MEOW #157 Tea Mascot

[DrTom]

You know. With Cap'n Rick calling the SSS a "barely a ripple" and Ben's MGWCC being rated a week 1 (!) and you calling this a Kitten I propose a moratorium on crossword constructors ever declaring their puzzles easy.

EDIT: I will say your puzzle is a fun one for coming up with metanisms that you *know* won't work. It can't be a rabbit hole if you know it won't go anywhere. Now to find a hole that could go anywhere.... well, there's something I'm obviously supposed to do but... big blank in my thinking of anything that fits.

Well I am notoriously bad at rating metas but I never thought this one would play hard to get. I'll send a little nudge to see if you can see why I thought it would be a slam dunk,

Sorry for the angst!

T

I'm not going to read it until I'm really really stuck. Just took a break and bottled 23 1/2 bottles of pinot noir and am now going to look at it with fresh eyes.

... although, I'm one of those people who *NEVER* see anything new with fresh eyes. I just feel like there must be some expression we never use in my neck of the woods. And I can't see what anything has to do with ... stuff.

For the record, I can easily be bought for a bottle of good Pinot!!! Where is your neck of the woods (or section of the vineyard). As it turns out I see you did solve it. Drat there goes that pinot....

[DrTom]

Cat's out! Took quite a few guesses, though.

Peobably a continent thing.

Thanks for persevering, I hope you were able to follow the instructions

[DrTom]

Cat is out of the bag and celebrating with an appropriate cuppa...

Oh GREAT, my cats saw this and now they are "Dad, can you order us some, can ya huh????"

Sorry if I brewed up trouble.

[DrTom]

De-bagged and back at work. Nobody does wordplay better. Thanks!

Thanks "other Wendy", I do love me a well phrased turn...

[DrTom]

Well, it appears people are, in general, liking this one. I think there is a split opinion on difficulty. Some people find it playing a good deal harder than a KITTEN. but it has had a good response:

1 Cindy Weatherman
2 Hector
3 Chris Cochmanski
4 Pair O Ducks
5 DC Billy
6 Tom Wilson
7 Bird Lives
8 boharr
9 lbray53
10 Meg
11 Whimsy (T)
12 kurtalert
13 Jaclyn
14 Darth
15 HeadInHome
16 markhr
17 JM
18 woozy
19 Gutman
20 CPJohnson
21 Laura M
22 benchen71
23 KayW

We will see what happens once the WSJ drops tomorrow. I'm guessing the MGWCC will not be Friday this week, but hey, who knows.

Let me leave you with some levity:

[Cap'n Rick]

You know. With Cap'n Rick calling the SSS a "barely a ripple"...

Point taken, @woozy. We needed to turn this SSS around fairly quickly, and I only had time for two quick test solves - both of which indicated an easy-ish meta. In hindsight, I'd probably re-rate the difficulty at ice-choked river

Edit: Forgot to mention that I still haven't solved @DrTom's MEOW yet...

[BarbaraK]

Very much not in my tea house, but I googled my way to free the cat.

[Berto]

Cat out of the teabag. Off to find some milk…

[woozy]

You know. With Cap'n Rick calling the SSS a "barely a ripple"...

Point taken, @woozy. We needed to turn this SSS around fairly quickly, and I only had time for two quick test solves - both of which indicated an easy-ish meta. In hindsight, I'd probably re-rate the difficulty at ice-choked river

Edit: Forgot to mention that I still haven't solved @DrTom's MEOW yet...

I liked the SSS very much! And it wouldn't say it was frustratingly impossible. But it had a few (fun) challenging ripples. (I should have done better than I did though).

[MatthewL]

Cat has been set free, but only because Dr. Tom untied the string for me and helped lure the kitty out. Not in my wheelhouse at all, but a very nice puzzle (once you see it). Thanks Tom!

[DrTom]

Apparently this is a kitten but a Lynx kitten and it is a lot more ferocious than it looked to me. I mean I am getting "you call that a kitten" from some good solvers and even other constructors. Therefore maybe a nudge or two are in order? (three more tomorrow if these do not help)

Everyone is no doubt tired of hearing this phrase, but "The Title, The Title, The Title" say it aloud and fast...what does that sound like?

OK, now that that's out of the way, how about the theme answers. They are suitably odd and curiously similar, why do you think that is?

In an almost repeat of Nudge 1, the themers say them aloud and fast...what does that sound like you are stating??

[DrTom]

Cat has been set free, but only because Dr. Tom untied the string for me and helped lure the kitty out. Not in my wheelhouse at all, but a very nice puzzle (once you see it). Thanks Tom!

Port, storm, any old....I seem to have underestimated the ferocity of this little kitty. Apparently my testers were all lion tamers!

[Cap'n Rick]

Finally! This was a bear! No lyin'!

[DrTom]

Finally! This was a bear! No lyin'!

Lyin' cub.jpg

OK, but of course neither of those would play.....

Thanks for keeping the rudder straight and finally reaching port.

TB

[DrTom]

CALLING ALL CONSTRUCTORS! (and of course anyone else)


If you value Crosshare as much as I do, and I DO, consider this a challenge to get your name in Bold on the contributor site. It is really minimal, as low as a $9 monthly pledge, which is less than you spend on a lunch or a couple of coffees in most places. It helps Crosshare, AND as a recurring donation they can plan their finances a lot better.

I know all the Muggles are generous people, and this gives us a chance to do something nice AND help ourselves by keeping Crosshare around. You may not get a tote bag or coffee cup like for Public TV, but the drama of metas is as good as "Downton Abbey", as funny as "Are You Being Served" and as instructive as "Nova"...plus I hear Ken Burns is planning a 25 night, 3 hour each special called "The Mind of the Meta Constructor, Brilliant or Blighted"

[DrTom]

Day two and we are still going pretty strong. New to the list:

24 BarbaraK
25 Berto
26 Merlininmue
27 MatthewL
28 LarsCaine
29 DIS
30 Sharkicicles
31 LB800
32 Carolyn
33 Cap'n Rick
34 Mr Tex
35 Katiedid

[SamKat9]

Cat is out of the bag with nudges! Thanks DrTom!

[DrTom]

Well nudges are helping declaw this kitten so here are some more:

There is often "precious real estate" in a meta. These are clues or answers that will point you toward the solution. I'll state up front that the middle of this puzzle is NOT one of those, but there are two!

Other "precious" spots are often near the beginning to get you thinking and near the end to verify what you have thought. I particularly like those spots.

I LOVE to hide nudges or clues in the graphic, and this one is no different. There are two, one very subtle but quite evident, the other you will probably need to enlarge the picture to see.

[DrTom]

Finally! This was a bear! No lyin'!

Lyin' cub.jpg

OK, but of course neither of those would play.....(at least not usually)

Thanks for keeping the rudder straight and finally reaching port.

TB

[miked]

I know all the Muggles are generous people, and this gives us a chance to do something nice AND help ourselves by keeping Crosshare around. You may not get a tote bag or coffee cup like for Public TV, but the drama of metas is as good as "Downton Abbey", as funny as "Are You Being Served" and as instructive as "Nova"...plus I hear Ken Burns is planning a 25 night, 3 hour each special called "The Mind of the Meta Constructor, Brilliant or Blighted"

Thanks for another great puzzle and thank you for the shout out DrTom! If anybody has any questions about Crosshare please give me a shout. For some reason I don't seem to get email notifications from this forum so mike [at] crosshare [dot] org is probably a safer bet. Thank you all for your support!