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Behold. The latest puzzle that has completely stumped BEQ. For the last ten minutes I have struggling to untangle a Slinky that Tabitha had folded back onto itself, but I couldn’t handle it. It was just too stressful a situation. She had her heart set on bringing said Slinky to preschool, and, well, Dad couldn’t come through despite my best efforts. Like children eveywhere, Tabitha was playing with it by holding it accordion-style and flinging the coil in big circles. Well, it didn’t take long for the thing to become a Gordian knot. But see the thing is, I looked at said puzzle as nothing more complicated than a typical tavern puzzle. I mean, surely to God this was at most two simple movements and the thing would elegantly detangle itself. I mean, this puzzle was created a child turning four in August here! And yet, there I was, stubbornly fidgeting with the toy, twisting it this way and that, making progress in one direction to only fuck it up royally in the other. It was maddening. I mean, this felt less like “dad obligations” and more like “topology thesis defense.” So, I must concede defeat.
Tip of the hat to James Martin for the utterly amazingly bad pun in today’s crossword.
Share the puzzle. New one on Monday.
UPDATE: Slinky puzzle solved!
Loved the puzzle and thanks for all that you do. One small comment on the clue for 37D “Rival of Lawn-Boy”. As a son of a Toro employee for 32 years up here in Minneapolis, I do know that Lawn Boy is actually a subsidiary of Toro and was purchased by them in 1989.
From Wiki:
In 1989, Lawn-Boy was acquired by The Toro Company, and eventually consolidated to the Toro headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. Since the acquisition by Toro, Lawn-Boy has introduced new series of lawn mowers, including a new lineup of walk-behind mowers and an entirely new category of Zero Radius Turning mowers.
But I’m sure a lot of people don’t know that when they are walking thru their local stores and see Toro and Lawn Boy side by side.
Great gag.
You just twist the Slinky a little bit this way and turn it that way, and Bob’s your uncle!