Comments on: Enigmatic Variations No 939 An Impassable Door by Shark

By: Tony

Tony — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 09:04:24 +0000

Thank you, nmsindy and twencelas. I was being slow!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 18:41:28 +0000

That is correct. Sorry, Tony, if I did not explain that clearly enough in my comment at #2.

The significance of the title is that it is an anagram of the (16) letters that have to be highlighted.

By: twencelas

twencelas — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:30:19 +0000

Tony I think the reference to the 2 B’s in the grid means that the names need to pass through one of these to enable all the letters of IMPASSABLE DOOR to be consumed.

By: Tony

Tony — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 12:44:52 +0000

Sorry I’m being slow here but I still don’t see the significance of the title and how it has to be taken literally. And what is the significance of the fact there are only two Bs? How is that a penny-dropping moment?

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 11:49:29 +0000

Cracking puzzle, this. I had the idea of AN IMPASSABLE DOOR being a anagram from the start. Filling the grid was tough, the hardest part being the NE corner. This took me about 3 hrs. The letters meant nothing, then I read the preamble again and said “Ah! the quote may be in Chambers”. Found it, and it confirmed a couple of letters I was not too sure about. Found AESCHYLUS then (wondering why I had not noticed it). Had spotted ROMEO early on but the names around it did not fit the anagram. Then worked up from Simon and got it, the final clinching point being that there were just two Bs in the grid. It was a great penny-dropping moment and the puzzle had everything you could ask from a themed puzzle. I’d say the last stages took me about another two hours after filling the grid. Manual highlighting gives the figure 1 a little more clearly that the grid above which obviously has to be based on the cells.

Thanks for the blog, twencelas, and thanks, Shark, for the puzzle.

By: Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:34:08 +0000

A very enjoyable puzzle which I think took me about two hours as well. However, I didn’t see the significance of the title until after I’d spotted the figure 1! I also found that I was distracted by TIM, DAN, ROMEO and ELLEN in rows 1, 3, 4 and 10, which I assume were deliberate red herrings.

Dave.