Equinox 59: feelin' groovy

The 59th Semi-annual Equinox Word Games Party took place on September 20, 2014, in Berkeley, CA. The theme was "...feelin' groovy..."

Name tags: Ann Daniels (Iolanthe) and Jon Zingman (Plaid) --name yourself in the style of a sixties band
Wall games:
     Nation cryptics -- Henri Picciotto (Hot) and Joshua Kosman (Trazom)
    ...the Morning Last -- Jill Tallmer (Shmaltzy)
    59th Street Bridge Song word search -- Jill Tallmer (Shmaltzy)
Mixer: "Hello Lamppost" -- NeilFred Picciotto (Renfield)
Performance game: “Ain’t You Got No Rhymes For Me?”, a charades variation -- Rick Rubenstein (Rubrick)
Paper-pencil puzzle: "Right and Left" -- Henri Picciotto (Hot)
Pencil-paper game: "Parsley Sage Rosemary and... Time!" -- Andrew Chaikin (Murdoch)
Megagame: "Three-Ring Circus" -- James Williams (Donimo)

59th Street Bridge Song

Wall game from Equinox 59: 59th Street Bridge Song word search -- Jill Tallmer (Shmaltzy)

Answers

...the Morning Last

Wall game from Equinox 59: ...the Morning Last -- Jill Tallmer (Shmaltzy)

Answers

Hello Lamppost

Mixer from Equinox 59: "Hello Lamppost" by NeilFred Picciotto (Renfield)

The final four pages of the PDF are a separate miniature version to be used as an example:

- "caution (4)" yields CARE
- "unencumbered (4)" yields FREE
    - those two go together as the compound word CAREFREE
- "horse strap (4)" yields REIN
    - which connects to the prior one yielding the common phrase FREE REIN
- "assert (5)" yields STATE
    - which connects to the prior one in a less obvious way, yielding the word REINSTATE

(It is worth noting that there are a few false positives in the set, some of which are at least as legit-sounding as the correct solutions. Players should not hesitate to ask the game leader for confirmations of their solutions.)

Once everything is chained together, a message is revealed; in the example, the message spells GOOD!

Answers.

Right and Left

Paper-pencil puzzle from Equinox 59: "Right and Left" -- Henri Picciotto (Hot)

The file includes both the puzzle and the solution (on another page.)

The puzzle turned out to be too difficult for a few of the participants. Possible hints include giving instructions about how it all works, and a pointer as to where to find the four-word phrase.

Parsley Sage Rosemary and... Time!

Pencil-paper game from Equinox 59: "Parsley Sage Rosemary and... Time!" by Kid Beyond (Murdoch)

- I will be cluing things that are well-known foursomes or groups of 4 -- like PARSLEY SAGE ROSEMARY THYME, or CLUBS DIAMONDS HEARTS SPADES.
- All the answers are in 1 of 8 categories: Books & Movies, Geography, Music, Religion, Science, Sports & Games, TV Characters, and Miscellaneous.

- First you'll see the first two letters of each thing, like so:

   CL
   DI
   HE
   SP

Your job is to write down "Suits" (or "Cards" or the like -- we're liberal here.) You don't have to write down the members of the category.

If you guess it here, you get 4 points.

- After about 15 seconds, I'll say the category -- in this case, Sports & Games. If you guess it here, you get 2 points.
- After 15 more seconds, I'll reveal another letter:

   CLU
   DIA
   HEA
   SPA

If you guess it here, you get 1 point.
You can change your guess throughout the round, and there is no penalty for an incorrect guess.

- After 15 more seconds, I'll reveal the answer and move to the next round.

- Highest score wins!

Three-Ring Circus

Megagame from Equinox 59: "Three-Ring Circus" -- James Williams (Donimo)

Solution

This megagame was created for the third Chicago Equinox party (2011).

Mark your calendars

Equinox 59, "Feelin' Groovy", will be on September 20, 2014

Equinox 60, "Best of", will be on March 14, 2015

Save the Dates

Equinox 58: 15 March 2014 — beware the Ides of March!

Equinox 59: 20 September 2014