"Sign Language" June 14, 2024

[woozy]

I think this needed another small hint somewhere in the puzzle, nothing too obvious, but just something. I also think if it had a few more T's in the "image" instead of mostly all the other letters, that could have helped make it stand out and look a little neater. Or like TACO spelt out properly clockwise. Mega props to anyone who got it on their own though

And.... I realize rabbit holes are par for the course.... it need fewer legitimate seeming rabbit holes.

[kurtalert]

Yeah... I was never gonna get that one. I was fixated on the words that all started with a clearly pronounced letter- BEgrime, ENvenom, Iger, Diesel, ELlesse, SErialized, Aeneas, ELf, etc. My very VERY limited awareness of sign language (which is most likely wrong) led me to believe that weird words like that might be spelled out phonetically, but I never made any progress with any of this. Oh well! Happy I didn't spend a ton of time toiling.

[Flying_Burrito]

I spent several hours on this one (too may, according to my wife). Did not find anything at the beginning, Tried the mechapuzzle for the first time, but I know a tool is only good as how the user prompts it. I back-solved by focusing on what I considered the top 8 - 10 fast foods are in the US and I used ChatGPT for that by loading the grid and then painfully ask the tool of how a specific answer would fit in the grid and clues. I am using GPT a lot for work and the tool is just amazing (but you need to have the GBT turbo 4.0 version for best results as it can create images and read patterns)

Got a bunch of garbage for McDonald's, Burger King. Wendy's. GPT was very confused by the apostrophe. Arby's showed an interesting patter. When I tried Taco bell and asked if it could fit, GPT went off a different tangent as it tried to read the clues and answers. But when I prompted about solving for the specific letters in the grid, it told me the answers that included the letters. I looked at it for a while and then bingo, it's the bell. How appropriate for a Flying Burrito.

[sheilaco]

What is the mechapuzzle?

[schmidzy]

All right friends, I may be on the younger end for this forum, but I assure you that "younger" does not always mean "tech-savvy."

I'm very familiar with mechapuzzle, use it all the time for non-WSJ/MGWCC puzzles. But, I always thought you couldn't use it on puz files where the answer key is locked. But now I'm realizing that many of you know the secret wizardry — can somebody fill me in?

When I upload the file, the grid displays full of X's. I see the following text at the top of the screen:

Select a puzzle file to analyze. If the solution is restricted or locked the puzzle must be solved.

Where do you "solve" the file in a way mechapuzzle can read it?

[schmidzy]

What is the mechapuzzle?

Mechapuzzle is a really neat website where you can upload a digital crossword file and it displays various data, including (relevant to this puzzle) letter frequency distribution relative to the "average" puzzle, as well as word length distribution, clue lengths, and much more. Well worth a bookmark!

https://boisvert42.github.io/mechapuzzle/

[Mister Squawk]

What is the mechapuzzle?

Mechapuzzle is a really neat website where you can upload a digital crossword file and it displays various data, including (relevant to this puzzle) letter frequency distribution relative to the "average" puzzle, as well as word length distribution, clue lengths, and much more. Well worth a bookmark!

https://boisvert42.github.io/mechapuzzle/

For those of us with neither a Mac nor a PC (Linux, ChromeOS, and Android only in the Squawk household) is there a web site that allows you to edit .PUZ files?

[Schmeel]

All right friends, I may be on the younger end for this forum, but I assure you that "younger" does not always mean "tech-savvy."

I'm very familiar with mechapuzzle, use it all the time for non-WSJ/MGWCC puzzles. But, I always thought you couldn't use it on puz files where the answer key is locked. But now I'm realizing that many of you know the secret wizardry — can somebody fill me in?

When I upload the file, the grid displays full of X's. I see the following text at the top of the screen:

Select a puzzle file to analyze. If the solution is restricted or locked the puzzle must be solved.

Where do you "solve" the file in a way mechapuzzle can read it?

The truth is, I'm not tech savvy either. So I'm not certain what the real answer should be. But when I realized it was probably a visual puzzle, and that the clues were probably not the path to the answer, I just created the grid in Crosshare, copied the entries from my printed paper to the grid and saved it as a .puz file. I then uploaded it to mechapuzzle.
But I'm also curious what the real answer is.

[Conrad]

All right friends, I may be on the younger end for this forum, but I assure you that "younger" does not always mean "tech-savvy."

I'm very familiar with mechapuzzle, use it all the time for non-WSJ/MGWCC puzzles. But, I always thought you couldn't use it on puz files where the answer key is locked. But now I'm realizing that many of you know the secret wizardry — can somebody fill me in?

When I upload the file, the grid displays full of X's. I see the following text at the top of the screen:

Select a puzzle file to analyze. If the solution is restricted or locked the puzzle must be solved.

Where do you "solve" the file in a way mechapuzzle can read it?

For the WSJ (which is locked): you have to manually complete the grid first (in Across Lite, Black Ink, or whatever you solve .puz files with). Then upload to Mechapuzzle.

[MMe]

Another link worth having is https://tinyurl.com/weeklymeta which gives a puz version of the WSJ puzzle. (Used to be revealable, not anymore.) I'm not clear on how or exactly when this gets updated, but by the time I'm tempted to resort to the mechapuzzle, it's usually up.

(Solve manually, then Save before uploading to mechapuzzle.)

[femullen]

I am pleased to demonstrate just how easy this solution was. Follow these simple steps:

• Using a spreadsheet, create a normalized letter-frequency table showing the ratio of the number of appearances of each letter in the grid to its expected number of appearances in common English.

• Make a plot from the table. It'll be best to set the vertical axis on a logarithmic scale so that letters occurring at much less than their expected rate will be as apparent as those occurring at much more.

• Now note that J and X occur at a much higher rate than expected, but at just one occurrence each, these are obvious outliers. Discard them.

• Now observe that T, A, and O, ordinarily very common letters, all occur at very nearly one-half their expected rate.

• (So do H and K, but these are obvious outliers. Discard them.)

• Now note that C, occurs at barely a quarter its expected rate, and it is the lowest figure for any letter except Q, which, being also an obvious outlier, should be discarded.

• Now gather up these four low-frequency/non-outlier letters, and there you are!

And if I'd thought of that before midnight, I'd have been ashore with the A-Team.

[CromsFury]

From over on Crossword Fiend

[Darth]

Psst... Hey, Mr. Xword Rabbit... Come, follow these "signs" with me.... @The XWord Rabbit

First, (43A) "Virgil hero" ... screams VIRGO from head to toe,
so it looks like we're on the verge of a go!
And then (59D) "Capone"... is so close a call
to CAPRICORN it can't be corn-incidental!

And (47D) "Pied"... has a piece of PI for PISCES,
that's fishy enough to push to the test
and with help from that prez of Zaire (19A) SESe
you can almost imagine finding the rest!

Now (37A) "Take" ... TA for TAURUS,
is it a bull or a bull ride?
And LI (28D) "Likely"... weighs in for LIBRA --
so this bumpy path is justified!

Oh, look (46A) "Carter".. gives claws for CANCER,
let's add that to the mix
with both head (CA) and tail (ER)
So now we've got six!

But what to make from (17A) "Arles" and (30A) "Are"...
a dilemma for sure since both start with AR
which we know is for ARIES...
"Are we there yet?" ...Har har!

So, where to go with a fork in our (bunny) trail?
Stop dead in our tracks? End of story?
Noooo, we reach for the tail,
count letters, do inventory!

We're looking for fast food and we note all letters but Q
so backtrack for Qdoba or Quiznos and look for a clue;
perhaps signs on the shore or fast food crumbs there...oh well...
the beach crowd seem restless and nothing rings a (taco) bell!

Wait! I've got a visual! If you squint just a bit and look at the D's,
a squished "Q" is formed in the grid ... a Q of D's (use imagination please!)
It's DQ... for Dairy Queen -- Nope, Lol. I lied.
Maybe better to say DQ for Disqualified! :P

[hoover]

Thank you, @Darth ! I briefly followed a similar path:

Code: Select all

Sign Language
sign: street, asl, zodiac

17A Arles - Aries L-I   UNE
43A Virgil - Virgo IL-O AENEAS
59D Capone - Capricorn  NESS

No, I don't know where I was going with that!

[mattythewsjpuzzler]

I think my estimation of the puzzle would have gone up if they actually spelled TACO to form the perimeter of the bell. Or if that was too obvious other Mexican food items sold at Taco bell in the shape of a bell.

[Streroto]

... I did the mechapuzzle letter frequency analysis and focused on the fact that there were so many E's not the fact that there weren't as many A's. ...

Am I the only one who looked at the mechapuzzle letter frequency and thought "Meh, nothing really noticeable here"? (I hadn't known that if you click on a letter that it would highlight the appearance of the letters.

I was unaware of this but found it once I got a nudge to use mechapuzzle. Like others I initially focused on all the Es but as soon as I found this feature it all fell into place.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is TACO BELL. Shading all the letters T, A, C and O in the grid forms the shape of a bell, as seen on the chain’s logo.

This was one of our all-time toughest contests! We had just 398 entries, with only 60% correct. If you're one of the 240 who got this right, congratulate yourselves on being elite WSJ crossword contest competitors.

Incorrect answers included most of the top fast-food chains, including: ARBY'S (36), MCDONALD'S (11), POPEYE'S (8), BURGER KING (7), and a few others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Robert Fiore of Newton, NJ!

[Zobo3737]

I am pleased to demonstrate just how easy this solution was. Follow these simple steps:

• Using a spreadsheet, create a normalized letter-frequency table showing the ratio of the number of appearances of each letter in the grid to its expected number of appearances in common English.

• Make a plot from the table. It'll be best to set the vertical axis on a logarithmic scale so that letters occurring at much less than their expected rate will be as apparent as those occurring at much more.

• Now note that J and X occur at a much higher rate than expected, but at just one occurrence each, these are obvious outliers. Discard them.

• Now observe that T, A, and O, ordinarily very common letters, all occur at very nearly one-half their expected rate.

• (So do H and K, but these are obvious outliers. Discard them.)

• Now note that C, occurs at barely a quarter its expected rate, and it is the lowest figure for any letter except Q, which, being also an obvious outlier, should be discarded.

• Now gather up these four low-frequency/non-outlier letters, and there you are!

And if I'd thought of that before midnight, I'd have been ashore with the A-Team.

Trying to take notes on the simple steps.
Normalized letter frequency?
Make a plot?
Logarithmic scale?

Never mind.

[Nlobb]

What??????????????

[woozy]

All right friends, I may be on the younger end for this forum, but I assure you that "younger" does not always mean "tech-savvy."

I'm very familiar with mechapuzzle, use it all the time for non-WSJ/MGWCC puzzles. But, I always thought you couldn't use it on puz files where the answer key is locked. But now I'm realizing that many of you know the secret wizardry — can somebody fill me in?

When I upload the file, the grid displays full of X's. I see the following text at the top of the screen:

Select a puzzle file to analyze. If the solution is restricted or locked the puzzle must be solved.

Where do you "solve" the file in a way mechapuzzle can read it?

Well, I solve the .puz file by hand. Save it after solving. And upload that one.