Thanks for playing it cool and easy this time, Mikey!
hoover 2s · 2024-08-10T17:49:28.743Z
I thought this was going to wander into the NATO alphabet, what with starting with PAPA and all. 32A, at first I thought was a BTO knockoff: C-c-cover-vi... but that thought didn't last long.
VI was such an improvement over Line Edit... I figured maybe there was some modification of the unix editing system using CC protocol.... That's the state of my despair when I completed the grid.... you know, in all this only took me about 7 minutes to solve which is pretty dang fast but prior to solving.... wow, I don't remember ever feeling so dismally bleak.
Explanation: The four horizontal entries each cue us in to a single letter: STRIKEOUT (K, as strikeouts are indicated on scoresheets), RAYFORMDS (X - RAYVISION was another contender here), POTASSIUM (K, for all your periodic table and banana enthusiasts), CCCOVERVI (300/6 = 50, so L - don't we just love Roman numeral math?). The four letters, in order, spell out KXKL; a quick search on the Google Machine will find these are the call letters for Denver's KOOL-105, the answer to the meta.
It's a numeric tie-in, as you might have guessed (have to do one soon, as 107.9 is the highest possible FM frequency), but it's also a personal tie-in; I grew up in Denver in the '90s and loved radio stations; I once had all the call letters and frequencies memorized on the FM dial. Do not ask me why, haha, but I was always interested in this. My go-to was the oldies station KOOL-105, playing mostly hits then of the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Since then, it looks like it's pushed into the '80s, and it'll be weird when "oldies" constitute the '90s. Do they already??
Feel free to share your favorite radio stations or music references below! I'm in Chicagoland now, and my dad loves WXRT, which is adult alternative. My mom eschews that in favor of WLS, a classic staple that played then-modern songs in the '60s and '70s. It went talk for a while but revived itself as a classic hits station of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. I'm also partial to WLIT, soft rock that goes all-Christmas during the holidays. Happy listening!
health goethe 🤓10:16 · 2024-08-17T05:46:54.420Z
I see a few comments here referring to the puzzle number, and you mention that number was a hint, but I don't see the puzzle number on the description or on the puzzle board anywhere? Does it only appear until you complete the puzzle?
I had to look this up, haha. Now that I know 105 is a Zeisel number, I need to find the values of a, b, and p that make this true! (I could look it up, but what's the fun in that!)
Bird Lives 8s · 2024-08-13T01:13:01.346Z
It's the lowest (or first, I guess) Zeisel number. I must have gotten it by Googling "105" because I'd never heard of Zeisel numbers either.
HeadinHome 🤓53s · 2024-08-11T00:58:09.176Z
Never heard of it but google was helpful! Must give this one a listen!
Probably in this day and age you can give any local radio station a listen. Might have to for nostalgia sake!
Joe 🤓4:25 · 2024-08-11T02:00:33.079Z
Rayform DS had me scratching my head until I parsed it correctly. Nice and (dare I say) easy? Even though I'd never heard of the station? Thanks as always, Mikey!
JHSeeman 4s · 2024-08-11T02:47:46.526Z
I was trying so hard for it to be KDKA.. with Mike Lange phrase... Michael Michael motorcycle.... and he beat him like a rented mule
I didn't get #2 initially. But when I discovered that KMKL was K-LOVE, my wife's favourite station, I had to submit it, even if the character count was off! ;-)
Whiffed this one thinking STRIKEOUT was X. I don't think I've ever changed my radio dial away for my local NPR station (unless I'm travelling and finding another NPR station!)
Well, I knew it had to be a radio station that broadcast on frequency 105 . Plan B was to just look up a list of all of those if I couldn't parse RAYFORMDS. (Rayfrom ds? Rayform d s? Rayf or mds? So hard to see that one.)
Thankfully Mr. Google knew what I did not. My radio stations were all AM and mostly out of Buffalo, NYC or Philly. As for my FM stations, they are all NPR affiliates. Luckily I got Sirius about listening and now can get TED talks when I drive or walk (after MANY years I finally sprang for earbuds, now I wear them even when not listening so I can feign not hearing).
So I ONELOOKed w?kl and there were gazillions of christian stations. RAY FOR MDS should have been the easiest but I kept thinking "Gamma? Laser? Delta? Ray Kroc?"
Hey! OneLook is KOOL-ENO backwards!
Meta World Peace 3s · 2024-08-17T12:34:52.229Z
Incredible milestone, Mikey--gotta put it on your CV!
ELSavage 🤓10:01 · 2024-08-17T14:47:49.606Z
Wow! Four Clues that could only be filled in by crossing.
Got stuck on #2 (still not sure how DS fits into it), but #3 was right in my wheelhouse. #4 was fun for a math guy, too.