XWord Muggles Forum

Animal Farm by Tom Burnakis.

The answer to this meta is a character from a beloved children's story.


This puzzle is part of the CCCC bundle. To access the bundle and for more information, see this post.

Another winner from Dr. Tom!

Children's stories are way outside my wheelhouse, but even I have heard of this character. And the elegance of the construction helped in getting everything needed.

Great job, DrTom. Thanks!

I got this one wrong! Read the story below, once you've solved...

I quickly found four animals in four symmetric long answers: BALLOONED, KAYAKED, MILLION, and UNFEELING. And without looking for more I went with LYLE, as in "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" by Bernard Waber.



I even thought 6D was a sound-alike author easter egg. Imagine my surprise when I checked the answer to find that there was quite a lot more to this puzzle than I had realised!

Still a fun puzzle from @DrTom!

benchen71 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2023 8:40 pm I got this one wrong! Read the story below, once you've solved...

I quickly found four animals in four symmetric long answers: BALLOONED, KAYAKED, MILLION, and UNFEELING. And without looking for more I went with LYLE, as in "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile" by Bernard Waber.



I even thought 6D was a sound-alike author easter egg. Imagine my surprise when I checked the answer to find that there was quite a lot more to this puzzle than I had realised!

Still a fun puzzle from @DrTom!

Sorry that Animal Farm STYmed you for a bit, glad you didn't just say "Ohr Well" and give up

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Sun Apr 30, 2023 2:09 pm Another winner from Dr. Tom!

Children's stories are way outside my wheelhouse, but even I have heard of this character. And the elegance of the construction helped in getting everything needed.

Thank you Barbara, but notice there were no Red Fish nor Blue Fish in it so it wasn't too children's storyish.

(by the way I always thought one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish was a story about the wildlife living near a nuclear reactor cooler outflow...)

I definitely wouldn’t take this meta out back and shoot it! Thanks DrTom!

Day two completed

Thanks @DrTom fun one even though I missed one part but got the answer.

I am saving @benchen71 and @MikeyG for the end and will tackle @Cap'n Rick tomorrow.


@AnswerPfinder Will - this is a lot of fun. Great idea

Solved. Well done!

Another fun puzzle from @DrTom ! Thanks!

I was familiar with the answer by name only, so it was not beloved by me. OTOH, I did, as a child, have those puzzle-and-game books where you had to find things that were hidden in plain sight in the picture. So the nostalgia missed out on for the one I recouped with the other. Thanks.

Hey DrTom,

Fun one, I did have to back solve part of it. no clue what a loris is

Thanks for the puzzle.

Proceeding through the alphabetical list, this was a fun one, thanks. I admit that I was only half sure I knew that a LORIS was an animal, but that's my fault not the puzzle's (and didn't impede the solve).

@DrTom

Dr. Tom,

I loved this. Your usual fun clues. I struggled with one animal as I suspect others have. I thought that was a made up animal by my other favorite doctor, Seuss.

Fun grid and meta to solve. Thanks Dr Tom!

Alphabetical, but at a slower pace due to travel this week. Really enjoyed this one, learned something along the way, and man! your clueing never disappoints!

Got it!

Re-solved! That this whole endeavor has been such a delightful trip!
Neat puzzle, and thanks for the critter fun, DrTom!

We had fun solving this one tonight... We also had to backsolve for one letter but we see we are in good company! Thanks @DrTom !

Great puzzle and fun clueing, @DrTom - very satisfying click and solve