XWord Muggles Forum

not making it to shore this weekend, excited to see the answer in a few hours and kick myself.

I’ll take a nudge if anyone could be so kind. Just something small

I give. Will wait for reveal.

I'd also like a small nudge. I feel like I'm nearly there, but I want to figure it out before I see the answer!

burak wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 6:28 pm I feel like my 48-week WSJCC streak is coming to an end. I've been lucky to get the answer at the last minute with A PLUS and AUDIO, but that luck is finally running out as I don't have the mental energy to do a deep dive on this.

Happy to report that the streak lives on! I finally did the extra work that I was dreading, noticed something, and then noticed what I had to notice. This last minute swim ashore surely makes me thirsty.

spotter wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 10:59 pm I’ll take a nudge if anyone could be so kind. Just something small

I’d even take a nudge post deadline. I’d like a crack at solving before looking at the answer.

Nudges received thank you kind muggles!

True story:
As the witching hour approached, I was having one last attempt to decipher the code, hoping that a figurative lightbulb would come on, when... the actual lightbulb blew and I was in darkness! Sums up my efforts this weekend - no 30A or7D for me this week.

After trying about a millions different things, I finally figured it out just now, it is exhilarating to finally see it after all that effort. Whew!

On shore at the last minute!

Tried up to the end. Couldn’t get it. So many rabbit holes...

Color in C-O-D-E, and then apply a different type of code

The Meta Clue told me that there would be Theme Entries/Answers & that there would be 5 of them. I highlighted the Theme Entries before starting to solve. I couldn't solve the Theme Entries only, so filled in the entire grid, noticing 55D, but also noticing a lot of As & Is in the grid.


I moved on to the next grid, #3, to Highlight all of the As & Is. Then I highlighted the rest of the vowels & noticed that the Os & Es were only in the Theme Entries. This made 55D click for me & I quickly noticed that Cs & Ds were only in the Theme Entries.


I move to the last grid (#2) & highlighted all Cs, Os, Ds, & Es, exactly as 55D instructs us to do. I saw the Morse Code patterns, interwebbed the entire code table & solved for WIRES.

So here was my process.

I couldn't even determine what the actual theme answers were this week. My best guess was:

THESECONDCOMING
BLACKCATS
DIOCESE
SLAVEANTS
ARTUROTOSCANINI

I saw 55 Down - Which is TINT - I thought that might mean to shade something in the theme answers - I thought maybe C O D E was in there.

I tried to take out all the letters in C O D E in all the theme clues and the only thing that was gibberish was DIOCESE which turned into IS - which made me think I was on to something but then when the rest of it was just garbled letters I figured I either had the wrong theme answers or was just totally off.

Joe Ross pretty much confirmed that I had the right general idea and then said the puzzle becomes a visual thing within the grid. After that I blackened the letters in the grid and immediately saw a dash and dot and knew it was going to be Morse Code.

So the key from me getting to where the basic meta solving instruction got me to the finish line was the word “visual.” I’m not sure if I would have solved it without that word or not - given my track record probably not but my initial thoughts on seeing the title was that it was going to be Morse code - I though there were going to be “Dot” and “Dash” hidden in the grid.

Morse code!!! I even colored in the CODEs! But I didn’t think of morse code. Brilliant! Mazel tov to Mike Shenk and all solvers!

Wow. Given the nudge to color in C-O-D-E I was happy to realize the meaning of 55D but still saw nothing. It would’ve taken me a loooong time staring to realize what to do with it still (if at all). Major kudos to those who solved!!!

After seeing the answer I regret putting any effort into it.

Soooo.... what's worse than not figuring out the mechanism? How about figuring out the mechanism but reading dot-dash-dot as L instead of R? Yep, I sent in WILES as my answer. To me, it's apropos: ˈwī(-ə): a trick or stratagem intended to ensnare or deceive.

Why is WIRES the answer? I mean, is it the only word that would fit, or is there some other way that it relates to the theme?

I’m curious if anyone solved it without having to Google Morse Code - are there any Boy Scouts, Navy Men, or former Western Union telegraph operators among us?