P&A Issue 32 Log
2:38 pm
Okay. Not likely to finish today, but starting now anyway.
2:38 pm
Probably going to get called away at about 6. We'll see.
2:38 pm
Got the whole stack printed, just now about to peek. All I know is that there's a weight-loss theme, and there's a handful of errata.
2:40 pm
Huh. Weirdly British intro. Doc Who, flat, trainers, cheeky...
2:40 pm
British weight = stones, maybe?
2:41 pm
Hm. Change looks like maybe a slitherlink?
2:42 pm
Okay, Shape is catching my eye. Going to look at that first.
2:43 pm
Bell -> corner, somehow?
2:43 pm
North = slash? [No, Mike. Oliver North is not a film director. That is someone different.]
2:45 pm
Oh! Do they chain? Square->peg?
2:46 pm
Diamond head?
2:47 pm
Enumerations match the halves elsewhere, I think...
3:02 pm
Ouch. Star (5 letters) could go with any of BOARD, NORTH, or DEATH...
3:08 pm
Got -DIEN-, -BACK-, and -UNDG-. Looking like BACKGROUND GRADIENT?
3:15 pm
Oh, boo. It's GRADIENT BACKGROUND.
3:16 pm
An Apple a Day next.
3:17 pm
Basic laddergram, it looks like?
3:33 pm
Oh, duh. Took nearly the entire fill to realize the right side was Drs. -1.
3:35 pm
Left side, too; thought they might be apples.
3:36 pm
STEVE WOZNIAK
3:36 pm
That was fun. What's next?
3:37 pm
Power Lifting?
3:38 pm
Looks like superhero/villain teams?
3:53 pm
All but top center identified with heavy Googling.
3:53 pm
Suspecting top center is some sort of meta.
3:55 pm
Looking for these bigrams in the names of the other teams...
3:56 pm
Some don't appear as shown, but do appear in reverse...
3:57 pm
Okay, no LO forwards or backwards.
3:58 pm
D'oh, no, it's a normal set.
3:58 pm
Got to relocate; suspending for a few seconds.
4:02 pm
Not really sure how to finish this one.
4:02 pm
Moving to Celebrity Diets.
4:12 pm
Indexing into film titles so far gives CEL??CIAL?O?I?S.
4:14 pm
CEL??CIAL?ODI?S
4:14 pm
CELESTIAL BODIES, if somehow I'm wrong on Harold and Kumar?
4:15 pm
It dings. Moving on to Feel the Burn, I think.
4:17 pm
Hm. Not really seeing anything, actually.
4:17 pm
Let's see if I can work out Change.
4:18 pm
Was going to say these four presidents are exactly the four on Mt. Rushmore, giving an ordering...
4:18 pm
...except of course that's the wrong Roosevelt.
4:19 pm
Well, the penny's given to be zero, probably...
4:19 pm
No way the dime can be three. The diagonal chain of them in the upper right sees to that.
4:20 pm
And in the far lower right, the nickel (is that what that is? Haven't seen one like that) atop the zero means it can't be the three either. So three is the quarter.
4:21 pm
Applying that in the upper left quickly shows dime = 2, so nickel = 1.
4:21 pm
Oh! Okay, so it's ascending by value.
4:34 pm
Exterior letters end in -ANTOM WHAT, I think...
4:44 pm
Oh! NORTON JUSTER THE PHANTOM WHAT. Ought to have gotten that off of NO- -ANTOM WHAT.
4:48 pm
Going to try Sleep Tapes. Probably ought to open the PDF to double-check the pictures...
4:50 pm
Oh! Eye of the hurricane, cavalier, jelly beans - End of the World as we know it?
4:50 pm
And it starts with an EARTHQUAKE.
5:08 pm
BULLDOZING! Very nice!
5:09 pm
Heavy Things?
5:10 pm
Some number of opening tags, followed by the same number of closing tags, looks like.
5:11 pm
Palindromes. WASTER FRETSAW, SENILE FELINES...
5:12 pm
ST?FF is the first word.
5:18 pm
ST?FF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?????
5:19 pm
ST?FF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?M??N
5:22 pm
STUFF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:23 pm
STUFF FOR SMA?? ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:25 pm
STUFF FOR SMART ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:26 pm
That's the slogan of THINKGEEK.
5:27 pm
Running Man?
5:27 pm
Segments are probably in alpha order, since they start with AARON.
5:40 pm
Needing to stop now. Back later.
[Sunday]
3:30 pm
Picking back up for a bit while the others are grocery shopping. Grid for Running Man was about 2/3 filled in when I stopped...
3:35 pm
Heh, SHELBY FOOTE.
3:36 pm
Okay, what the heck is going on with Well-Balanced?
3:36 pm
Could be a meta shell? Haven't seen anything hidden in the headers or anything like that...
3:38 pm
Yeah, this is looking likely. 13 puzzles, 13 scales.
3:39 pm
Oh! Lots of LBs and KGs and OZs...
3:41 pm
And the numbers look to match the numbers of letters on either side of those. Maybe I just index into each half using the number of shapes?
3:43 pm
TH??????EFTN??TONEUN????ED
3:44 pm
LEFT NO STONE UNTURNED, or some pun thereupon, definitely.
3:44 pm
UNBURNED?
3:45 pm
Need more answers.
3:46 pm
Most Important Meal? Not sure where this one's going to go.
3:48 pm
MOTHER NIGHT BETA GAMMA DELTA EPSILON?
3:51 pm
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL HOCUS POCUS JUNE JULY. Sequences, with one item randomly replaced with something else?
3:52 pm
Oh, duh, they're Vonnegut novels, like Breakfast of Champions.
3:53 pm
So far ALPHA (Bits?), (Apple?) JACKS, and (???) MAY have been displaced...
4:22 pm
Some of these are proving really difficult. I've spotted all the novels, at least; they're a strictly consecutive block from Mother Night to Hocus Pocus, skipping (of course) Breakfast of Champions.
4:23 pm
Definitely halves of cereal names, though the best I can come up with for MAY and GO are MAYPO and GO LEAN respectively, and those feel weak.
4:30 pm
Now missing only Cat's Cradle and Bluebeard.
4:44 pm
Oh, geez, just now realized it's meant to be one cereal per row. Was trying to cram it in as one long string...
4:46 pm
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, looks like.
4:46 pm
Never did get Cat's Cradle's one, though.
4:51 pm
Just submitted "THE TEAM LEFT NO STONE UNBURNED" as a potential meta answer. Going to clean up my notes for Most Important Meal, then break to wash some dishes.
[...and the rest was solved off-log.]
Saving the current issue to co-solve with Julia and others on a road trip down to California for her birthday party. I'm not likely to log it.
Okay. Not likely to finish today, but starting now anyway.
2:38 pm
Probably going to get called away at about 6. We'll see.
2:38 pm
Got the whole stack printed, just now about to peek. All I know is that there's a weight-loss theme, and there's a handful of errata.
2:40 pm
Huh. Weirdly British intro. Doc Who, flat, trainers, cheeky...
2:40 pm
British weight = stones, maybe?
2:41 pm
Hm. Change looks like maybe a slitherlink?
2:42 pm
Okay, Shape is catching my eye. Going to look at that first.
2:43 pm
Bell -> corner, somehow?
2:43 pm
North = slash? [No, Mike. Oliver North is not a film director. That is someone different.]
2:45 pm
Oh! Do they chain? Square->peg?
2:46 pm
Diamond head?
2:47 pm
Enumerations match the halves elsewhere, I think...
3:02 pm
Ouch. Star (5 letters) could go with any of BOARD, NORTH, or DEATH...
3:08 pm
Got -DIEN-, -BACK-, and -UNDG-. Looking like BACKGROUND GRADIENT?
3:15 pm
Oh, boo. It's GRADIENT BACKGROUND.
3:16 pm
An Apple a Day next.
3:17 pm
Basic laddergram, it looks like?
3:33 pm
Oh, duh. Took nearly the entire fill to realize the right side was Drs. -1.
3:35 pm
Left side, too; thought they might be apples.
3:36 pm
STEVE WOZNIAK
3:36 pm
That was fun. What's next?
3:37 pm
Power Lifting?
3:38 pm
Looks like superhero/villain teams?
3:53 pm
All but top center identified with heavy Googling.
3:53 pm
Suspecting top center is some sort of meta.
3:55 pm
Looking for these bigrams in the names of the other teams...
3:56 pm
Some don't appear as shown, but do appear in reverse...
3:57 pm
Okay, no LO forwards or backwards.
3:58 pm
D'oh, no, it's a normal set.
3:58 pm
Got to relocate; suspending for a few seconds.
4:02 pm
Not really sure how to finish this one.
4:02 pm
Moving to Celebrity Diets.
4:12 pm
Indexing into film titles so far gives CEL??CIAL?O?I?S.
4:14 pm
CEL??CIAL?ODI?S
4:14 pm
CELESTIAL BODIES, if somehow I'm wrong on Harold and Kumar?
4:15 pm
It dings. Moving on to Feel the Burn, I think.
4:17 pm
Hm. Not really seeing anything, actually.
4:17 pm
Let's see if I can work out Change.
4:18 pm
Was going to say these four presidents are exactly the four on Mt. Rushmore, giving an ordering...
4:18 pm
...except of course that's the wrong Roosevelt.
4:19 pm
Well, the penny's given to be zero, probably...
4:19 pm
No way the dime can be three. The diagonal chain of them in the upper right sees to that.
4:20 pm
And in the far lower right, the nickel (is that what that is? Haven't seen one like that) atop the zero means it can't be the three either. So three is the quarter.
4:21 pm
Applying that in the upper left quickly shows dime = 2, so nickel = 1.
4:21 pm
Oh! Okay, so it's ascending by value.
4:34 pm
Exterior letters end in -ANTOM WHAT, I think...
4:44 pm
Oh! NORTON JUSTER THE PHANTOM WHAT. Ought to have gotten that off of NO- -ANTOM WHAT.
4:48 pm
Going to try Sleep Tapes. Probably ought to open the PDF to double-check the pictures...
4:50 pm
Oh! Eye of the hurricane, cavalier, jelly beans - End of the World as we know it?
4:50 pm
And it starts with an EARTHQUAKE.
5:08 pm
BULLDOZING! Very nice!
5:09 pm
Heavy Things?
5:10 pm
Some number of opening tags, followed by the same number of closing tags, looks like.
5:11 pm
Palindromes. WASTER FRETSAW, SENILE FELINES...
5:12 pm
ST?FF is the first word.
5:18 pm
ST?FF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?????
5:19 pm
ST?FF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?M??N
5:22 pm
STUFF FOR S?A?? ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:23 pm
STUFF FOR SMA?? ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:25 pm
STUFF FOR SMART ?ASS?S D?MAIN
5:26 pm
That's the slogan of THINKGEEK.
5:27 pm
Running Man?
5:27 pm
Segments are probably in alpha order, since they start with AARON.
5:40 pm
Needing to stop now. Back later.
[Sunday]
3:30 pm
Picking back up for a bit while the others are grocery shopping. Grid for Running Man was about 2/3 filled in when I stopped...
3:35 pm
Heh, SHELBY FOOTE.
3:36 pm
Okay, what the heck is going on with Well-Balanced?
3:36 pm
Could be a meta shell? Haven't seen anything hidden in the headers or anything like that...
3:38 pm
Yeah, this is looking likely. 13 puzzles, 13 scales.
3:39 pm
Oh! Lots of LBs and KGs and OZs...
3:41 pm
And the numbers look to match the numbers of letters on either side of those. Maybe I just index into each half using the number of shapes?
3:43 pm
TH??????EFTN??TONEUN????ED
3:44 pm
LEFT NO STONE UNTURNED, or some pun thereupon, definitely.
3:44 pm
UNBURNED?
3:45 pm
Need more answers.
3:46 pm
Most Important Meal? Not sure where this one's going to go.
3:48 pm
MOTHER NIGHT BETA GAMMA DELTA EPSILON?
3:51 pm
JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL HOCUS POCUS JUNE JULY. Sequences, with one item randomly replaced with something else?
3:52 pm
Oh, duh, they're Vonnegut novels, like Breakfast of Champions.
3:53 pm
So far ALPHA (Bits?), (Apple?) JACKS, and (???) MAY have been displaced...
4:22 pm
Some of these are proving really difficult. I've spotted all the novels, at least; they're a strictly consecutive block from Mother Night to Hocus Pocus, skipping (of course) Breakfast of Champions.
4:23 pm
Definitely halves of cereal names, though the best I can come up with for MAY and GO are MAYPO and GO LEAN respectively, and those feel weak.
4:30 pm
Now missing only Cat's Cradle and Bluebeard.
4:44 pm
Oh, geez, just now realized it's meant to be one cereal per row. Was trying to cram it in as one long string...
4:46 pm
CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST, looks like.
4:46 pm
Never did get Cat's Cradle's one, though.
4:51 pm
Just submitted "THE TEAM LEFT NO STONE UNBURNED" as a potential meta answer. Going to clean up my notes for Most Important Meal, then break to wash some dishes.
[...and the rest was solved off-log.]
Saving the current issue to co-solve with Julia and others on a road trip down to California for her birthday party. I'm not likely to log it.