I should have titled it "Pec+Khep+Burn" to really emphasise the addition aspect. It didn't help that the letters RO and AN feature symmetrically in the grid, with that enticingly missing M, which is, of course, a Roman numeral!

There's another Benchen71 MEOW coming your way later this week. Hopefully, that one will be more straight-forward!