"Sign Language" June 14, 2024

[Conrad]

Agreed. Amazing puzzle. I know I am in the minority and I won't spoil why I feel that way until my Crossword Fiend writeup drops at 12:01.

Forgot to mention that I am on shore.

[pilsbandy]

Whew, started late and made it ashore with some very heavy help. Won't be submitting because it wouldn't feel right. I'm gonna chalk it up to being whooped after spending a beautiful Father's Day with my son. 83 days sober, and we've got temps in the 95° - 105° range coming this week so I think I'll make the smart move and have some Pedialyte.

[rjy]

Won’t be submitting, ‘cause you gotta solve it first and that I didn’t do. Saw nudges all weekend but just could not put it together. Five minutes to find out how big a blind spot I’ve been sporting…

[Libbypibby]

At the bar. Threw a Hail Mary. Looking forward to the solution

[hcbirker]

[Joe Ross]

The most frequently-used letters in thr original Wordle database mirrors closely those in the English language.

EAROT
ILSNC
UYDHP
MGBFK
WVZXQJ

Vowels are more important in Wordle-based games, so I have the propensity to seek them out in grids when nothing else is apparent.

[benchen71]

Here's another deeeeep rabbit hole for the @The XWord Rabbit. Until I was gently nudged away, I really thought this was going to be the actual answer. I just wish the letters spelled out in the grid gave me the message "WE HAVE THE MEATS"!

[CptnCodon]

Here's another deeeeep rabbit hole for the @The XWord Rabbit. Until I was gently nudged away, I really thought this was going to be the actual answer!
Sign Language rabbit hole.png

I fell down the same rabbit hole (and deeply suspected that the answer must be Arby's, but I couldn't piece it together).

The other rabbit hole I got sucked through was circling all the L's and S's (as hinted by 68A and the initials of the title) and trying to make sense of the shape. If only I tried other letters.

Oof... Ah well... there's always next week!

[mheberlingx100]

Well, there's always next week.

My PG-rated rabbit hole : unhelp was the hint. If you look at every clue that has the letters "un " in them, the answers in the grid spell (left to right moving to closest letter) the word "braless". So the obvious answer would be Hooters. Several problems here, of course:

1) Mechanism has little to do with signs or language.
2) I've never been to Hooters, so I'm not sure if it's a fast food chain or casual (?) dining. Or what specifically servers wear (or don't wear) in that establishment.
3) Maybe it's not R-rated, but close enough to be too uncomfortable to be in a WSJ puzzle.

At the end, I put in Checkers as an Hail Mary. No particular rational, other than a check mark sometimes indicates where you sign some documents.

[Laura M]

Nope. I think it was fair though.

I did do letter frequency analysis, so I knew something was up there, but I didn't succeed in making sense of it. I usually have trouble with the visual ones.

If I had thrown a Hail Mary, it would have been White Castle, for no reason other than SLIDE(R)S in the bottom right :-)

[hoover]

Never in a million years. I noticed a lot of Es, far more than expected, but they didn't make a recognizable shape. I tried shading all of the letters in SIGN, but that didn't make anything, either. Why on earth would one choose to shade all of the Ts, As, Cs, and Os? Is there something that hints at that?

[hcbirker]

My main quarrel was that the title didn’t help at all and the clues didn’t either. But I’m still in awe of the construction of this puzzle. Kudos to those who solved solo.

[Damaged]

I went with double letters, which gave me a lot of letters with which to spell “root beer”. Except there were double L and S… but then the clue ellesse had me convinced the L and S were “less”.

Ergo: A&W

[Aragorn]

I received a second hand nudge to color in the infrequently occurring common letters. googling letter frequency and comparing to the grid eventually got me to the bell shape so I guessed Taco Bell. I didn't even make the connection that the highlighted letters were "TACO" which would have made it a lock. Did not submit in either case as I never would have guessed the metanism. congrats to those who found it on their own!

[sharkicicles]

good puzzle, would have never gotten it without the friday crew (did not submit to the paper.)

[Sleepy]

My main quarrel was that the title didn’t help at all and the clues didn’t either. But I’m still in awe of the construction of this puzzle. Kudos to those who solved solo.

After solving with the help of a very solid nudge/nudges, I went looking for some kind of clue/clues anywhere in this puzzle that would lead to highlighting a’s t’s and o’s. And by the way throw in the c and chop off the g while you’re at it. The only remote hint I could find was the word “chain” in the instructions. That could possibly lead an experienced muggle to look for a chain of letters, which 51 A does kinda fit the bill. So maybe look for a’s and t’s and o’s and realize that there is actually a chain of them! And then make the leap to include the pair of c’s and anagram the word taco. I would love to know how many actually solved without a nudge, and what their thought process was. And my hat’s off to them! Great puzzle week!

[Mister Squawk]

It would be interesting to create a tool that did both frequency and spatial analysis...

[Miki]

Here's another deeeeep rabbit hole for the @The XWord Rabbit. Until I was gently nudged away, I really thought this was going to be the actual answer. I just wish the letters spelled out in the grid gave me the message "WE HAVE THE MEATS"!


Sign Language rabbit hole.png

I submitted Arby's just for the pure fact that 68A was a company named after its founders initials. I never actually new Arby's was named after its founders. I always thought it was RB short for roast beef. Well, this week I learned something new about a sign, but not from MG, but from the other MG (Mr Google).

[batfella]

I would never have solved without the Friday zoom call. Kudos to the select ones who solved alone.

[lxpeterson]

In the words of my sainted mother, if you can’t say anything nice about a meta, don’t say anything at all.