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SOLVED - The GL Collaborative Meta-Puzzle
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Suspence
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:54 am    Post subject: 1 Reply with quote

After many weeks of work from many different GLers, we've finalized the meta-puzzle. Hopefully you'll find all of them enjoyable and we'll get to the final meta solution.
__________

Ground Rules:

If you wrote a puzzle or already know the solution to a specific puzzle (there are a few who know certain solutions because they originally volunteered), please don't comment on it before it is successfully solved.

If hints are needed, I'll provide them, in conjuction with the original puzzle writer, who'll I'll contact via PM.

In this thread, call in the answer, as in Call in PUZZLEANSWER

Once I confirm an answer, I will post the next URL in the thread.
__________

So then, here we go:

Back in the Old Days by Suspence - Solved by Thok - CODICES

1) In The Middle by MNOWAX - Solved by novice - Assisted by 3iff - CLOSER
2) Extra Complications by novice - Solved by Oscar - Assisted by Thok and Gomez - DEFIANCE
3) A King's Tale by Elethiomel - Solved by Oscar - Assisted by novice, gpagano and 3iff - MISERY
4) Slithering Words by jbvntx - Solved by Elethiomel/Oscar - Assisted by novice - LIMITLESS
5) Sil″ly-cros′tic by Suspence - Solved by Thok - Assisted by novice and Elethiomel - XANADU
6) This Puzzle is Tougher Than You! by Gomez - Solved by Elethiomel - Assisted by gpagano, 3iff, Oscar, novice, Scurra, LordKinbote and Thok - INVINCIBLE
7) Dizzy Spell by Jack_Ian - Solved by Oscar - VERTIGO
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Last edited by Suspence on Tue May 08, 2012 10:47 pm; edited 16 times in total
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novice
No harm. Pun intended!



PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:38 am    Post subject: 2 Reply with quote

The numbers below the five columns calculate to:

Code:
12321    252    1      323    46664
16161    161    222    141    49394
272      686    131    686    65956


Palindrome numbers, in other words.
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Elethiomel
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:33 am    Post subject: 3 Reply with quote

Quote:
8. lettter
Is this a typo?
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Suspence
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:03 am    Post subject: 4 Reply with quote

Yes...fixed
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novice
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:20 am    Post subject: 5 Reply with quote

novice wrote:
The numbers below the five columns calculate to:

Code:
12321    252    1      323    46664
16161    161    222    141    49394
272      686    131    686    65956


Palindrome numbers, in other words.


"In the middle"...

Maybe reduce the 9x5 words to 3x5 words by processing word triples, then process the resulting words using the matrix above?
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll



PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:50 pm    Post subject: 6 Reply with quote

Elethiomel wrote:
Quote:
8. lettter
Is this a typo?


It's me who wrote the puzzle, what do you think? lol
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MNOWAX
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3iff
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:39 am    Post subject: 7 Reply with quote

But someone should have proofread it...I blame them...
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:04 am    Post subject: 8 Reply with quote

Me too.
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Elethiomel
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:06 pm    Post subject: 9 Reply with quote

Not making much progress here. I tried to calculate the "average" letter of each word but it didn't look very promising. The words do not look like individual clues for other words, since there are many short words like "to", "be", "for", and "the". So perhaps they need to be shuffled somehow?

Should we perhaps open the field wider and work on several/all puzzles in parallel?
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian



PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:09 pm    Post subject: 10 Reply with quote

A lot of the words do not lend themselves easily to a 3x3 type puzzle, (e.g. occurrence), so I think we need a different way to proceed.
Stared at it now for 10 minutes, but that method has proved unfruitful, perhaps after a cuppa. Felicitous

For convenience:
Code:
1. pull           1. scratch    1. reed          1. occurrence   1. taste
2. porter        2. taught     2. in            2. captors      2. routing
3. out           3. bucket     3. card          3. yet          3. for
4. take          4. complete    4. publication    4. spanish      4. mouse
5. temperature    5. middle     5. closer        5. memory       5. people
6. light         6. mister     6. model         6. token        6. be
7. the           7. spring     7. con           7. particular    7. package
8. curing        8. letter     8. rice          8. plus         8. number
9. mumble        9. well       9. recipient     9. empty        9. to
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:32 pm    Post subject: 11 Reply with quote

Since there are only 7 puzzles, I'd like to stick to one at a time.

For now, I'll just provide the type of hints that I normally hate - telling you to look at what you've already looked at. Most notably:

The title of the puzzle
Post #5 by novice (which includes a quote of his Post #2)

I'll check in with MNOWAX via PM before providing any additional hints.
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novice
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:19 pm    Post subject: 12 Reply with quote

Assemble the words into 3-word phrases, keeping the middle word from each phrase?
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3iff
very unbifflike



PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:41 pm    Post subject: 13 Reply with quote

I did use the middle numbers for each column to pick out words from the column lists...ie Out/Pull/The from column 1, but that doesn't really give me much.

I'm thinking novice has the right idea but I've got nothing...I can't find any way to match up words...
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novice
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 4:13 pm    Post subject: 14 Reply with quote

Code:
1. pull          1. scratch    1. reed          1. occurrence   1. taste
2. porter        2. taught     2. in            2. captors      2. routing
3. out           3. bucket     3. card          3. yet          3. for
4. take          4. complete   4. publication   4. spanish      4. mouse
5. temperature   5. middle     5. closer        5. memory       5. people
6. light         6. mister     6. model         6. token        6. be
7. the           7. spring     7. con           7. particular   7. package
8. curing        8. letter     8. rice          8. plus         8. number
9. mumble        9. well       9. recipient     9. empty        9. to

Code:
12321            252            1                323              46664
16161            161            222              141              49394
272              686            131              686              65956
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:23 pm    Post subject: 15 Reply with quote

You're getting closer. I was going to give another hint, but one of you was almost there, so I'll just give it some time.
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3iff
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:36 pm    Post subject: 16 Reply with quote

Who's getting closer?
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novice
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:50 pm    Post subject: 17 Reply with quote

3iff wrote:
Who's getting closer?


Either you or me, so we can probably explore all possibilities. Revenge most foul!
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3iff
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:51 pm    Post subject: 18 Reply with quote

I'm trying...and the more I look at it, the more lost I feel.
Besides, if it's me who's closer then we really are in trouble!

Oh, I'm getting nowhere with trying to group words...either columns or rows.

I was looking at the way the number clues going in rows are formatted a similar way...but I expect that has no significance...
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Suspence
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 4:19 pm    Post subject: 19 Reply with quote

3iff, your post was the promising one.
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novice
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:02 pm    Post subject: 20 Reply with quote

Okay, typing out 3iff's idea:

Code:

out      middle   reed    captors  be
pull     mister   in      spanish  for
the      letter   card    plus     to


I get the feeling there's a message here somewhere if we can order the words correctly...
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 7:23 am    Post subject: 21 Reply with quote

Suspence wrote:
3iff, your post was the promising one.


Oh dear...I've looked at that word list for a while and can't get anything. I'll have another look.

No hints yet...I want novice and myself to crack this if we can...seems we're the only ones having a go.
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 7:32 am    Post subject: 22 Reply with quote

Odd words within the 15...

reed, captors, mister, spanish

How can we use them?
And we have the short words...the, be, for, to. This doesn't look like word pairs/triples.

I was hoping the numbers also tell us which order these words go in, but arranging the words in number order ((reed=1, card=131 etc) doesn't help at all.

We do have "in the middle" as 3 of the 15 words...

I'm also presuming the other words (not these 15) are red herrings and we can ignore them now?
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novice
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 9:58 am    Post subject: 23 Reply with quote

3iff wrote:
I'm also presuming the other words (not these 15) are red herrings and we can ignore them now?


That seems unelegant and is my main objection to this approach. But maybe the other words will be used later on.
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 10:37 am    Post subject: 24 Reply with quote

Looking at the "other" words in columns or rows still suggests nothing. I can't see any way of linking any of them.
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Suspence
Daedalian Member



PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:40 pm    Post subject: 25 Reply with quote

Conferring with MNOWAX. He had to make a late change to the words in the sentence, and then I didn't review as carefully as I should have. The sentence you're looking for is a bit choppy, so I can see why you are struggling. I still think you can get there without a clue, but we might want to offer a clue that makes the sentence more natural.
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Jack_Ian
Big Endian



PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 12:57 pm    Post subject: 26 Reply with quote

I wondered if the left over digits of the palindromic numbers were relevant, e.g. to choose letters, but no joy.
Also tried forming some kind of coherent sentence from the words, but no joy there either. In particular, "reed" and "captors", are difficult to find a spot for.
Tried staring again but no light-bulbs.


Last edited by Jack_Ian on Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:10 pm    Post subject: 27 Reply with quote

Quote:
The sentence you're looking for is a bit choppy

That's an understatement...it IS English I presume?

So, from what you say, I guess we have to turn those 15 words into a sentence? No hints yet...I may have an idea.
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:16 pm    Post subject: 28 Reply with quote

I've been toying with "Pull out the middle letter" (from the 15 word list) then it all breaks down because the sentence isn't coherent enough to continue. But if, as you suggest, it's choppy...I'm thinking it might have something to do with "mister" in Spanish...= senor. Then add an "I" from somewhere to get senior.

A long shot, but call in SENIOR (expectation of being correct...very low)
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novice
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:18 pm    Post subject: 29 Reply with quote

Yeah "pull out the middle letter" seems natural.

Eurythmics song: Mr Reed
http://www.lyricstime.com/eurythmics-mr-reed-lyrics.html

Anime TV series: Cardcaptors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardcaptor_Sakura
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3iff
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:27 pm    Post subject: 30 Reply with quote

I did find cardcaptors but couldn't get anything from it. Mr Reed lyrics...can't see any help there either...
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 1:56 pm    Post subject: 31 Reply with quote

SENIOR is not right.

I haven't heard back from MNOWAX yet, but I think you all deserve this for your hard work. The sentence would work better if "mister" were changed to "of".
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:05 pm    Post subject: 32 Reply with quote

Thanks Suspense...

So perhaps we have...

pull out the middle letter of ... (is this on the right lines?)

(then? >>>) card in reed plus spanish captors to be for (unsurprisingly I'm wildly guessing)
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:07 pm    Post subject: 33 Reply with quote

I don't think you will need much more from me. You've got the general idea and you've hit on one of right source already as well. Keep plugging away.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:32 pm    Post subject: 34 Reply with quote

I'm back on Monday...hopefully novice will have this solved by then...or maybe not.

Ah...??

pull out the middle letter (of) mister reed in cardcaptors plus spanish (for to be)

Until Monday...
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MNOWAX
0.999... of a Troll



PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:18 pm    Post subject: 35 Reply with quote

I told you i was rusty lol

You guys are quite close , changing mister to of makes it quite a bit easier.
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novice
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:27 pm    Post subject: 36 Reply with quote

So Cardcaptors has a Clow Reed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cardcaptor_Sakura_characters#Clow_Reed

Pull out the middle letter of Reed in CardCaptors plus spanish for to be

cLOw + ser

call in LOSER
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:31 pm    Post subject: 37 Reply with quote

Not quite.
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novice
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:35 pm    Post subject: 38 Reply with quote

Backsolving... Order the extracted words in each column by number to get:

Code:

pull     middle   reed    captors  for
out      letter   in      plus     to
the      mister   card    spanish  be


Not loser? Other options:

cLOw + eSTAr
cLOw + esTar
cLOw + sEr

CALL IN LOT
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Suspence
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:36 pm    Post subject: 39 Reply with quote

Not quite.
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novice
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 4:39 pm    Post subject: 40 Reply with quote

Hm, not sure my backsolve made sense. Anyway

CALL IN LOSTA
CALL IN COSTA
CALL IN LOE


Any hits?
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