Friday Foxer #106

42 Comments

1. There’s a far too obvious:

   F1 – MARY QUANT

   (Happy new year everyone!)

2. F1 – MARY QUANT
   B5 – BATH

   Suggests something honours related (Mary got a gong in the New Years Honours and Order of the Bath being another gong)

   • As Nutfield says, Mary could be a bit too obvious, but Bath does leave FITTER going backwards on the top row which is also a word so maybe those two are good.

     I’ve just remembered I am very bad at the word searches and always fall into any trap Roman sets.

3. Happy new year!

   I assume MARY QUANT is a mini red herring…

   There’s a very vowelless place around E10 – maybe the home of the acronym?

4. I5 – BORAT

   Also G5 – THING, which would be the least helpful word Roman has ever included in terms of unlocking the theme.

5. D2 – BUTTER?

   Or E2 – GUTTER?

6. K2 – LEADER

7. C2 – TRIPLED, which fits in with FITTER and BATH.

   • Would make C3 – OTTER? :p

8. E9 TRACK

9. I saw Gazer, and thought maybe Stargazer… but there is:

   S6 – MOONGAZER, i don’t think that’s a thing though.

10. F11 – SIX
    G13 – SPIRE

    (Not confident of either, but uses the X)

11. K4 – STELLING, in the unlikely event that there’s a sports programme presenter theme.

    • That answer would be unbelievable Jeff.

12. I7 – RATSKIN, which as we all know is a race from Necromunda… (Another one to throw on the trash)

13. F5 can start QUOTE, QUOTER or QUOTED.

    A7 – FITBA, in case the theme is The Broons.

14. H10 – BOUNTY, which runs on from SPIRE

    Though that does rob any vowels along the border of Consonant Country

    • If Spire takes the lower i, you can add i9. Beat and L8. Reskin
      but that leaves you with an X, a Y, and a Z to the lower left of that area.

15. G4 – PYTHON
    I5 – BOOMING

    Still no closer to a theme.

16. F5 QUANTUM (just in case Mary isn’t joining us today)

17. D6 – IRISH

18. Roman is taking no prisoners this week. (Not a clue).

    That said, three correct answers – two six-letter words and one seven-letter word – have been found.

    • Suggested Sevens:
      Quantum (clashes with Bounty)
      Booming
      Tripled / Triple-D
      (Ratskin)

      Suggested Sixes:
      Python
      Bounty (clashes with Quantum)
      Fitter
      Leader
      Butter / Gutter
      (Quoter / Quoted)
      (Reskin)

19. G7. KYRGYZ (runs along Quantum and uses up 2 Ys and a Z)

    G6. BIMBO (fits in the space of the above plus Python)

20. A few random spots with still no clue as to a theme.

    K1 – ALPS
    K2 – LEADERS
    L5 – BMX
    K9 – KERAPA
    I9 – BEATER
    C8 – SHARK

21. I had a whole list of short and unremarkable words that i scrapped yesterday because it felt like nobody had really gotten the theme and adding more random guesses wasn’t going to be constructive. But with this lack of new words overnight i wonder if posting them anyway might’ve prompted some different ideas.

    Let’s try again.

    C8 SHARK
    F5 QUBIT
    H10 BRIX (measurement used in sugar industry)
    G13 SPIN (vaguely related to qubit/quantum)
    I5 BISON
    I5 BOMBING
    J3 LION (fits next to bombing/python/quantum/kyrgyz)
    L5 BMX (although a more likely corner for the acronym is E10 PDX etc)

    This is a tough one.

    • Some more agricultural/horse things (American spelling)…

      E9 TACK
      E10 PLOW

      Trying to find stuff around the python/bombing cluster…

      E1 CIGAR
      K4 STERN
      M3 MEDAL (could also be MEDALLION)

      Measurement

      E2 GRAM

22. I make that 40 words we’ve found between us yet no theme yet, which is amazing.

    With 22 words to find it’s under 6 letters per word which I think is unusually short for one of these – usually we find a couple of longer words which have to be right but no such luck this week.

23. “Seven of the 22 words have been discovered (2x7l, 3x6l, 1x5l, 1x4l). Somewhat unusually, all seven were included because they are sometimes seen adjacent to this week’s theme word.”

    EDIT: Sorry, that should have been eight. I’d missed a correct 9 letter answer.

    • Hmm.

      QUANTUM carpet
      carpet BOMBING
      carpet BEATER
      carpet FITTER
      carpet PYTHON
      carpet SHARK
      carpet TACK

      Let’s go!

      • BEATER might be a red herring, if KYRGYZ is in.

        K6 AXMINSTER

        This feels reasonable.

        • Another possibility is M6 AXMINSTER

          That leaves room for M3 MEDALLION and L5 BAG

          The acronym could be M7 PAR (carpet rating system).

          Leaves us with some funny letters where KYRGYZ would’ve been, though, and no BEATER either.

    • Since Tim’s last reply (which makes this like playing some verbal form of Mastermind board-game), we have gained 1 seven, 1 six, 1 five and 1 four.

      Two sevens were suggested:
      LEADERS – though Leader was floated earlier and I feel Tim would’ve been kind enough to suggest we had a partial answer.
      and BOMBING.

      Therefore, BOMBING is the only word I feel confident of.

      Since Bombing disallows Booming, our possibilities for the 2 sevens are:
      Bombing + Quantum – most likely, I fancy
      Bombing + Tripled / Triple-D
      Bombing + Ratskin – outside chance

      – – – – – – – – – –

      Sixes that have been put forward in the interim, one of which ought to be correct:
      KYRGYZ
      KERAPA
      BEATER

24. Theme suggestion – CARPET

    CARPET BOMBING
    CARPET SHARK
    CARPET TACK
    CARPET BEATER

25. F1. MAGIC

    • B7 TABRIZ
      E6 PILE
      H10 BOWLS

      • E10. PDX – Portland International Airport’s carpet has a Wikipedia entry

        ETA: G1. INSPIRAL
        (looks like Python finishes at H2.)

        Then there’s D2. BURN

        • That gives us:

          D5 RED
          B3 LOTTO
          B2 PIROT

      • M7. PAZYRYK – oldest surviving carpet
        “the earliest surviving pile carpet is the “Pazyryk carpet”, which dates from the 5th-4th century BC. It was excavated by Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko in 1949 from a Pazyryk burial mound in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. This richly coloured carpet is 200 x 183 cm (6’6″ x 6’0″) and framed by a border of griffins.”

        ETA: I reckon i9. BEATER is back in.

        • Fantastic! I am learning more than i ever expected to know about carpets.

26. One left to find on the lower right edge, formed of EIS RP NI SI K
    (unless part of of it is a two word term that belongs to Beater, PDX or Bowls).

    1. B2 PIROT
    2. A7. FITTER
    3. B3 LOTTO
    4. D5 RED
    5. E6 PILE
    6. B7 TABRIZ
    7. E9 TACK
    8. C8 – SHARK
    9. F1. MAGIC
    10. D2. BURN
    11. G4 – PYTHON
    12. G1. INSPIRAL
    13. I5 BOMBING
    14. F5 QUANTUM
    15. H10 BOWLS
    16. E10. PDX
    17. M3 MEDALLION
    18. M6 AXMINSTER
    19. L5 BAG
    20. M7. PAZYRYK
    21. I9 – BEATER

    • G13 – SIERPINSKI

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