Aug 12, 2007 One Word Wonder Puzzle

Well, I filled in the crossword. But some things aren't matching up...

I've noticed that the letter frequency table has zero's for some -
18 letters have a frequency...

And the frequency of the bottom right letter = 0 ?

There's a reference in the title, but I can't get that to fit yet, either. I own the whole set of that.

Hmmm... 32 spaces (for letters in grid) but 33 letters listed in frequency and 1 blank.

light blue = double letter
dark blue = triple letter
pink = double word
red = triple word
.
.
.
(may be salt - who knows?)
--- [4] Apparatus
"Hmmm... 32 spaces (for letters in grid) but 33 letters listed in frequency and 1 blank."
Are we looking at the same puzzle?
I see 16 spaces and 26 letters and one blank....

[3] Perhaps you're thinking of ZOMGWTFBBQ?

[5] 4 words across with 4 letters each = 16, 4 words down with 4 letters each = 16. So, it could be 32 letters if you are counting letters instead of the "tiles" but still 34 listed in frequency.

[6] nope....search for zqfmgb

ZQFMGB is a word by Calvin in Calvin and Hobbes...
when they were playing scrabble...

[6] i thought it was of the cat and boy line of thought

[7] Apparatus
okaaayyy ...

[7] There's only space for 16 letters.

I'm getting nowhere. I tried getting the frequency of letters in the crossword, but that didn't get me anywhere. Surely there wouldn't be a crossword for no reason?

1300 anagrams...this is not good

* You were the 1st Tanga member to solve this puzzle.
* Average solve time: 11 minutes and 12 seconds.
* Median solve time: 11 minutes and 12 seconds.
* 1.176% of Tanga members that have attempted this puzzle have solved it.

Got a bunch of the letters and guessed based on what I had. Two of the numbers didn't add up for me.

SHARE!
(please)?

Kick our butts in the right direction?

you can almost get the word crossword, but that doesn't leave anything else...

Regarding the two numbers I can't resolve:

One needs both digits added, and one needs both digits reversed.

BTW, who's keeping score?

Edit: See [21]

Seems pretty easy to fill in the grid, but what's next? Is this really related to Calvin and Hobbes as leadfoot mentioned earlier?

I have:

Crosswo_d gilmnpttuv

Figured out the anomaly and why the numbers were screwy. Check through the letters you used and the distribution. It *will* change the outcome.

[14] Same here. Got some of the letters and took a guess. I don't really get how it's supposed to work yet.

salt please?
and not that mrs dash - no salt stuff...the real thing, in all it's brain hardening sodiumness

Gonna give some props to the author here. This was well-done. Still haven't figured out if there's actually a red herring involved.

[23] Jae, play the game using the tiles provided.

I did
and I had tiles left over.

[26] Did you keep score?

OK have values for each word. Still nothing jumping out at me.

I'm not so good at math

I feel like I'm getting more and more lost here...

I did the crossword...but it just doesn't MAKE SENSE.

Okay: To catch everyone up.

1) Play the game.
2) Keep score.
3) Use the tiles provided.

There does appear to be a red herring regarding left over letters.

Sorry guys and gals, I suck at salt. Yes, I'm a saltsucker.

Wow!
7th at an hour and 10 minutes into the posting!
Thanks for the seasoning Thosw!
--------------------------------------------------------
BTW
Excellent Puzzle! TheOneEye!

but you're missing some tiles up there!

8th at just over an hour....and now dinner is burned... I really gotta learn to let it go.

I have a bad feeling this requires me to know more about Scrabble rules than I do.

It took you 1 hour, 6 minutes and 17 seconds to solve this puzzle.
You were the 9th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.
Average solve time: 44 minutes and 13 seconds.
Median solve time: 42 minutes and 54 seconds.
7.200% of Tanga members that have attempted this puzzle have solved it.

Wow! really is the hard one tonight. My problem was a misread on my part. I thought I had it and went a different way because it wasn't working.

Blue Devil Ducky you had better not burn my dinner!

[5] is very helpful!

Not sure what you mean by keep score. You mean using real scrabble tiles and the score modifiers on the board?

[37] davey
yep

Well I suppose it would help if I didn't make adding errors on several of my solving attempts...

# It took you 1 hour, 14 minutes and 55 seconds to solve this puzzle.
# You were the 14th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.

* It took you 50 minutes and 54 seconds to solve this puzzle.
* You were the 19th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.

[35] Yep...that was the problem...had to look em up and figure out the problem. Playing while younger with what apparently were house rules messed me up.

Could have SWORN I put that in half an hour ago...

Not salty, just annoyed :)

[40] We seemed to play our own way, too.

[43] Complexity through obfuscation.

Oh well, I played the game, kept the score, and still ended up thoroughly confused. Maybe I'll give it another try tomorrow.

Hey all!
If it's clear (and dark) out your way - check out the
Perseids Meteor showers tonight!

[32] Wouldn't that make you a slug?

[47] Only if I attended the University of Santa Cruz.

[48] Touche

Am I the only one that used the letter F even though it is not listed as being used?

My mind kept blacking out trying to score these stupid words.

[50] hld1970
it's a phantom...

[52] Well, we now know its the blank tile, right Peggy?

Wow, I finally got it at 47 minutes in. Amazed I was only the 33rd after 2 1/2 hours...sheesh. Clever puzzle.

Question that I'll try not to make salty...

Got the answer and the crossword answers, but one of the across words seemed wrong to me, as the way I've always seen it is with an "e" on the end of it. Is that a plural?

[55] Yep, that's the plural.

[53] hld1970
-yep!

Interesting, and fairly well done, though I am irritated by the red-herringness of all those extra letters

[58] I haven't checked but what if the extra letters spelled out "red herring" Now that would have been clever.

Thanks for the positive feedback and constructive criticism everyone. I had the red herring in there on purpose as otherwise I felt that step was too obvious, but it would have been a really interesting move to have those extra letters spell something.

nice puzzle... not too hard ~ had to look up the tiles tho... haven't played in years... and ty [5] for the other info...

clever puzzle! But I'm hoping that the next few won't require as much research. Self-contained is always a nice feature for us lazy folk ;-)

OUCH!!!!! (just kicked myself!)

I didn't get this last night because for some reason I thought a "J" was worth 10, but it's only worth 8. That's why I came up with very confusing results. If only I'd have actually taken out my Scrabble set last night.

Nice puzzle TheOneEye!

I'm getting a 45 and a 39??? Still confused by the Frequency table! I'm more of a computer gamer than a board gamer.

So this puzzle requires one to have scrabble? I hate scrabble. I never have played scrabble. I don't own scrabble.

[65] We're not all botanists or hairdressers either, but we looked up types of leaves and shampoos too.

[64] Check your maths, and be sure to play with the pieces you're given.

[66] I found the tree puzzle annoying as well. But we all do use shampoo (I hope).

Question on the scoring -- are we playing by actual scrabble scoring rules? Because that would require knowing which words play first...

[69] Good point, but no.

aaarrggghh. I have recounted my results 3 times and still get a word that doesn't make sense. I am getting very frustrated. I know I have my words right, and I am pretty sure I am using the correct values (including the one for the "phantom") can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

never mind. I hate puzzles that require math skills.

I get 45 and 51. What am I doing wrong?

How do we determine that one is a "phantom?" That seems a stretch.

[71] That solved my math problem. I guess, since the frequency chart says that letter doesn't exit, we're supposed to leave it out of the words?!?! That doesn't make much sense to me.

[74] You can only play with the pieces you have.

A game for wordsmiths
Use only listed letters
A clever puzzle

[66] I am a Tree Doctor and Hairdresser, so I'm getting a kick out of all these comments...

[75] but then wouldn't that make the words invalid plays?

I guess I don't know the rules. Can you just use a blank to replace a letter?

[77] you're an arborist coiffeur?

[78] gaijin
Yes, a blank can be used to represent any letter the player wishes - like a wild card.

[80] Knowing that would have helped! I guess I didn't read all the rules through.

I just can't figure out the solution.

Wow...this was a really great puzzle. I was torn on a couple of the clues, but once I got them and once I stopped drawing a blank about that one obvious item, it came to me quite nicely! =-D

WELL DONE!!

Since I found Tanga from Ze Frank's puzzle a while back, I thought I ought to share the first of his video blogs I saw:
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/11/112706.html
It's about Scrabble and contains some material that may offend(this could be said of most of Ze's material)

[82] [snicker]

For those of you who have never played Scrabble before, you'll need to look up point values for the various letters used. A blank (if you have one) can be substituted for any letter, however, it does not have a point value.

[5] tells you how to use the multipliers. Also, in opposition from the Scrabble rules, the multipliers are used more than once, i.e. each word is scored as if it was the only one played.

The Frequency chart tells you which letters you have available to play with. IMPORTANT!

The leftover letters are a red herring as far as I can tell. If you've got the wherewithal to coalesce them into something meaningful, I'd like to see it.

Tough puzzle.

[82] If you have solved the crossword, then all you need to do is follow the advice in [27]. Finally read [13] to find out that 1299 are wrong.

BTW - You've no idea how salty you're being.

Is the answer the score? I am a scrabble junkie and I'm 99% sure I've got the correct words and scores and when I add them all up the number is not giving me a correct answer...

Very clever.

Too bad my math sucks.

[87] Don't add them all up.

[86], [85] had the right idea.

My only problem with this puzzle is that it uses part of the Scrabble rules, then makes you disregard a MAJOR rule of Scrabble at the same time.

Very clever idea though, and I know why he made that choice, but it's kind of a bummer considering the idea was really good.

How is the answer NOT "snootful"????

[91] tempus42
my answer was pretty salty - I have GM'd you...

I am missing the step where the score I get makes a word.

[93] Better move fast. The score for each word equals one letter, e.g., 1=A.

[93] Don't get A score.