Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

For all the discussion of what to be encoded how in that row, has anyone found a certain solution to the 'line above the grid'?

I understand how applying H to the title makes it thematically relevant to 'confirm' what we're doing with 'A'. But how to represent that in practice? A 'line' could be a pen stroke to alter the title (rather unsatisfactorily) as it stands, or a line of text with a revised version of the title. Those being possible but not definitive, there must surely be a penny-drop certainty that I'm not seeing.

I am increasingly feeling that there's something very devious about the use of D, H, and A, and that their meaning is not consistent from one part of the preamble to the next.

A four-letter word that encodes to six dots and six dashes is an impossibility for row 9. It would need 12+3 cells, and row 9 has only 14 cells. I'm sorry Crucifer but you are wrong and merely leading solvers astray.

Well that's not strictly true either, is it? There are lots of four letter words that encode to 11 symbols which, with the required three spacers, will occupy 14 squares. The word CODE is a case in point. But the problem here is not to find a different name, but to address the question of why the replacements have to be made in this particular row. And the key to that lies in D.

Sorry Dryden, I misinterpreted your point. Yes, one that encodes to 6+6 is impossible here - but one that encodes to 6+5 can still comply with "six each"

Exactly what I was thinking dryden. 12 elements into a 14 letter row can only give a word of three characters - and as each must have 4 bits there can be no vowels. They all code to fewer than 4 bits.
I have a great appropriate and obvious 4 letter word with 6 of each element but that needs 15 spaces. I can't find a way to make this work with the preamble saying "first row".
A five letter word would need 16 spaces etc.
So stuck.

I don't think that's quite correct, midgers, because you have quoted the phrase out of context, but I agree that there is no conflict between 6/5 and "using code options (six each) from D and blanks.

At the moment I'm more concerned about buster's point. Adding a stroke to the N of Navy to make it Wavy doesn't confirm A, which reads "Add eight flags." As Verlaine (I think) pointed out before it is vaguely connected with what the flags represent, but that is all. Is there something devious going on here as well?

It's not necessary to guess the common name. Focus on D (which is more than a description) and ask why the replacements apply uniquely to this row. Then the name will come. (And it will code to 6-5)

Dryden, atm I can't do any better than turning 'navy' into 'wavy' either. It is an application of H and it does, jocularly, provide a description of A. But if that's all we are supposed to do, why not just say "apply H"? The further reference to "adding a line above the grid" seems tautological if it simply refers to adding a stroke (and at the wrong angle, to boot) to the N.

I guess I can see a punny way the "missing" code option could be accounted for, but I still don't think I've got it. Oh well, all will be revealed inside a couple of weeks I guess.

The fact that what you need to do above of the grid is also a little unclear is annoying: if there's one thorny issue that needs to be resolved to achieve perfect understanding, I'll keep at it until I get there, but if there are multiple that I don't seem to be getting anywhere with, I throw my hands up and just submit my best guess. Life is short!

Ay caramba! I've just seen how D works, and that's brilliant, and wonderfully confirmatory. Still not seeing "six each" though...!

Or maybe I do. Phenomenally clever!