MEOW 120 : Rotten Trick

[DrTom]

Finally, the cat is free!
Took me to use Nudge III to do the right thing!!

Well, I'd bet you had already kind of thought along those lines and just needed to confirm it. Glad you were able to leave the dust of the arena floor. As they say in jolly old Rome:
A cattus reliquit sacculum!

[DrTom]

Nudge III was pretty much what I was expecting, but I had an epiphany last night regarding the title, and that made me smile.

This Persian looks like a lion to me! Thanks for the challenge, @DrTom!

I think this Persian turned VERY Leonine despite what I thought were dead giveaways. Still I'm glad the epiphany made you smile because your puzzles ALWAYS make me smile, sometimes make me laugh out loud!

Tom

[DrTom]

So, a total of 24 intrepid souls as either testers or solvers have managed to cattus dimittere.

* HoldThatThought (T)
** Wendy Walker (T)
1 Whimsy (T)
2 Hector
3 boharr
4 benchen71
5 Darth
6 Meg
7 markhr
8 Mwoychick
9 Gutman
10 dudeski
11 Bird Lives
12 Laura M
13 ChrisKochmanski
14 KayW
15 Bbaack
16 MatthewL
17 ReB
18 woozy
19 BarbaraK
20 lbray53
21 Ergcat
22 Mikey G

Experience has taught me that there will likely only be one or two more of you that give it a go. Believe me it is not your fault. Those who have solved have slogged through it and used all of their skill to try to work around its deficits. A total of 166 people completed the puzzle so far but only 27 submitted and only 19 of those were correct. So, more nudges to follow and then I believe I will let it die a natural death. I do have a FANTASTIC rabbit hole Ben sent me and that you will see Tuesday. I kind of wish it HAD been the mechanism, but it is way to intricate for me.

[DrTom]

Quiddam addito auxillio (some additional help)

As some of those who already solved commented to me; "you could have pretty much solved without having to fill the grid..."

Going back to III and IV. If Caesar codes are a form of a rotation code, like the ROT 13 that has been discussed from time to time on the Muggle forum, how might I have hidden what ROT number code you were supposed to use?

[Cinny]

My first guess was the correct answer, but it took me a while to backsolve it. Tricky, but fun meta. Thanks, Dr Tom!

[DrTom]

My first guess was the correct answer, but it took me a while to backsolve it. Tricky, but fun meta. Thanks, Dr Tom!

Lots of people guessed Short Sheet and then had a devil of a time making it work. Thanks for the perseverance.

T

[DrTom]

One more solver joins the ranks, Cinny! Welcome to a decidedly uncrowded cat staging area.

[rjy]

Made it to the finish line - finally! - with my feline friend gasping for air. Knew what to do, just couldn't quite get the right combination of pieces to make it work. But finally put it all together... thanks, DrTom, keep on challenging!

[DrTom]

Gosh this is almost becoming respectable, two more join the ranks:
23 Cindy Heisler
24 Tyrpmon
25 rjy

[DrTom]

Last of the hints.

You can either use the theme answers letters or the theme clue letters to find the letters you need to solve

Good puzzle have the letters in Grid order. This is probably not a good puzzle, but the letters are in Grid order

[madhatter5]

This is a great puzzle Tom, it's ok to run a toughie once in a while A low solver count just means it's not a softball.

[DrTom]

Made it to the finish line - finally! - with my feline friend gasping for air. Knew what to do, just couldn't quite get the right combination of pieces to make it work. But finally put it all together... thanks, DrTom, keep on challenging!

Glad we did not have to resuscitate the cat. I'm sure he said, "well that was a rotten thing to do!".

[TeamDoubleTow]

We needed all the nudges and a little more patience! Thanks for the fun puzzle @DrTom .

[DrTom]

We needed all the nudges and a little more patience! Thanks for the fun puzzle @DrTom .

My Mom's favorite little rhyme:
Patience is a virtue
Virtue is a Grace
Grace is a little girl who would not wash her face

It has no bearing on patience or grace but it rhymed and we both liked it.

Thanks for solving and all your patience (and that it did not cause you to become patients)

[DrTom]

Two more solvers:
26 Teamdoubletow
27 Mortdestro

for a total of 29.

I will post the reveal tomorrow AM. I assume the below is a picture of all the cats still in their bags. Sorry kitty cats

[DrTom]

OK, it is reveal time!

The idea was supposed to be that solvers found the “rotten” things in the puzzle and used the letters to form a 10 letter answer. The ROTTEN TRICK was that I used the trick of encoding with ROT TEN (ROT-10) a variant of the Caesar cipher. If you took the letters of the clues that gave you the 10 rotten things and ran them through a ROT decoder you ended up with the rotten trick that has caused many people restless nights.

I realize that it was difficult and that I probably should have made the answers the needed letters as opposed to the clues since, as some have mentioned, you probably did not even need to solve the grid to get the letters if you paid attention to the rather pejorative adjectives. But, 30 of you did manage to release the cat, so not a complete bomb. Thanks to all who solved and I look forward to our next meeting!

Oh, and my apologies to all of you who did not go to camp or are not over 60 and may never have heard of "short sheeting" which was a fun, and harmless prank when considered with all of the others that were pulled. If you don't know how to do it, look it up online.

[BarbaraK]

Hope it's OK to post this story. We're all adults here, right? (But if it disappears, I'll understand:)

Back in college, we decided one day to short sheet a dorm mate. Waited for the reaction, but she didn't say anything that evening or the next morning. What a spoil sport; just ignoring it instead of entertaining us by getting all indignant. Oh well, pretty much forgot about it. And then, a day or two later, all of a sudden, she did have just the reaction we'd been hoping for. She was quite embarrassed when we told her that it had been that way for two days. You can guess why

[Al Sisti]

Hope it's OK to post this story. We're all adults here, right? (But if it disappears, I'll understand:)

Back in college, we decided one day to short sheet a dorm mate. Waited for the reaction, but she didn't say anything that evening or the next morning. What a spoil sport; just ignoring it instead of entertaining us by getting all indignant. Oh well, pretty much forgot about it. And then, a day or two later, all of a sudden, she did have just the reaction we'd been hoping for. She was quite embarrassed when we told her that it had been that way for two days. You can guess why

That reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:

Dave lives with a female roommate, Tina. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty Tina is. Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Dave and his roommate than met the eye. Reading his mum's thoughts, Dave volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Tina and I are just roommates.''

About a week later, Tina came to Dave saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the silver sugar bowl. You don't suppose she took it, do you?"

"Well, I doubt it, but I'll email her, just to be sure." said Dave.

So he sat down and wrote an email:

Dear Mum, I'm not saying that you "DID" take the sugar bowl from my house; I'm not saying that you "DID NOT" take it. But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner. Love, Dave

Several days later, Dave received a response email from his mother which read:

Dear SON, I'm not saying that you "DO" sleep with Tina, and I'm not saying that you "DO NOT" sleep with her. But the fact remains that if SHE was sleeping in her OWN BED, SHE would have found the sugar bowl by now!!

[Dplass]

Bwaahhaha!

[DrTom]

Hope it's OK to post this story. We're all adults here, right? (But if it disappears, I'll understand:)

Back in college, we decided one day to short sheet a dorm mate. Waited for the reaction, but she didn't say anything that evening or the next morning. What a spoil sport; just ignoring it instead of entertaining us by getting all indignant. Oh well, pretty much forgot about it. And then, a day or two later, all of a sudden, she did have just the reaction we'd been hoping for. She was quite embarrassed when we told her that it had been that way for two days. You can guess why

That reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:

Dave lives with a female roommate, Tina. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty Tina is. Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between Dave and his roommate than met the eye. Reading his mum's thoughts, Dave volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you, Tina and I are just roommates.''

About a week later, Tina came to Dave saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the silver sugar bowl. You don't suppose she took it, do you?"

"Well, I doubt it, but I'll email her, just to be sure." said Dave.

So he sat down and wrote an email:

Dear Mum, I'm not saying that you "DID" take the sugar bowl from my house; I'm not saying that you "DID NOT" take it. But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner. Love, Dave

Several days later, Dave received a response email from his mother which read:

Dear SON, I'm not saying that you "DO" sleep with Tina, and I'm not saying that you "DO NOT" sleep with her. But the fact remains that if SHE was sleeping in her OWN BED, SHE would have found the sugar bowl by now!!

Now THAT'S funny!