"Sign Language" June 14, 2024

[clonefitz]

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!

I spent most of the weekend with Darth and Hoover down the Zodiac path. I really thought I was onto something when I found four clues beginning with a meaning of one of the four zodiac signs, with one letter changed: Virgil hero - Virgin, Fashionable inits - Fish, Jam - ram, Gov't security - goat. After I was unable to find a fifth (although the sign of the ram, Aries also fit this description with Arles article), I began to see similar entries in the grid: PREDICAMENT - PREDI RAM ENT, LOONEY TUNES - LION EY TUNES, TBILL - T BULL, MIKE DEWINE - MIKE D TWIN E. All these examples really had me stuck in the Zodiac rut.

The other rabbit hole I went down briefly was due to the final across clue which is often a hint: SLIDES. There were four occurrences in the grid where the letter E is repeated 3 times going diagonally down from left to right (and one instance of three Ss). I thought that might have potential as well.

My personal best 22-week solving streak comes to an end, and with it my first 2024 DNS since week 1. I've seen some less than glowing reviews of this puzzle, but I think it was a great concept and certainly gettable with "GOT A TATTOO" sitting there. I found it interesting that Matt and Peter were able to construct this puzzle without having to resort to left-right symmetry.

[Nlobb]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??
Not that there is anything wrong with the tech methods; I just don’t know anything about them. Of course, I went to college before hexadecimals were taught too!!
Nonetheless I do love the weekly wsj puzzle!
Thanks to those who construct them for us every week!!

[schmidzy]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??
Not that there is anything wrong with the tech methods; I just don’t know anything about them. Of course, I went to college before hexadecimals were taught too!!
Nonetheless I do love the weekly wsj puzzle!
Thanks to those who construct them for us every week!!

I remember being surprised to hear Matt make a comment in his Q&A last year something along the lines of he thinks most meta solvers do solve on paper, or he thinks everyone should, something like that. Personally, as much as I enjoy paper solving in general, I've gotten so used to doing metas on my phone where I can highlight, circle, and erase to my heart's content and now I can't imagine doing it any other way! But I may be in the minority.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Did anybody get the license plate number of that meta-truck that hit us?

This week’s Gaffney & Gordon collaboration, “Sign Language”, is memorable in so many ways, not the least of which is a record four Rabbit Hole nominations. Competition was never fiercer.

First, a few honorable mentions:

We have to thank Zobo3737 for this big laugh: “I submitted CHURCH’S CHICKEN because the word AMEN is in PREDICAMENT, and all I had was a prayer.” Your Rabbit also wishes to thank Mirage (Post #191) for taking a Roman numeral route, and Yoda66 (Post #197) for falling off a cliff, via Looney Tunes.

Now on to the nominations (and please forgive your Rabbit if he doesn’t go into the usual detail – there’s a lot of ground to cover.

benchen71 got his third nomination since February (Post #167), taking a circuitous phonetic route to arrive at the founders of Arby’s in 50D.

Second, we have Georgeall who misquoted Julius, but found his way to Little Caesar’s anyway. (Post #181)

Third, we have LadyBird who knows your Rabbit is a sucker for photos, especially one that so wonderfully depicts the crudest set of Golden Arches he’s ever seen. (Post #190).

And finally, there’s Darth who not only presented a cohesive story but did it in verse. (Post #213).

Bravo to all!

A long video to close with, but your Rabbit figured that given the hours some of you spent trying to solve this puzzle, another eight minutes wouldn’t matter much. It’s David Letterman at his childishly irreverent best, working the drive-thru window at Taco Bell. Time for a lie down. We can all use a rest after this one. Until next week…

[mheberlingx100]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??
Not that there is anything wrong with the tech methods; I just don’t know anything about them. Of course, I went to college before hexadecimals were taught too!!
Nonetheless I do love the weekly wsj puzzle!
Thanks to those who construct them for us every week!!

I remember being surprised to hear Matt make a comment in his Q&A last year something along the lines of he thinks most meta solvers do solve on paper, or he thinks everyone should, something like that. Personally, as much as I enjoy paper solving in general, I've gotten so used to doing metas on my phone where I can highlight, circle, and erase to my heart's content and now I can't imagine doing it any other way! But I may be in the minority.

I used to solve online, but found it was more difficult to solve metas that depend upon finding connections among clues, rather than grid entries.

[Conrad]

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.

I think this was my best chance to win the mug, and the odds were 0.42%

[michaelm]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??
Not that there is anything wrong with the tech methods; I just don’t know anything about them. Of course, I went to college before hexadecimals were taught too!!
Nonetheless I do love the weekly wsj puzzle!
Thanks to those who construct them for us every week!!

Do everything except the big Saturday and Sunday crosswords on computer or iPad.
Get newspaper versions of those and save for airplanes.
Felt a bit odd last week on Thursday when WSJCC wasn’t immediately available online and had to print and hand fill.

[BarbaraK]

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?

I use Across Lite on my Mac or iPad and then save the puzzle after I solve it.

When I only have my iPhone, for which Across Lite is not available, I have to solve with Puzzazz, and Puzzazz does not have any way to save the solved puz file outside the app. In that case, I'd either beg a muggle buddy for a copy of their solved .puz or use crosshare to create the same grid and export it. (Mechapuzzle does not care that there are no clues.)

[hcbirker]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??
Not that there is anything wrong with the tech methods; I just don’t know anything about them. Of course, I went to college before hexadecimals were taught too!!
Nonetheless I do love the weekly wsj puzzle!
Thanks to those who construct them for us every week!!

I only use paper and pencil and I have a pretty good record. Except when something like this comes up!

[MajordomoTom]

dumb-and-dumber-lloyd.gif

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.

I think this was my best chance to win the mug, and the odds were 0.42%

never tell me the odds

... which were roughly 240 to 1, in all probability

[DrTom]

I was travelling and trying to do this on a phone so absolutely NO hance. I did get a nudge from @Joe Ross but even with that I could not have gotten home. I am rather glad I did not spend too much time on it because I was with family that I drove about 1000 miles to see and it would have made me crazy(er). To those who got it, BRAVO, I had trouble even understanding the explanation.

EDIT: I went back and highlighted the A'a (I did that originally but did not see the others so came to the ARBY'S conclusion since they kind of made the A for Arby's) But I did not notice the strange distribution of the other letters (it was no so much their frequency but WHERE they weren't). So I have to say, in retrospect, that it was a neat puzzle, but I am glad Matt/Peter did it and not me (not that I think I even could) or I would never have heard the end of it.

[HoldThatThought]

I am rather glad I did not spend too much time on it because I was with family that I drove about 1000 miles to see and it would have made me crazy(er).

^{RED ALERT}
DrTom is threatening to become crazier.

You have been warned.

[ship4u]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??

Pencil?? HA! We confidently and brazenly use PEN and paper!!!

[ship4u]

Shucks, 240 to 1 odds are pretty darn good. I can't help but wonder if my entries are making it to the proper pool!!!

[HunterX]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??

I'm an iPad user. While the app I use has changed, and I don't have the new version, here's my old write-up of the method I use. Suggestion for using an iPad app to solve metas.

There's probably a better way to do it now. But I'm used to the method.

[michaelm]

I would be curious to know how many people solve puzzles the old fashioned way: with paper and pencil??

I'm an iPad user. While the app I use has changed, and I don't have the new version, here's my old write-up of the method I use. Suggestion for using an iPad app to solve metas.

There's probably a better way to do it now. But I'm used to the method.

King Me! a nice trip down AHA! memory lane...

[Wendy Walker]

Team Pen-and-Paper here!

[HoldThatThought]

My puzzle solving method involves earthworms, repurposed 70s era lunchboxes, and 2 particular colors of Play-Doh, but I'm not willing to say any more than that.

[Joe Ross]

My Play-Doh colors turn to peuce.

[whimsy]

Not much going on for me in terms of puzzling, but I did find a friend ---

Street art in Siauliai.