MEOW #153 Viscious Circle

[Ergcat]

Cat is out! Thanks, Dr Tom!

[MarkWoychick]

Cat is out of the bag - wonderful puzzle from start to finish, Dr. Tom - great clues, grid, and, best of all, aha moment!

[DrTom]

Cat is out of the bag - wonderful puzzle from start to finish, Dr. Tom - great clues, grid, and, best of all, aha moment!

Glad you enjoyed it Mark, thanks for solving!

[DrTom]

The end of Day 2 brings some new solvers, the complete list is now:

1 Joe Ross (T)
2 Tamara (T)
3 MikeyG (T)
4 Al Sisti (T)
5 KayW (T)
6 Hector
7 Madhatter5
8 MatthewL
9 rjy
10 boharr
11 Cindy Heisler
12 JM
13 andeaux
14 Laura M
15 DebbieC
16 lbray53
17 Meg
18 Cindy Weatherman
19 benchen71
20 Darth
21 Gutman
22 merlinimmue
23 Chris Kochmanski
24 Tyrpmom
25 Berto
26 Ergcat
27 Mark Woychick
28 Pair O Ducks

I am delighted by the response, particularly since this was all done sans nudges, which come out tomorrow AM after I get back from the barber. It may be an exercise in futility but I still like going to the barber for a haircut, even if it is only about a 3 minute job.

[DrTom]

It's that time!!!

Nudges: (from "were you trying to get my attention" to "hey stop shoving")

I said I had to release this around this time, and there are actually TWO temporal reasons I had to

There are "nudge" clues throughout, 39A is one of them

...15A is another

...and 61D is yet another

Finally, 21 and 23A as a pair are nudges

There are also a few Easter eggs, like 36A

...and the combination of 1A and 1D, but you will have to think of other examples

The graphic also has an Easter Egg/Nudge but you might have to go back to a previous MEOW..."Remember old MEOWs, what in the name of God does he think he is doing!!!"

Finally, there is 59D which ought to tip everyone off

Is this difficulty going to be the norm for DrTom or is he just going through a phase?

Let's build from the nudges: Take 39A and use 15A to create something. Now, use 61D to find what you need, and be sure to incorporate 21 and 23A to help you get oriented. Oh, and if you don't know the "point" 39A refers to, that word contains the only instance of a letter in the grid which is incidentally smack in the middle of the grid

[whimsy]

Cat is out (of danger) after a couple of pointers.

Thanks for this fun and tricky puzzle, DrTom!

[woozy]

Great!

When are the nudges coming out?

[Eric Porter]

Nice puzzle. I only started tonight and used the nudges, but I had it mostly figured out. I probably would have gotten it if I'd stared at it for a bit longer.

[DrTom]

Great!

When are the nudges coming out?

Sorry, you’ll just have to use the 11 I gave you, if I do a 12th it will pretty much be a reveal.

[woozy]

How totally weird. I did the nudges exactly what the nudges said three hours ago and they gave utter nonsense. Then I did them the exactly the same way just 30 seconds ago and they made perfect sense.

[ajk]

Needed all but the last nudge, but got there in the end. Was trying some of the correct things, but not executing properly. Cool idea, thanks.

[SamKat9]

Cat is out of the bag with most of the nudges. This one was neat!

[DrTom]

Cat is out of the bag with most of the nudges. This one was neat!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I'm trying not to be such a one trick pony. Thank you for solving.

[DrTom]

Joining the growing solvers list:

29 DIS
30 whimsy
31 Carolyn
32 Jacyln
33 Eric Porter
34 markhr
35 woozy
36 ajk
37 Mr Tex
38 SamKat9

I am delighted that so many folks have given this a look. I feared the worst, obviously without reason.

[DrTom]

Ah Metas...they certainly bring truth to the statement "the one thing you know is that you never know, you know". My solvers are now up to 40:

39 Jeremy Smith
40 mkmf

That is what they were for my "Let My People Go" which I thought was a much easier meta, but there you go.

So last day and I thought I'd put on one last big hint/nudge/downright shove:

You have an entry that tells you where to start. The start point is a 15A from a 39A - which could not B any clearer - and each stopping point is a 61D until you get to the END. That will spell out, graphically and literally, what 36A and 59D tried to clue you to.

[HeadinHome]

Haven’t looked at the “shove” but got it now. The 15A one distracted more than helped me, and ditto 61D (long time looking at “RAIO” based on those two clues. All makes sense in retrospect, of COURSE! Now to look a the shove….

[DrTom]

Haven’t looked at the “shove” but got it now. The 15A one distracted more than helped me, and ditto 61D (long time looking at “RAIO” based on those two clues. All makes sense in retrospect, of COURSE! Now to look a the shove….

You'll have to explain that to me after the reveal, I am not sure how you got that?

[DrTom]

Reveal Day!

As it turns out this puzzle did not cause as much consternation as I thought. Some people solved by guessing the answer from the title and a specific clue, others went through each step as I intended; others arrived at the answer by a different route but still got there.

How did I MEAN it to be solved? There are several clues in the GRID:
15A is very oddly worded and gives you a radius of four (4)
39A describes a fixed circular route around a fixed point, and the point…it is the single B in the entire grid and is smack dab in the middle. So starting at the B draw a radius of 4 to the F. How do you know that, well 21A tells you that is the start of the game. Use a compass or a pencil on a string or whatever works for you and draw your circle. Simply going out 4 in every direction is not reasonable (nor is it a radius) because that gives you a square. With the circle completed look at every 45 degree segment (Clue 61A) and starting with the F, go around the circle and you’ll find FULL MOON in the squares the circle bisects.

But what was the easier way that some folks got it? Clue 59D, which holds a spot in the grid often reserved for hint clues “Lycanthrope's transformation” with an answer of WOLF. We all know that werewolves (lycanthropes) change in the light of a Full Moon so, along with Vicious Circle, people went for, and correctly got, FULL MOON.

There are other Easter Eggs of course; 36A “Ring of Saintly celestial light” = HALO, the combo of 1A and 1D both clued with a similar phrase “for example” which is used nowhere else in the clues. So what is another example of “Satisfied”, how about FULL. Then what is another example of “Sign of Disrespect”...well I can SASS you or I can MOON you. Clue 39A, in addition to giving part of the mechanism, is a nudge in its own right since our Moon does orbit the Earth in a fixed orbit.

Even the graphic, as mine so often are, has a nudge in it. The man running away from the “viscous circle” and towards the man digging something up is holding his Crossword Champion mug and looking for a clue. The sign on the “grave” says R.I.P. MANI. For you who remember my “What in the Name of God” puzzle where days of the week were represented by gods might remember that MANI was god of the Moon and Monday is named after him. The moon was full on Saturday the 28th and by Monday the 30th would have waned and was being buried. Yes VERY subtle indeed, and don’t feel bad if you missed it because I think everyone did.

Some others mentioned that “WHOLEsale” made them think of the WHOLE moon.

I want to thank all of the solvers. You will get another dose or two of Ben before I’m back with what I promise should be no more than a level 1.

[woozy]

Is anyone going to complain that half of those points of a circle aren't actually 4 away, but are 3 x square root of 2 or roughly 4.2426 away?

Yeah, didn't think so.

You know... if you had done a distance of 5, ... well, think about it.

[boharr]

Reveal Day!

Viscious Circle Graphic Reveal M.jpg

Use a compass or a pencil on a string or whatever works for you and draw your circle. Simply going out 4 in every direction is not reasonable (nor is it a radius) because that gives you a square. With the circle completed look at every 45 degree segment (Clue 61A) and starting with the F, go around the circle and you’ll find FULL MOON in the squares the circle bisects.

DrTom, I have to say this made my head hurt for awhile until took a remedial geometry class. LOL