PCC#20 "Let's Get Buzzed" (Dec. 16, 2023)

[pchow13]

Please see below for the latest puzzle PCC#20 - "Let's Get Buzzed"

[Level 2.5] Meta prompt: The answer to the meta is the name of a Disney character

Note: the level is the intended difficulty I had in mind when I designed the puzzle, but may play differently since every solver has their own area of expertise... what one person may find easy, another may find difficult.

Have fun and keep in mind if you're ever lost at sea, google is your best friend (actually, I don't know if you'd get internet service in the middle of the ocean)
-Phil

Links courtesy of Joe Ross (thank you as always for the tech support!)
crosshare
PUZ
PDF




Nudges below:

Hint #1: 20A, 37A, 67A, 11D, 39D all have something in common

Hint #2: the two examples from these groups of 7 were randomly chosen - you don't have to manipulate them any further... focus on the title instead

Hint #3: the title doesn't have to do with drinking, but it does have to do with the math game referenced in 48-Down

Hint #4: if you google the rules of the game, players take turns counting out 1, 2, 3... but when they get to 7 or any multiple of 7 they say BUZZ

Hint #5: extract the letters from boxes 7, 14, 21, 28, and so on...

Solution below - SPOILER ALERT:

Answer explanation: the long clues are all associated with sets of 7 (there are 7 deadly sins, 7 harry potter books, 7 continents, 7 hills of rome, 7 rainbow hues)... and the clue and title hints at the math game BUZZ at 48-Down... If you get the letters from 7, 14, 21, 28, etc.... you spell out "SHYEST DWARF"... the seven dwarfs from snow white is another familiar set of 7, so the shyest dwarf is our meta answer: BASHFUL

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Walt Disney's first animated feature length film which premiered on Dec 21, 1937 (86 years ago!) at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.

Constructor notes: My original working title for the puzzle was "Common Difference" and my hints were going to do with arithmetic progression vs geometric progression and including the math formula for finding the nth term as a_{n}=a_{1}+(n-1)d... I didn't think anyone would want to relive math class so just went with a "buzz" reference instead for the title as a much friendlier entryway.

I spent three days trying to get a symmetric puzzle to work with all the letters in the right number spot but couldn't get the fill to work. Finally threw in the towel and violated grid symmetry to achieve it... also "rainbow hue" is out of language... I would've much preferred "rainbow color" but wanted something symmetrical in letter length to "hill of rome"

[woozy]

Well, I'm Buzzed. Fun and original one. Tricky.

[boharr]

Fun one. Thanks, Phil.

[KayW]

Buzzing! A fun one -thanks Phil!

[Abide]

Sated! Thanks Phil

[SamKat9]

Great puzzle, thanks Phil!

[whimsy]

Turned the corner!
Thanks, Phil -- lots of fun!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Puzzle completed. Cool!

[pchow13]

Thanks Chris! i see what you did there you did it on PCC#19 too

Puzzle completed. Cool!

[fivehalves]

All Philled in! Thanks for the puzzle!

[Cap'n Rick]

Fun one, Phil! Very well-constructed.

[KayW]

Thanks Chris! i see what you did there you did it on PCC#19 too

Puzzle completed. Cool!

Haha I didn't see it until Phil commented. That might be my new solve phrase format for this one. I steal only from the best.

[MatthewL]

All done (and without nudges)! Thanks for the clever puzzle, Phil.

[DrTom]

Wow, my congratulations to all those who got this, I never was going to. I looked up the rules for BUZZ and saw there were two versions, Buzz and BIZZ BUZZ. I did know there were 7 deadly sins, continents, and hills of Rome, and if I had counted OIVYRGB I'd have seen the 7 connection (I did not know there were 7 HP books) but I am not sure I would have made the "just do the 7s" connection since I was playing the wrong "game".

I spent ages circling the letters of ONLY those clues without a double letter since in the one game a "multiple" of a number is when you say "BIZZ BUZZ" and I thought (since there were so may with double letters compared to those without) that this was the Mx. Must have been difficult to construct, congrats Phil.

[Darth]

Nice puzzzzzzzle, Phil! Thanks.

[lbray53]

I finally turned the corner. Actually, this one had me cornered.

Instead of reading 48D clue carefully, I depended on my experience with the game where we also “buzzed” on every number that included the digit 7. So even those I had the mechanism, my application gave me 25 letters and I was not clever enough to see the answer amongst them.

[rjy]

Late to it, but glad I gave it a spin - quite fun!

[Seattle DB]

Hi Phil,
I just stumbled onto your link and your puzzles look like fun! I've D'loaded the PDFs for #20, 21, and 22, and I'm wondering if your previous ones will be uploaded to this website?

[MMe]

Hi Phil,
I just stumbled onto your link and your puzzles look like fun! I've D'loaded the PDFs for #20, 21, and 22, and I'm wondering if your previous ones will be uploaded to this website?

On Phil's crosshare page, you can find puzzles going back three years. Use the "print" function to download pdfs, or click the three-dots menu to download the puz version (or just solve on crosshare).

https://crosshare.org/pchow13

[pchow13]

Don’t worry, yes I shall upload the archived puzzles onto the Muggles forum soon - please give me some time to format the pdfs and everything… if you prefer online solving over paper solving, then as MMe mentioned in the post above, the past puzzles are on my Crosshare page: https://crosshare.org/pchow13

Hi Phil,
I just stumbled onto your link and your puzzles look like fun! I've D'loaded the PDFs for #20, 21, and 22, and I'm wondering if your previous ones will be uploaded to this website?