18
$\begingroup$

Story

“I have a puzzle for you,” said Mimi.

“A puzzle! Sounds great!” I watched her start drawing:

  • white square ≈white squareorange circleorange circle ≈white squareorange circlered circle
  • purple square ≈purple squareorange circleorange circle ≈purple squareorange circlered circle

“So, after each square,” I cut in, “you add those circles?” Then she continued:

  • orange square ≈black squareorange circleorange circle ≈black squareorange circlered circle
  • red square ≈red squareorange circleorange circle ≈red squareorange circle

“Shouldn’t those two have that pattern too?” I squinted. “Circles are still added after, at least.”

She grinned and added two more lines, saying, “These are… questionable, but I’d argue they’re fine. And I’ll need them for later.”

  • blue square ≈orange circleblue square
  • green square ≈orange circlegreen square

That was just like her, to disprove anything I dared utter. I sighed. “Okay, Mimi, you’ve lost me—me, the friend who actually solves your puzzles.”

She kept grinning.

“Oh, c’mon, gimme a hint.One hint?” I over-enunciated the plea, pairing it with my best puppy eyes.

“That reminds me!” she said. “You’re right, I only need one more example before I wrap this up.”

  • yellow circle ≈yellow circleyellow square

“And now, that’s enough to give this puzzle its title!” In the last open spot, she put:

  • yellow squareyellow circlegreen squareyellow circlepurple squareyellow squareyellow circleblue squareorange circleblack square

“That should disambiguate everything.” She made a flourish. “So, tell me, what are these?”

I thought for a moment, then I grinned too.

Your Task

Explain the story. That means figuring out all those symbols, especially what ≈ means.

Nothing below this line is part of the puzzle

Transcription

In case you're having trouble with images, the lines are, in order:

  • white square ≈ white square, orange circle, orange circle ≈ white square, orange circle, red circle
  • purple square ≈ purple square, orange circle, orange circle ≈ purple square, orange circle, red circle
  • orange square ≈ black square, orange circle, orange circle ≈ black square, orange circle, red circle
  • red square ≈ red square, orange circle, orange circle ≈ red square, orange circle
  • blue square ≈ orange circle, blue square
  • green square ≈ orange circle, green square
  • yellow circle ≈ yellow circle, yellow square
  • yellow square, yellow circle, green square, yellow circle, purple square, yellow square, yellow circle, blue square, orange circle, black square

Notes

Thank you to@GentlePurpleRain for taking a first look at this puzzle.

Apologies for the images not being all lined up. They used to be emojis, but GPR pointed out that they would render differently depending on platform, so now I'm using incompetent screenshots of a Google Drawings. One could say that the crooked drawings add to the story atmosphere, couldn't they?

At least one tag has been purposely omitted due to being too big a hint.

asked2 days ago
bobble's user avatar
$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$I stupidly started with the last part of the task, not realising that it was a red herring that should be ignored. :-($\endgroup$Commentedyesterday
  • $\begingroup$Great puzzle! I definitely over-thought it when I was trying to solve.$\endgroup$Commented10 hours ago
  • $\begingroup$Is this the colorfulMimi from The Drew Carey Show?$\endgroup$Commented9 hours ago

1 Answer1

18
$\begingroup$

First:

Since that last line is apparently the title of the puzzle, it seems like each shape is part of the title - either a letter or a word, or perhaps something like a syllable.

A ten-word title seems a bit long - letters seem the most likely option.

So, if each shape represents a letter, that means the first line will be something like...

X ≈ XYY ≈ XYZ

What quality could a single letter have, that might be "approximately the same as" a three-letter word?

One option immediately jumps out:

what if theysound the same?

The letterT is pronounced the same asTEE andTEA. So the orange circle is E, the red circle is A, and then either the white or purple square is T.

The other square should then beP, which sounds likePEE andPEA. There's no way to disambiguate these just yet, so let's move on.

From the next lines, we getC ≈ SEE ≈ SEA andB ≈ BEE ≈ BE.

The two 'questionable' ones fit the pattern_ ≈ E_. Running through the alphabet, the only options I see areLMNX, and perhapsF if you acceptEF as a word.

And finally, we have the last example: [yellow circle]≈[yellow circle][yellow square]. We haven't seen either of these previously, so no help there. So far, all circles have been vowels, and squares have been consonants. So we're looking for a vowel letter...O≈OH seems like the best option to me.

So for the last line...

we haveHO[lmnx]O[pt]HO[lmnx]ES. With that, it's pretty clear that the title of the puzzle is the appropriateHOMOPHONES!

There are some extra clues that provide additional confirmation:

In the dialogue, we have two instances of homophones:

-“Shouldn’t thosetwo have that patterntoo?”

-“Okay,Mimi, you’ve lostme—me, the friend who actually solves your puzzles.”

and three instances of wording hinting at the mechanism:

-“A puzzle!Sounds great!”

-That was just like her, to disprove anything I daredutter.

-Iover-enunciated the plea, pairing it with my best puppy eyes.


And the colors are also assigned according to a pattern. The consonants used are alphabetized, and then assigned to colors in rainbow order (plus black and white): B is red, C is orange, H is yellow... The same goes for the vowels.

answeredyesterday
Deusovi's user avatar
$\endgroup$
0

Your Answer

Sign up orlog in

Sign up using Google
Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Required, but never shown

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to ourterms of service and acknowledge you have read ourprivacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.