Author: KOrfield

Each of the clue phrases leads to a set of three words, all of which rhyme. This puzzle is based on the Jeopardy category of the same name.

• A gaming stream’s connection desire. -> Twitch Hitch Itch
• An Alaskan garden statue’s froth. -> Nome Gnome Foam
• Cry of excitement upon seeing 1/100 of a Vietnamese dong as the price of ratatouille. -> Ooh! Xu Stew
• Spooky and exhausted digital assistant. -> Eerie Weary Siri
• A single sister rotated. -> One Nun Spun
• Secures the bovine strolls. -> Locks Ox Walks
• Archaeologist Indiana has AirPods. -> Jones Owns Earphones
• Proudly spoken pavement poem. -> Crowed Road Ode
• An alabaster location after dark. -> White Site Night
• A strange grass-covered garment worn by ancient Jewish priests. -> Odd Sod Ephod

Reading the first letters of these triplets in the order they are clued gives the phrase THING FOX SEWS ON SLOW JOE CROW’S NOSE. This is a reference to the rhyming book Fox in Socks, which contains the sentence “Fox sews hose on Slow Joe Crow’s nose.” The answer is HOSE.

This is a word ladder from HAND to FOOT, but the clues are out of order. Each word differs by one letter from the previous word. The full ladder – including the clues which lead to each word – looks like this:

• HAND
• HIND – Rear, as a leg
• WIND – Air current
• WILD – Not tame
• WELD – Connect metal using heat
• MELD – Combine, often referring to sets of cards
• MELT – Become liquid
• FELT – Cloth made of pressed wool
• FEST – Big party, for short
• ???? – The answer to this puzzle
• MIST – Fine spray or light rain
• MAST – Vertical pole on a boat
• MASH – Alan Alda show
• MOSH – Dance violently
• GOSH – Golly!
• POSH – Swanky or luxurious
• POST – Opposite of pre-
• PORT – City with a harbor
• FORT – ____ Sumter
• FOOT

The only two four-letter combinations that can link FEST and MIST are FIST and MEST. Of those, FIST is the real word – and the answer to the puzzle.

The first step in solving this puzzle lies in noticing the abundance of words from the NATO phonetic alphabet. In order, those words are Whiskey Oscar Romeo Delta Sierra Papa Echo Romeo Sierra Echo November Tango Echo November Charlie Echo, which spell out the phrase WORDS PER SENTENCE.

Counting the number of words in each sentence gives 1, 14 19, 23, 5, 18, 3, 15, 22, 5, 18, 20. With A=1, B=2, etc., this translates to ANSWER COVERT. The answer is COVERT.

Each of the clues leads to a phrase beginning with the name of a card, given in order from ace to king:

• Jim Carrey role: ACE Ventura
• Opinion: TWO cents
• Nursery rhyme characters: THREE blind mice
• Schoolyard game: FOUR square
• Chinese seasoning: FIVE spice
• Amusement park: SIX Flags
• What you might sail: SEVEN seas
• Beatles hit: EIGHT Days a Week
• What a cat has allegedly: NINE lives
• Religious rules: TEN Commandments
• Personification of winter: JACK Frost
• Rapper and actress: QUEEN Latifah
• The Jungle Book character: KING Louie

The cards given with each clue are the length of the answers, not counting the card names. This allows solvers to create a cipher key based on the answers. For example, the first row of cards spells out VENTURA, so the ace of diamonds must represent V, the two of clubs is E, etc.

Applying this cipher to the unclued cards at the bottom spells out the phrase A TWO SLANGILY. A slang term for two, used most commonly when referring to cards, is DEUCE.