Code Switching
◆ · By woozy · Published 2023-02-22T20:54:07.329Z
Meta Prompt
The solution to this is what many cruciverbalists hold language to be (or not; fun's fun after all....)
The title came to me while I was lying in bed. Constructing this was a bear. It's convoluted and maybe I'm going to pay people to attempt it. But I had to work my way through it. (The punchiness of the [non-themer] clues have nothing to do with meta. I just was in a mood when it came time to do the clues and as the puzzle was already weird....
It'd be.... interesting.... to make a puzzle (not nesc. meta) where all the clues are ChatGPT created. Also, with detailed long clues being so irresistible to amateur constructors, I wonder if anyone has ever tried to make a puzzle were the clues read in order form a narrative.
Okay, I'll stop blathering now.
Might as well get started on the nudges:
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20A. Just use Google maps to figure out this town. Hint: It's home to the Orinda movie Theater
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23A (labeled with a B) is the next thing to figure out. The entry is "zip". The title is "code switching" so this is about codes. Is there any kind of code associated with the word "Zip"? A Zip code as it were? b) And what can we apply a "zip code" to? Is there anything relevant we have come across that zip codes would make sense, so far? c) So far in our journey from A to B?
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The entry for 40A is GRID. What might a crossword constructor mean by a "grid code"? b) Okay, it may not have a name but it's a fairly common meta technique where given a set of numbers, one takes the letters from the squares in the crossword grid with the same numbers c) So do you have a group of numbers? What letters do you get when you look at the squares with those numbers? Do you get any thing that makes sense? d) You didn't get anything that made sense? Well, why did you think the result would make sense? Things in code shouldn't make sense.
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Google CAESAR CODE or CAESAR CYPHER b.) A Caesar cipher is one where you shift each letter up or down by a set amount c.) So take the five letters you have (which should be meaningless) and shift them up by six d.) So if you had an A replace it with a G; if you have a B replace it with an H, etc. e). But include numerals... so assume that after the alphabet goes .... X,Y, Z, 1, 2, 3,..... f) So applying the Ceasar cypher with a shift of 6 you should get a five symbol string consisting of letters and numbers. g)How do we know the string is five characters long? Because Zip Codes are five numbers long.
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Step E says to apply [b]to[/b] whereas the early steps so to apply b) N-gon Fu is a meaningless phrase that must be decode c) but by which code? d)The code you got in step D
Another nudge tomorrow
Checking for previous play data...
1A
Dicken's last novel "The Mystery of ----- Drood"
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Across
- 1ADicken's last novel "The Mystery of ----- Drood"
- 6ACtrl+Z
- 10AAdvanced degrees for the aesthetically inclined
- 14AOnly recently experienced in (alternative cryptic clue: Endless discoverer of the laws of motion is green)
- 15AVisually observed
- 16AScottish Gaelic
- 17ABeliever in a first cause but no more than that
- 18AModel Levonchuck in Young Jeezy and Kanye West's video "Put On"... or a description of a flower bred by Joseph Pernet-Ducher, who by breeding the briar with his 'Soleil d'Or' was able to introduce new colors including a shade of apricot golden-orange
- 20A[A] Bay Area town east of Berkeley and west of Walnut Creek. (Immediately past the Caldecott Tunnel going east on Hwy 24)[Start here]
- 22APlains tribe; the one that if you replaced one letter you'd get a double reed instrument
- 23A[B] Speed along [Apply this]
- 24AWord you don't want to hear when you are undergoing surgery
- 26AEntraps
- 28AThe other Plains tribe; add a letter at the beginning and you get a cute result
- 31AModernists
- 33AReceptive of
- 35ALace up again
- 37ACompanion to magenta, yellow, and black
- 39AIn the distance
- 40A[C] Electricity network [Apply this]
- 41AWire rope of metal strands
- 42ABerkeley Mayor Hancock... (what? 20A was my one allotted Natick?)... okay, actress Anderson
- 43AGod of love who is gets peeved when you spell his name backwards
- 44ALanded (although it seems like it should mean on fire)
- 45AStruck sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement held in the hand (kind of an archaic word with biblical implications)
- 46ACommercial for discounted merchandise
- 48AWhere to put a stud (or a hoop)
- 50AHigh-speed (sort of) Internet option
- 51A[D] Render to him what is his [+6; use numerals]
- 53ASwedish automobile
- 55AI bought an instant one for my wife for her birthday just five minutes ago (I hope she likes it)
- 56ABaking chamber
- 58A[E] Martial art using geometric shapes with N sides? (Tortured, I know; do the down clues) [Apply to this]
- 62AHardened
- 65AStirs up
- 66A"The same applies to me"
- 67AFew and far between
- 68AAuthor Proulx ("The Shipping News" and "Brokeback Mountain")
- 69AMade music with one's voice
- 70A[F] Messy person [apply to this and we are done]
- 71AComes into contact with
Down
- 1DInner (pre.)
- 2DCommon forest ruminant
- 3DMajor conflict in the 1940s
- 4D"I don't care; ---- skin off my nose"
- 5DTaboo ("It's just -----")
- 6DTied with UK, the top ranking country in average television watching
- 7DWinsor McCay's little dreamer
- 8DFinancial obligations
- 9D"Face-to-face; just you and me"
- 10DGrande étendue d'eau (comme la Méditerranée)
- 11DBirdseye's specialty
- 12DAides
- 13DOoze
- 19DHarvest (verb)
- 21D"The Hairy ---" play by Eugene O'Neill (or did I copy that clue from someone else)
- 25DWhere to find L.A. or San D.
- 27DI asked ChatGPT to write a crossword clue for this entry and it responded with: "Domain of a monarch or a fantasy hero (5 letters) ". Hmm, I guess that's not a terrible clue.
- 28DOkay, ChatGPT; write a limerick for this entry. Result: "There once was a man from Sturgis, Whose love for pickles made him nervous, He ate them all day, In a pickle-filled craze, But still, he couldn't resist the -----"
- 29DCeramic whose name means "baked earth"
- 30DPlant growth in the dark
- 32D1973 book subtitled "The True Story of a Woman Possessed by 16 Separate Personalities"
- 34DCantilevered window that protrudes but does not reach the ground
- 36D"-- --- a doctor about that, if I were you"
- 38DVoices higher than tenors
- 41DStiffs
- 45DLiquor company that is trademarked in its possessive form
- 47DSince
- 49DProhibit
- 52DRelated to the kidneys
- 54DHome to the Hickory Ridge Living History Museum (Town in North Carolina named for a famed frontiersman)
- 55DPenultimate letters
- 57DSleuth Wolfe who is passionate about orchids
- 59DNumber of Frodo's fingers when he returned to the Shire
- 60DDart like a butterfly
- 61DFunctions
- 63DIt comes on little cat feet according to Sandburg
- 64DOne just coming out in society
[B] ZIP CODE of ORINDA: 94563
[C] GRID entries of squares numbered 9,4,5,6,3 is OINUW
[D] CAESAR CYPHER, add 6 so A->G, B->H, ... T->Z, and use numerals so U->1,V->2,W->3 etc. so OINUW -> ROT13
[E] ROT13 is the code where A<->N, B<->O, C<->P, ...., M<->Z. So with ROT 13 N-GON FU decrypts to ATBASH
[F] ATBASH is the code where A->Z, B->Y, C->X, ....., X->C, Y->B, Z->A and so SLOB-> HOLY