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[MageSteff]

Wild Speculation

[Guest]

I think the clues themselves must be used to get to the solution. Otherwise why not just tell us Reggie was spouting number pairs? (3/16...22/20...5/8...6/12...) They aren't just window dressing....so is it the crossword clues themselves or the answers to said clues?

[LiegeKiller]

I've read through everything to do with this puzzle, all the chats etc, and it seems the only logical answer is that certain section of Revelations should be read to Marcus (See above for specifics)

The fact that the Caretaker says that Marcus looks up expectantly when he picked the Bible up, and 8141=John puzzle. and the fact Marcus ignored the completed crossword puzzle (saying so should we) point to it.

I'm guessing we were told them as crossword clues so that it wasn't completely obvious what we were supposed to do, as the cryptography show!!

Just have to wait until the hiatus ends and the Caretaker can go see Marcus again.

[MageSteff]

SPEC on SPEC

[LiegeKiller]

I have to say linking the puzzle to cyphering with Bridge was a pretty impressive piece of work.
I just hope either this puzzle or another uses it just as a hat-tip to you.

[MageSteff]

[drizjr]

Any Sense

[Muffin]

Hey all - just converting from Metacortechs - be gentle!

Just a tiny thing thats bothering me lots - kinda off bible topic but...

addlepated wrote:

[MageSteff]

[addlepated]

Re: Any Sense

[rosebud]

I think all you guys are smart but the bridge solve and the last comment from drizjr are scary smart. this is going to be fun!

FYI the saying "[someone] couldn' t hit the broad side of a barn" means that some one is a bad shot. My grandfather used to say this about people who couldn't shoot well, in a teasing manner. Maybe you are thinking of "closing the barn door after the horse is gone." which means dealing with something after it's too late. What can I say, Thanksgiving brings out all the old home proverbs.


That aside. does anyone have any ideas about where drizjr observation could lead??

And Is there any reasonable way that the PM could have known the clues to the puzzle beforehand? Frankly, even using the words gets me no closer [i did try anagrams], so I really haven't added to the progress of this puzzle. I am willing to assume that the answer is tied to the numbers of the clues.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Rose

"Rosalita." Bruce

[Rosebud]

8141 Repetition - Moderator decide if this should be here?

[BrianEnigma]

Hello, all. This is my first post in this particular forum (I am a recovering Metacortex-er). I find I work a little better if I state my assumptions up front (even the bleeding obvious). It helps me keep things clear in my head as well as allows others to correct me if I made an obviously incorrect assumption (which here is possible, considering the amount of time I have been around). On that note:

Reggie's clues were given out on the day the crossword was published. Unless Reggie was able to plant the crossword puzzle himself or used an extremely limited vocabulary (probably too limited to convey a message), we should probably focus on properties of the clues/words given, and not on the words themselves. For instance, working on anagrams, sums, Scrabble scores, URLs, etc. based on the words is probably a dead-end. (This of course discounts the tiny chance that Reggie found just the perfect words or is an idiot savant anagramer, but I think it is safe to do that.) It seems we should instead be focusing on properties of the clues/words and/or how those properties apply as a key to an external source. For instance, taking the first (or second, or last) letter of each word is a good example of the former case. Using the clue numbers to reference Bible passages being a good example of the latter.

While I am not so great at remembering data (i.e. trivia) and don't know the Bible very well, but tend to be okay with math and spacial relations, I had a thought that is in-line with the above constraints. What if the keys were the clue numbers, and they applied to the crossword grid itself? Reggie likes chess, right? If each clue were the starting point for a chess piece that was allowed one move, maybe each clue will yield a letter? Reggie has used the term "Knight" several times, and knights have nice limited moves (like kings and pawns). I suppose pieces with open-ended moves (queens, bishops) could be used, too--but that gives a much more crazy search space unless it had some kind of imposed limit ("the bishop moves diagonally until it hits the edge of the board," for example).

If we constrain ourselves to strictly knights, each clue can yield between one and eight letters, depending on how close to an edge, corner, or black square it is. For instance, 3 down can be either U, O, or L. 16 across can be S, U, A, or E--possibly even R and P, depending on whether the knight can pass through the black "walls."

So far I have not really come up with any interesting results yet, but I am still playing around with different permutations and combinations. (Edit: some of my notes are here) I wish I could be more useful in my first post ("hey, look guys, the answer is obvious! It's ____!"), but maybe my thoughts might be enough to push someone else in the right direction? Anyway, that's my $0.02.

[MageSteff]

[drizjr]

Spatial relations