Just a Regular Word Search

Question

^{An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #36: Twisted Classics 1}

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Here's a regular word search. Find three twisty things.

[ a - z ] ? b ( f \ ( ) . ( - l * 3 * ] 
| | ( * * - ) a . { 9 } . ( ) d e * + z 
\ \ w f ] f a u l * | e 5 . . f t s | - 
w # ) ) s - z ] 4 2 [ . . { | | e s * a 
] ( r e ) { ) - y e - d | . . 3 + s - [ 
) 1 . - 2 | p * ] [ ) 3 e | ) * [ p ] - 
- 1 \ } \ . ) ) \ ? a u | ] ( l s { ) } 
( . l 2 ( ] . t j ) ( - + | { ? * a 1 n 
( . z ) t . | } ? 0 [ + z ? - 2 ] ) l 0 
* \ / - . ( 4 3 ( ) * z / ] ) ( } \ ) . 
) = c ( ] { + + s - * w [ \ * l | - + { 
. [ ) l . k - z * + t ( ( ) | / r . [ 7 
( { ? s } v * i ) w u 5 ? e 8 ) ) } . } 
u q * ( . o ) . ) ] ) ( + # ? u | . 1 { 
\ ( | p ( a 3 ) \ w ) . i ? | / s 1 3 - 
) . - . - ? c ) w ( ) * { t 3 } { 3 a v 
| | ( ( ) ) o . + - | . ( ? z w * + ? . 
e { { } } + . t - ? ( - * w \ - x * \ w 
} . 3 [ ] { 1 1 } | a a [ ] ] \ - p ? * 
. o } . ) - ? 8 m t o w u . . ( ) * [ -

Words:

twisted
classics
fortnightly
topic
challenge
puzzling
stack
exchange

Hint 1:

The three twisted things may correspond to three colors.

Hint 2:

Try focusing on regions.

Answer 1

The three twisty things are:

plot, Oliver, and puzzles.

These can be found in the pattern from David Starkeys answer as follows:

For each of the colours in the puzzling SE logo, we take the letters in the corresponding parts of the grid as follows:

For the letters in the red part anagram to "plot", the letters in the yellow part anagram to "oliver", and the letters in the green part anagram to "puzzles".

These things are indeed twisty, as

we can combine "plot" and "Oliver" with twist to get "plot twist" and "Oliver twist". Puzzles are of course also twisty, especially during this Fortnightly Topic Challenge!

Answer 2

This regular word search requires

Regular Expressions

The simplest solution would be

.* which matches any length of any characters and occurs a number of places in the puzzle

Here's an example of such a solution

But, that's no fun and seems a bit like cheating. So, let's restrict it by requiring it to only match one of the words we're looking for.

Honorable mentions (matching multiple):

(t|u).+
t.+
\u(.)*
(q|.)+
[a-z]*
(.)*

While a couple words have yet to be found in a unique way, @Sleafar pointed out a particular pattern that can be made by including the ones that match multiples:

Which would make the "three twisty things"

The 3 colors being twisted around each other
WIP Thoughts:
- The logo goes from left edge to right edge, but there's an extra row on top and 2 rows on bottom, perhaps there's something in there I missed.
- Perhaps there is some kind of jagged path (like A1->B2->A3->B4...)
- Maybe it involves wrapping around, so left edge meets right and top meets bottom