Puzzle Hunt: Cracking the Camels

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ม.ค. 2025

ความคิดเห็น • 69

  • @studgerbil9081
    @studgerbil9081 ปีที่แล้ว +33

    I'm gobsmacked by Mark's abilities. Following what Mark and Simon said earlier, the only reason he is not the reigning Times Crossword champion is a matter of seating arrangement. Mark was in the front row and was caught between two valid choices for the last word. Thinking he was running out of time, he simply chose the wrong word and instantly knew he erred. Had he been sitting several rows back, he would've realized he had plenty of time, changed his answer, and then qualified for the final puzzle. Sitting in the gallery, he solved the final puzzle more quickly than the eventual winner, but of course it didn't count. Mark mentioned it only in passing, but Simon went on about it in length. Whether he has the current title or not, Mark is a singular talent in the puzzle field to this day.

    • @agentkirb
      @agentkirb ปีที่แล้ว +4

      That seems like bad tournament organizing if you can gain (even a small advantage) by sitting in back compared to in front. Unless there is some kind of ordering (like maybe the highest ranked people have to sit in front or back)

    • @dontstealmydecals
      @dontstealmydecals 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Was there a video or anything where Simon was talking on it?

  • @bryanroland9402
    @bryanroland9402 ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Wow! Mark's talents are on show here. Loved his comments on the "heir fair".

  • @LiarK1
    @LiarK1 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    Mark is a genius. He thinks with the speed of light.

  • @rebeccap278
    @rebeccap278 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I really enjoy watching you solve these special puzzles. Absolutely amazing how you manage to figure out these clues that are almost nothing but gibberish to me.

  • @dididi3430
    @dididi3430 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Yes! More puzzle hunt content!!! MOREEEEEEEE

  • @no-feetmcgee5577
    @no-feetmcgee5577 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    As soon as I saw we would be adding Agua to a word, I thought it must be Jr. to jaguar. I guess that's what making variety cryptic crosswords does to your brain.

  • @Lazy_Tiger11
    @Lazy_Tiger11 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    First time I've watched a word puzzle on this channel, really enjoyed it

  • @Sandra_and_Nala
    @Sandra_and_Nala ปีที่แล้ว +10

    What a nice surprise! I enjoyed the last Jane Street puzzle a lot and this one is off to a good start with the 3 camels

    • @stevenape377
      @stevenape377 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Hey Sandra and Nala, loving your advent pack! Thanks so much for all the wonderful puzzles, best wishes for both of you.

  • @Jamdoggy
    @Jamdoggy ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Interesting that you though Malayalam is spoken in Malaysia (at 6:10), it's not. It is spoken in the South Indian state of Kerala, and is similar to Tamil. It is pronounced more like Mal-ee-ah-lum. The language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore is simply "Malay"

    • @chitraagarwal8259
      @chitraagarwal8259 ปีที่แล้ว

      ​@@liam3284 not a valid observation actually.. The reason tamil is spoken is because medieval tamil kings esp from the Chola dynasty crossed the Bay of Bengal on the eastern side of India and conquered parts of SE Asia and set up trading relationships there. Kerala is on the West Coast and as such had more communication with the Arabs, Jews and portugese

    • @chitraagarwal8259
      @chitraagarwal8259 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      As my father is from Kerala and mother is from Tamil Nadu I can say Malayalam and Tamil are about as similar as French and Italian

  • @Ruddigore
    @Ruddigore ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Wow. That was a brilliant puzzle, most excellently solved by Mark.

  • @debrabowen4276
    @debrabowen4276 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I couldn’t do this if my life depended on it. Great job Mark. As always!

  • @liz257
    @liz257 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Hello (I mean this in the least rude way) I always fall asleep watching your videos. 😂 A good thing because I'm finding sleeping difficult recently. If I manage to stay awake long enough to watch I'm always so impressed by the way your mind works! Keep up the puzzle solving genius☆

  • @Kelters
    @Kelters ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This reminds me, in parallel, of Alan Turing's crossword used to select staff for Bletchley Park. -- Good solve Mark. Quick clue resolution, and understanding when it was necessary to back into an answer. Excellent stuff!

  • @davidblake6889
    @davidblake6889 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Well done, Mark. I could never have done the cryptic crossword clues, but I did get 'MIRAGE' before you did. So I give myself a little pat on the back for that.

  • @ToroHarfang
    @ToroHarfang ปีที่แล้ว +8

    I would never be able to solve the cryptic clues themselves, at least not any time soon. I did, however, get MIRAGE not long after Mark entered the final clue. I think "intersects" was an important enough element to point to the correct letters, personally.

  • @wombatbreath
    @wombatbreath ปีที่แล้ว +17

    Wow - this makes me feel like I should take my pointy hat and stand in the corner...

  • @mb210047
    @mb210047 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Fun puzzle to watch being solved

  • @zealot2147
    @zealot2147 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I think the smart phones clue was very clever, very smart usage of wordplay

  • @louisesuth8141
    @louisesuth8141 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Fascinating to watch! thanks for sharing

  • @debrabowen4276
    @debrabowen4276 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Jeez Louise Mark is brilliant!

  • @bryanroland9402
    @bryanroland9402 ปีที่แล้ว

    A bonus word puzzle. What a treat!

  • @Valeriem907
    @Valeriem907 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    The cryptic clues are beyond me, but I understood "camels humps intersect row starts" immediately. Look at the intersections Mark!

  • @erianstone9774
    @erianstone9774 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Fun solve!!!😊

  • @srwapo
    @srwapo ปีที่แล้ว +3

    OH! Camels! I thought those were crabs sticking a claw in the air from the thumbnail.

  • @henrymarkson3758
    @henrymarkson3758 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Is there a man alive who can beat Mark at word puzzles?

  • @palebooi
    @palebooi ปีที่แล้ว +1

    This puzzle had me thinking of the prog rock band Camel from start to finish

  • @seanburley5967
    @seanburley5967 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I could not do a single one of the clues until the interseciton where Mirage was completely obvious to me.

  • @rwj_dk
    @rwj_dk ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Daddy... What is the nice man doing? .... I've have absolutely no clue son... 🤯

  • @57thorns
    @57thorns ปีที่แล้ว +6

    This is way too hard for me but this one was fun:
    So what it is the ticket price for the heir fair?
    Probably not much, won't even cover the air fare.

  • @Mephistahpheles
    @Mephistahpheles ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This is so beyond me. Only understand (kinda) parts of the answer/explanations.
    Jr -> Jaguar -> Tiger. Got that. Yay? How (and why) does that become integer?
    Since I can't even follow the explanations, I don't imagine I'll ever solve one!

    • @diametheuslambda
      @diametheuslambda ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Cryptic clues are split in two parts, each independently describing the answer. One part defines the word as usual for crosswords. The other (wordplay) part describes a series of manipulations of remaining words that will change them into the answer. In indirect cryptic clues, like this one, those "remaining words" are themselves crossword clues.
      In the Jaguar clue, the normal definition is simply "number", and "At home with jaguar's relative, one becoming Euler's first" is the wordplay part. "At home" solves to IN, "Jaguar's relative" solves to TIGER, "one" can be written as I in Roman numerals, and "Euler's first" letter is E. This turns the wordplay into "IN with TIGER, I becoming E". The last bit is an instruction to turn tiger's I into E, and that leaves you with INTEGER, your final answer.
      Yes, it's a lot but you can get there eventually.

    • @jayforty9824
      @jayforty9824 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      These are cryptic clues, as for cryptic crosswords, where one part of the clue is the definition of the sought word, and the other part is wordplay where you have to interpret it more literally. We have to figure out what end is the definition and what end is the wordplay, though.

      In the case of "At home with Jaguar's relative, one becoming Euler's first number", the definition is "Number". And we can piece that together from the rest of the clue. "At home" = IN. That goes "with" Jaguar's relative = TIGER, where one (I, as in the roman numeral) has become Euler's first (E, which is the first letter in "Euler"). So IN + TEGER = INTEGER, which is a type of number.

      It really takes some time and practise to get familiar with this, it was all greek to me in the beginning too.

    • @jayforty9824
      @jayforty9824 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      oh I have to learn to refresh the page before answering lol, gg @diametheuslambda :D

    • @longwaytotipperary
      @longwaytotipperary ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@diametheuslambdathat’s a fabulous explanation! Thank you!

    • @longwaytotipperary
      @longwaytotipperary ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@jayforty9824also a great explanation- thank you too!

  • @BenTippett
    @BenTippett ปีที่แล้ว

    Omg is Mark a red as well

  • @DitDede
    @DitDede ปีที่แล้ว

    Is Mark going to get a job offer from Jane Street now? :)

  • @emilywilliams3237
    @emilywilliams3237 ปีที่แล้ว

    This was great fun, and a change of pace. If you ever were to post a Listener solve I would definitely watch it, Mark. Thanks for this bonus!

  • @ryanhollands5429
    @ryanhollands5429 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    CAMELS is giving you the order to read the "humps intersect row starts" I think.

  • @TheRoyals98
    @TheRoyals98 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    It's amazing how fast Mark solved the entire puzzle except the last word, when I was able to spot the word right away after he'd done 99% of the work for me lol

  • @chitraagarwal8259
    @chitraagarwal8259 ปีที่แล้ว

    Malayalam is spoken in the state of Kerala, India.. The language of Malaysia is Bahasa

  • @bryanroland9402
    @bryanroland9402 ปีที่แล้ว

    A good cryptic clue needs a surface reading that's plausible and misleading and the best ones are witty too. None of that here but it was an intricate and interesting puzzle all the same.

  • @kempisthomasa7311
    @kempisthomasa7311 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I’ll just sit over here and do the New York Times mini

  • @Tamanna_2812
    @Tamanna_2812 ปีที่แล้ว

    Malayalam is a Dravidian language originating from the South Indian state of Kerala and it's pronounced as mah-luh-YAH-luhm

  • @anaayoung9142
    @anaayoung9142 ปีที่แล้ว

    How can you be so smart ans intelligent? I am felling stupid after watching this....😅

  • @MarushiaDark316
    @MarushiaDark316 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I genuinely don't understand how one is supposed to approach cryptic crosswords. They all just seem like random gibberish to me. The only advice seems to be, "You just have to do a lot of them to recognize common conventions," which is not very satisfying. I'd like to see an "Explain it to me like I'm five" approach to figuring out how to begin to construct and decipher these things.
    I guess it's the same with regular crosswords wherein, "You just have to know a lot of pop culture and have read a lot of books and seen a lot of movies to build up your vocabulary," which is equally unsatisfying. At least with Sudoku, I can usually figure out how to break into things since the algorithms are a lot simpler and I can grasp how to tell if you got it right.

    • @chocolate_anteater
      @chocolate_anteater ปีที่แล้ว

      I know how you feel! I've always found them baffling and the advice to "just practice" is whilst not wrong, quite frankly bizarre. No one hands you a flute and says you'll get better if you practice but then doesn't give you lessons. Try the Cracking the Cryptic Friday Crossword Master Class videos. It's a great start to learn some of the conventions and how to approach the clues.

    • @MarushiaDark316
      @MarushiaDark316 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@chocolate_anteater I feel like it'd be more helpful to have a setter video where a person walks through their rationale for constructing a phrase and why it leads to the particular answer at the end.
      So like, "Here is my target word: stop. I want to use an annagram, so I'll include this keyword and the word 'opts'. If you add the letters I and N to opts, it produces another valid word 'opt-ins', so I'll include this other keyword, and the word 'in' and somehow craft a reasonable sentence with those keywords, as well as opt-ins."
      Something like that, but like ... a lot of those examples.

    • @chocolate_anteater
      @chocolate_anteater ปีที่แล้ว

      @@MarushiaDark316 that's such a good idea! Working backwards from the answer, that would be really helpful.

  • @raysouth1952
    @raysouth1952 ปีที่แล้ว

    I thought Malayalam was a language spoken in the state of Kerala in India!

  • @zergrush8709
    @zergrush8709 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I have a hard time believing he isn't reading off the answer sheet. This is complete nonsense to me

  • @diametheuslambda
    @diametheuslambda ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I had the answer to this at the half hour mark of the video, but I'd _never_ be getting to the half hour mark on my own.

  • @eckberthighwater2555
    @eckberthighwater2555 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Wow that was brutal - Iceland was the only clue I got, but once Mark got all the answers I was able to deduce the final answer immediately...

  • @soremekun
    @soremekun ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Ok, I will not take that sentence out of context. LOL

  • @Wouter10123
    @Wouter10123 ปีที่แล้ว

    Wow, I actually got some of these quicker than Mark! I wasn't expecting that!

  • @tsunningwah3471
    @tsunningwah3471 ปีที่แล้ว

    m

  • @AvatarBowler
    @AvatarBowler ปีที่แล้ว

    I bet there’s a hidden double meaning for answering Iceland here.
    Being in a northern position geographically compared to most, it’d fit with the idea of it being a “cold country”. It’s not like a summer in Reykjavik is the same as a summer in Miami, right? Plus, you can easily assume some substitutions here: cold = ice (we agree it’s cold to the touch); country = land (countries axiomatically are made up of land).
    Thus, ice land. Neat, huh? 😅
    Edit: Yikes, I thought the first word of the third clue would be ARRESTS.
    I thought “abnormal pulse” was the definition, so I immediately thought of an arrhythmia. I abbreviated it as AR, since it’s “contained” within the word and since a lot of words require abbreviations to get an answer. Then I saw the word “rest” in “señores tasers” because I thought the word “contain” was also leading me to look for a word within that phrase. That, plus the plurality of the phrase encouraged me to add an “s” to the end, since “arrest” is only 6 letters long.
    I thought I was onto something, since tasers are used by police when arresting people who don’t immediately comply and since arrhythmias (if they’re dangerous) can lead to heart attacks, which is also called cardiac arrest.
    Yeah, I’m not great at these cryptic crossword clues. 🤣

  • @matejstankovic9843
    @matejstankovic9843 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Somewhat of a spoiler I guess
    Senegal is Mali's western neighbor, not eastern. Mistake in the puzzle or I don't understand something

    • @defenestrator3900
      @defenestrator3900 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      Eastern gives you the "E" to be surrounded by the anagram of angels. The definition is just neighbour of Mali

    • @matejstankovic9843
      @matejstankovic9843 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@defenestrator3900 Ah, thank you. That makes a lot of sense

  • @tsunningwah3471
    @tsunningwah3471 ปีที่แล้ว

    nnn

  • @heybeybibeybi
    @heybeybibeybi ปีที่แล้ว

    but Senegal is the western neighbour of Mali!