"Three by Three" - November 5, 2021

[boharr]

How does one know what letter is first and what letter is second? The little 3 x 3 grids can be flipped - they still work, but what letter goes where?

That bugged me too.

You don't.

Each could be either one so thre are 2^4/2 = 16=8 possible solutions. But with the letters [B,T], [O,O], [U,O], [K,R] it should be pretty clear what the answer is.

This is exactly right (unless I am missing something). I threw the letters into an anagram solver so it wasn’t an issue, but otherwise think the numbers are not very useful.

Didn't need an anagram solver but the numbers do lay it all out orderly,
TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8

1 = BEE = B
2 = OWE = O
3 = EAU = O
4 = KAY = K
5 = TEA = T
6 = AUX = O
7 = EWE = U
8 = OUR = R

[Joepickett]

I thought this would be a good clue, if we were allowed to give clues:

That is one creepy movie.

[markhr]

Cool puzzle.
I remember there was a previous puzzle (not sure if it was MGWCC or WSJ) that required letters to be arranged in a box. I didn't get that one either!

Yes. A WSJ puzzle in December 2017 called Toy Box used a 4 x 4 word square as the mechanism to solve the meta.
I didn't solve it at the time either, but I remembered it this time around.
That was the only reason I was able to get this one. The fact that two of the words in each group start with the same letter was a subtle hint.

[SReh26]

I've read the discussion--what's the final consensus?
Do "nudged" solvers get to submit?

WSJ doesn’t care, and it’s their contest.

There’s a huge range between “yes, you did everything right, that’s it,” and “the answer is clown and here’s why”. Exactly where in there you feel like you solved it and are ‘entitled’ to submit is a personal decision. And whatever you decide, someone will think you’re wrong.

One thing I’ve never seen on this subject is anything resembling consensus:)

Of course we get to submit! Rock on!

To be honest, I never dreamed people could check google for the answers to grid clues, but folks on here do it! So they aren’t all saints (a few are!)

[woozy]

That bugged me too.

You don't.

Each could be either one so thre are 2^4/2 = 16=8 possible solutions. But with the letters [B,T], [O,O], [U,O], [K,R] it should be pretty clear what the answer is.

This is exactly right (unless I am missing something). I threw the letters into an anagram solver so it wasn’t an issue, but otherwise think the numbers are not very useful.

Didn't need an anagram solver but the numbers do lay it all out orderly,
TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8

1 = BEE = B
2 = OWE = O
3 = EAU = O
4 = KAY = K
5 = TEA = T
6 = AUX = O
7 = EWE = U
8 = OUR = R

Except each square:

ABC
DEF
GHI

so that the across word is DEF and the down word is BEH, could be just as legitimately written as

ADG
BEH
CFI

so that the across word is BEH and the down word is DEF

If you do

ATE
BEE
SAL

You might get B=1 and T= 5 and get BOOK TOUR

But if you did

ABS
TEA
ELL

You would get T=1 and B=5 and get TOOK BOUR

Depending upon which way you orient the squares there are 16 possible answers:

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8 => BOOK TOUR

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 8
OUR (R) = 6 => BOOK TRUO

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) =3
EAU (O) = 4
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8 => BOKO TOUR

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) =3
EAU (O) = 4
AUX (O) = 8
OUR (R) = 6 => BOKO TRUO

etc.....

But I find that utterly acceptable as .... Well, c'mon you have to make an eight letter phrase

(B|T)(U|O)(O|K)(K|O)(T|B)(O|R)(O|U)(R|O)

and the answer should be pretty clear from that.

[MarkD]

"MWAHAHA!!!"

[Obie J]

A puzzling puzzle, to be sure.

1. The parenthetical numbers indicated that each 12-letter theme answer was to produce 2 letters of the solution, but how?
2. The clue for 1A clearly contained a hint at the solution, but what?
3. Three by three was another hint, but each theme answer contained four three-letter words, not three.

Around noon on Sunday, I somehow arrived at the idea that each of the theme answers could be arranged in a 3 by 3 box. That was not a coincidence.
And it seemed logical that filling in the empty square inside the box would be a step toward the solution. But I needed 2 letters for each box, not just one.

It wasn't until around 6 pm that I saw that I could fill in the middle square and get two words, one vertical and one horizontal. And then the hint at 1A enabled me to put the whole thing together.

I think I spent more time on this meta than any other that I actually solved.

[zach]

"MWAHAHA!!!"

Matt might as well have named this “You’ll Never Solve This One Either!”

[boharr]

This is exactly right (unless I am missing something). I threw the letters into an anagram solver so it wasn’t an issue, but otherwise think the numbers are not very useful.

Didn't need an anagram solver but the numbers do lay it all out orderly,
TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8

1 = BEE = B
2 = OWE = O
3 = EAU = O
4 = KAY = K
5 = TEA = T
6 = AUX = O
7 = EWE = U
8 = OUR = R

Except each square:

ABC
DEF
GHI

so that the across word is DEF and the down word is BEH, could be just as legitimately written as

ADG
BEH
CFI

so that the across word is BEH and the down word is DEF

If you do

ATE
BEE
SAL

You might get B=1 and T= 5 and get BOOK TOUR

But if you did

ABS
TEA
ELL

You would get T=1 and B=5 and get TOOK BOUR

Depending upon which way you orient the squares there are 16 possible answers:

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8 => BOOK TOUR

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) = 4
EAU (O) = 3
AUX (O) = 8
OUR (R) = 6 => BOOK TRUO

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) =3
EAU (O) = 4
AUX (O) = 6
OUR (R) = 8 => BOKO TOUR

TEA (T) = 5
BEE (B) = 1
OWE (O) = 2
EWE (U) = 7
KAY (K) =3
EAU (O) = 4
AUX (O) = 8
OUR (R) = 6 => BOKO TRUO

etc.....

But I find that utterly acceptable as .... Well, c'mon you have to make an eight letter phrase

(B|T)(U|O)(O|K)(K|O)(T|B)(O|R)(O|U)(R|O)

and the answer should be pretty clear from that.

But neatness counts.

[Joe]

Never ever in a hundred thousand years

[Cindy N]

If you put each pair of letters in alphabetical order, you avoid TOOK BOUR.

[stmv]

I'm one of those purists who mostly tries to solve these without any help, not even looking at the boards until after the solution is posted. I never came remotely close on this one. My big rabbit hole, which I haven't seen mentioned, was thinking of Tic Tac Toe, which is played on a 3 x 3 board with Xs and Os, where you could have X = AIX and O = EAU (or, in hindsight, AUX). The four long nonsense themers aligned nicely vertically by 3s, and there was a 3 x 3 subblock where 7 of the 9 three-letter words contain either an X or an O, forming a reasonable partial game of Tic Tac Toe. I got stuck there and was never able to dig myself out.

[Eric Porter]

One mistake I made was supplying the wrong letter. EWE could easily have been EYE. They both sound like a single letter. I also did AIX instead of AUX at first.
I kept getting BOOKTRIX. Then I checked my work. I don't really like all of the ambiguity in this puzzle, but given how hard it must have been to construct, I can understand.

Actually, now that I look at the solution, I should have realized that it was a single letter in the middle; that it didn't change depending on the direction. It wasn't actually as ambiguous as I'd thought.

[hayburner]

If you put each pair of letters in alphabetical order, you avoid TOOK BOUR.

But you do run into BOKO TOUR

B, T (1, 5)
O, U (2, 7)
K, O (3, 4)
O, R (6, 8)

1. B
2. O
3. K
4. O
5. T
6. O
7. U
8. R

[Inkwisitif]

Props to whoever wins the mug on this one, incredibly difficult puzzle. To win it on this one would be such an amazing achievement.

[michaelm]

So, there were 16 three letter words in the theme answers and 16 three letter words in the remainder of the puzzle. I spent hours trying to match them up, translate them to French, and manipulate them in every other way possible. Never got out of that hopeless tangle. Hats off to those who solved correctly. On to the next!!

There were also some three letter French words pronounced as letters that were part of longer answers:
EST (pronounced A) as part of ARREST and
DIT (pronounced D) as part of YOUDIDIT.
Add in the ARR (pronounced R) and YOU (pronounced U) from those longer answers and that's a a part of why ISAAC (pronounced I) and I had a nice weekend together.

[Cindy N]

If you put each pair of letters in alphabetical order, you avoid TOOK BOUR.

But you do run into BOKO TOUR

B, T (1, 5)
O, U (2, 7)
K, O (3, 4)
O, R (6, 8)

1. B
2. O
3. K
4. O
5. T
6. O
7. U
8. R

Thank you. That's what I get for not double checking after another muggle pointed it out to me.

[TeaJenny]

I'm rather embarrassed to say that I submitted an educated guess Hail Mary at about 11:40 last night, and it was correct!

I never did figure out the actual mechanism, but instead crossed out duplicate letters in each theme answer and the results kind of looked like BOOK TOUR, if I squinted and ignored the X and Y. The pic is just a small fraction of my scribblings throughout the weekend.

Kudos to everyone who figured it out! This was a doozy.

This is why I almost never submit guesses - even if I were ever right, I wouldn't feel good about it if I didn't actually have the mechanism. And if I actually won with a guess... ugh, no, not worth it.

(Not suggesting that those who enjoy guessing and would be happy to win that way should change. As with nudges, everyone can do what feels right to them. The only rules that matter are those posted by the people running the contest.)

I don't do it often, either. I only submit a guess when I've tried everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - I can possibly think of first. That's why I said "educated guess". I'd rather risk submitting a wrong answer than no answer at all, especially after tearing my hair out all weekend. Definitely more satisfying to get the mechanism, no question about that.

[JeanneC]

Gonna see about nudging the wifey through this one. She never looks at this forum. After seeing how it works, I actually *love* it, but only for the brilliance of being able to put it together and make it work.

The pool of humans (or whatever species they are) who can figure out how to make this work on their own - with no more hints than what were given - would seem to be rather tiny. I really, really wonder about such folks. Am also most envious of them. Have read that we "normal" folks just aren't even capable of understanding "how" they think. (Have also heard them described as having IQ's of 160 and up). Would also love to know more about them.

Maybe the solvers come from the same planet as Elon Musk….

[Richard]

I was on our first vacation in two years to Death Valley. Beautiful place. Completely forgot about the meta. Got home late Saturday and looked at it on Sunday morning. Got the grid ok but stumped by the meta. So I said lets watch football. I doubt if I would have gotten this one in 100 years without several nudges. Congrats to those that did.