More Sage Advice

[Suspence]

I took a trip to my mailbox, and what did I find? Another letter containing a bit of wisdom from the world famous Puzzle Sage!!! I couldn't wait to sit down at my desk and find out what great advice the Puzzle Sage had for me this time. I opened the letter and this is what it said:
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44-86/44-85/94-35-22/121-14-103-17/101-21/35-25-31-12-13/
62-63-121-64-16-91-86-15-111-121-44-13-83/94-104/
72-63-121-92-24-85-103-26-111-121/86-35-32-94/
103-35-95-27-98/41-33-106/86-35-44-13-83-91/94-35-52-103/
44-86/34-81-63-111-112-94/82-13-121-114-43-85-103-12-63-121
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Great!!! Everytime the Puzzle Sage has advice for me, it takes me months to figure it out. Anybody want to give me a hand? What is the Puzzle Sage trying to tell me?


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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature



[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 02-05-2002 11:48 PM).]

[Suspence]

Great!!! The first Sage Advice thread went unsolved, and now noone is even trying this one. I'm not getting much help here.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[dirus2]

Hmmm - I have a slight notion I've seen this before. Puzzle Sage you say? Maybe more like Puzzle Prodigy. In fact, I think PP THP#2 (or was it 3) was very similar. That one went unsolved.

[Suspence]

You haven't seen this puzzle before. I will guarantee you, because I made it up myself. Give it a try!!!

By the way, although the Sage Advice thread went unsolved by anyone, I did post the solution after those still trying to solve the puzzle asked for it. The solution is there if you want to see it, albeit invisible, and it may help you a little in solving this one.

Edit: I went looking for that Puzzle Prodigy THP, and I found #2 which is still unsolved. I don't think mine is in anyway related to that, although the format is somewhat similar.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature



[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 02-07-2002 06:59 PM).]

[Neo]

OOOH! *promises to work on it after he can move*

[Suspence]

I guess this one is gonna take even longer than the last one, especially since noone is working on it.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[Suspence]

Can you believe that this great little puzzle slipped all the way to page 2 of the VSP's??? I can. If anyone is working on this puzzle or wants some more clues to get started on it, let me know. If not, I will post the solution, as if anyone cares.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[dirus2]

With the big hint from the cryptic crossword clue thread, here's what the message says :

It is the duty of human understanding to understand that there are things it cannot understand

While quite a clever premise for a puzzle in itself, I think the leap required to solve it as stated asks for too much. There's nothing on the lines of a subtle hint in the intended direction - and without such it's pretty much anything goes. Anyway. There's your answer - see, we care

[Gomez]

I still don't get it. Can I trouble you for an explanation please dirus?

[dirus2]

My pleasure Gomez. I guess Suspence13 will be ok with an ivsio spoiler :
The (HUGE) hint was calendar. If that's not enough
Each number in the code is comprised of two separate numbers. The leading numbers (1-12) signify the month and the second number (1-7) specifies the letter to extract from the month name. So for example 44 is I (from aprIl) and so on. What I thought was clever was that each character that could have been ambiguously assigned (eg. letters like 'a', 'e' etc.) was taken in a cyclic, ordered fashion. This makes it impossible as a cryptogram (which is what I tried first). Anyway - the hint did pretty much give it away.

[Tahnan]

Well, the directions did say "it takes me months"--but I agree with dirus, the leap needed was just a little too large, I think. Then again, other than straight cryptograms, when's the last time you saw me break a code around here?

[Suspence]

Thanks for the input. I thought the leap was quite big myself, but usually my puzzles are like that. Then I like to add extra hints as I go along, especially in other threads. "Even More Sage Advice" is in the works, so be on the lookout.

I thought "it takes me months" was vague, but if anyone got it off of that clue alone, wouldn't that be impressive??? Even with "calendar", good job Dirus!!!

By the way, I used the same cyclic, ordered fashion for letter substition in the "Sage Advice" thread, which drove straight cyptogrammers crazy. That's why I said that thread might help a little.

Also, as in "Sage Advice" the Puzzle Sage's advice was from another source. This time, he quoted the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature



[This message has been edited by Suspence13 (edited 02-22-2002 11:37 PM).]