Wow, the log for this one is kind of amazing. I don’t remember it well, but the log says my second go at it was at 5:15am…. so that may be why.

I was in Vegas doing these puzzles, having met up with some nice NPL folks. We went out every night drinking, so this solving benefited from my post-alcohol solving surge I seem to get. I managed to win the solo category of the CISRA 2010 competion, spending most of the week-long competition in Vegas eating, drinking, and gambling for my birthday. Maybe I should move there.

Even more amazing to me is that I spent 99 minutes on the puzzle in two sessions without getting the key mechanic. Then in the last 6 minutes I figured out the mechanic, got 8 (out of 18) letters, and guessed both answers. It does kind of sound like me. Dumb for a while, then good at guessing with not many letters. Yay?

The puzzle is a good one. If you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s here: http://www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/wisht/wtpuzzles/oldman.pdf and Mark’s answer checker is here: http://www.markhalpin.com/puzzles/wisht/wtanswers/answerpage.html

My log is after the cut.

0:00:00

opening

0:00:47

FLOURESCENT LIGHTING? on the left

0:01:18

COUNTER? SPACE SUIT?

0:01:36

HOLSTER, LINE… now right side

0:02:43

KILOLITER, UNTER

0:03:23

LATER, TIMES?

0:03:59

CHEEK?

0:04:52

So, some *TER on both sides. HOLSTER/COUNTER vs KILOLITER/UNTER/LATER. interesting especially maybe COUNTER/UNTER

0:06:37

PERIDOT (for leo gifts?)

0:09:56

PERTH looks good for Aussie metro, since it has TER

0:11:04

TIGHT RACE?

0:11:47

docile=TRACTABLE?

0:12:35

POETRY for lear, I guess

0:18:31

I like AREA for vicinity, but it lacks a T.. hmmm

0:18:54

POINTER for ‘you are here’

0:23:54

Maybe the non-TER letters, from one word in each list, team up to make a word in the TODO list…

0:24:13

like the HOLS from HOLSTER make POLISH, leaving PI. so there’s a word like PINTER… and the extra N is the extracted letter? or something

0:28:57

Or maybe it’s just two anagram to one… trying HOLSTER spots

0:34:15

I can’t get many more answers, and I can’t put any pairs together in interesting ways. hmmm

0:35:37

lots of TER words, but not all

0:38:40

serves well could be ACES, which is right in SPACESUIT. hmm

0:45:59

Almost 30 minutes with no progress. tabling [ I have no idea when I did the first half of this puzzle. Probably in the afternoon before we went out. ]

0:45:59

I’m back. it’s 5:15 am. whee

0:46:10

Status Report: on the left, TIGHTRACE, PERIDOT, FLUORESCENT LIGHTING, COUNTER, SPACESUIT, HOLSTER, LINE

0:46:32

on the right, KILOLITER, PERTH, UNTER, CHEEK, TRACTABLE, POETRY, LATER, ACES, LEFTOVERS, TIMES, AREA, POINTER

0:54:53

UNTER/COUNTER, ACES/SPACESUIT

0:55:01

SULTAN/CONSULTANT works!

1:07:33

PERIDOT/RID

1:07:40

HOLSTERED/STERE

1:30:18

SAVILEROW/VILER maybe

1:36:43

RICECAKE/ICE

1:38:27

RANCHING/CHIN

1:39:21

RCAKE-C = RAKE, gather leaves

1:40:23

SPUIT=SPIT, CONT=COT, SPWEAR=SPEAR

1:43:57

LOW???E????U?CT??N

1:44:19

guessed FUNCTION, correct

1:45:29

oops, E in wrong place, LOWER CLASS