XWord Muggles Forum

Hector wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:55 am

RPardoe wrote: ↑Sat Feb 20, 2021 9:42 am Catching up on missed puzzles (thanks Texas power companies for the loss of power) as I get back online post winter storm.
An answer submitted that is the best I could come up with, though didn't quite click for me though each of the steps seems certain.

Did you see this edit to the original post?

EDIT: Guess what? Brilliant old me decided to make a slight change after the puzzle went through testing ... and removed an entry that needed to be there for the meta .

Please solve the meta pretending as though there is the entry HURT in the grid somewhere.

Yes I did. Might even say, it led me astray. Best explained after the solution.

Well, I am stumped. Nudges didn't help. Error correction didn't help.

Solution:

The title 'Fish' is intended to be parsed 'F is H'. Five entries in the grid that begin with F become a new word when the first letter is changed to H:

FADES -> HADES
FOIST -> HOIST
FALTERS -> HALTERS
FAT -> HAT
FARM -> HARM

Four synonyms of these words (five, including the HURT that I screwed up ) can be found elsewhere in the grid:

FADES -> HADES -> PLUTO
FOIST -> HOIST -> ERECT
FALTERS -> HALTERS -> ROPES
FAT -> HAT -> CAP
FARM -> HARM -> HURT

The initial letters of these synonyms spell PERCH, which is the answer.

I’m afraid this was a KAS7 for me. Hatter you are just too clever for me, I may be a house cat only type guy. Great puzzle and I admire your artistic talent that HAS to make the construction harder. So, now I’ll wait and see what you have in store for tomorrow.

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 6:04 am
FADES -> HADES -> PLUTO
FOIST -> HOIST -> ERECT
FALTERS -> HALTERS -> ROPES
FAT -> HAT -> CAP
FARM -> HARM -> HURT

To clarify my comment how I led myself astray with the HURT correction. I was gathering the H words, and put HURT in the first column (source) not the second (target) So my list also had:

HARM > DENTS
HURT > A SORE

to get P/E/R/C/D/A as my initial set of letters.

So my initial submission was RED CAP (a gold fish variety).

I didn't even finish the puzzle. What is 27 down? I was missing 27 and 53 and couldn't get it from either direction.

bhamren wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:45 am I didn't even finish the puzzle. What is 27 down? I was missing 27 and 53 and couldn't get it from either direction.

I don't have my grid anymore but I looked at the blank and I think it was falters. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

bhamren wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:45 am I didn't even finish the puzzle. What is 27 down? I was missing 27 and 53 and couldn't get it from either direction.

Yes, 27-D is FALTERS and 53-A is ROD. I'm sorry you couldn't finish and I know it's harder with unchecked letters. For future reference I never restrict the solutions so you can always reveal the answers in the puz file or the web-hosted version.

Even with all the nudging, I still couldn't see" F is H" even though there was another meta a few weeks ago that involved a similar first letter substitution. Good effort, but very frustrating for me.

ReB wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:13 pm Even with all the nudging, I still couldn't see" F is H" even though there was another meta a few weeks ago that involved a similar first letter substitution. Good effort, but very frustrating for me.

I did try the "F is H" approach but there were so many F-to-H substitutions that didn't spell anything that I almost immediately dropped that approach. I spent most of my time looking at the "letter shaped like a fishhook" (J) being right next to the fish's mouth...

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:17 pm

ReB wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:13 pm Even with all the nudging, I still couldn't see" F is H" even though there was another meta a few weeks ago that involved a similar first letter substitution. Good effort, but very frustrating for me.

I did try the "F is H" approach but there were so many F-to-H substitutions that didn't spell anything that I almost immediately dropped that approach. I spent most of my time looking at the "letter shaped like a fishhook" (J) being right next to the fish's mouth...

As Jay (oldjudge) pointed out, it would have been cleaner to have only F-words that substitute to H-words, precisely for this reason. My bad

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:05 pm

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:17 pm

ReB wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 3:13 pm Even with all the nudging, I still couldn't see" F is H" even though there was another meta a few weeks ago that involved a similar first letter substitution. Good effort, but very frustrating for me.

I did try the "F is H" approach but there were so many F-to-H substitutions that didn't spell anything that I almost immediately dropped that approach. I spent most of my time looking at the "letter shaped like a fishhook" (J) being right next to the fish's mouth...

As Jay (oldjudge) pointed out, it would have been cleaner to have only F-words that substitute to H-words, precisely for this reason. My bad

But I should have stuck with it, since there were enough proper words formed, as you intended...

Despite the mis-edit, this was very well executed. I mean, a graphical fish, as well as doubling five theme entries. Even solving the grid was interesting.

Hector wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:10 pm Despite the mis-edit, this was very well executed. I mean, a graphical fish, as well as doubling five theme entries. Even solving the grid was interesting.

Agreed. And I'm a bit annoyed with myself for not getting this after developing the GE - IS - EL meta. Duh

Very clever! I'm calling this one a KAS5. Early on I submitted a hunch guess - BLUEFIN TUNA.

I noticed the Latin phrase that the grid fish had swallowed: ALEA IACTA EST. Which loosely translates (google tells me) to THE DIE IS CAST. All of the grid fish was orange except for his blue tail fin which was dyed (DIED) blue. And he's almost taking the bait - the fish hook 55a J, which was CAST right at his mouth.

But I suspected the true mechanism had to be much more involved, as indeed it was. So that was a big fat RED (or perhaps ORANGE?) HERRING.

Couldn't finish the grid (I refuse to google grids unless I'm just confirming), so didn't get anywhere. Not knocking the grid - just beyond my level. Thanks for the puzzles!