Cryptopix

First! OMG! I think that's my first crypto 1st ever. Thanks, hubby for correcting my spelling as I typed! :)

Oh, and thanks for the nice puzzle, jeb...

Tricky pronunciation!

Spelling was my downfall...20th.

?

Cool - 14th my lowest EVER & it was a jebediehard puzzle?!?
Thanx j! :)

load time was nuts....

Shut UP that I'm 57 after feeling so quick! Darn those smartypants tanga people.... (harrumph) :)

You solved this puzzle in 6 minutes and 30 seconds and were the 51st Tanga member to solve it. You earned 60 points for solving this.

Considering it took that long and I was still 51st is something to talk about.

Are you sure, [1]? It says I was first. You solved this puzzle in 20 seconds and were the 1st Tanga member to solve it. You earned 110 points for solving this.

29 seconds and were the 87th Tanga member to solve it. You earned 24 points for solving this.

my first top 100!!! =)
woohoo

no clue on this one... :(

Very much lost, I think on the first word, and maybe on the both, and definitely on the third.

[9] Yep! Tanga allows ties. Check out the activity record on the home page if you want... although no telling how many pages we'd have to look back to find it now. I got it in 18 seconds so you must have gotten here just ahead of me.

which is it?

a) I'm missing something
b) It's a phrase I've never heard of
c) The pronunciation is *really* off

[14] Well, you have to blend/break up the pictures some. The third pic is just a tad off on pronunciation but not by much. And it's not a phrase.

[13] I thought that might be the case, thanks.

[15] Thanks.

If the pronunciation is off I can go to bed instead of worrying with a broken puzzle.

the answer i keep coming up with sounds absolutely obscene.

[18] So did I. You need to split the 3rd pic between the top line and the 4th pic. Then you'll get a reasonable answer. And watch the tricky spelling.

A little mystery to figure out?

I got the first set of the clues, but confused on the second set! is it the body part or what the body part is used for that is the focus? and for the second, is it the number or the item of clothing that is the focus?

[19] that did it. funny thing is, i didn't KNOW that did it until i actually typed it in using your salt. =)

thanks.

Seriously stuck, guidance anyone?

[19] Thanks! Thats what I needed.

Now that that's over... lets give them something to talk about!

[21] The body part. The number.

[24] was the only thing that helped me.

[23] Let me spice this up a bit:

Salt 1: It's not a switch
Salt 2: see [19]

Google/wiki are your friends. But if you don't get the answer now, I'll be blue :(

You solved this puzzle in 8 minutes and 42 seconds and were the 145th Tanga member to solve it. You earned 10 points for solving this.

I'm so out of touch, I've never even heard of the answer...

Thanks [24] That did it for me too.

Thanks, [24]! I was just about to give up.

how many words is the answer? or is that not allowed

Thank you [20]! That was the familiar phrase that gave it to me... feeling dumb now, as the answer is a favorite of mine :-P

[31] Two words....google what [24] commented. And, welcome to Tanga!

Finally reporting in: Woo hoo... got 10th. Might have done better if the pic loaded faster.

This might count as salt -- might not: The answer has been a favorite of mine for, something like, 25 years now.

Yeep, never heard of this before.

Since the "+" was the same color as the "B" I was trying to include it in a word. I think the "+" should have been a little less prominent, or even not there at all......

You Americans have everything upside down... that light switch is the wrong way around to be the sound you want...

I had to sleep on it but it finally hit me upon waking up

My brain just can't wrap around this....

[36]But the "+" very definitely needs to be there to tell you that you need the sound the B makes and not the name of the letter. To submit a puzzle otherwise is to get a mod to make you fix it (or at least, that's been my experience). Check out this discussion:

http://www.tanga.com/forum/blogs/proper-usage-of-letter-in-a-cryptopix

(I can maybe see it being less prominent perhaps but it certainly has to be there.)

[17] Wow. The puzzle isn't broken. I would wager a majority of puzzles have a pronunciation just a tad off somewhere in it. A recent one used "off" for "of" for example. Hope you got a good night's sleep anyway though. :)

[33] Thanks!

the 398th Tanga member to solve it. You earned 10 points for solving this. :)

looking back, [8] may have provided the first salt! Thanks everyone else! How do you pronounce the second word, anyhow? Oh, well.........

[37] Really? I didn't know that.

Are you saying that the positions on a light switch in, say, England are different than in the U.S.?

[20] THANKS!

[43] I don't know about England, but... whoever wired my house did a terrible job. They wanted switches that could control a light from two different locations but they didn't do it right. So one switch turns the light on when you flip it up but the other one you have to flip down for the same effect. :(

[45] In a 3 way circuit, if everything is wired correctly and the switches are installed in the box correctly, the switches should function in this manner:

-If both switches are in the same position (both up or both down) the load (lamp, outlet, whatever) should be OFF.
-If the switches are in opposite positions (one up, one down) the load should be ON.

If you are finding that the load is ON when the switches are in opposite positions (one up, one down) and off when both are in the same position. Then one of the switches is likely just upside down.

To fix it switch off the breaker that powers the circuit, remove the face plate for the switch, remove the two screws that hold the switch in the box. Rotate the switch 180 degrees and reinstall the screws and face plate, switch the breaker back on and presto.

Though I will note, that if everything is actually wired okay within the 3 way circuit, then nothing is truly wrong with what you have. The switch positions I list are purely aesthetic and are of zero functional importance.

If they did something else to try to achieve the effect of a 3 way circuit, then you need to have an electrician inspect what has been done before your house burns down.

This one stumped me -> I was so sure the last 2 were earache...oh, well - it's a good one ;-)

[46] Believe it or not, my degree is in Electrical Engineering - I'm just too lazy to address the problem. I know how it's supposed to work. And actually, I oversimplified my post so I didn't ramble. :) There are 3 different rooms in the house that each attempt to have 3 switches controlling the light for that room. (Which is really ridiculous for the 8x10 room in particular).

At any rate, if you have 3 switches, one of them has to be a special switch (I've forgotten the names... double pole double throw, whatever - I'm bad with terminology). I suspect that they knew enough about the basic two switch setup and did it wrong when they tried to do it with 3 switches. When I investigated it several years ago, I was not convinced that they had the right type of switch and at that point didn't feel like tracing things to figure out which one should be replaced.

The symptoms are not the basic symptoms you described. For the light to be on, one switch has to be up and the other two have to be down. And one of them acts as a kill switch. If it is in the wrong position, you cannot turn the light back on at either of the other two switches. Since that's the one by the back door (in one case) and we never go out the back door, we just leave it in the "good" position and use the other two switches. Until we have guests, of course, and they turn off the lights with that switch. Then I'm left circling the room flipping switches until the lights come one. When you factor in my husband sometimes turning the light off at the ceiling fan, it can become quite a puzzle!

I know exactly how the schematic looks and what I need. I just haven't felt up to replacing what's there. It's not as simple as rotating one of the switches though. I looked into it enough to know that.

And this house was built by non-builders who mistakenly thought they knew what they were doing back in the 70s. I suspect the house is in danger of burning down for many, many reasons beyond just these switches. And that's just the electrical. Don't get me started on the plumbing, rafters, stud spacings, etc. etc.

[46] Apparently you are aptly named.

[48] It sounds like you're in a PERFECT house for someone who loves puzzles. Assuming the house doesn't kill you.

This is ridiculous..

[48] The "special switch" you mentioned is a 4-way switch. It either runs the two runner wires in parallel to the outputs, or it crosses them (in an X configuration).

If you have 3 switches controlling one light, you'll need one 4-way and two 3-way switches (which are actually SPDT switches) one at each end of the "runner" wires.

As an interesting aside, you have install as many switches as you want to control the lights, as long as you keep adding more 4-way switches somewhere in the two runner wires path of the circuit.

As you can tell, I've done this (and fixed this) kind of house wiring a time or two.

wow....the answer was right in front of me the whole time, and I kept splitting the wrong picture, making this puzzle much harder than it needed to be...and so...when I finally looked up the salt, imagine my surprise.

thanks, #40!

[51] Yes, yes, I know all of that. As I said, I do have a degree in EE! :)

My weakness is terminology. The picture is in my head of what the wiring of the switch looks like. But words fail me and I'm left saying stuff like "special switch". :)

The problem in this house is that I think they used all 2-way switches. Ultimately, as cool as I find the 3+ switch configuration, I don't think ANY of these 3 rooms actually need it!

You solved this puzzle in 3 minutes and 43 seconds and were the 563rd Tanga member to solve it.

Thank you [20] - jebediehard - that got me to hear the correct pronunciation. A little mystery indeed!

Yay me!

[41]ditto. [31]THANKS! you did it.

I thought it was binary rate.