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[Zedix]

Lol beat me to it, but yeah, y is a vowel :/

[cronogenesis]

[Spankit]

Cronogenesis:
I was thinking this might be the answer too, but I'm pretty sure they would not make the answer to this riddle so argueable. I mean, if the answer does have something to do with a missing vowel, you could also say the answer is "u" because its the only vowel that's not in the list: a, e, eye, and o are all present. But I honestly doubt that's the answer, and I doubt the answer has something to do with a missing vowel.

[cronogenesis]

The answers simple though, whatever it is. Its ment to be a quick reflection on terachings, not a 5 hour puzzle. Its like the saying "too many cooks spoil the broth". You don't spend ages trying to find out the hidden message in the word "broth", you just get less people to help you.

Look at the riddle, not any deep riddles, the surface is the answer...

Trust me, im a Lawyer
(No offence to lawyers if im wrong, its a joke OK)

[Atrophied]

Heh... I think it's become standard form to overanalyse things concerning PerplexCity though. I've yet to see anything released that doesn't have pages upon pages of [SPEC] devoted to it.

[Spankit]

cronogenesis:
Also, if you're going to count "y" as a vowel, you could say that "eye" is the only word on the list that doesn't have a consonant so "eye" should be the answer.

[toongoon]

What's absent?!

A *bleeping* pattern!

EDIT TO ADD:

Actually wanted to add a possible solve direction - problem is that "work" doesn't seem to fit at all while others are a bit of a stretch - not exactly the "Ah-ha!" I would expect.

[Leeravitz]

The obvious pun here would be that the password is 'sought', as 'that which is absent (i.e. the password) *must be* sought'...

But that has nothing to do with any of the words listed, so it's surely irrelevant!!

It's worth noting that Violet says she suspects the keyboard is available so that a *word* can be typed in to access the goods - although given that she calls things 'literally prehistoric' when they're 40 years old, I don't know how far to trust her linguistic approximations!!

[mattlock]

[dthought]

[Violet]

just to clear up the vowel thing - sit on your bottoms please, I want to see that you're listening...

it's the sound rather than the letter itself, as English has evolved so much to be what it is today. Basically, every word must have a vowel sound. They're the joining, 'soft' sounds that make consonants flow together, so yes, 'y' can count as one.

I still think it's 'fly', for my previous reasons, but the vowel one helps too! It reads to me like a question with a list of words to pick an answer from, so it'd make sense that it's one of those rather something else.

[invfish]

If you take the entire riddle into count.. the letters that are absent are:

jpqxz (not in any particular order)

If you rot these you come up with some interesting words. There hasnt been anything to suggest we rot this though and if we were to rot it it doesnt say which number we should use.

Another option I tried was by seeking what was absent from the first word to the next word.. i.e shake, face.. shk is absent.. face, eye.. y and so on until you get : shkfacyworklngtadfly if you rot it you come up with a lot of nonsense.. however, rot 16 has the word some and rot 19 has the word lady.

I really dont think any of these options are the correct answer. I would be somewhat let down if they were. The answer has to be something that is enlightening.. something that makes you go.. oh yeah.. it has to be that and cant be anything else.. it all makes crystal clear sense now.

*edit = typo

[Rats]

hey did any one check out the source of the blog there is some intersting stuff there that is not mention in the blog i just thought to let you know about that.

[BrianEnigma]

[BrianEnigma]

This does not feel like the right answer, but while we are trying to isolate one word in the list as being different from the rest:

All of them are nouns.
All of them except "length" are verbs as well.

I really like the spec based on the Futures symbols, but try as I might, I cannot come up with anything that gives a definite "a-ha!" with there being 12 signs and all.