Friday Foxer #123

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.

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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)

55 Comments

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  7. READY pretty much guarantees that either BEST or something which ends with BEST is also there. Another generic word, but it gets us somewhere.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. If BUM is right, I have C7. COMB, but it doesn’t match anything. I was excepting Beachcomber/Beachcombing, but it’s not there.

    • 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.

      • 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.

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