XWord Muggles Forum

The nudges helped me realize that I had totally misinterpreted the prompt. And of course I had missed the main puzzle theme. But other than that it was a fun solve!

We have indeed had some solvers since the nudges came out! Here's the list:

DrTom (tester)
lbray53
Cindy Weatherman
Meg
DIS
Qmark
Darth
boharr
Hector
Bbaack
markhr
rjy
oldjudge
ChrisKochmanski
Bird Lives
CPJohnson
SeamusOL
whimsy

I'm currently struggling with the WSJ, so instead of hitting my head against a brick wall, I've decided to construct another meta!

With you at the bar on the ship (WSJ), unless you’ve solved since posting.

Off the couch on this one, but needed all the nudges (this particular area of knowledge is a dim memory that I’ve gladly forgotten almost all of) so between you and Dr. Google I thudded to the floor. Back to noodling on the WSJ.

Got it with the nudges. Thanks, Ben!

Ooh, fun meta! The grid had me fumbling at first but with the nudges it clicked. Nice job!

"Let's find out what's behind Nudge #3!"
(That's what got me there.)
Thank you, Ben, for the remedial!

Solver update:

Wendy S HeadinHome
Sharkicicles
edestlin
MH
BrennerTJ
hoover

We're up to 24 now.

Really clever and fun - I was just way off base. Nudge #3 did it!

(Also: You do not know how hard it was for me not to reply with a punny comment that would give something away, haha.)

MikeyG wrote: Sat Sep 24, 2022 1:43 am (Also: You do not know how hard it was for me not to reply with a punny comment that would give something away, haha.)

After the reveal, have at it!

The cat is out after nudges - and an embarrassing number of wrong submissions even after the nudges. (Are you keeping count, Ben? Did I set a record? I truly lost track.)

Whoa! completely forgot about this! What's the latest one can come back. Well, those nudges did it. Never would have thought of it. Very clever.

I forgot about it, too! I need to release the answer, but I'll do a solver update first...

Solver update:

Gutman
Mikey G
KayW
woozy

which brings us to a grand total of 28.

Here's the solution to "She Sells Sea Shells":


All you chemistry experts should have had an easier time of it! I was hoping that "shells" in the title in combination with the grid art would make you think of the Bohr model of the atom. The proliferation of "P"s in the central area sticks out. What might "P" stand for? Well, in the context of the Bohr model of the atom, P=proton. After that, I hoped solvers would make the jump that if P=proton then perhaps E=electron, which is then confirmed by the location of the "E"s in the shells. Finally, once you identify SILICON as the atom you would think back to the puzzle title and recall that she sells sea shells "by the sea shore". And, of course, SILICON is derived from sand, so it would all tie together nicely.

SHELL made me think of UNIX programming. It was clear the rings were shells but.... I just never thought of atoms... although maybe I should have-- after all I needed a reason why the middle core was so much denser and and nearly half Ps. That it's Bohr's atom is pretty logical but I'd have never have thought of it.

I majored in Chemistry in college but I didn’t get it….. Even after the nudges I was still hung up on the title thinking I had to look for repeating letters. Like “n” in outer shell, etc. and looking for a “name” threw me off . I really wanted it to be “Niels” as in “Niels Bohr” but I couldn’t do anything with the 14 “p” at the core!!