Claude spent the better part of the afternoon here at my place (we're only a few hours away from each other) and near the end I mentioned how cool it is to see so many folks trying their damndest to solve the puzzle.

I'll paraphrase...

me: "Those guys on the board are frikkin' geniuses"

him: "Yah, but it's so frustrating to see them overdo it"

me: "Hmm? They seem to be trying to follow the KISS rule"

him: "Not enough though"

me: "How much simpler can it be?"

him: "Simpler enough that a child could figure it out"

So what do I get from that? We're still shooting too high. Go lower, lower, lower. Pretend you're a 6 year old and you're shown those numbers around the circles... what would you do to get a word out of them?

I'll see what I can come up with, now that Claude's confirmed that my puny intellect can still tackle this puzzle. :)