Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
The honeycomb below is a fancy form of wordsearch in which every cell is used, and words can curl and zigzag but never overlap. Each hive foxer has a theme (some past ones: owls, rugby, Egypt, UFOs…). Identifying the theme is a vital part of the defoxing process. Today’s puzzle is composed of 18 answers, a few of which are acronyms.
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s ‘33 Things Wot Have Been Renamed’ missing vowels foxer:
1. CLD – cluedo (Colonel_K)
2. GZHTSK – gzhatsk (ylla)
3. THNT NLSP ST CSSCTY – the national spastics society (ylla)
4. STR NGRSFRMWT HN – strangers from within (Phlebas, copperbottom)
5. MCCW NSLNGSPR – mccown’s longspur (copperbottom)
6. WN STNCHR CHLLVN – winston churchill avenue (ylla)
7. B BLB LLTH TDLM NL MSD – bib-label lithiated lemon-lime soda (Phlebas)
8. CL STNTWR – colston tower (Phlebas)
9. T HLHRST DM – the lahore stadium (ylla)
10. LRDD GW RDS – lord edgware dies (copperbottom, Colonel_K)
11. CH HTRPTS HVJTRMNS – chhatrapati shivaji terminus (Electric Dragon)
12. SNCR P – asian carp (copperbottom)
13. RCLSM – racialism (Colonel_K)
14. CC L DNL X – ice cold in alex (Phlebas)
15. HR LDFF RNTRP RS – herald of free enterprise (Electric Dragon, ylla)
16. HS TNLRS – houston oilers (ylla)
17. MNTD N – mount doane () or mount eden (Phlebas)
18. FRRKHBL SR – farrokh bulsara (Phlebas)
19. THMN CH STRGR DN – the manchester guardian (Electric Dragon)
20. STP LSCNTR – staples center (Electric Dragon)
21. MR CJSPHMC KLWHT – maurice joseph micklewhite (Electric Dragon)
22. NTJ MMR GNLP NCKN DWF F LMX – aunt jemima original pancake and waffle mix (Phlebas)
23. LLT – lilt (Colonel_K)
24. NF R DY – on a friday (ylla)
25. RTPR TG – rat portage (Phlebas)
26. KVNDMST – kvindemuseet (ylla)
27. RN CHBYR SRPRT – rancho boyeros airport (ylla)
28. GLDNSHT TL – golden shuttle (Colonel_K)
29. BLC KRBSFT BL LCLB – black arabs football club (Colonel_K)
30. VNDM NSLN D – van diemen’s land (Phlebas)
31. WN DSCLNDCL DRWR KS – windscale and calder works (ylla, Colonel_K)
32. V RMN CHS TRMK – avro manchester mk iii (Colonel_K)
33. TN YFL WNDT HMR CLSLYM JST CMST RSFM YHM – tony flow and the miraculously majestic masters of mayhem (Colonel_K)
My first impression would be that it has to do with optics/photography: chromatic aberration in the black letters with yellow ‘shadows’. Sepia toned as well?
ETA:
A7. BOYS
E9. SWORD
Tradition dictates that we’ll come up with 30 words and then tomorrow morning Tim will post ‘you have half of one right’. Nevertheless:
E9 – SWORD (this may well end up as something-sword)
T9 – TEELING (a distillery in Dublin)
L1 – AMBER
C5 HEADREST
G3. SHEN ZHU – God Pig / Holy Pig are pigs that have been chronically fattened for use in Hakka religious and cultural ceremonies
ETA. A1. STY
ETFA: K5. ANIMAL
J1. SNOW – frustratingly, not Snowball
L1. ANSON, J3. BOMBER
H10. MOTHER
K5 – ANIMALS – the Pink Floyd album with the pig flying over Battersea Power Station!!
E1 FLAG
Three correct answers so far.
G7 – INSOMNIA, which would rule out ANIMALS. It fits well with SHEN ZHU but leaves an awkward peninsula of letters underneath from which I can’t find anything.
M7 – BEETLING
A7 – BLAIR
D1 – DINAR
E1 – FLATS
Kind of disappointed that MOTHER OF TAGINE is unlikely, unless the subject is North African restaurants. I suppose it could be some other kind of MOTHER OF though.
Possible:
K6 – SOMEONE
K7 – GLEBE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glebe
Unlikely, but there:
H6 – TINY SNAIL
G9 – TREE GOAT
F2 – SINDH
D5 – BRAND
G9 – TUBER
E7 – MARS
J3 – BODMAS
K2 – MANSON
B2 – READY
The customary flailing around until the theme is solved seems to be taking a while this time.
Roman doesn’t seem to have inserted an obvious clue into this one, which is rather unsporting.
However your “flailing” has produced another lucky hit: READY
READY, plus three from the top end of the comments. Crikey.
Unless the theme is ‘Brek’, I’m stumped.
Wow, that’s
a tough one
A7. BOYS, E9. SWORD, L1. ANSON, J3. BOMBER, H10. MOTHER, E1. FLAG all looks promising, but I can’t find anything that gives us a theme.
The aircraft manufacturer AVRO, Scouts, pigs, none seems to work.
If MOTHER is right, we may have J9. AFRO.
Maybe just Aircraft for the theme?
READY pretty much guarantees that either BEST or something which ends with BEST is also there. Another generic word, but it gets us somewhere.
There’s an ECHO at B4 if we’re spotting generic, unhelpful words.
M7 – BELTAINE
That could gives us J11. FROG or J11. FROG MOTHER
M6 – EPSOM
This and SWORD could give us the Battle of Normandy.
There is an Operation Frog for the Battle of Normandy, but it was cancelled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houlgate_battery
The Battle of Normandy isn’t the theme but it is the reason ‘sword’ is included.
Beaches! Echo Beach, Sword Beach. Beach Ready.
That’s really tough to crack, even with a theme.
Maybe:
G4. or G6. HUT
D.5 BAR
E3. NUDIST
K6, SAND
J1. SWASH
SWASH ZONE?
Yes, I think it works
L2. BEAN?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canavalia_rosea
We know that READY is correct, so that would leave EST or TSE in the corner… neither of which makes sense to me
I was more thinking of something like A2. TREES in that corner. But I can’t find anything matching the theme.
If BEAN is correct, it would be on the opposite corner, at L2. Assuming it is right, because I can’t find anything else.
Also the D in D1 is hard to use
D’oh. Time to relearn the alphabet.
Don’t bother, I finally found it:
F6. STRANDBEEST
https://www.openculture.com/2022/03/behold-the-strandbeest-the-mechanical-animals-that-roam-the-beaches-of-holland.html
Never heard of that before!
Also, G6. HUT and possibly B5. BAR
10 words so far:
E1. FLAG
E3. NUDIST
J1. SWASH ZONE
F6. STRANDBEEST
G6. HUT
B5. BAR
B2. READY
B4. ECHO
A7. BOYS
E9. SWORD
I will continue tomorrow, if any left
That’s a lot of words taking up less than half the space…
Not that I have been any help so far – busy on Friday and distracted at the weekend.
L2 BERM
B6. TERMINAL?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Beach
F8 or 10 – BUM
Struggling with the acronyms as I can’t think of any that are beach-related, and they could be anything. It’s a tough one this week.
If BUM is right, I have C7. COMB, but it doesn’t match anything. I was excepting Beachcomber/Beachcombing, but it’s not there.
L6. PLAGE? Beach in French
I’ve picked a few words out of the uncovered part – B7 COMMUTER, F7 VITERBO, H10 MOTHER OF… (as someone noted before), a_monk’s PLAGE – but except the last they don’t seem to have much to do with beaches.
D5. BARV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_armoured_recovery_vehicle
H9. ETERNITY for the Calvin Kline advert?
Possible, but if everything we found so far is right, that means we have only two more word /group of words left. I would assume one on the bottom left and one on the bottom right.
J10 FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
That definitely helps, but leaves a weird COMMBUB above it…
C7 COMB
F10 BUM
Nice find down the line !
Well, I’m running out of time and ideas. Unless Tim gives us extra time, of course.
I’m up for an extension 😀
given that I’m currently trying to convice myself of the validity of GAINS A SOMALI MAGE BELT (I9) I’m not sure an extension is going to do me much good…
Sadly, no overtime. I guess with a few pointers, we may have wrap it up. Anyway, that was good fun, even through also quite the head-scratcher.