Safe Cracking (Meta)
■ · By benchen71 · Published over 1 year ago
Meta Prompt
The answer to the meta is a quotation of dubious origins
Here's another MEOW for you where the grid entries are all made up and the clues don't matter. That's right, the clues are like signatures on credit cards or bank websites that prevent you pasting your ID number - two excellent examples of security theatre! The answer to the meta is a quotation of dubious origins (whose line is it, anyway?)
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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This is a contest/meta puzzle. To submit your answer, first finish solving the grid (or reveal it if you get stuck or solved offline).
Leaderboard (updated hourly)
- Mr Tex solved over 1 year ago
- kurtalert solved over 1 year ago
- merlinnimue solved over 1 year ago
- Pair O Ducks solved over 1 year ago
- Hector solved over 1 year ago
- woozy solved over 1 year ago
- boharr solved over 1 year ago
- Meg solved over 1 year ago
- Cindy Weatherman solved over 1 year ago
- Sharkicicles solved over 1 year ago
- DIS solved over 1 year ago
- I K Snamhcok solved over 1 year ago
- DrTom solved over 1 year ago
- hoover solved over 1 year ago
- Ergcat solved over 1 year ago
- Darrell solved over 1 year ago
- Jaclyn solved over 1 year ago
- Johnny Luau solved over 1 year ago
- MatthewL solved over 1 year ago
- JM solved over 1 year ago
- KayW solved over 1 year ago
- ajk solved over 1 year ago
- whimsy solved over 1 year ago
- Berto solved over 1 year ago
- Laura M solved over 1 year ago
- Sasha Campbell solved over 1 year ago
- Cindy Heisler solved over 1 year ago
- Gutman solved over 1 year ago
- lbray53 solved over 1 year ago
- edestlin solved over 1 year ago
- SamKat9 solved over 1 year ago
- Eric Porter solved over 1 year ago
- HeadinHome solved over 1 year ago
- SeamusOL solved over 1 year ago
- Tyrpmom solved over 1 year ago
- Darth solved over 1 year ago
Comments
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- woozy 🤓2:09 · over 1 year agoVery very very cute.
- Hector 🤓1:24 · over 1 year agoWhew, an interestingly different kind of challenge. I ended up making a spreadsheet that would "turn the dials" given a three-number combination. But instead of running through the 480 combinations, I ended up maneuvering MONEY to be in reading order, and the rest fell in place in short order -- something I could easily have done without the spreadsheet. Thanks!
- Pair O Ducks 🤓22s · over 1 year agoI'm glad I'm not the only one to try spinning the rings through ALL the possibilities, I should have known Ben wouldn't be so cruel. I ROB BA... was what finally clicked it into place for me.
- Sharkicicles 1:44 · over 1 year agoHa, I wrote an iPhone app to be able to turn the dials by clicking. Probably took less time than doing it by hand!
- Hector 🤓1:24 · over 1 year agoWikipedia article concerning the quotation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton%27s_law
- boharr 4s · over 1 year agoI don't understand this line in the intro: "clues are like signatures on credit cards or bank websites that prevent you pasting your ID number."
- benchen71 constructor · over 1 year agoIt's just part of my riff on the opening monologue from "Whose Line Is It Anyway".
- benchen71 constructor · over 1 year agoSo "signatures on credit cards" and "bank websites that prevent you pasting your ID number" are two examples of things that don't matter.
- boharr 4s · over 1 year agoAha. They are two things. Got it.
- DrTom 🤓1:39 · over 1 year agoFun, but frustrating. I figured one has to twirl the dials the right number of turns each way BUT, (1) I know the famous quote and (2) I know he did not say it really so I went with what I thought and then finally did a process of elimination (I kept putting THAT IS instead of THAT'S - should have known old WIllie didn't use the best English)
- benchen71 constructor · over 1 year ago... plus I needed to fit the quote into exactly 36 letters!
- DrTom 🤓1:39 · over 1 year agoI'm not completely sure how it was supposed to have been solved, but I see I got it exactly right, but backwards, with my first turn, I went 6 L with the outer dial (since there were 6 letters - so SIYENO on the top, and 4 R with the second - so EHTE there, and left the middle alone. Dumb luck obviously.
- benchen71 constructor · over 1 year agoI was assuming solvers would use trial and error. When you turn the outer "dial" 90 degrees clockwise, you get IROBBA; I was hoping people would see ROB and connect that to safe cracking!
- hoover 🤓2:24 · over 1 year agoBecause this is how I open combination locks, I went right first, then left, then was a little confused at having to turn the middle 180º.
- DrTom 🤓1:39 · over 1 year agoDitto, standard is R-L-R and I saw it COULD have been that way if the middle was slightly different. But, if you go R 6 spaces (the number of letters per side) then L4 spaces with the next “dial” and finally R 2 spaces with the last it all lines up to make the quote. I don’t know if that was intentional, to have the side letters be the number of “clicks” but it works it appears.
- MatthewL 3s · over 1 year agoFinally got it, but only with the nudges. Would never have thought to "turn the dials". But, with that nudge, saw "I ROB BA" in one row and it fell pretty easily after that. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
- ajk 1:07 · over 1 year agoAs usual I was kind of but not really doing the right thing pre nudges. Had the dials idea, but forgot the answer was a quotation so I was thinking about picking out certain letters after rotating a certain number of spaces in a L/R/L sequence or something. Fun idea, thanks.
- Laura M 🤓34s · over 1 year agoNice one! I had almost entirely the right idea but needed the hints because it seemed like there were too many combinations and I'd never get it, so I gave up... If I had stuck to multiples of 90 degrees I would have figured it out :-)
- SamKat9 🤓2:03 · over 1 year agoTricky one! I got it with nudges :). Thanks, Ben
- HeadinHome 🤓43s · over 1 year agoFINALLY! Just kept marching those letters around their circles and coming up with nothing! Not til I looked at the last nudge did I just get out some scissors and start turning the whole shapes (rather than move the letters around a random number of spaces, marquis style). I thought maybe the number of the puzzle (#154) was the combination! Wow that was challenging.
- Tyrpmom 12:05 · over 1 year agoI wonder how many times I did it right before reading the whole thing. Pitiful solving, but I did it!