MEOW #91 Talk Like a Sailor

[benchen71]

Nudged to the solution. Nice one!

[DrTom]

Well Day 2 and we have a few more solvers. No doubt that pesky WSJCC is getting in the way but that's OK this one will still be active two days after WSJCC is closed. So take your time, peruse the other puzzle, then come back to free this poor seagoing cat!!! New to the solvers list:

16 rjy
17 CPJohnson
18 edestin
19 Dave C
20 Cinny
21 benchen71

[Bird Lives]

At about three bells this morning, I was lying awake wondering about what the mechanism for the WSJ might be (more accurately, trying to remember anything about that puzzle), when suddenly I realized what the mechanism for Sailor Talk had to be. And since I have never seen an episode of BBT, I had an extra step with Mr. G before the ship''s cat was finally roaming the decks.

[HeadinHome]

FINALLY - a little nudge and the jig was up, as sailors say. Ditto on the visit to Mr. G.

[DrTom]

At about three bells this morning, I was lying awake wondering about what the mechanism for the WSJ might be (more accurately, trying to remember anything about that puzzle), when suddenly I realized what the mechanism for Sailor Talk had to be. And since I have never seen an episode of BBT, I had an extra step with Mr. G before the ship''s cat was finally roaming the decks.

So you three belled the cat?

We call him Jingles...

T

[DrTom]

Hmmmm - no new solvers, I guess everyone is waiting for "Nudge Saturday"? Well what the heck, let's break the rules and do Nudge Late Friday Night!!!

Sailors can talk to each other in many ways!

Sailor's language is frequently peppered with F words

You might hear a sailor say "Hey U, hand's up!"

If you have done both grids, compare them. Though different in shape there are some similarities

[woozy]

Needed just nudge 1. So annoyed I needed nudge one as I had gotten just about everything involved.

[Beth Tyrpin]

Great Meta. Needed nudge one. The answer is so perfect.

[Ergcat]

Waiting for confirmation but hoping the cat is free!

[DrTom]

Waiting for confirmation but hoping the cat is free!

It is, as you now know. Unfortunately I stepped on his tail and he is meowing like a sailor.....

[DrTom]

OK, three more for the list - I believe that Mr. Shenk and Mr. Gaffney are commanding everyone's attention at the moment - they sure have mine, not that it is doing a lot of good.

23 Beth Tyrpin
24 MaineMarge
25 Ergcat

[DrTom]

Well....crickets! I've been banging my head against the Gaffney wall to no avail and probably many of you are as well. Tomorrow is the reveal so I'll provide one last SHOVE for those who are still curious and want to solve something at least. (I've gone back and solved my own three times just to make me feel better!)

In the "old" days, before radios and the like, sailors on different ships or those who were respectively on ships and on land who needed to "talk" used a communication method that would be very helpful to those seeking to free felines!

[DrTom]

Two more intrepid souls have either finished the MGWCC or used sailor terms to dismiss it and solved the MEOW. Not an overwhelming response, but certainly, for me, a good show for a MEOW .

26 DowJones
27 Carolyn


Tom

[Dow Jones]

The cat has escaped (hopefully not overboard). Creative puzzle. Thanks, Dr Tom !!

[Cap'n Rick]

As an old sea Cap'n, I'm embarrassed to admit that I needed all of @DrTom's nudges, but my cat is finally free!

Nice one, @DrTom!

[DrTom]

Well the good Captain brought his ship to shore (no doubt to off-load that darn cat) and finish out this week's MEOW. With Cap'n Rick there were a total of 28 solvers. Thanks to everyone who gave it a go. The VERY elaborate reveal is to follow.

[DrTom]

Well “Talk Like a Sailor” was better received than even I thought, and of course I am delighted. As constructors we really do not do this for ourselves, we do it to try to provide entertainment for our friends, and when they do enjoy one we are all ecstatic. If they are hard it really isn’t our aim, we WANT people to solve, we WANT the AHA. Therefore when something provides that, more’s the better.

This was actually an idea I had for some time but never could see how I might make it come to life because of the grid it would need. Then Josh did Jailbird and I saw the grid I needed. From there it was a fairly smooth process, well except for finding all of the short words. Believe it or not it is a lot harder to fill a grid with short words than long. Deciding how to designate my “flags” was easy, put F’s in those cells since F can stand for (F)LAG and Lord knows Sailor’s speak is littered with F words. Then it just entailed getting those F words into a 3 x 4 Grid.

I got that done and was feeling pretty smug when a terrible realization hit me. I was used to seeing humans waive those flags, and humans have a long torso. The Grid I made used that idea and therefore had an elongated bottom (see figure A). There were, in that figure, 10 possible positions whereas semaphore only has 8. Therefore I now had to create a separate 3 x 3 Grid that had only the 8 positions that semaphore letters are composed of (see figure B) in case someone Googled semaphore and got the 3 x 3 interpretation. That is why you got two grids.

Figure A

Figure B

How does one go about getting the answer? Well first you have to recognize it is semaphore that is the “mechanism” and then figure out the letters. Several people said they got VERY worried when they got the first two letters : F U ???????. Trust me, that probably never entered my mind - a statement which is up there with “Sure I’ll hold your sleeve of Oreos and no, of course I will not eat any of them!” There were also several people who said they ended up thinking “Talk Like a Pirate”. I can see why the jump was made, but there would have had to be less F words and more Rrrr words for that to happen. Anyway here are the illustrated solves for both versions.

I do realize I once again let my TV watching habits sully my mechanism. I was surprised to find out how many people had never watched Big Bang Theory. To me that is like saying “Jeopardy, isn’t that some game show?” Luckily, unlike “Household Names”, you did NOT have to be a fan of the show to get the answer, but those who remembered Sheldon’s “Fun With Flags” podcast had an immediate confirmation. I thank all those who solved it, and also all those who just tried it

[Dplass]

Vexillology!

[DrTom]

Vexillology!

A vexing subject to be sure!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Got to this one late. (We were traveling.) The cat, which had been bagged, is now free.

Very nice! Thanks, Dr. Tom.