Scott Graham author page
1 puzzle by Scott Graham
with Jim Horne comments
| S | C | O | O | P | S | C | H | A | T | T | Y | |||
| T | O | P | T | H | I | S | T | E | A | T | R | E | E | |
| A | C | E | H | I | G | H | H | O | R | R | O | R | S | |
| G | O | N | E | N | O | S | E | M | A | U | R | A | ||
| E | N | T | R | S | W | A | P | N | I | N | ||||
| D | U | O | E | R | E | B | C | C | E | D | ||||
| T | E | A | S | E | R | T | R | A | I | L | E | R | ||
| H | O | T | C | O | F | F | E | E | ||||||
| T | R | E | A | S | U | R | E | T | R | O | V | E | ||
| S | H | E | M | P | R | I | C | O | D | S | ||||
| H | O | W | T | A | T | E | S | T | A | T | ||||
| A | R | O | A | R | A | L | F | A | M | E | M | O | ||
| F | E | R | R | A | R | I | I | M | M | O | R | A | L | |
| T | A | K | E | T | E | N | T | E | E | T | I | M | E | |
| S | U | S | S | E | D | S | W | E | D | E | N |
Hey, constructors, are you looking for phrases where each word starts with T? A regular T*T* search will clutter up results with words like TATTOO that don't fit this theme because tattoo is a word, not a phrase.
But wait, our new OneLook Search button knows about phrases. We can help! Operators are standing by! Free shipping!
Click on these examples:
- *T *T finds multi-word phrases (there's that space in the middle) where at least two words start with T. Promising! But too many of those "found" words are THE, which is boring.
- *T *T-H means ignore the letter H, so no THEs to be found. Some good stuff is eliminated, but most of the results are better. Except, now we notice the word TO crops up too much.
- *T *T-HO means ignore both H and O, so no more TO either.
None of these are perfect solutions. We still get some phrases with more than two words, we're missing phrases with non-THE Hs, etc. But, with zero programming, you've found several good options.
To get a better solution, you might try writing a Python script. We have some examples. You can make that as sophisticated as you want, but this solution also has a problem. You can only find answers your word list knows about. OneLook searches the Internet.
You don't have to understand any of this to be a good or even a great constructor. But sometimes, finding out more about how these tools work can make your job easier. Much easier.