Off Her Oats

by Aussie Meyer
Solving Tips

Story


Blandings Castle, normally the idyllic domain of Clarence, Earl of Emsworth, has been up in a tizzy all week over matters veterinary. George Cyril Wellbeloved, the pigman, had to spend 5 days in the village chokey for an incident involving a sodden ballet performed in his long woolies beneath the moon. This would not have greatly concerned the household, but the Empress of Blandings, that award winning Berkshire sow, has been refusing her feed, pining for her pal.

The Blandings contingent has been sparing no effort to arouse the prize pig's appetite. Each day, from Monday through Friday, one of the following persona have been trying various methods to gain the Empress' interest in nutrition: Clarence Lord Emsworth (of course), Angus McAllister (the gardener), Galahad Threepwood, Freddy Threepwood, and Beach (the butler). The solutions employed (in no particular order) were singing to the pig, giving her a rubdown, taking her for a trot, bringing a companion pig to visit, and giving her a pep talk.

The results were mixed. One day the Empress picked over a parsnip, on another day she browsed over some bran, one afternoon she tried a turnip, and one day she chewed a cabbage. Oh, and one day the Empress snacked on a spud, but these lean pickings were scarcely enough to maintain her impressive physique. Then, like some miracle happy ending, Wellbeloved was released, and the pig returned immediately to celebrate with a feast of impressive scale.

Clarence particularly wanted to chronicle these efforts, for a letter to the pig expert Whiffle, but being a bit of a random thinker, he lost order of the details and couldn't remember anything but the following clues. Can you help him determine who tried what to encourage the Empress to eat, on which day, and what tidbit the pig partook on that day?


./Labels/h_Tidbit.png ./Labels/h_Method.png ./Labels/h_Day.png
./Labels/v_Bran.png ./Labels/v_Cabbage.png ./Labels/v_Parsnip.png ./Labels/v_Spud.png ./Labels/v_Turnip.png ./Labels/v_Rubdown.png ./Labels/v_Singing.png ./Labels/v_Trot.png ./Labels/v_Companion.png ./Labels/v_Pep_talk.png ./Labels/v_Monday.png ./Labels/v_Tuesday.png ./Labels/v_Wednesday.png ./Labels/v_Thursday.png ./Labels/v_Friday.png
./Labels/v_Persona.png ./Labels/h_Beach.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Clarence.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Freddy.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Galahad.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_McAllister.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Day.png ./Labels/h_Monday.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Tuesday.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Wednesday.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Thursday.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Friday.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Method.png ./Labels/h_Rubdown.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Singing.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Trot.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Companion.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Pep_talk.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
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x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
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JavaScript Grid by Scott Noyes

Clues

  1. The day the Empress tried a turnip came sometime after Tuesday.
  2. The butler Beach made his effort later in the week than the attempt someone made to give the Empress a rubdown.
  3. Not only McAllister, but also the person who sang, and the one who got the Empress to try a parsnip, all got a bit muddy in the process (the other two got really muddy).
  4. The day that someone brought a companion pig to visit was not the day she snacked on a spud.
  5. The person (not Galahad) who got the Empress to have some bran inspired Clarence's attempt later in the week.
  6. Beach tried to help the Empress earlier in the week than the day she had a spud, which came earlier in the week than the day she had someone singing to her.
  7. Freddie Threepwood, who wasn't at Blandings on Thursday, did not give the piggy a rubdown.
  8. While taking a trot (not with Clarence) the Empress thought about the cabbage she'd had earlier in the week.
  9. The person who sang to the Empress (not Clarence) did not get her to try a turnip.



Solving Tips


Use an X when you are sure that two fields do not match. Use a dot when you are sure that two fields do match. Click once to place an X. Click a second time to place a dot. Click a third time to clear the box.

Select marker color by clicking the colored radio buttons. You can use colored marks to indicate which clue provided a value, or to indicate a guess that might not be correct, or just because you like solving puzzles in teal.

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Use the "Current Solution Window" button to parse the grid for your solution. This feature simply looks for dots in the top set of rows and creates a list that you can copy and paste into your email for submission.

If you want to clear the grid and start over, just refresh the page. Note that there is a bug in IE6 (and possibly other browsers), so that if a color other than the default is selected, that color may appear to be selected after the reload, but the actual color used will be the default.

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What would you like to see added to the JavaScript grid? Send me your requests and ideas.

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Scott
snoyes@gmail.com