Code Switching
◆ · Por woozy · Publicado 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:
-
20A. Just use Google maps to figure out this town. Hint: It's home to the Orinda movie Theater
-
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?
-
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.
-
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.
-
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
Comprobando datos de juego anteriores…
[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