"Color Code" - July 24, 2020

[sphorning]

Finished the grid and now hanging with Isaac. I don't understand 13A. Maybe I have the wrong first letter...

[BrianDavidson]

On the ship, not seeing it yet. Perhaps after wine with dinner...

Well that didn’t work, but who cares?

[SewYoung]

Still keeping Isaac company. Just not finding it this week.

[Jeremy Smith]

Finished the grid and now hanging with Isaac. I don't understand 13A. Maybe I have the wrong first letter...

Peter Pan.

[Jeremy Smith]

I remember when I used to be able to solve these by Thursday evening. That hasn’t happened in weeks. I’m lucky to be solving by Sunday evening lately. These are either getting more difficult, or I’m losing my solving skills.
The entry point to this one makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Tripod]

I am starting to enjoy Isaac's company and he's offered to let me run a tab. So it could be worse? No problems on Grid, except Peter Pan. Now just doing my best Elmer Fudd impersonation chasing rabbits. I think I will add some Chianti Classico to the equation, see if Red Wine tips things in my favor.

Is baseball really back?

[rexthree]

finished the grid and keeping isaac company at the bar. not making headway on the meta.

[EVJ]

I’m getting nothing! Do I need to get out some sheet music?!

[whimsy]

I’m getting nothing! Do I need to get out some sheet music?!

I was considering singing the entire list of clues to the tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

[DrTom]

Well finally touching dry land but not without someone tugging and pulling on my lifeboat so hard that I'm surprised they don't have a latisimus dorsi strain. It really is, as Joe Ross states, a beautifully tight puzzle and as always quite true to and dependent on the Title, but OMG getting to the point where that becomes evident is a slog. DAMN we have some bright people on this Board because a whole bunch of you saw this right away. Anyway, I'll take what I can get so I'm ashore but not submitting, mainly because I would promptly set my pants on fire if I claimed that I has solved this for a chance at the mug.

[FKelly]

I've been working on Color Code on and off since Thursday. Just singing the Blues right now. Green with envy of those who have solved it. Red as a beet after working out at the gym. Sometimes extra oxygen stimulates new ideas, but not today. No RGB HTML color code here!

I normally color code the important letters and words of my entries to the WSJ Crossword Puzzle Contest, so I hoped I would be prepared for this one. D-47 wahr! Nanu, nanu!

I'm so far down this rabbit hole I can't distinguish colors any more, it's all shades of gray. Color vision requires well-lit conditions.
Did you realize that Old World primates, including humans, have trichromatic color vision? Our eyes have three types of cones with spectral peak responses at short (S) 420 nm, medium (M) 530 nm and long (L) 560 nm wavelengths, all courtesy of a configuration change in retinal. This change from 11-cis-retinal to all-trans-retinal gives a nudge to a photopigment(opsin) specific to each type of cone. The different retinal-opsin complexes absorb photons at different wavelengths which trigger a chemical signaling cascade resulting in color perception by the brain.

Interesting post by TPS #161 referencing "Kryptos, the Uncrackable Code" at https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/us/krypt ... index.html. The last part, passage 4, is still unsolved after 30 years. The author, Jim Sanborn, has revealed one word clues over the years: Nov. 2010, "NYPVTT", the 64th–⁠69th letters in passage four, become "BERLIN" after decryption; Nov. 2014, "MZFPK", the 70th–⁠74th letters in passage four, become "CLOCK"; and Jan. 2020, “QQPRNGKSS”, the 26th-34th letters become "NORTHEAST". ". So, “OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYPVTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR” becomes “OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVNORTHEASTOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBBERLINCLOCKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR” when partially decrypted. The "BERLIN CLOCK"could be the Mengenlehreuhr (Set Theory Clock , see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mengenlehreuhr) aka Berlin-Uhr ("Berlin Clock"), Uhr der fließenden Zeit (Clock of Flowing Time, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_of_Flowing_Time) or Weltzeituhr (World Clock, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Clo ... nderplatz) ). Mengenlehreuhr was the first public clock to tell time by means of illuminated, colored fields. Uhr der fließenden Zeit uses neon green colored water flowing in a network of pipes to 12 large spheres and 30 oblate small glass spheroids to keep time. Probably not related to the WSJ Puzzle Contest, but both nice applications of using a "Color Code".

[FrankH]

Keeping Isaac company again.

[BethA]

Lost at sea, for the second week in a row!

I’ve had a few Sunday evening solves, and they are the most memorable, so I’ll keep open the possibility of another one today!

[Joe Ross]

I would promptly set my pants on fire if I claimed that I has solved this for a chance at the mug.

as the kids are saying, these days, without offensive punctuation

[Joe Ross]

as the kids are saying, these days, without offensive punctuation

im sorry 4 punctuist commas in last msg

[MatthewB]

Securely on the boat with Isaac... Bleary - eyed from staring at the grid.. Plenty of time I keep telling myself.

[WDunbar]

Finally got around to starting, and made it to shore right away after only a little swimming around. This reminded me of the kind of puzzles you find in Panda Magazine, so I think doing that helped. Good one!

[Schmeel]

I'm ashore.
Or at least on a shore. It's nice to arrive somewhere after a couple of weeks at sea.
It took me a good while to figure out the mechanism, and the end result is a five-letter word that is consistent with what looks like the puzzle's theme. It just seems to me that it took a lot to get there.
Be it right or wrong, a slightly chilled Chardonnay would be nice for my efforts.

[Jim and Anita]

Ashore. Our youngest team member had the crucial insight very early this morning and we have been celebrating on the beach ever since. We are amazed yet again at the clever construction of this puzzle (which is much easier to appreciate with hindsight ). Thanks for the fun Mike.

[Commodore]

Mired in a vast sea of #FF0000 (255,0,0) herrings.
(Even so they make for a good breakfast. More Bloody Mary, sailor?)