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Cowboys eat cowpeas for good luck
Answers for Globle, Chronogram, and Metazooa from Mar 25 - Mar 31
Abe Train
April 01, 2024
Coming to your inbox every Monday with educational fun-facts and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.
This week, we have…
A fun fact inspired by a recent Metaflora answer
Answers to last week's games
A Linxicon conspiracy
Cowboys eat cowpeas for good luck
These cowpea cowboys are ready for any adventure the Wild, Wild West throws at them! Image generated by DALL-E.
Superstitions have been around for as long as people have had time to think about life’s biggest mysteries. Where did we come from? What will tomorrow bring? How can we get ahead? Considering the first challenge is making it through another day, it only makes sense that what we eat can be associated with more than filling an empty belly. Some foods are believed to guarantee the purse is filled as well. Said to bring luck, wealth, and prosperity, Black Eyed Peas (aka “cowpeas”, or Metaflora answer #182) have long been a staple of the New Year’s Day menu in the American South.
The tradition can be traced to the 17th century in Virginia, where this crop that had been used to feed cows was combined with rice (another crop which was easily cultivated in the region), giving rise to “hoppin’ John.” While the exact reference for the term “hoppin’ John” is muddled, the name has become synonymous with the New Year. Many recipes exist, including boosted combinations of leafy greens and pork. Some households add a penny to the pot to boost the spell. But the magic remains the same—eat your black eyed peas and you will receive money. Worse, forget to eat your peas—and you may have a difficult year ahead. Rumor has it that even the Pharaohs of Egypt ate black eyed peas for luck! From Pharaohs to cows to the American South, these magic beans are bound to bring you good luck.
Answers to last week's games
Monday, March 25 to Sunday, March 31.
Globle
| Globle: Capitals
|
Chronogram
| Fictogram
|
Metazooa
| Metaflora
|
Linxicon
The following are the shortest paths from last week:
#35 manage -> management -> illness -> symptom
#42 congressional -> politics -> history -> time -> now
#43 achieve -> deliver -> transport -> port
#44 faculty -> teacher -> understudy -> alternate -> instead
#45 support -> maintain -> pristine -> fresh
#46 motivation -> motive -> thus -> yet
#47 launch -> success -> successful -> accurate -> usually
#48 soft -> friendly -> conversation -> discuss
#42 Play now!
Forgeous
 "Portrait of a Mameluke" by Horace Vernet |  Forgery of week, from March 31 |
Vernet, Horace. Portrait of a Mameluke, Said to Be Roustam Raza (ca. 1781–1845). 1810, oil paint on canvas, 75 cm x 61.6 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/439337.
Play Forgeous for April 1.
A Linxicon Conspiracy
The latest game from Trainwreck Labs, Linxicon, uses a free online dictionary to determine which entries are real English words. While the API works as expected most of the time, there are a few exceptions suspiciously absent from their list of valid words. I suspect that the creators of the API have hidden a secret message using these missing words.
Here are the missing words that Linxicon players have found so far:
look
was
tight
touch
every
their
disorderliness
hell
phase
transitional
vacuum
for
net
fewer
You can check if a word is missing using the form on this site. For example, if you enter the word “hello”, you will get a list of definitions, but if you enter the word “hell” you get the message “No definitions found”.
If you find any other missing words, or figure out what the secret message is, let me know by responding to this email!
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
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