Stats – The puzzle page had 470 views. We had 55 solvers completing and submitting the grid. Of those who submitted 37 managed to get the maximum possible score of 158.
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The Oracle Speaketh:
Unless you were born in 1920 or earlier, a year like 2021, with one double digit number followed by the next, is a “Once in a Lifetime” experience. The next time this will occur is 2122…
Here’s a puzzle for 2021. It is, however, based on a device which some of you might have encountered a few decades back. “The Sliding Cage” was a cardboard toy which had a cardboard piece which could be tugged sideways in a sleeve made from another piece of cardboard, making three layers in all. The first layer was black and had vertical slits through which the second layer was visible. One could see an animal through the slits. In the one I had; it was an elephant. On sliding the middle layer to the right (or left), the animal changed into a horse.
This puzzle has something similar. After solving, mentally slide rows 2,4,6, 8, 10,12 and 14 to the right to uncover a message.
NOTE: Pl. press the “Save” icon while solving to save a copy in your cache (cookies from the site must be enabled for this to work)
Bonus Question: What message did you see in the grid? (3 Words)
Here is the solution grid:
Answer to the Bonus Question:
1. Happy New Year (Reading alternate letters in columns 8 and7 starting from Row 1 and working down)
Annotations:
Across: 1 TOE* in EYOT H, 5 RAT in PIE, 10 HIGH J SUMP*, 11 (cLEoPATrA)*, 12 NOT(IC)E, 13 MARYLUKE*, 14 CONS RINGO*, 18 DD, 21 DD, 22 WEBSITE* around CH, 25 I F in CLASSY, 29 BERATE*, 32 E(LOP)E, 33 K in RADARS* around VA, 34 DD, 35 (DADS LED)*.
Down: 1 ETHAN E, 2 Hp Ate, 3 DD, 4 TA MP, 6 MALIS*, 7 AVA IL, 8 E STEE(ME)D, 9 Acrostic, 15 Hidden, 16 Geegee/2, 17 Telescopic, 19 (INDUSTRIES-NUDISTS), 20 CE in CRIMEA*, 23 VEAL* in CED, 24 LEA(SE)D, 26 Telescopic, 27 LEAST*, 28 RAF* around E, 30 (AIRPORT TERMINAL-TERMINATOR)*, 31 Telescopic.
Results:
The following people maxed the score.
Alison Crutchfield, Anantakrishnan N., Anicha Reuban, Anirudh Sahni, Arvind Kannabiran, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Chris Martin, Debasmita Basu, Deepak Gopinath (Col.), Himanshu Rajurkar, Ian Vanderschee, Jyothish B, Keith Williams, Lakshmi Vaidyanathan, Madhup Tewari, Madhusudan Hanumantha Rao, Max Jackson, Mona Sogal, Narayanan R, Neelima Rai, Nilesh Parmar, Prakash Arumugam, Priya Shyam, Radhika Anand, Raghavan S V, Ramani, Ramki Krishnan, Rengaswamy N., Samit Kallianpur, Sandhya Paruchuri, Santha Ramachandran, Sohil, Spiffytrix, Suresh Dorbala, Vasant Srinivasan, Venkatesan P. and Venkatraghavan S.
Here are the scores of the other players
157 points – Kumaresh K R , Sree Sree , Sriram R and Viveca Bhatkal
156 points – Arvind Ramaswamy, Ashit Hegde, Chris Kochmanski, Krishnan Anantheshwaran, Lakshmi Prakash, Prasad RV and Rathnakumar V
Others – Nagendra Prasad R.(153), Raja V (153), Ranjani Srikanth (153), Ratna Rao (153), Mukundala Balasubramanyam (151), Diwakar Menon (150) and Maya Sharma (135)
Congrats to all the solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a great score of 8.5. It got 15 perfect 10s – i.e 27% of those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 6.
Top 3 Clues: The most favorite clues were for “BEWITCHES” with 18 votes, “CONSIGNOR” with 15 votes and “HIGH JUMPS” with 14 votes.
A very enjoyable start for the New year based on all the comments from our solvers as you can see below.
Comments on the Puzzle
1. Quick, fun puzzle. Some surfaces appeared too contrived – especially the anagrams with the letters removed
2. Nice easy puzzle to start the year. Enjoyed solving this. Thanks
3. crisp and neat clues as ever. thanks for the extra effort in delivering the message
4. Good idea
5. ENJOYABLE OPENER. HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO.
6. Fairly easy grid. A couple of words like ‘Mobile’ got from crossings. An enjoyable puzzle.
7. Nice easy puzzle to begin New Year
8. Some of the clues were too easy.
9. lovely way to start a year!
10. Good beginning for this year
11. Very easy start to the year
12. Nice and easy start to 2021.
13. very nice nina 🙂
14. Great way to begin the year
15. Enjoyably light offering to begin the new yeat
16. Nice puzzle and nice message at the end.
17. Really enjoyed, Happy New Year
18. Nice Grid to start the year with
19. Neat and Entertaining
20. ORACLE MAKES ONE FEEL THAT CRYPTIC SETTING IS EASY
21. Lovely puzzle with new idea!
22. Good crossword but I personally like ones with more bite in them. The sliding device was innovative with lots of possibilities but the end result proved a bit underwhelming for me.
23. wonderful start to new year
24. Very good puzzle, but I found it too easy so marked down at 7.5/10
25. Simple clues, very relaxing
26. Easy-ish puzzle with a topical NINA
27. nice grid! enjoyed it.
28. Loved the Sliding Cage concept
29. Nice, though a little challenge would be nicer. 21a seems to be a repeated definition as opposed to a DD
30. A very nice puzzle. Easy to solve to give a confidence boost at the start of the year.
31. Avery enjoyable puzzle…very nice surfaces
32. Simple but enjoyable
33. Not too hard. Not too easy. Nice!
34. Nice puzzle
35. Nothing to improve in an Oracle puzzle
36. Simple and fun
37. Nice and easy!
38. Awesome grid ,my first attempt here ,not qualified to give suggestions
39. smooth and easy
40. Easy peasy!
41. Excellent
42. Nice. Not too difficult, and not exactly east
43. Nice grid and nina. Clues were easy to solve, but I felt the surfaces could be more refined for some of them.
44. No specific comments. Was easy to solve. Enjoyed solving
45. Neat trick
46. Enjoyed the puzzle!
47. very good, simple clues.
48. Another classic puzzle , kudos to the setter, enjoyed ,thoroughly.
49. Clues were all fair, but a bit too easy for 1Across. Some impressive anagrams.
50. Finding the message took a while.
51. A nice and simple puzzle
52. The clues were good
53. Happy New Year to everyone! Good to start 2021 with yet another Oracle puzzle with a lovely trick.
54. Concept was very interesting and fun!
55. Enjoyable puzzle