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enter image description here

Name Who to Shock (Electrically):
 David Ingram
Anne Garcia
Robert Ortiz
Teresa Smith
Edward Vasquez
Elizabeth Nguyen

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    $\begingroup$ TIL the name of a plant in Urdu. :) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jan 30 at 13:31
  • $\begingroup$ @MOehm Collins Scrabble Words (2019) with definitions $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Commented Jan 30 at 13:44
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, I'm not questioning the validity of the word. I came from a different direction anyway. I just wanted to show my progress with an oblique comment. A cool puzzle, by the way, but I can't wrap it up. (I'm not asking for a hint; just putting my towel on the "halfway there" deckchair.) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jan 30 at 16:10
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    $\begingroup$ @MOehm Glad you are enjoying it. Everything you need to solve it is there in the post. I used my reply to your comment to post that word list to give solvers an idea of what I consider a legit word for the purposes of this puzzle. It is not important enough to include in the puzzle itself though. $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Commented Jan 30 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I had a nice aha moment and I may have had another one just now ... $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jan 30 at 16:24

1 Answer 1

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The electrical shock goes to ...

... poor ANNE GARCIA.

The answers to the seven rebuses are:

COLLEGE — LEG in COLE
SETBACK — SET and BACK
THISTLE — STL International Airport in Ton THIE
KLEENEX — Stan LEE in K'NEX toys
BASTILE — TIL, a word for sesame in Urdu, in BASE
ETHANOL — ET and HAN Solo and OL, a suffix for organic compounds with an OH group*
ANTIGEN — ANTI (crossed out sign) and GEN (generation)

* I'm not quite sure about the OH group, after all, the OL is already right there in Solo. Anyway, it must be ethanol.

These answers ...

... all have seven letters. They can be rearranged to form a word square where the same words can be read horizontally and vertically:

S E T B A C K
E T H A N O L
T H I S T L E
B A S T I L E
A N T I G E N
C O L L E G E
K L E E N E X

The list of names ...

... gives another hint: The first letters of the names spell DI AG RO TS EV EN or "Diag. Rot 7", where diag. presumably means "diagonal".

The diagonal of our word square reads STITGGX.

Applying Rot 7, that is shifting every letter by seven places in the alphabet and wrapping from Z to A if needed, we get ZAPANNE.

This is clearly ...

... an instruction to zap Anne.

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  • $\begingroup$ Nicely done, and well-summarized. Are you saying that instead of the hydroxyl group it is better to put -S-O, removing the letters from Solo to produce the OL? Also, wouldn't "til" also be an English word if it is in the Scrabble dictionary? (not that I've ever used that word. :) ) Also, not necessary for the solve, but there's a clue on which diagonal to look at. $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Commented Jan 30 at 20:22
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    $\begingroup$ No, I'm not suggesting that one rebus is better than the other; I just got stuck there for a little, but the overall property of the words cleared that up soon. The suffix for alocohols can be found in dictionaries, so that's fair. Merriam-Webster agrees with you that "til" is an English word, but it's hard to find even if you have identified the plant via reverse image search. I found it from filling in the blanks in the word square, of course. You can get away with a lot if you have a good mechanism to confirm the answers. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jan 31 at 5:40
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    $\begingroup$ Ok, makes sense. Also, the capital letters in "Name Who to Shock (Electrically):" were intended to indicate which diagonal of the word square. $\endgroup$
    – JLee
    Commented Jan 31 at 9:16
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, didn't see that. I just assumed it would be the "main diagonal", Aii. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented Jan 31 at 12:25

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