The Cliché Who Jumbled the Puzzle (#1)
No holds barred with this first puzzle, friends! With two weeks to work on the solution, and no speed bonuses to trick y’all into submitting too early, we’re starting in high gear and not looking back.
With literally hundreds of books being published every year (to wit: the Photo Hunt list is made up of almost entirely releases from the last ten months), it’s inevitable that some trends in naming those books will occur. There are only so many words in the English language!
Still, there are some trends that we’d be happy to see fade away in favor of something else for awhile. Given the state of things, it doesn’t seem like that will happen anytime soon, so in the meantime, let’s make use of the cliché.
Below are the skeletons of ten (fairly recent) titles that share the same first two words, and a word cloud of the rest of the words needed to make NINE of those titles complete. The tenth title (the one with the extra “guide” word in it) will become obvious once you have identified the title trend we’re playing off of.
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____
(word) (word) _____ _____ _____ _____ over _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
agaiNst and and at at Blue club CoaT fIre in in inK is Kingfisher Murder midNight nAme of of ShaDows stArs the the thE the the thOrns univeRse With wrOng
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
You will notice that several of the words in the word cloud have highlighted letters. These are a jumble of a name of a cocktail posted to FYA in the past year, which is directly related to the tenth title and fits in the spaces provided.
1. Correctly rearrange the word cloud to complete the first nine titles (listed in your solution email).
2. Identify the commonality and complete the tenth title (include both in your solution email).
3. Unscramble the highlighted letters to find the cocktail post in question (include the link to the post in your solution).
Solutions will only be counted as correct if ALL THREE bars are met. Correct guesses receive +10.
Email your guesses to [email protected]. Deadline for guessing is midnight PT, Sunday July 3.
Remember that you have two weeks to work on this puzzle, there are no speed bonuses this year, and you are only allowed to guess once, so you have every reason in the world to take your time. And then, when you’re done, mix up that cocktail and relax!
NB: Participating in the puzzle element is completely voluntary—the points are low and the mental energy needed, high, so only dive in if you’re going to have fun with the frustration. If that’s not your team’s thing, head to the Cocktail doc and skip ahead to the relaxation part :-)