XWord Muggles Forum

Off the couch!

Came late to this one, after seeing the vacation notice, then not following up for a while. Thanks for filling in, Shmuel. I was all out of sorts, without MMM. (How soon we've come to depend on it!)

I'm off the couch but mostly because someone let the cat out of the bag Tuesday evening. Nice idea for a puzzle, great title, and on short notice. Thanks, Shmuel.

Is it "Nudge Wednesday" yet? Because I got nothin'!

While waiting for the Muggles Forum to become operational again, I had time to turn my solution in limerick form into a sort of meta Mad Libs challenge. Would love to see how creative my fellow Muggles and wannabe Muggles can get with it.

Not the challenge of scaling __an incline__
Nor as drear as a visit to __town sign__ (pop. 170)
But simply just right
When I saw __action__ bright
In the corners there, lurking, a __feline__

Friday's "Nudge Wednesday":
You're hunting cats in the grid. Big cats.
Try to find the right angle to corner those cats.
If you found them, take a good look at the corners.
I hope that helps.
And I'll add a last nudge because many have pointed out the same entry in the grid that they filled incorrectly that hampered solving:
If you're not certain what the Korean liquor is called, google it.
Good luck!

BTW, the Korean version of a Depth Charge involves a shot glass of the cited spirits balanced on two chopsticks above a glass of Korean beer. You bang your head on the table and Kaboom!

Launched off the couch into the void. Somewhere between the acceptance of the answer and my reply, everything went dark.

Great puzzle great meta thanks again Schmuel.

Now that the site's back (thanks again Brian!) the solverboard continues...
24. Ibray53
25. DrTom (I didn't get your PM!)
26. bhramen
27. Hidden in 3D
28. Dplass
29. Sfull411
30. ChrisKochmanski
31. Bird Lives
32. ImOnToo
33. Limerick Savant
34. Dow Jones
35. Laura M
Nice to be back again!

Just back from vaca - - good one Schmeel! (I'll PM you but it's a lock).

Great fun. OTC!
And just in time- someone was waiting for my spot

Off the couch (pending notification)

OTC with the nudges

Great puzzle, Shmuel! Thanks so much. Like Bird Lives, I got it thanks to a hint dropped during the Muggle Meet-up on Tuesday. (I PM'd you on Wednesday morning but I guess you didn't get it.)

Here's my favorite "Kitty Corner"! MUGgles, meet Jasper, my daughter's awesome cat. This "awesome designation" is not given to just any cat, I only reserve it for the best of the best. And I consider myself a rather well-informed cat connoisseur, having grown up on a farm with many, many beloved cats. (At one point there were over 20 serving as mousers in the shed which housed our trucks that carried grain to be weighed.) Anyway, to the point of this post: Jasper is obviously still on the couch. I am not.

The nudges shoved me off the couch.

Late start this week, but I'm off the couch!

A few more for the solverboard:
36. m5rammy
37. Cindy N
38. cbarbee002
39. MaineMarge
40. ky-mike
41. Scott Medvetz
42. Wendy Walker
43. Cinny
44. DannyVee
45. FrankH
46. Tom Wilson
I'll post the solution tomorrow morning.

Hope I’m off the couch with my answer. Submitted it Saturday evening.

Last on the solverboard:
47. JeanneC

I'm posting the answer a bit early - I'll be away for a couple of days with limited access to the internet.
The answer is 'tiger'.
Five cats are hiding in the grid: panther, lion, jaguar, ocelot and serval. The "kitty"s all have "corners". The letters in the corners, from top to bottom, provide the answer. It was interesting to find out about the red herrings that I didn't mean to include - 'siamese' starting from the S in 23A, 'litter' from the L in 22A, 'cat' from the C in 48A and 'mew' from the M in 57A.
I apologize for the cross 26A JAGGED and 21D SOJU that wasn't so successful- a test solver would have probably suggested adjusting the grid (which I found to be too difficult) or at least clueing JAGGED in a better way.
And I, like many of you, never heard of the 'serval' before constructing the puzzle. Google came to my aid and provided the necessary R, and I learned something new in the process.
Thanks to all of you who put in the effort to solve. I hope you enjoyed!

Another unplanned red herring "SNOW" at 44A for Snow Leopard?