Just a Regular Word Search

Question

^{An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #36: Twisted Classics 1}

Here's a regular word search. Find three twisty things.

[ a - z ] ? b ( f \ ( ) . ( - l * 3 * ] 
| | ( * * - ) a . { 9 } . ( ) d e * + z 
\ \ w f ] f a u l * | e 5 . . f t s | - 
w # ) ) s - z ] 4 2 [ . . { | | e s * a 
] ( r e ) { ) - y e - d | . . 3 + s - [ 
) 1 . - 2 | p * ] [ ) 3 e | ) * [ p ] - 
- 1 \ } \ . ) ) \ ? a u | ] ( l s { ) } 
( . l 2 ( ] . t j ) ( - + | { ? * a 1 n 
( . z ) t . | } ? 0 [ + z ? - 2 ] ) l 0 
* \ / - . ( 4 3 ( ) * z / ] ) ( } \ ) . 
) = c ( ] { + + s - * w [ \ * l | - + { 
. [ ) l . k - z * + t ( ( ) | / r . [ 7 
( { ? s } v * i ) w u 5 ? e 8 ) ) } . } 
u q * ( . o ) . ) ] ) ( + # ? u | . 1 { 
\ ( | p ( a 3 ) \ w ) . i ? | / s 1 3 - 
) . - . - ? c ) w ( ) * { t 3 } { 3 a v 
| | ( ( ) ) o . + - | . ( ? z w * + ? . 
e { { } } + . t - ? ( - * w \ - x * \ w 
} . 3 [ ] { 1 1 } | a a [ ] ] \ - p ? * 
. o } . ) - ? 8 m t o w u . . ( ) * [ -

Words:

twisted
classics
fortnightly
topic
challenge
puzzling
stack
exchange

Hint 1:

The three twisted things may correspond to three colors.

Hint 2:

Try focusing on regions.

correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like your "regular word search" is corrupted. ;) — micsthepick, Jun 18 '18 at 00:12
Well, I (in a suitably extended sense of "I") can find all the words, but in trivial boring ways. I can find some of them in more interesting ways, but not all. (In particular, I can't find "puzzling" in a nontrivial way.) And so far I'm at a loss to guess what the three twisty things might be... — Gareth McCaughan, Jun 18 '18 at 00:32
Well, I might have found "puzzling", if things can be found backwards. Haven't managed anything else, yet... — Persona, Jun 18 '18 at 00:43
Really, Riley? You posted this 46 seconds after FTC #36 officially began! Did the first person at the table get to eat all the food at your house growing up? :) — Chowzen, Jun 18 '18 at 00:49
Ignoring the trivial versions I found "puzzling", "classics", "stack" (twice) and one almost trivial that matches "twisted" or "topic". — Sleafar, Jun 18 '18 at 17:00

David Starkey · Answer 1 · 2018-06-21T13:50:17.983

30

This regular word search requires

Regular Expressions

The simplest solution would be

.* which matches any length of any characters and occurs a number of places in the puzzle

Here's an example of such a solution

But, that's no fun and seems a bit like cheating. So, let's restrict it by requiring it to only match one of the words we're looking for.

Honorable mentions (matching multiple):

(t|u).+
t.+
\u(.)*
(q|.)+
[a-z]*
(.)*

While a couple words have yet to be found in a unique way, @Sleafar pointed out a particular pattern that can be made by including the ones that match multiples:

Which would make the "three twisty things"

~~The 3 colors being twisted around each other~~
WIP Thoughts:
- The logo goes from left edge to right edge, but there's an extra row on top and 2 rows on bottom, perhaps there's something in there I missed.
- Perhaps there is some kind of jagged path (like A1->B2->A3->B4...)
- Maybe it involves wrapping around, so left edge meets right and top meets bottom

edited Jun 21 '18 at 13:50

answered Jun 18 '18 at 17:23

David Starkey

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Open for suggestions for topic and exchange. I've been looking for one using the group capture syntax of \# but I'm not seeing any. – David Starkey Jun 18 '18 at 17:59
2

Once you see the pattern, it's almost too easy. There's another "fortnightly" in the bottom right corner -> "\w[11}". – Sleafar Jun 18 '18 at 18:02
@Sleafar I knew the {11} had to make fortnightly somehow. I never went past the w for some reason. – David Starkey Jun 18 '18 at 18:06
I ignored everything without a letter as "too trivial", but with your definition (matches only one word) it makes sense. But "(t|u).+." matches 2 words although it fits the pattern. – Sleafar Jun 18 '18 at 18:08
@Sleafar I think even that might be too restrictive. Using the pattern you noticed, I found a couple more that match multiples. – David Starkey Jun 18 '18 at 18:12
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Sleafar Jun 18 '18 at 18:25
As it stands, this is merely a partial answer. You have yet to identify the three twisty things. – Riley Jun 18 '18 at 20:35
@Riley Yes. I mentioned it in the chat discussion, but forgot to add it in here. – David Starkey Jun 19 '18 at 13:20
Those are not the three twisty things. They should be twisty on their own, not twisted together. – Riley Jun 19 '18 at 14:09
I've added a hint. Hopefully that will help. – Riley Jun 21 '18 at 01:16
Huh. I looked explicitly for things that matched exactly one of the words, and didn't find any for "puzzling". I wonder where my bug was. ... Ah, found it: handled half the diagonals wrong. Oh well :-). – Gareth McCaughan Jun 21 '18 at 02:02
I've added a bounty to this question. Try not to overthink it and focus on the hint :) – Riley Jun 28 '18 at 01:04
I have added a second hint. – Riley Jun 30 '18 at 03:59

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '18 at 09:09

7

The three twisty things are:

plot, Oliver, and puzzles.

These can be found in the pattern from David Starkeys answer as follows:

For each of the colours in the puzzling SE logo, we take the letters in the corresponding parts of the grid as follows:

For the letters in the red part anagram to "plot", the letters in the yellow part anagram to "oliver", and the letters in the green part anagram to "puzzles".

These things are indeed twisty, as

we can combine "plot" and "Oliver" with twist to get "plot twist" and "Oliver twist". Puzzles are of course also twisty, especially during this Fortnightly Topic Challenge!

answered Jul 01 '18 at 09:09

Reinier

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Yes, you got it! – Riley Jul 01 '18 at 12:53
Hey, Reinier! Thank you so much for following! Would you please upvote 5 example questions for the site so that we can get through to the Commitment phase? Cheers! – ə̷̶̸͇̘̜́̍͗̂̄︣͟ Oct 23 '18 at 18:30
We need at least 40 questions with a score of at least 10 :) – ə̷̶̸͇̘̜́̍͗̂̄︣͟ Oct 23 '18 at 18:31

Just a Regular Word Search

2 Answers2