OliveSheep @ OliveSheep @lemmy.world

Posts

31

Comments

58

Joined

1 yr. ago

Did they all end up going through?? Apologies! Next time I get the error I'll double check it doesn't actually go through.

Sorry for putting puzzle in the main text today, it was not letting me submit my post with it in the URL field for some reason?

Another incredible time! Interesting, I think I need to spend more time diving into difficulty because by the way you're all going maybe this should have been a Monday puzzle!

2:39?! Wow, things must have clicked together for you really nicely! Phenomenal time for Friday!

Excellently done!! The first of many I hope 🙂

My thought process for the title is that you shouldn't be able to solve the puzzle directly from it, but that it makes sense in retrospect and is an attempt to create that "aha!" moment when you solve the anagram and can validate your thinking with the puzzle title. I know I don't always knock that out of the park, but in this case you're completely on the money.

!A salamander dropping its tail is, in my mind, a gamble that the predator will be distracted/sated with the tail so that the salamander can get away instead of being eaten, and the title itself allows for a bit of obfuscation in the sense that people can bet on coin flips or "gamble on heads or tails".!<

Yikes! Fixed the clues, thanks for that flag! Very pleased to hear you're enjoying them 🙂

That's completely fair! Because there are so few clues, I tend to try and combine some easier clues with more obfuscated ones. With games like Wordle, I feel like when I solve it in 20-30 seconds it feels underwhelming, so I try to include a few clues that give pause for thought and a bit more of a sense of accomplishment when solved. I think this one was a touch heavy on the trickier clues though.

The hardest thing about making these puzzles is being so restricted by the letters I can use for each puzzle. I used to include three-letter country codes in my grids, but eventually deemed them a bit unfair for the average solver. That said, I eventually want to be able to let people opt in to obscure knowledge that they know, so I can provide puzzles I've only been able to create that have those obscure acronyms and terms in them!

Now that's an impressive time for a 14-letter puzzle!

I really love setting cryptic clues, and by no means am I that proficient at them, but it's not a huge group who can solve them - though it's one of my long-term goals to foster more of a love for cryptics!

For 3 down >!I'm being a little sneaky with a Master's degree, which is denoted by "Ma", so two "Masters" would be MaMa!<!

The answer I was going for there is that >!since there are two of them, they are both "Eds" and so it's a plural on the name "Ed".< I do that for a few >!two- or three-letter names!< - do you think that's too unfair an answer though?

I think this one stumped a good chunk of people! I think I can see why though and will try to avoid for future puzzles!

I DM'd you a picture of the solved grid 🙂

😬

11 minutes while also figuring everything out is still a solid time, but yes, desktop will significantly reduce that time!

Would love to know how the cryptic went!

The trouble with some anagram solvers is that they don't take into account >!plurals!<, which is what I suspect you're coming up against here. The final phrase is >!anecdotes!< and I did worry that it being >!plural!< might cause some issues 😅

I'll post the solution today! What do you think would have been most useful to you when attempting to solve? Things like a different title clue hint, more letters locked in, ability to check individual letter placements in the anagram?

Nicely done! And that's fair, was it because >!it was a plural!<? I did debate whether that would make solving it a little harder.

Oh no! I do try to make the clues a little harder on Monday because it's an easier anagram, but perhaps I went a little too obscure today!