In the previous post ..which was of course, #841.. probably a good idea to nip back and have a look .. .... I left you with a fairly easy task ... and I promised you I would show you the answers .... and here they are..... So now we have all 9 of the birds that somehow or other need to be traced out on the wonderfully devised " Sharrock Grid" ..... the other three being Swallow, Puffin and Snipe. And surely it MUST be those nine .. I can't imagine that any other set of nine could be generated by the same letters. The only dinky problem now is ... Sharrock's Shambolic Instructions...... it could be that I'm not understanding them correctly ..I'll let you judge ... and here they are .... "Nine species, including one featured prominently in this month's issue, are hidden in this block of letters. All nine are single words. Spell them out, in an unbroken line, by skipping from letter to letter. In each case, the next letter is to be found adjoining an adjoining square (i.e. next but one; touching a neighbouring square). all 64 letters are used; none is used twice. Beware of false trails. Be systematic. Find all nine birds. Which is out of sequence ? Which is last? Those are your answers. Can't see where to start ? Just take a shot at it. Well, you can see he's struggling to explain what you can do...and can't do. And as I pointed out, a couple of diagrams would have made it clear. For example ..... Here's a block of letters ... ABCDEF PQRSTU KLMNO Do Sharrocks' Rules mean that A-C via B is Ok? The "usual" interpretation. Presumably that includes A-Q via B ... or P. But what about A to R via B ? Or via Q ? Are diagonal skips allowed ? After all, B is "connected" to R ,if only at one tiny point. Can you go from A to P ..and claim it's OK because you've got there via B ? And can you go from A to L via P ... or via Q ? And are you allowed to go from A to M via Q ? We just don't know. Because, for the sake of a sentence or two, or a diagram like mine up there, he simply hasn't told us. Another thing is .... what does " in each case" mean ...does he mean "with every letter" or does he mean " when moving on from one species to the next ?" Then there's his " unbroken line" thing ... pretty meaningless I reckon. What other sort of line might we be drawing ? This sort of thing perhaps ... P — — R ↔ A † N __/""""""""""" N ~~~O === C ↨ K I'll show you the grid again now to make my final point .... I guessed that SNIPE was probably the starter... " take a shot at it it" ... well , that's what "snipe" means ... you know, "taking a snipe at things" ? Snipers ... they shoot things . BUT ... there's only 4 S's on the grid .... the S down at the bottom left corner and the one in the middle of the right side don't have the vital "N" anywhere near them, the one in the middle has an N slap bang next to it, not " adjoining an adjoining square" .. and the one on the second row has TWO of them right next to it ...... which as I've shown you above, whether you can access them is rather debatable. As is how you can finish your Snipe off. And that's just one of the birds you've got to trace out. It all brings to mind the famous adage ... one picture is worth a thousand words. So ... stuff the grid ... let's just admire us lot who have worked out what the nine birds were ! Huzzah !! And now ... music .. lots of DCFC songs ...... Getting back to actual birds, yesterday I "got" my first Swallow of the year, but yet again couldn't find any Wheatears or Sand Martins ... and this morning the first House Martin flew over the garden, and the first wasp of the year got ticked.
Come to think of it , no Meadow Pipits either. Bah !!
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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