Book Report: The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

A few months back, I played in SFPursuit, a San Francisco challenge hunt. Uhm, where "challenge hunt" is a phrase I made up just now for "Something like a puzzlehunt, but most of the activities aren't puzzle-y, but they are still challenging." One of the activities involved looking over a physical book that had been created for the hunt. A few bookstores across San Francisco had one copy each of the special book. Each player's phone directed them to the nearest such bookstore. There, they could find the special book, gather data from it, solve the book's riddle, and enter the answer on their phone to complete the challenge.

Thus I found myself in Fabulosa Books, negotiating with fellow hunt enthusiasts to snap pictures of the pages from a false birdwatching guide. Unsurprisingly to anyone who's participated in such events, everyone was very focused on solving the riddle; nobody bought any books.

I remembered back to when I helped run 'Terngame 2012 for Twitter interns. I'd set up one puzzle at Isotope Comics and then watched over the puzzle, in case any interns needed help solving it. All of the interns were hyperfocused on the puzzle; none of them dawdled in the store after solving to browse or buy. I felt pretty sheepish for having asked the store's propietor to let me set up the puzzle there. I might as well have used a conference room back at company HQ.

That's what was on my mind when I bought a book at Fabulosa. Oh? What's that you say? What did I think of the book?

In the novel The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, the protagonist goes on a quest of self-discovery. He's been given a crossword puzzle; he's been instructed to seek out the answers to the puzzle along his journey. So one of the answers might be BEAUTY and the protagonist might encounter a really-nice sunset and contemplate its BEAUTY. And everyone reading the book is nodding "Yep, I saw that BEAUTY when I first solved the crossword, and now here we encounter it in the story; this whole story is satisfyingly interwoven."

The puzzle's kinda weird, tho. The book takes place in England, most of the characters are English. But the central-theme crossword puzzle uses American-style definition clues, not British-style cryptic clues. The book explains the reason thusly: The protagonist doesn't think of himself as smart enough to solve cryptic clues; the quest-giver knew this, and wanted the puzzle to be solve-able. But but cryptic clues are just a small part of why British-style puzzles can be difficult. A much bigger problem is that their grids are "sparse"; not every square is part of of an across-word and a down-word. In an American-style puzzle, if you don't know the across answer, the first name of whazzerface Świątek you might still be OK: Maybe you'll know the down-answers that intersect. But in a British-style grid, even if you have all the intersecting answers, you don't have all the letters.

A British-style crossword grid from Wikipedia

Maybe you're looking at S□A□E and you're not sure whether it's SCALE, SHADE, SHAKE, SHAME, SHAPE, SHARE, SLATE, SNAKE, SPACE, SPARE, STAGE, STATE, or what-have you. If the clue is British-cryptic-style, you have some hope: the clue has two halves: one definition, one wordplay. If the definition is so vague that you're not sure whether the answer is SHAPE or SPACE, probably the wordplay will clear things up. (oh, a "change" of phase, ok)

So… our not-amazing-puzzler protagonist has to solve a crossword in a British-style grid and doesn't have an answer key, so he has to just hope that he picked the right words, that □E□T□E might be CENTRE or KETTLE…

Also, one of the crossword clues is wrong: it points you at a noun, but the answer is the verb form of that noun. It's weird that one clue was wrong. In a novel structured around a crossword, I either expect no mistakes (a puzzle nerd trying their hand at novel-writing) or many mistakes (a novelist who doesn't know the rules of crosswords but nevertheless wants to incorporate one).

Here's my best hypothesis: The author's first draft of this novel used a British-style crossword with cryptic clues. The author was delighted when an American publisher picked up the novel: His work would reach a big audience! But the publisher imposed a condition: Those cryptic clues had to go; you couldn't expect Americans to understand them. The author, gnashing his teeth at this slight to his culture, swapped out his cryptic clues for grudgingly-written defintion-clue replacements, not noticing that he'd messed one of them up.

Oh? What's that you say? What did I think of the book?

It was OK. It did a great job of structuring the story around the crossword. If the crossword had been a mistake-less cryptic, maybe I'd be calling this book masterful.

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I see the NYT Tech Guild went on strike, so this might be a good time for me to post links to my list of daily puzzle pages, so folks have something to do in the absence of their crossword and/or that thing with the bees:

• Cell Tower: a grid already filled in with letters; you figure out what the words are.
• Toddle: Puzzle starts out looking like "Big vehicle: SEMI" which means that you're looking for a big vehicle like a dieSEl locoMotIve (but that's not the answer today, I just checked)
• Puzzmo: home of my favorite daily crossword and many many other puzzles which aren't my cup of tea but might be yours. Has leaderboards, so I can see that Tyler Hinman completed the crossword puzzle in ¼ my time. Keeps me humble.
• Black Crossword: mini crosswords celebrating the African Diaspora, which I now know more about thanks to these puzzles, especially those parts of the African Diaspora with lots of vowels
• Minute Cryptic: one cryptic crossword clue per day, about all my poor American-crossword-accustomed brain can handle

Anyhow, puzzle on and don't cross the line.

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Comic ^W Game Report: The Beyond

I enjoyed the puzzle-y game-y comic book The Beyond, by Jason Shiga, though I played it wrong. Like his previous work Leviathan, The Beyond is a choose-your-own-adventure book, but comics instead of plain ol' text. This game's gimmick: you encounter some special items, each of those special items has a number. Sometimes when the instructions tell you which page to turn to, you use an item and add its number, so the item affects what happens next in the plot. It's a neat gimmick.

I played it wrong. I followed instructions: in the game, I found an item. Later on, I used the item and that affected what happened next in the plot, neat. But I failed to notice that in the comic, my character had left that item behind. Later on, I encountered other special-number items, and then a situation where I could use them. Not realizing that my character had left the first special-number item behind, I "used" it, again adding its number to decide which page to turn to—and jumped to a page in the book that the author didn't expect. So I was looking at a bit of comic with an abrupt transition. But I knew that Jason Shiga is a tricky writer, and I can be pretty tricky myself, so I "cleverly" constructed a probable plotline in my head, bridged the strange transition from my old situation to my new situation, figured that the author had just elided some parts and expected me to figure out what had happened. Then I encountered a puzzle where I was supposed to use my knowledge of the number that had brought me to this point…but of course I had used the wrong number. So when I applied my "knowledge," things got weirder and I figured out that I should start over. And when I played again, I finally noticed how the book was trying to call my attention to that first item getting left behind. Ahem. Anyhow. I eventually finished the comic-game legit.

I notice that the computer game version of this comic-game-thingy is coming out in a few days. Maybe it will have an "inventory" system that keeps track of which items you carry with you (or leave behind); maybe it won't, though. I dunno. Anyhow, if you like books, get the book. If you like computer games, get the game. It's tricky, and if you're too-clever-by-half, you can make it even trickier.

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Hello! It is not March, but the excellent EnigMarch folks occasionally send out a prompt word nonetheless. Today's prompt word is LETTER, in honor of International Literacy Day. That tells me it's a good time to make a puzzle.

Here we have six five-letter words, written up-down: sulks, Slemp, Nothe, oaten, bread, strut. But we don't have the middle letters right. We guessed they were L-E-T-T-E-R. But it turns out that's wrong. We tried pointing out that Slemp is the person's name behind the Slemp Foundation; and that Nothe is a fine placename in parts of England. But we're looking for different words; and none of their middle-letters are L, E, T, or R.

Once you've filled in the correct middle-letters, you'll see something that might let you know that it's time to do something. (make a puzzle or otherwise)

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*Amazing-ness is an inaccurate but arguably-useful measure of suitability in word puzzles

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In the constructor notes for today's Puzzmo crossword, Zhouqin Burnikel says her original gimmick idea (not used) was people whose names had a fruit-word and a season-word. But she could only find one example, so she used a different theme instead.

That got me thinking, so I wrote a little script that looked through my phrase list for two-word phrases and used wordnet to detect fruit-words and season-words. Then I eyeballed the resulting list of fruit-season phrases to see which might be names. The program overlooked the fruit-season name that Zhouqin Burnikel found. (My phrase list doesn't know that name.) But it did find: Jack Spring (an athlete), Jack Winter (a TV writer). Wordnet says that "jack" can mean "jackfruit", and who am I to disagree?

Anyhow, here's the little script I wrote. I put it here not because I feel it's amazing, but because my previous wordnet-use blogposts fell out of Google's index, so when I went searching for past examples, I ended up having to grep around my hard drive like an animal. Anyhow, behold the majesty:

from nltk.corpus import wordnet

FRUIT = wordnet.synset('edible_fruit.n.01')
SEASON = wordnet.synset('season.n.02')

already = {}
is_fruit = {}
is_season = {}

def categorize(word):
    if word in already: return
    sss = wordnet.synsets(word)
    fruity = [ss for ss in sss if FRUIT in ss.hypernyms()]
    seasonal = [ss for ss in sss if SEASON in ss.hypernyms()]
    if len(fruity): is_fruit[word] = True
    if len(seasonal): is_season[word] = True

for line in open("Phrases_20240103_085450.txt"):
    score_s, phrase = line.strip().split("\t")
    words = phrase.split()
    if len(words) != 2: continue
    w1, w2 = words
    categorize(w1)
    categorize(w2)
    if (w1 in is_fruit and w2 in is_season) or (w1 in is_season and w2 in is_fruit):
        print(w1, w2)

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Tammy McLeod isn't just my teammate on MIT Mystery Hunt's Left Out; she isn't just a sudoku champion; she's also a world record speed jigsaw puzzler. She started a YouTube channel with another speed puzzler, USA national champ, Yvonne Feucht. I'm a jigsaw ignoramus, so a lot of their pilot episode was over my head. I was nevertheless amused, especially with the 1:1 competition that starts at about the 15:30 mark.

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Book Report: The Puzzler

It's a survey of puzzles: word puzzles, logic puzzles, physical puzzles, jigsaw—you get the idea. I'm not really in the target demographic for a survey; I already knew most of this stuff from, y'know, participating in puzzle events for the past not-quite-twenty years. Sure, the author has a unique set of opinions; but I've encountered most of those opinions piecemeal while talking with other puzzle nerds for the past not-quite-twenty years. So why did I read this targeted-elsewhere book? OK, remember back in 2020 I helped run the MIT Mystery Hunt, including a pancake Pictionary event, and one of the participants had a TV crew with him? That participant was the book's author, A.J. Jacobs. I don't know a ton about him, but apparently he roped some TV outfit into covering some of his more eye-catching book research. It turns out he's kind of a big deal. You remember some years back, some guy spent a year trying to follow all the rules of the bible? Same guy. So: kinda famous.

I'm quite grateful that he attended the 2020 MIT Mystery Hunt. He didn't say a ton about it; that's appropriate, since he was aiming for a survey of the whole world of puzzling and was writing a book carry-able without help from a forklift. Why am I grateful? Because he was willing to work on that puzzle that used surgery videos as puzzle data. A lot of folks couldn't bring themselves to look at that puzzle; I certainly couldn't. I remember making sure that its videos were hooked up correctly by peeking at them between my fingers… hoo boy. Jacobs was willing to work on that puzzle; and when he chose a sample MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle to include in his book, he chose "Bobcat" by the same author (but much less disturbing).

So the author dove in deep to the world of the MIT Mystery Hunt, participating, solving puzzles… and then wrote a little about it for this book. It kinda makes you wonder what ended up "on the cutting room floor." And that sums up what I thought about other sections of the book. He has a chapter about chess puzzles. Wow, he interviewed Garry Frickin' Kasparov for his chapter about chess problems… uhm, but while I bet it was an interesting conversation, not a lot of it made it into the book. (Or maybe most of the interview made it into the book except for the part where hypothetically Kasparov said "I have a bus to catch, I can give you five minutes"?) Uhm, it's cool that someone wants to write a breezy, readable survey of puzzling aimed at the layperson; it's cool that someone writing about chess problems talked to Kasparov; it's just kinda jarring that they're the same book, I guess?

I was mulling this over while talking with someone who recently read The Dawn of Everything, a book which compares how various cultures solved various problems historically. And that book is 700 pages, and it's a lot. And maybe it would have been a kindness to readers to pick one problem that various cultures solved various ways and write one much shorter book about that problem. Or maybe if there had been an editor who was willing to lay down the law and say "This book is all very well, but ⅔ of it has got to go." So, like, I get it that if this guy wants to write a book that appeals to his large existing audience, he's gotta keep it short, keep it breezy.

I guess I'm just so accustomed to mass-audience books being kinda sloppy, it's jarring to see something so rigorous and yet targeted to mass-audience.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is sequel).

So it would be good to know some sequels:

Gremlins 2: The   N e w   Ⓑa t c h

Legally Blonde 2: ◯_ _,   _ _ _ _ _   &   _ _ _ _ _ _  

Miss Congeniality 2: _ _ _◯_   &   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

The Princess Diaries 2: _ _ _◯_   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

Home Alone 2: _ _ _ _   in   _ _ _   _ _ _◯  

Anchorman 2: The   _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _◯_ _ _ _  

The Lego Movie 2: The   _ _ _ _◯_   _ _ _ _  

The circled letters spell a seven-letter wor thingy that should suggest a two eight-letter-word answer.

No hints for this one, sorry. The closest thing I could give to a hint is: know lots of movies.

Solution, rot13'd:

o / Terzyvaf 2: / Gur arj ongpu
e / Yrtnyyl Oybaqr 2: / erq, juvgr & oybaqr
r / Zvff Pbatravnyvgl 2: / nezrq & snohybhf
n / Gur Cevaprff Qvnevrf 2: / eblny ratntrzrag
x / Ubzr Nybar 2: / ybfg va arj lbex
v / Napubezna 2: / Gur yrtraq pbagvahrf
a / Gur Yrtb Zbivr 2: / Gur frpbaq cneg

Gur shyy gvgyr bs Oernxva' 2 vf, bs pbhefr, Oernxva 2: Ryrpgevp Obbtnybb

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. Today's word is book.

So I pulled a book off the shelf: Security Engineering by Ross Anderson, R.I.P. I thumbed through it and hit this passage:

Anyhow, here's a puzzle about simple things. Fill in the blanks, and the circled letters will remind you of something that Anderson would want us computer nerds not to forget as we shift bits about.

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Vg'f n ohapu bs cuenfrf gung vapyhqr gur jbeq "fvzcyr." Vs bar be gjb fghzc lbh, znlor gel gb xrrc tbvat naq ubcr lbh pna Jurry bs Sbeghar sebz gur erfg. Vs n ohapu fghzc lbh, lbh zvtug tbbtyr gur pyhr naq nqq gur jbeq "fvzcyr"

Urer'f nyy gur qngn:

v / xrrc vg Fvzcyr fghcvq / Cevapvcyr

a / Fvzcyr znpuvar / yrire be chyyrl, sbe rknzcyr

p / puneyrf gur Fvzcyr / Xvat bs Ybgunenatvn

r / Fvzcyr cerfrag / "Tvirf" be "qvfcynlf" sbe rknzcyr

a / Fvzcyr fvzba / Cvr-qrfvere gujnegrq ol cbiregl

g / Fvzcyr znwbevgl / rabhtu gb jva na ryrpgvba

v / Fvzcyr nebzngvp evat / Oramvar, vaqbyr, be clevqvar, sbe rknzcyr

i / N Fvzcyr snibe / Svyz jvgu Naan Xraqevpx naq Oynxr Yviryl

r / 8 Fvzcyr ehyrf / Wbua Evggre fvgpbz

f / Fvzcyr zvaqf / Fnat 1980f uvg "Qba'g Lbh (Sbetrg Nobhg Zr)"

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is surprise.)

There is one suprise in each sequence below. I sure hope you can turn each surprise into a letter.

one, one, two, six, twentyfour, one, …

six, twentyeight, three, eightthousonehundredandtwentyeight, …

zero, one, three, six, ten, fifteen, one, …

two, three, five, seven, two, thirteen, seventeen, …

zero, one, four, nine, sixteen, eight, …

three, one, four, one, five, four, two, six, …

one, one, two, three, five, eight, four, …

one, two, four, eight, one, thirtytwo, …

When you found what you're looking for, those surprise-derived letters should spell out what you were looking for.

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Rnpu bs gurfr vf n zngurzngvpny frdhrapr jvgu bar ahzore jebat.

Gur frdhraprf, abg va beqre ner: qvtvgf bs cv, snpgbevnyf, Svobanppv, cresrpg ahzoref, cbjref bs gjb, cevzrf, fdhnerf, naq gevnathyne ahzoref.

Vs lbh frr n "guerr" jurer lbh rkcrpg "sbheuhaqerqavarglfvk", gung zrnaf gb gnxr gur guveq yrggre bs "sbheuha...", H.

Urer'f gur shyy qngn:
b / bar / snpgbevny / bar, bar, gjb, fvk, gjraglsbhe, *baruhaqerqgjragl
h / guerr / cresrpg / fvk, gjraglrvtug, *sbheuhaqerqavarglfvk, rvtuggubhfbaruhaqerqnaqgjraglrvtug
g / bar / gevnathyne / mreb, bar, guerr, fvk, gra, svsgrra, *gjraglbar
y / gjb / cevzrf / gjb, guerr, svir, frira, *ryrira, guvegrra, friragrra
v / rvtug / fdhnerf / mreb, bar, sbhe, avar, fvkgrra, *gjraglsvir
r / sbhe / cv qvtvgf / guerr, bar, sbhe, bar, svir, *avar, gjb, fvk
e / sbhe / Svobanppv / bar, bar, gjb, guerr, svir, rvtug, *guvegrra
f / bar / cbjref bs gjb / bar, gjb, sbhe, rvtug, *fvkgrra, guveglgjb

Gur fhecevfrf fcryy bhgyvref.

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Heads or Tails

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is coin.)

Below are some blanks with some letters filled in. There are six sets of blanks, each for some phrase. Below those are six clues. Alas, it's not clear which clues go with which blanks.

_ _ _   H_ _ _E_   _ _ _A_D

_T_ _ _ _ _ _A_I_L_

_H_ _ _E_   A_D   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_H_   _ _ _   _ _E   _A_ _ _   _ _ _ _D   _ _ _ _ _

T_ _   _A_   _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _   _ _I_L

_T_A_ _ _ _ _   _I_L_ _

• Assassinated John F. Kennedy
• Electrical storm phenomena
• Movie with Gort the robot
• Movie with Gort the robot (yep, same one)
• Recently out-of-copyright Mickey Mouse short
• They cause a form of rat-bite fever

When you're done filling in the blanks, take one letter from each phrase to get a word that feels right for coins: ◯◯◯◯◯◯ (Which letter? Hmmm, I guess you'll have to figure that out.)

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Gur zbivr jvgu Tbeg gur ebobg vf Gur Qnl Gur Rnegu Fgbbq Fgvyy; vg svgf bar frg bs "urnq" oynaxf naq bar frg bs "gnvy" oynaxf.

Fgercgbonpvyyv pna pnhfr eng-ovgr srire.

Gb xabj juvpu yrggre gb gnxr sebz n cuenfr, pbafvqre jurgure vgf oynaxf unir "urnq" be "gnvy".

Vs "urnq", hfr gur svefg yrggre; vs "gnvy", gur ynfg.

Urer'f gur shyy qngn:
y / urnq / yrr uneirl bfjnyq / Nffnffvangrq Wbua S. Xraarql
v / gnvy / fgercgbonpvyyv / Gurl pnhfr n sbez bs eng-ovgr srire
g / urnq / guhaqre naq yvtugavat / Ryrpgevpny fgbez curabzran
g / urnq / gur qnl gur rnegu fgbbq fgvyy / Zbivr jvgu Tbeg gur ebobg
y / gnvy / gur qnl gur rnegu fgbbq fgvyy / Zbivr jvgu Tbeg gur ebobg
r / gnvy / fgrnzobng jvyyvr / Erpragyl bhg-bs-pbclevtug Zvpxrl Zbhfr fubeg

Gur svefg/ynfg yrggref fcryy yvggyr.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is rule.)

Below are five words and five transformation rules. Each word becomes some other word (not listed below) when a transformation rule is applied. Unfortunately, I lost track of which rule goes with which word. I dare you to figure it out:

The words:

The rules:

• Change vowels to be the same, e.g. SOLID becomes SALAD
• Reorder letters alphabetically, e.g., LOYAL becomes ALLOY
• Reverse the word, e.g. PARTS becomes STRAP
• Shift each letter four ahead in the alphabet, e.g., BANJO becomes FERNS
• Translate to Morse, reverse that, then translate back to English; e.g. REEDY becomes QUEER

When you're done, the circled letters should spell a rule of sorts: ◯◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

N pbhcyr bs gurfr ehyrf lbh pna cebonoyl nccyl va lbhe urnq; gur bguref ner zber taneyl. Fgneg jvgu gur fvzcyr ehyrf fb lbh jba'g unir gb gel nccylvat gur taneyl ehyrf gb fb znal jbeqf.

Jnvgf va erirefr-Zbefr vf fgvat

Crpna cyhf sbhe znxrf gvtre

Urer'f nyy gur qngn:

G / gncrq / nqrcg / Erbeqre yrggref nycunorgvpnyyl, r.t., YBLNY orpbzrf NYYBL
R / sverf / frevs / Erirefr gur jbeq, r.t. CNEGF orpbzrf FGENC
A / jnvgf / fgvat / Genafyngr gb Zbefr, erirefr gung, gura genafyngr onpx gb Ratyvfu; r.t. ERRQL orpbzrf DHRRE
R / sybhg / syrrg / Punatr ibjryf gb or gur fnzr, r.t. FBYVQ orpbzrf FNYNQ
G / crpna / gvtre / Fuvsg rnpu yrggre sbhe nurnq va gur nycunorg, r.t., ONAWB orpbzrf SREAF

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Five Cryptic Clues

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is clue.)

Here are five cryptic crossword-style clues. In case that's not tough enough, there's a word missing from each.

Cue Eric: Will _◯_ take finals?

Indication that ◯_ _ _ swapping Farenheit for Celsius

_ _ _◯_ _ _, oddly, is pointer

_ _◯_ sounds like a telltale

"_ _ _ _ _ _◯'s Log USS Enterprise…" starts evidence

When you're done, the circled letters should tell you when I feel clueless when tackling cryptics: ◯◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Rnpu bs gurfr pelcgvp pebffjbeq-fglyr pyhrf fbyirf gb gur fnzr jbeq.

Rnpu bs gurfr pelcgvp pebffjbeq-fglyr pyhrf fbyirf gb "pyhr".

Gur jbeqcynl cbegvbaf ner:
Revp: Jvyy _◯_ gnxr svanyf
◯_ _ _ fjnccvat Sneraurvg sbe Pryfvhf
_ _ _◯_ _ _, bqqyl
_ _◯_ fbhaqf yvxr
"_ _ _ _ _ _◯'f ybt HFF Ragrecevfr…" fgnegf

"Svanyf" zrnaf gur jbeqf raq jvgu …p …y …h …r
"Fjnccvat" urer zrnaf fhofgvghgvat bar yrggre sbe nabgure; jbeq fubhyq or bar yrggre bss sebz pyhr.
"Bqqyl" zrnaf gnxr rirel bgure yrggre: jbeq fubhyq or p_y_h_r
"Fbhaqf yvxr" zrnaf lbh jnag n ubzbcubar. (Nynf, vg'f na bofpher grez hayrff lbh'er n fnvybe. Vs lbh qba'g xabj vg evtug njnl, creuncf zbir ba.)
"Fgnegf" zrnaf gur jbeqf fgneg jvgu p… y… H… R…

Urer'f nyy gur qngn:
b / lbh / Phr Revp: Jvyy _ gnxr svanyf?
s / syhr / Vaqvpngvba gung _ fjnccvat Sneraurvg sbe Pryfvhf
g / phygher / _, bqqyl, vf cbvagre
r / pyrj / _ fbhaqf yvxr n gryygnyr
a / pncgnva / _'f Ybt HFF Ragrecevfr fgnegf rivqrapr

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy bsgra.

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res ipsa loquitur

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is raise.)

"Raise" and "raze" are interesting words: they're homophones (sound alike) and antonyms (mean opposite). "Rays" just muddies the waters further: you have three words that sound alike and mean quite different things.

The clues below hint at word-triads: all words in each triad sounds alike. Fill the words into the blanks in alphabetical order.

When you're done, the circled letters should spell out some good advice for solving this puzzle, albeit too late: ◯◯◯◯   ◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Gur svefg jbeq va gur svefg gevnq vf evtug.

Urer'f gur erfg bs gur qngn:

U / evtug, evgr, jevgr / ragvgyrzrag, prerzbal, pbzcbfr
R / jner, jrne, jurer / cebqhpg, rebqr, ng juvpu
N / frn, frr, fv / oeval qrrc, creprvir, lrf va Lrpyn
E / ebnq, ebqr, ebjrq / jnl, napube punva, cnqqyrq
U / pvgr, fvtug, fvgr / dhbgr, nggenpgvba, cynpr
R / prag, fprag, frag / craal, bqbe, cbfgrq
E / bne, be, ber / cnqqyr, (pbawhapgvba), Pngna tbbq
R / rjr, lrj, lbh / fur furrc, gerr, frpbaq crefba
    

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy urne urer.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is power.)

Here's a classic Puzzazz daily puzzle type: The following clues define four 3-letter words and four 5-letter words. Each of the 3-letter words fits into the middle of one of the 5-letter words, like OWE and POWER. Figure out the words and fit them into the square below.

• Building addition
• Kidlit pachyderm
• Muscle power
• St Louis "Hot in Herre" rapper
• Uncooked
• USA gov't clean-air org.
• USA Lawyers' org.
• What you must do if you [middle three letters of power]

(not too confident the nice grid formatting will come through OK in RSS readers, oh well)

When you're done, the circled letters will spell a word that means, roughly, "having the power to do something." ◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Gur gbc svir-yrggre jbeq vf oenja, zhfpyr cbjre

Urer'f gur erfg bs gur qngn:
RYY / Ohvyqvat nqqvgvba
ONONE / Xvqyvg cnpulqrez
OENJA / Zhfpyr cbjre
ARYYL / Fg Ybhvf "Ubg va Ureer" enccre
ENJ / Hapbbxrq
RCN / HFN tbi'g pyrna-nve bet.
NON / HFN Ynjlref' bet.
ERCNL / Jung lbh zhfg qb vs lbh owe

Urer'f gur tevq:

oeNja
n   r
O   y
n   Y
eRcnl

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy noyr.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is neither.)

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is not an official creed of the United States Postal Service. Still, it's impressive that they get out to so many places which you might specify as ZIP Codes™:

The circled letters spell
◯◯◯ ◯◯◯◯◯◯◯ ◯◯◯◯ ◯◯◯◯ ◯◯◯,
which is of course
_ _ _ _ _   _ _ _, _ _
which of course lets you know that "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" is neither the official USPS creed nor its _ _ _ _ _.

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Lbh jvyy znxr n svir-yrggre jbeq sebz rnpu MVC pbqr. Sbe rnpu qvtvg, gnxr gur Agu yrggre bs gur MVC pbqr'f cevznel pvgl.

Sbe rknzcyr, sbe 56734 Ynxr Oebafba, 5=O, 6=E, 7=B, 3=X, 4=R, naq gung fcryyf OEBXR

Fbzr bs gurfr svir-yrggre "jbeqf" ner cerggl fxrgpul, ohg ubcrshyyl lbh jvyy crefreirer naq abgr qbja gur pvepyrq yrggref abarguryrff.

Urer'f gur qngn:

b	oebxr   56734   Ynxr Oebafba, ZA
a	terra   12435   Terrasvryq Cnex, AL
r	gvzrf   92378   Evzsberfg, PN
f	cerff   13677   Clevgrf, AL
r	genpr   94237   Fnpenzragb, PN
i	nyiva   38564   Tenaivyyr, GA
r	nyvxr   53278   Zvyjnhxrr, JV
a	nyyna   12245   Nyonal, AL
s	sybbs   16228   Sbeq Pyvss, CN
v	yvfgf   63151   Fnvag Ybhvf, ZB
i	ivfnf   87525   Gnbf Fxv Inyyrl, AZ
r	rgure   18416   Ryzuhefg, CN
s	sraav   15332   Svayrlivyyr, CN
v	pnvar   47385   Fcvprynaq, VA
i	inyyn   62882   Fnaqbiny, VY
r	trrfr   14454   Trarfrb, AL
g	genpg   94239   Fnpenzragb, PN
j	gjvfg   41274   Jvggrafivyyr, XL
b	pryyb   47983   Fgbpxjryy, VA

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy bar frira svir svir gjb. Bu url, vg'f nabgure mvc pbqr.

Bar frira svir svir gjb unf gur cevznel pvgl Zbhag Wbl, CN.

Bar=Z, Frira=B, Svir=G, Gjb=B; fb gur svany nafjre vf zbggb.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is cloud.)

In wordplay, a letterbank is a set of letters you can use to form words, using each letter none, one, or more times. E.g., if BANK is your letterbank, you could form the words banana, kana, nab, etc.

Here are some letterbanks and some words that can be formed from them. And some clues for the bank-words and the formed-words. The clues aren't all so clear, but maybe if you figure out a word from a set it can help you figure out the others.

When you're done, the circled letters should tell you why there was a clou mist in my room after I took a shower: ◯◯◯◯   ◯◯◯   ◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Gur onax-jbeqf ner: pybhq, jbeyq, fnaq, cubar

Urer'f nyy gur qngn:

+ pybhq / Phzhybavzohf zvtug sbez bar
q pbhyq / jnf noyr
b pbby / puvyy, ohg creuncf yrff fb

+ jbeyq / Pbafcvenpl ahgwbof ungr vg rira zber guna rpbabzvfgf qb
b qebyy / shaal
e jbbqebj / HFN cerfvqrag orgjrra Jvyyvnz naq Jneera.
j jbeq / havg bs grkg

+ fnaq / Abg fb zhpu fuber nf fubny
n anqn / abguvat va Armnuhnypólbgy
f anfn / Ncbyyb 11 crbcyr

+ cubar / Gryrznexrgre? V qba'g rira xabj 're!
b cbbc / shaavrfg qrpx ba n cvengr fuvc
c ubcr / vg fcevatf rgreany
r arba / aboyr tnf (v.r., ABOYR jbexf nf n yrggre onax)
a craar / ghohyne abbqyr

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Mixology

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is mix.)

Mixology is the study of cocktails. You might think the words and phrases below are just nonsense, but they're actually cocktails. Each has a secret extra ingredient mixed into it until it's nearly unrecognizable. Hopefully you can recognize them nonetheless. (If you don't know cocktails, don't worry; there's a relevant menu below.) Combine the secret ingredient to find out what some people think the most important component of cocktails.

Menu: Manhattan, cosmopolitan, daquiri, gimlet, gin fizz, irish coffee, martini, mimosa, negroni, rusty nail, sidecar, vesper martini, whiskey sour, white Russian

Yes, this is pretty much the same gimmick I used on Pi Day. My first thought was that MIX is Roman numerals, but I used those just a few days ago. Then I thought of this gimmick. And then I was tired of thinking, so I'm re-using it, so there.

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Fbzr bs gubfr qevaxf ner rnfvre gb nantenz guna bguref. Znxr n dhvpx cnff gb fcbg rnfl barf. Gura nabgure fybjre cnff jvgu gur qevaxf lbh unira'g pebffrq bhg.

Urer'f gur chmmyr qngn:

n : erznvaf cevingr : irfcre znegvav
y : uvf yvsr sbepr : vevfu pbssrr
p : gung zna pna : Znaunggna
b : ybt gvzr : tvzyrg
u : genva uvz : znegvav
b : qvfpb ren : fvqrpne
y : svmmyvat : tva svmm

z : erznvaf jvgu hf : juvgr Ehffvna
n : vafnyhgnel : ehfgl anvy
g : avgebtra : artebav
g : ngbzvfz : zvzbfn
r : gbby pbzcnavrf : pbfzbcbyvgna
e : lbhe juvfxref : juvfxrl fbhe
f : nvefdhvq : qndhvev

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But here there are no cows.

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is neighbor.)

In the Robert Frost poem "Mending Wall," the narrator and their neighbor walk along a broken wall, replacing fallen stones. The neighbor says "Good fences make good neighbors." Did he think both walkers were experiencing some benign transformation as they went?

Anyhow, the lines of text that follow aren't a poem; they're a puzzle. Figure out what they have in common and get a letter from each to spell something:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Jbj, uqdef. naq rfdef. ner cerggl jrveq "jbeqf". Gur chmmyr qrfvtare zhfg unir orra cerggl qrfcrengr gb hfr gurz. Jung qb gurl unir va pbzzba?

Rnpu yvar unf n gevnq bs "arvtuobe" yrggref, yrggref nqwnprag va gur nycunorg. Sbe rknzcyr "uqdef." unf DEF.

Sbe rnpu yvar, wbg qbja gur zvqqyr yrggre bs vgf gevnq. Sbe rknzcyr, va "uqdef.", wbg qbja gur E.

Urer'f gur chmmyr qngn:

z Sevrqevpu Jvyuryz Avrgmfpur
r qrsvavgvba
a Gur Onggyr Ulza bs gur Erchoyvp
q ryrpgebavp qrivprf
v uvwno
a Tenunz Abegba
t Havirefvgl bs Turag

s orrs tbhynfu
r Gbhe qr Senapr
a Ntnzrzaba
p ROPQVP
r pnhfr naq rssrpg
f zvfhaqrefgnaqvat

v Tnaquvwv
z pnyzarff
c gbc dhnex
e uqdef.
b zrabcnhfr
i HI jniryratgu
r qrsgyl
f Flyirfgre Fgnyybar

a v nz abg
r qr snpgb
v uvwnpxvat
t Nstunavfgna
u Abggvat Uvyy
o Pno Pnyybjnl
b Pbafgnagvabcyr
e rfdef.
f svefg

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is odd.)

"I want to write a parody. What are some movies with odd numbers in the title?"

"Wait, how do you spell 'parody'?"

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Sbe rnpu zbivr gvgyr, svyy va gur oynaxf jvgu na bqq ahzore jvgu lbhe rkgrafvir zbivr xabjyrqtr.

Bapr lbh xabj gur ahzore A, wbg qbja gur Agu yrggre bs gur gvgyr. Sbe rknzcyr, frira: fabj ju*V*gr.

v : frira : Fabj Juvgr naq gur _ Qjnesf
a : avar : Gur Jubyr _ Lneqf
f : frira : _ Cflpubcnguf
n : frira : _ Fnzhenv
a : frira : Gur Zntavsvprag _
r : ryrira be guvegrra, jbexf rvgure jnl : Bprna'f _

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Club Bangers

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is club.)

Here are some song lyrics. Alas, there's a word missing from each. Maybe you have some of these memorized. Maybe you can figure others out from context. If this isn't your forte, you can always search your favorite lyrics site. (That's how I got most of these.)

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Lbh pna svaq zbfg bs gurfr ylevpf ol tbvat gb travhf.pbz naq frnepuvat sbe "pyho" va ylevpf

Urer'f nyy gur qngn:

f ; orfg ; Rq Furrena ; Funcr bs Lbh ; N pyho vfa'g gur orfg cynpr gb svaq n ybire / Fb gur one vf jurer V tb (Zz)

g ; whfg ; Orlbapé ; Fvatyr Ynqvrf (Chg n Evat ba vg) ; Hc va gur pyho (Pyho), jr whfg oebxr hc (Hc) / V'z qbva' zl bja yvy' guvat

e ; cnegl ; Pneqv O ; Obqnx Lryybj ; Lbh va gur pyho whfg gb cnegl, V'z gurer, V trg cnvq n srr

b ; obggyr ; 50 Prag ; Va qn Pyho ; Lbh pna svaq zr va gur pyho, obggyr shyy bs oho'

a ; univat ; Znpxyrzber &nzc; Elna Yrjvf ; Guevsg Fubc ; Gung fuveg'f uryyn qbcr / Naq univat gur fnzr bar nf fvk bgure crbcyr va guvf pyho vf n uryyn qba'g

t ; trg ; Whfgva Ovrore ; Ybir Lbhefrys ; Sbe nyy gur gvzrf gung lbh envarq ba zl cnenqr / Naq nyy gur pyhof lbh trg va hfvat zl anzr

f ; gbffrq ; W. Pbyr ; Cbjre Gevc ; Gur fnzr pyhof gung V hfrq gb trg gbffrq bhg / Yvsr tbg Xevff Xebff'q: gbgnyyl pebffrq bhg

h ; hc ; Orlbapé ; Cnegvgvba ; Frr zr hc va gur pyho jvgu svsgl-'yrira tveyf / Cbfgrq va gur onpx, qvnzbaq snatf va zl tevyy

v ; yvr ; Lbhat Z.N. ; BBBHHH ; Guvf Uraarffl trggva' gb zr / V nva'g tbaan yvr, V'z n yvggyr fzvmm / V'z n yvggyr qevmm / Ohg jr va gur pyho, zna / BBBHHH

g ; sryg ; QW Xunyrq ; V'z gur Bar ; Jura V zrg ure va gur pyho, V nfxrq ure jub fur sryg

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Happy March 17th! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is ancient.)

How often do men think about the Roman Empire? Anyhow, it was still present in Britain in the 5th century, such that someone born there/then might reasonably be expected to spot what's going on in this puzzle, even if they were captured by slavers and taken to a foreign land:

Lbh jnag gb rkgenpg bar yrggre sebz rnpu cuenfr.

Va rnpu cuenfr, gur yrggref V, I, naq K ner obyqrq. Zber fhogyl, gur yrggref P, Y, Q, naq Z qba'g nccrne ng nyy.

Ebzna ahzorevat vf vzcbegnag.

Sbe rnpu cuenfr, chyy bhg gur Ebzna ahzrenyf naq fgvpx gurz gbtrgure gb znxr n ahzore A. Gura hfrq gur Agu yrggre bs gur cuenfr.

Sbe rknzcyr, va "Gur Vevfu Frn", gur Vv Ebzna ahzrenyf znxr gjb. Gur frpbaq yrggre bs "Gur Vevfu Frn" vf U.

Urer'f gur shyy yvfg:

U Gur Vevfu Frn
N ivfvbanel
C irel cerggl
C hcevfvat
L rirel lrne

F ivfvbaf
G nagvdhvgvrf

C fcvevg
N cnegvgvba
G Ivfvtbguf
F xabja gb rkvfg

Gur yrggref fcryy Unccl Fg Cngf!

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Many Hands Make Aight Work

Happy March! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is hand.)

Although I am an enthusiastic member of my MIT Mystery Hunt team, my attention to detail is… what it is. My teammates insist on checking my work, even on my favorite parts:

If they find me staring stuck at a puzzle, they find my mistakes and point me at "_ _ _ _    _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _"

This puzzle assumes you know some MIT Mystery Hunt jargon: Duck Konundrum, Pure Meta.

Rnpu cuenfr unf bar yrggre jebat.

R.t., gurer'f n chmmyr glcr pnyyrq "znepuvat onaqf" abg "znepuvat unaqf"

Sbe rnpu cuenfr, abgr qbja gur jebat yrggre. R.t., gur U va unaqf. Chg 'rz gbtrgure gb sbez n cuenfr.

Urer'f gur shyy yvfg:
Znepuvat Unaqf (Znepuvat Onaqf)
Ehovx'f Phon (Ehovx'f Phor)
Ibjf Tneqra (Ebjf Tneqra)
Qrpx Xbahaqehz (Qhpx Xbahaqehz)
Cler Zrgn (Cher Zrgn)
Cbvag ol Ahzoref (Cnvag ol Ahzoref)
Fbyvgnver Unahzna (Fbyvgnver Unatzna)
Ohexvan Snfg (Ohexvan Snfb)
Fpniratre Uheg (Fpniratre Uhag)
Xavtugf naq Xavirf (Xavtugf naq Xanirf)
Pbaarpg gur Qbrf (Pbaarpg gur Qbgf)
Ehfu Qbhe (Ehfu Ubhe)

Gur zvfgnxra yrggref fcryy Unir Lbh Gevrq

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3D Movies

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is 3D.)

See if you can figure out what movies I'm* talking about here. Put together their first letters to remind yourself what you did with those large-volume sodas at at the movie theaters.

◯_ d_ _ _ _ d_ _ _ _    D_ _ 

The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy Earth. Fighting superior technology, mankind's best weapon is the will to survive.

◯_    _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ d'_    _ _ dd_ _ _ 

When a woman's long-time friend reveals he's engaged, she realizes she loves him herself and sets out to get him, with only days before the wedding.

◯_ _    D_ dd_ 

A lazy law school graduate adopts a kid to impress his girlfriend, but everything doesn't go as planned.

◯_ d_ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _    _ _ d   _ _ _    _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ d_ 

In 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again

◯_ _ _    _ _ d   _ _ d'_    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _    _ d_ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report

◯d_ _ _ d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ d_ 

The solitary life of an artificial man—who was incompletely constructed and has scissors for hands—is upended when he is taken in by a suburban family

Ⓓ_ _ _    _ _ d D_ _ _ _ _ 

After a woman leaves a briefcase at the airport terminal, a dumb limo driver and his dumber friend set out on a hilarious cross-country road trip to Aspen

*Here, "I'm" is short for IMDB, whence I stole the summaries

Hint: You either need to know lots of movies or be good at searching teh internets.

Solution, rot13'd:

Vaqrcraqrapr Qnl
Zl Orfg Sevraq'f Jrqqvat
Ovt Qnqql
Vaqvnan Wbarf naq gur Ynfg Pehfnqr
Ovyy naq Grq'f Rkpryyrag Nqiragher
Rqjneq Fpvffbeunaqf
Ⓓhzo naq Qhzore

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Happy Pi Day! This round's on me. It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is spirit. Kinda spooky.)

You might think the words below are just nonsense, but they're actually alcoholic spirits. Each has an additive mixed into it until it's nearly unrecognizable. Hopefully you can recognize them nonetheless. Combine the additives to find out what Ghostbusters do when they see a spirit.

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Urer'f n yvfg bs fcvevgf juvpu vapyhqrf nyy gur eryrinag barf naq n srj bguref gb xrrc lbh ba lbhe gbrf:
neenpx, oenaql, pbtanp, tva, zveva, cvfpb, ehz, fbwh, grdhvyn, ibqxn, juvfxl

Gur svefg fcvevg vf CVFPB naq gur rkgen yrggre vf R

Urer'f gur shyy fbyhgvba:
pbcvrf / r / cvfpb
dhnagvyr / a / grdhvyn
wbhfg / g / fbwh
qibenx / e / ibqxn
tnva / n / tva
pnecnex / c / neenpx

Gur rkgen yrggref fcryy ragenc

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Happy Marsh March! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is wave.)

The Marshall Islands are in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. If you're sailing/rowing there, you really don't want to miss, or else you can find yourself in the middle of nowhere, short on supplies. These islands are low atolls; they don't stick up very high. (Maybe you saw a viral video some weeks back with a wave of water bursting through doors to swamp a room at a US Army base? That was at the Marshall Islands.) This low-ness means that if you're rowing/sailing there, you might be kinda-close, but still not be able to see an island over the horizon.

Thus, back in the days before GPS, anyone who wanted to settle in the Marshall Islands, occasionally sail out for an excursion and find their way back and not die had to be super-good at navigating. Thus the Marshall Islands are the last place on earth where there's still traditional knowledge of wave piloting, navigating by feeling the waves.

In wave piloting a navigator pays attention to the waves that toss and turn their boat. When I, an ignorant city slicker, look out at ocean waves, I just see a confusing mess of motion. But a skilled wave pilot figures out something like "Most of these waves are going from east to west; but some of them are coming from from an angle off that-a-way. Therefore, there must be an island off over the horizon that-a-way that these waves are bouncing off."

With that in mind, see if you can figure out this four-word phrase based on the waves radiating off it:

I have no idea how to hint this one, sorry. I bet it's either totally easy or impossible, but I'm not sure which.

Solution, rot13'd:

Gur zrffntr vf onfx va ersyrpgrq tybel.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is shield.)

The language of heraldry and the language of flags have much in common. With this in mind, consider how one might exercise one's arms so one could carry a heavy shield around all day.

• Esquarre
• Chevron Reversed
• Bend Sinister
• Bend Sinister
• Pile
• Esquarre

Hint and solution, rot13'd:

Gurfr fgenatr jbeqf ner ryrzragf bs urenyqvp qrfvta. Jung qb gurl ybbx yvxr?

Jbaqre jul gur synibegrkg jnagrq hf gb guvax nobhg syntf.

Pbhyq vg or frzncuber? Bu ab, vg'f frzncuber.

Gur funcrf bs gurfr urenyqvp guvatvrf xvaqn fhttrfg fbzrbar ubyqvat gurve nezf ng frzncuber-vfu natyrf. Gung jbhyq fcryy: CHYY HC

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Happy March! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is bridge.)

To abridge is to shorten some text, ideally preserving the sense. You could also shorten some text by chopping the first letter off of each word. For example, abridge would become bridge. National Puzzlers League people would call this "lop off the first letter" idea beheadment.

Can you figure out these beheadments? When you're done, gather the heads for the name of a beheaded saint (not necessarily a cephalophore (cephalophore-ness isn't part of the puzzle. I just found out about the word while researching the puzzle and thought it was wild that there was a word for that)).

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

abj! : jung zbagu vf vg?

jvttyvrfg cvrpr: fcrpvsvpnyyl, purff cvrpr

pregnvayl: vs "zhpuyl" jrer n jbeq, vg jbhyq unir orra n orggre pyhr

Yvfg bs orurnqrq jbeqf:
oevqtr
rire
natre
nyyl
irel
bzra
avtug
fynaqre
nepu

Yvfg bs haorurnqrq jbeqf:
noevqtr
arire
qnatre
enyyl
rirel
jbzra
xavtug
vfynaqre
znepu

Gung fnvag vf Naqerj Xvz, n.x.n. Naqerj Xvz Gnrtba

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The Attention We Bring To It

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is zero.)

Someone who'd thought about such matters said:

"All in all, the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act."

Inner qualifications: zero, devo, teen, parses, tech, lobo, tonal, tunes, spend

_ _ _ _    _ _ _    _ _

Gur cvpgherf qba'g znggre; gur gvgyrf qb.

Va guvf chmmyr, gur gvgyrf unir qvssrerag pncvgnyvmngvba guna gur bevtvanyf.

Pna lbh svaq "mreb" nzbatfg gur gvgyrf?

Vs lbh pna'g svaq "mreb", pna lbh svaq "mr"?

Lbh pna svaq rnpu bs gur vaare dhnyvsvpngvbaf va gur gvgyrf, ohg rnpu vf vagreehcgrq ol fcnprf be chapghngvba naq fhpu.

Sbe rnpu vaare dhnyvsvpngvba, svaq gur eryrinag gvgyr naq wbg qbja vgf pncvgny yrggre. Gurfr yrggref fcryy: Jung neg vf

J mreb Jul Abg Farrmr, Ebfr Féynil?
U qrib Oryyr Unyrvar, Rnh qr Ibvyrggr
N grra Obîgr-ra-inyvfr
G cnefrf Yn znevér zvfr à ah cne frf péyvongnverf, zêzr (Yr Tenaq Ireer)
N grpu Cbegr-puncrnhk
E ybob Zbagr Pneyb Obaqf
G gbany Trbetr Jnfuvatgba (Nyyrtbevr qr traer)
V gharf Ah qrfpraqnag ha rfpnyvre a° 2
F fcraq À ertneqre q'ha œvy, qr ceèf, craqnag cerfdhr har urher

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You Spin Me Right

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is thread. Kinda spooky coincidence when you consider that 🧵 was a clue in the puzzle I wrote yesterday.)

The word thread can be "unraveled" into two smaller words: the and rad. You might call the a "start" word; its first letter is thread's first letter. Similarly, you could say rad is an "end" word: its last letter is thread's last letter. But the word isn't therad; you must braid things better than that for the whole to hold together.

Here are emoji cluing several "thread" words. Some of these, you can probably get just from the emoji. For the others, you might want to see what you can spin from the remaining bits.

The start words: can, fat, fbi, fun, man, net, sad, set, sum, the, win

Rad end words: arc, bit, car, get, her, his, how, let, rad, red, way

Was it really a coincidence I used 🧵 as a clue yesterday? I think it was a Ⓣ◯◯◯◯ ◯◯ ◯◯◯◯. (Some folks are convinced that a puzzle lurks in the words that the EnigMarch people are handing out. I don't have an opinion on that, other than "I'm wary of getting hypnotized by spaghetti".)

Guernq / gur enq / 🧵
fJrngl / frg jnl / 😅
punVaf / pna uvf / ⛓️
Fhozvg / fhz ovg / 📥
sneGrq / sng erq / 💨
funqBj / fnq ubj / 👤
Snoevp / sov nep / 🧣
Syhrag / sha yrg / 💬
zNtarg / zna trg / 🧲
arpGne / arg pne / 💮
juvaRe / jva ure / 😭

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is rock.)

So I made one of those fancypants drill-ladder web page things. I didn't try to embed the puzzle in this here blog post page because I didn't want to think about whether the puzzle styles and the blog-post styles would fight. Anyhow, go check out the drill-ladder web page thing.

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It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is watch.)

What does a watched pot never do? Well, it doesn't do many, many things, but experts of English idiom know that a watched pot especially never boils.

boIls, cOmes, falls far from thE tree, falls from its Hinges, forgetS, hear any good of themselVes, hurt Anyone, laid a Tame egg, loses in the Telling, prospEr, qUit, Ran smoothly, refused inK, reveals his secreTs, Strikes twice, wiN, won faiR lady

_ _   _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _   _ _   _ _ _.

Solution, rot13'd:

N jngpurq cbg arire obVyf
N zntvpvna arire erirnyf uvf frperGf

Dhvggref arire jvA
Purngref arire cebfcRe
Rnirfqebccref arire urne nal tbbq bs gurzfryIrf
Gur nccyr arire snyyf sne sebz guR gerr
Snvag urneg arire jba snvE ynql

N pernxvat qbbe arire snyyf sebz vgf Uvatrf
Jvaaref arire dHvg
Gur pbhefr bs gehr ybir arire Ena fzbbguyl
N jvyq tbbfr arire ynvq n Gnzr rtt
Yvtugavat arire Fgevxrf gjvpr

Gnyr arire ybfrf va gur Gryyvat
Gbzbeebj arire pBzrf

N yvggyr uneq jbex arire uheg Nalbar
Na ryrcunag arire sbetrgF
Cncre arire ershfrq vaX

Gur hccre-pnfr yrggref va gur "obvyf" cuenfrf fcryy Vg arire uhegf gb nfx.

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Like a Record, Baby

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is round.)

It's neat that if you move the last phoneme in ROUND 'round to the front, it makes a different word, DROWN.

INCH, LOAF, ONYX, PIERCE, ROGUE, ROUND, TAX, WRECKED

Read the circled letters to remind yourself what's going on: Ⓡ◯◯◯◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

Nppbeqvat gb gur PZH sbyxf jubfr cubargvp qvpgvbanel V hfr, gur ynfg cubarzr va GNK vf F, abg XF be fbzrfhpu.

Gung pebffrq-bhg "cv" vf n gbb-pyrire-ol-unys ahqtr gung lbh jnag gb fcva CVREPR urer.

Ha-fcha jbeqf, va beqre bs hfr: ebhaq, ebthr, gnk, cvrepr, jerpxrq, balk, ybns, vapu.

Gur fcha jbeqf, va beqre, ner: qEbja, teBj, fGnpx, fcrNe, Gerx, fbaVp, syBr, puvA. Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy ebgngvba.

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Oh hi, Mark

Happy March! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is sign.) That's kind of neat, if you think of a sign as a "mark." It sounds kinda like "March" and Wikipedia says that's not a coincidence:

In medieval Europe… a march was a border between realms… It seems that in Old English "mark" meant "boundary" or "sign of a boundary", and the meaning only later evolved to encompass "sign" in general, "impression" and "trace".

Anyhow, I suppose it would be appropriate for you to solve this slitherlink, finding the boundary, and then note which letter-marks are within. They should spell a word.

The Wikipedia article about slitherlinks has a pleasantly-surprising amount of advice on solving them.

If you're not having fun but nevertheless feel compelled to solve, there are automatic slitherlink solvers out there.

If you want the answer, follow this here link to see the solution.

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Case-by-Case Basis

It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is shift.)

Did you ever wonder how keyboards came to have "Shift" keys and how they got that name? The earliest typewriters only supported capital letters. But then:

For the second Remington model [typewriter], engineers Lucien Crandall and Byron Books chose to add lowercase letters using a clever method: they changed each of the typebars to have two letters, one above the other, and added a key that would shift up the entire carriage—the moving mechanism that carried the paper wrapped around the platen—and cause the subsequent typebar to hit the shifted carriage with the other letter.

Naturally, they named that key Upper Case. …

The Upper Case key had its counterpart, Lower Case. … At some point in the 1880s, the maker renamed both keys Shift while swapping the action so that the carriage shifted only when one of the keys was held.

Keeping that in mind, consider the following. It should appear sideways. (I worry that RSS readers and such might not display it correctly? If it doesn't appear sideways, maybe you want to click through to the blog post.)

Rnpu pyhr yrnqf gb n cuenfr bs gur sbez hccre fbzrguvat be ybjre fbzrguvat.

Jura jevgvat nafjref va gur oynax, yrnir bhg gur "hccre" be "ybjre" jbeq; ohg guvf gryyf lbh juvpu qverpgvba gb jevgr gur erznvavat jbeqf va gur oynaxf. R.t., sbe "hccre yvc", jevgr yvc hcjneqf fb gung gur Y vf va gur pvepyr.

Gur cuenfrf ner:
hccre yvc
ybjre lbhe thneq
ybjre gur obbz
ybjre guna n fanxr'f oryyl
hccre unaq
hccre pehfg

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy yhzone. Gung'f lbhe ybjre onpx, fb jevgr onpx qbjajneqf va gur oynaxf

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March March March March March

Happy March! It is #EnigMarch, and each day the excellent EnigMarch people post a prompt word; then puzzle nerds try to design puzzles around that word. (Today's word is musical.)

Since it's March, here are five cryptically-clued marches.

• Small emperor Tuesday swaps PAAS for egg, lightly scrambled at the end (What's the 3rd letter?)
• Chicago transit, bread in can (4th letter?)
• Just kidding, California westward in rear (6th letter?)
• Lots of laundry afterwards (9th letter?)
• Gratify the old senator, confused (4th letter?)

_ _ _ _ _ = Leader of band (that's a defintion, I'm not cluing the letter B, snap out of it)

This puzzle is a lot easier if you know lots of famous marches, like maybe you failed to solve the MIT Mystery Hunt 2019 puzzle "Something in Common" for eleven hours or you used some circus clown music as your phone's timer sound and now it's burned into your memory forever. In case that's not you, here's a list of famous marches, guaranteed to include the marches clued above:

All Sports
American Patrol
Americans We
Amparito Roca
Anchors Aweigh
Band of America
Bandology
Barnum and Bailey's Favorite
Belgian Paratroopers
Big Cage
Black Horse Troop
Black Jack
Blaze Away
Billboard
Bombasto
Boston Commandery
Bravura
Brighton Beach
Brooke's Chicago Marine Band
Chicago Tribune
Chimes of Liberty
Coat of Arms
Colossus of Columbia
Colonel Bogey
Combination
Commando
Coronation
Country Band
Crusade for Freedom
Children of the Shrine
E Pluribus Unum
El Capitan
Emblem of Unity
Entry of the Gladiators
Fairest of the Fair
Footlifter
Gallant Seventh
Hands Across the Sea
High School Cadets
In Storm and Sunshine
Independentia
Invincible Eagle
Invercargill
Joyce's 71st New York Regiment
Klaxon
Königgrätzer
Liberty Bell
Melody Shop
Men of Ohio
National Emblem
Officer of the Day
On Parade
On the Mall
Onward and Upward
On the Square
On the Quarter Deck
Old Comrades
Our Director
Pomp and Circumstance
Preußens Gloria
Last Long Mile
Purple Carnival
Purple Pageant
Radetzky March
Repasz Band
Robinson's Grand Entree
Salutation
Semper Fidelis
Semper Paratus
Screamer
Second Connecticut Regiment
Seventy-six Trombones
Southerner
Stars and Stripes Forever
Strike Up the Band
Sweeney's Cavalcade
Tenth Regiment
Thunderer
Up the Street
Washington Grays
Washington Post
White Rose

F RZCREBE GH - B (rtt) + CNNF = Frzcre Cnenghf

RY + CVGN va PNA = Ry Pncvgna

(WX, PNY) jrfgjneq (erirefrq) va ONPX = O ynp xw NPX = Oynpx Wnpx

JNFUVAT GBA CBFG = Jnfuvatgba Cbfg

Tengvsl gur byq frangbe bar ovt nantenz sbe Ragel bs gur Tynqvngbef

Rkgenpgrq yrggref fcryy ZNWBE

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False Friends

It is still #EnigMarch. Thus, each day the EnigMarch people post a prompt word; and puzzle nerds such as myself attempt to design a puzzle to that prompt. (Today's word is false.)

A false friend is a word in a foreign language language that looks similar to an English word, but means something else. E.g., compare English embarrassed and Spanish embarazada ("pregnant").

🇪🇸 Spanish

Ⓕú t i l actually means insignificant. You wanted ineficaz.

_◯_ _ _ actually means bargain. You wanted pandilla.

_ _ _ _ _ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ actually means appreciably. You wanted sesudamente.

◯_ _ _ actually means soup. You wanted jabón.

_ _ _◯ actually means eleven. You wanted una vez.

🇫🇷 French

_◯_ _ _ _ _ actually means transaction. You wanted aventure amoureuse.

_ _ _ _◯ actually means enamel. You wanted courriel.

_ _ _ _ _◯_ _ _ _ actually means sunstroke. You wanted isolation.

_ _◯_ _ _ actually means face. You wanted silhouette.

🇮🇹 Italian

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _◯ actually means topic. You wanted litigio.

_ _ _◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ actually means sympathetic. You wanted esauriente.

_◯_ _ _ _ _ _ _ actually means disappointment. You wanted illusione.

_ _ _ _◯_ _ _ actually means factory. You wanted tessuto.

🇳🇱 Dutch

◯_ _ _ actually means physician. You wanted kunst.

_ _ _◯ actually means ring. You wanted riem.

_◯_ actually means that. You wanted dobbelsteen.

_ _◯_ _ actually means coarse. You wanted bosje.

_ _◯_ _ _ actually means honey. You wanted slijpen.

Put together what you have from 🇪🇸 + 🇫🇷 + 🇮🇹 + 🇳🇱:
◯◯◯◯◯   ◯◯◯◯   ◯◯◯◯◯◯◯◯◯

Hints and solution, rot13'd:

V qba'g xabj gurfr ynathntrf; V sbhaq yvfgf bs snyfr sevraqf ol pyvpxvat ersrerapr yvaxf ba gur Jvxvcrqvn cntr. Lbh zvtug qb gung, gbb.

Gur snyfr sevraqf ner:

Súgvy tNatn frafvoYrzragr Fbcn bapR

nSsnver éznvY vafbyNgvba svTher

netbzragB pbzCerafvib qRyhfvbar snooEvpn

Negf oryG qVr teBir ubAvat

Gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy bhg gur zrffntr: SNYFR SYNT BCRENGVBA

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Welcome to the month of March! It is #EnigMarch anew. Thus, each day the EnigMarch people post a prompt and nerds try to design puzzles around that prompt. (Today's word is door.)

The circled letters make: ◯◯◯◯◯

Hints and answer, Rot13'd:

Zra pna'g fgbc guvaxvat nobhg gur Ebzna Rzcver naq arvgure pna V.

Jrypbzr gb gur zbagu bs Znepu! Lrc, Znepu. Lrc. Jung vf Znepu?

Zbaguf fher ner arng.

Rnpu bs gurfr pyhrf vf nobhg n Ebzna tbq be uhzna jubfr anzr vf cneg bs gur rglzbybtl bs n zbagu anzr.

zNef, nhThfghf, zNvn, whyVhf, wnAhf: gur pvepyrq yrggref fcryy NTNVA. Jrypbzr gb gur zbagu bs Znepu! Vg vf #RavtZnepu NTNVA.

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I didn't go to school at MIT, but I've played in the MIT Mystery Hunt. So I've sent in some thank-you money, and thus landed on their alumni fundraising mailing list. They just sent me a postcard about their upcoming 24-Hour Challenge fundraiser; the postcard got my attention because it had a crossword, albeit a sparse "vocabulary" crossword emphasizing MIT trivia.

I didn't go to school at MIT, but I've played in the MIT Mystery Hunt. So I've studied and absorbed a fair amount of MIT trivia. Sure, I know a five-letter MIT unit of measurement; six-letter nature's engineer. I might bristle a bit with San Franciscan pride when asked what "MIT" holiday is on March 14th (That's a nerd thing, not just an MIT thing. It started at the Exploratorium!), but I know what to write in the grid.

I didn't go to school at MIT, but I've played in the MIT Mystery Hunt. So thanks to that, sure, I know what the MIT undergraduate class ring is called. It occurs to me that I don't know what the class ring was called at the school that I actually attended. (Did my school's ring have a name? Is it normal for school rings to have names? MIT's is the only one I know.)

Anyhow, if you want to flex your MIT knowledge (whether your studied there or not), go to the fundraiser page and scroll down until you see the download the crossword button.

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The Hearst Newspapers News-sites, no doubt jealous of the NYT's puzzle section, have launched their own syndicated puzzle page, Puzzmo. Each day there's a cool mini-crossword from the AVCX folks and some other puzzles. (I don't think you need to subscribe to a Hearst news-site to play the puzzles. When I tried visiting in Incognito just now, it let me get started on the crossword. To play some of their "experimental" and "bonus" puzzles, you need to join Puzzmo; as near as I can tell, that's separate from being a Hearst news-site subscriber, maybe?)

I got mad at a couple of their word puzzles because they leaned on some obscure words. E.g., I got stuck on a Typeshift puzzle and asked for a hint. The hint told me I should have used the word motlier. Motlier. As in "Look at that motley fool and the motlier fool next to him," I guess. I didn't want to have to use a desperate-Scrabble-ploy word to solve a puzzle.

I enjoyed solving the clever crosswords. I wasn't having fun solving the Typeshift and Wordbind puzzles, knowing that my scores would always be trounced by folks who could stomach using words like motlier. (Scrabble champs would no doubt point out that the real problem is that I'm unwilling to put in the work to memorize those weird words. Anyhow.)

Instead, I wrote a couple of little computer programs to solve those puzzles for me. That was fun. I set them up to favor using actual-words-that-people-use; but fall back to words-never-uttered-outside-a-Scrabble-board.

Unfortunately solving those puzzles still isn't fun, even with the helper programs… So I stopped. But I still visit the site each day for the cool crossword.

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Everybody likes to complain about crosswordese, but this puzzle does something about it.

(I heard about it via xwords by a ladee)

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