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  • Casey likes latte but dislikes cappuccino.
  • Casey likes suburbs but dislikes cities.
  • Casey likes wheat but dislikes cereal.
  • Casey likes rococo but dislikes baroque.
  • Casey likes flannel but dislikes wool.
  • Casey likes groups but dislikes crowds.
  • Casey likes initiative but dislikes ambition.
  • Casey likes burros but dislikes horses.

What, exactly, is it that she dislikes?

Hints 1-2:

After some consideration Casey realizes that she dislikes coffee but likes tea.
Casey likes vanilla but dislikes cinnamon.

Hint 3:

Had this been a Word™ puzzle, it would have been called Neat Word™.

Hint 4:

To decide whether she likes a word or not, Casey writes it in upper case.

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    $\begingroup$ This is so clever. I was going for "Casey at the Bat." And now suspect a legal case. Or a medical case. Signed, medical editor. Good one! $\endgroup$
    – humn
    Apr 2, 2019 at 3:39
  • $\begingroup$ Oh wow, now the trail of clues leads to Oklahoma. Too many Caseys, too little knowledge. Signed, legal secretary. $\endgroup$
    – humn
    Apr 2, 2019 at 3:52
  • $\begingroup$ This looks like one of these Words TM challenge $\endgroup$
    – Soltius
    Apr 3, 2019 at 18:09
  • $\begingroup$ Could the answer be (ROT13) flabalzf? V zvtug arrq gb or n yvggyr zber fcrpvsvp, ohg vg fbhaqf yvxr “pvaanzba” nf va Uvag 1-2. $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Apr 4, 2019 at 5:30
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    $\begingroup$ @user477343 No. $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 4, 2019 at 7:16

4 Answers 4

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I think I got it, hint 4 helped a lot:

She likes

LATTE, WHEAT, FLANNEL, INIVITATIVE, TEA and VANILLA because they are all angular without any round letters. She likes SUBURBS, ROCOCO, GROUPS and BURROS because they are the exact opposite, so just round letters.

On the other hand, she doesn't like

CAPPUCCINO, CITIES, CEREAL, BAROQUE, WOOL, CROWDS, AMBITION, HORSES, COFFEE or CINNAMON because they are all mixed.

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    $\begingroup$ So Casey dislikes her own name ... $\endgroup$
    – Pugmonkey
    Apr 5, 2019 at 13:33
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I found the following logical pattern, but I don't know the exact word for it:

A is B but B is not A , is it Syllogism? Association fallacy?

Casey likes latte but dislikes cappuccino.

You can make cappuccino out of latte, but you can't make a latte out of cappuccino.

Casey likes suburbs but dislikes cities

You can develop a suburb to become a city, but you can't develop a city to become a suburb.

Casey likes wheat but dislikes cereal.

You can make cereal with wheat, but you can't make wheat out of cereal.

Casey likes rococo but dislikes barocco ( Baroque)

Baroque architecture is serious, dramatic, and heavy. On the other hand, Rococo is light, airy and decorative. Baroque has aspects of Rococo, but Rococo doesn't have characteristics of baroque. You can convert Rococo into barocco, but you can't convert baracco into rococo.

Casey likes flannel but dislikes wool.

You can make flannel out of wool, but you can't make wool out of flannel.

Casey likes groups but dislikes crowds.

A crowd can have groups but a group is not a crowd.

Casey likes initiative but dislikes ambition.

You can initiate but not be ambitious. But if you are ambitious you initiate.

Casey likes vanilla but dislikes cinnamon

Vanilla is authentically grown where cinnamon is authentically grown ( i.e. Sri Lanka). But cinnamon is not authentically grown where vanilla is authentically grown ( i.e. mexico uses cinnamon from Sri Lanka)

Casey likes tea but dislikes coffee

You can make tea from coffee ( i.e. coffee leaf tea) but a coffee is not a tea.

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  • $\begingroup$ Likes/dislikes puzzles like this are usually trying to find rule about the letters in the word, rather than their meanings. Fannee Doollee, for example, only likes words with a double letter in them. $\endgroup$
    – Rupert Morrish
    Apr 3, 2019 at 21:30
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    $\begingroup$ This is a very elaborate theory, but alas, not the right answer. Thank you for pointing out that I misspelled "baroque" - fortunately, Casey dislikes baroque as well :-) $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 3, 2019 at 21:34
  • $\begingroup$ @MariiaMykhailova my other guess was things that are not mild in characteristics $\endgroup$
    – Mel
    Apr 4, 2019 at 15:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Mel No, this is not the answer either. $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 4, 2019 at 15:33
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I think the answer is

Casey doesn't like words that have letters that sound different than their "normal" pronunciation. I.e. Cappuccino has a "c" than is pronounced like "ch".

This appears to be only part of the story if it is the case so maybe someone can elaborate...

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  • $\begingroup$ No, this is not the right answer. I think there are multiple examples of both liked and disliked words that don't really fit $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 4, 2019 at 0:29
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Second attempt...

I think the answer is she likes words that take an "s" for their plural. And in particular, the pluraled "s" is pronounced as an "s" and not as a "z". i.e. the plural of cappuccino would be cappuccini in Italian I believe. But lattes is acceptable in French (I believe).

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    $\begingroup$ No. That doesn't fit a lot of data points, like crowds and horses. (As a bonus hint, pronunciation doesn't have a say in the answer) $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 4, 2019 at 21:51
  • $\begingroup$ The points about the "z" was made because of crowdz and horsez. That's my pronunciation though. Yours may be different. $\endgroup$
    – Leonhard Euler
    Apr 4, 2019 at 22:03
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    $\begingroup$ I'm not a native English speaker, so I steer clear from any puzzles related to pronunciation :-) The puzzles which ask me to identify the object on the picture are trouble enough :-D $\endgroup$
    – Mariia Mykhailova
    Apr 4, 2019 at 22:35

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