MEOW #94 Split the Bill

[madhatter5]

Our original idea was far more ambitious. If we start with the birds

PAR ROT
CAN ARY
TOU CAN
CON DOR
LIN NET
MAG PIE
MAR TIN
ORI OLE

You can almost rearrange the halves to get real entries:

MAGNET
CANCAN
LINDOR
PAROLE
PIE TIN
ROTARY
MARCON (a French commune)

But we were left with the pesky TOU and ORI that we couldn't get past

[ReB]

Got to the split birds stage, but just didn't manage to identify the synonyms even with the nudges. Sometime you just stay blind (Oh wait, that was mice..., and only three of them.)

[rjy]

BTW, a tip of the cap to DrTom's nudges... puzzles and cluing get their share of accolades, but there's an art form with the nudges too that the good doctor excels at. Even when I'm swift with a solve, I let myself back in to check out the nudges. Always good for a chuckle... (Tou can play this game, amiright?)

[DrTom]

BTW, a tip of the cap to DrTom's nudges... puzzles and cluing get their share of accolades, but there's an art form with the nudges too that the good doctor excels at. Even when I'm swift with a solve, I let myself back in to check out the nudges. Always good for a chuckle... (Tou can play this game, amiright?)

Hmm punning, dangerous pastime -keep that up and you'll end up in a NUT HATCH!

[HeadinHome]

Well I was on the trail (had all the back ends, spelling OHES .. hoes? shoe?) but since all of those pairs were synonyms or connectable without their clues, I didn’t dig hard enough into the clues to spot the ones that matched the front ends. Yes, as I said, I think I was just too work-weary. Great puzzle… hats off.

My hail Mary, if this had been for money or marbles, was “GO DUTCH” … so I woulda been close!