Daily puzzles/problems.

[billl]

Unlike other ones we've done, this one is not a *substitution* cipher.

[MarkBastable]

Unlike other ones we've done, this one is not a *substitution* cipher.

Great. That narrows down my available approaches. From one to none.

[billl]

We might normally have the puzzle-giver give some clue here, somewhere between the lines of our typical one-upmanship half-disguised as discussion. Perhaps something like that would be in order?

[prendrelemick]

Ha! I've got it.

and it did indeed take alot of figuring out!


The clue was that all the vowels seemed to be together and so were all the consanants, so it was a case of sorting them out, then a pattern emerged.

simple but clever, well done billl.

[billl]

I didn't come up with it myself, but I'm glad you enjoyed figuring it out! (Nice work, by the way.)

Here's an attached text file with the explanation of the cipher for those who are done racking their brains on it:

[MarkBastable]

.....having read it, I still don't understand it. Or rather, I do, but I can't make it work with yours, even though I can see what the answer is.

This may be one of those things that have to do with how my brain works, along with not knowing my left from my right, and having all the spatial awareness of a stick-man drawn in lipstick on a mirror. I'm lousy at Scrabble too.

[billl]

Ha, well, I noticed that I spelled "book" wrong in my attachment, and so I wouldn't be surprised if my hasty explanation was inelegant or even featured a completely backwards near-misrepresentation of a key point.

Here is another explanation I found from Wikipedia, with a slightly trickier example that might be easier to understand than mine (at the very least, it's another look at the thing).

[ShoutGrace]

Yo uh av ef ig ur ed it ou t

Brutal. Took my brain a long time to work through that! I'm exhausted.

[billl]

I'll bet it was satisfying to finally figure it out, Grace.

So, Mick is next (unless he's really pulled off one heck of a bluff on us).

[prendrelemick]

No, no I split the sentence in half - ten characters in each, (including exclamation mark) Then wrote down the first letter of the first half, then the first letter of the second half, then the second letter of the first half, then the second letter of the second half.... Simples!


Now my turn

A group of friends booked a holiday together. With their conformation they received this weasley worded pledge.

"We promise that regardless of age or gender, Iceland -your holiday destination - will inspire nearly all who visit"


How many went on the trip?
What were their names?


And just for fun (To avoid the dreaded Brit bias ) what kind of bread was in the packed lunches.? and what was the gluten free alternative?

[kasie]

Well, that would have been Seth, Reg, Les, George, Andy, Des, Nat, Will, Ned and Al, the Terrible Ten, I think. And the sarnies were made of Hovis with an alternative of Rice. (You didn't ask, but they were sitting on the sofa when they decided on the trip.)

[prendrelemick]

They certainly were, but there were many more of them.

Ned may be a stowaway.

[kasie]

Did Rene and Tina go along too? And I wondered about Deric but I wouldn't have spelled his name like that.

[MarkBastable]

....I was going to suggest where they filled up the car on the way to the airport, but it seemed too little too late. Not that they were late. Quite the opposite.

[prendrelemick]

yep, but they were by no means the only ladies.


Mark: a person may be named after not being late.

I'm not having Deric though..