Jun 21, 2007 One Word Wonder Puzzle

I have no idea what the clues in the middle are for. going to back solve it to see if i can find out.

You solved without the clues? Have I been wasting my time?

[2] Didn't use any of the clues or the state of Montana, just the red letters and the grids.

Why is it that days I can't get here on time, I can solve the puzz within 3 minutes, and days when I get here right at the start, the puzzle is impossibly weird?

Glad you didn't use MOntana, I thot it was Washington...

Wow! I just did the same. Didn't use the clues and got the right answer. And it's my best finish yet...

It took you 7 minutes and 3 seconds to solve this puzzle.
You were the 5th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.

Anyone want to give a nudge? I'm finding words, but no connection.

It took you 25 minutes and 52 seconds to solve this puzzle.
You were the 4th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.

Top ten in both! First time...

[8] me too! never happens!

I solved this one from the grid boxes. Don't know what the other stuff is about

I also solved it only from the grids, not using the clues or the background. Now to figure out how one is supposed to solve it...

Right. I got it too. Has anyone made heads or tails of the clues, or has everyone solved from the grids alone?

Are the clues a complete red herring, or do they lead to something that many of us are bypassing?

The background IS relevant to the answer. Still trying to figure out the clues.

any more salty salt?

OK...got the clues now and agree with everyone. Don't know what the clues are for....

Oops....first post took forever

I give up on the clues. The grids helped and now I see where the background fits.

any clue as to what the clues do yet?

ok, kewl.... but the grids are blinding me! So small the print!!!

I am starting to long for the days when those who had solved the puzzle helped those of us who had not!!!!!!

Use the grids and the colored letters in the exact same way over and over. Once you find one, keep doing it. I don't know how to help. I couldn't get the second until after I did three others. Made it harder than I needed to.

or would salt on BGG after nearly an hour....

[19] That only works when the people who solved the puzzle had any idea of how to solve the puzzle as intended, rather than skip straight to the solution by close analysis of the grids.

in close analysis of the grids I get a million different words... this is not helping

Okay, so I found a series of five words, but I have no idea what to do with them. Plus, I've found a bunch of other words that don't do anything like that those five words do. I'm _finding_ things all over the place, but I have no idea what to _do_ with them.

[Edit:] I figured out, with some research, what to do with the words, finally (there were at least three possibilities for them). Based on that, I also figured out what the background had to do with it, _and_ I'm pretty sure I know what the clues mean, too. However, the clues are ambiguous enough that you can't figure out what they mean until _after_ you've solved the puzzle, pretty much. For example, is "Nuclear Reactor Disaster" "Chernobyl," "Three Mile Island," "Goiania," or "meltdown"? It's hard to know until you can backsolve it in. In fact, I'm _still_ not sure I've backsolved "clever" correctly...

The five words are a phrase indicating an answer.

I'm making a lot more than five words per grid and still have no idea where to go after that.

Each grid will produce only one word for you to use in the phrase

14th after 45 minutes? That's a first for me. Thanks to [19] for the salt on the grids. I'm going to try and backsolve now so I can give better help since I know I totally cheated.

The words in the grid follow the same pattern and use the red letters. Figure out which ones you have in each grid are all in the same pattern.

# It took you 1 hour, 2 minutes and 59 seconds to solve this puzzle.
# You were the 18th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.

And thus do I join the ranks of those who solved it but have no idea what the clues are for. At least the state makes sense.

As nearly as I can determine, the clues are supposed to tell you how to pick letters out of the grid. Or more specifically, what pattern to follow to do so.

[31] Really? I still can't see a thing. Good thing there was another way to figure that out.

Edit: I think I see it in some of them now. Especially the second and last

[31] Oh, now I understand all the clues!

[32] See GM.

28th. I don't get it, though. Googled the phrase, got an answer, it worked.

Not too impressed. BGG helped...

No idea what the state or the clues are for. Got it from the grid like (almost) everyone else.

Finally got it. Using only grids with six letters from each grid

I still don't know them all. I get the idea now, though. It's easier without them.

45 minutes and still 26th. Easy once you find the grid pattern and get the aha.

But no idea as to the clues either. :/

aha the light dawns Tony Montana

Sure will be interesting to see what the clues actually mean tomorrow night!

[41] see my post on bgg for all the clues

This puzzle was very clever, and took a lot of work to craft.

However, I spent a lot of time looking for words in the grids, then trying to make something of the leftover letters. I found 31 words, and even then, didn't find two of the critical ones.

I'm afraid that the clues in the middle didn't help until some pretty explicit salt at BGG.

Too much work for too little return.

The good news is, I learned a new word today:

Glossophobia!

[37] and [40] are perhaps a little too salty. I did get it from [29].

I'm inclined to agree with #43--at least, I assume it was clever. But it does seem that if you saw the trick, it went immediately, and if you didn't, you found yourself rather uselessly playing Boggle.

I don't understand.

I got it with help from BGG, but I still don't understand what the clues in the middle have to do with anything OR the state.

EDIT: Did a little research (very little) and now see the reference to the State. Still am confused about the clues though.

Almost too much information for a hard puzzle. I was tripping all over myself. Just having the grids and the red letters was enough.

Just used the grids and solved it in just over 10 minutes. Needed to look up some info on Wikipedia, but pretty easy to find the answer (once you see the question). Now I see why Montana is there, although it wouldn't have helped me anyway. Also, I have no idea what the clues in the middle are supposed to mean (unless they're somehow telling me to say hello to my little friend!)

[45] Let's just say that I'm playing Boggle. :(

I needed a ton of salt from BGG to figure out how the clues and grids were related

I think the biggest problem with this puzzle was that it wasn't obvious how the clues, grids and background came together. At the very least, I think the clues should've been above the grids.

For posterity, and in case the author comes by to read it:

The clues in the middle were so vague as to be unhelpful. If you knew the pattern, you could think of the answers that fit it, but until you knew the pattern there were so many possible answers that the pattern was impossible to see.

Moreover, as [50] observed, it wasn't clear that you wanted to solve those first. I dove into the grids, trying to do Boggle things that would hopefully form words or leave leftover letters to somehow indicate the clue answers--in fact, when I found the five word phrase clueing the answer, I thought what I'd found was actually matched somehow to one of the five clues, or perhaps that each word was matched somehow to one of the five clues...

The idea wasn't bad, per se, but the execution was extremely frustrating.