XWord Muggles Forum

That was absolutely fun! Thanks Josh. Bring more on.
Off the couch! Into a garden chair!
Early purple Glory of the Snow and red leafed bergenia.
May 15, 2020

Finally off the couch.

I did the puzzle Monday, looked at the nudges and nothing made sense. Just now I saw the story to be read with it. I missed that part. Duh. I couldn't figure out what Encyclopedia Brown had to do with it. I feel as dumb as Bugs Meany!

The story is hilarious, though I'm still trying to figure out what I'm missing to crack the meta! So still working to crack the case. (Sherlock I am not.)

Literboard

1) 1000 milliliters

2) 0.26417205235815 fluid gallons

3) 67.628045397969 tablespoons

4) 0.11351037303361 pecks

5) 0.028377593258402 bushels

6) 4.2267528377304 cups

7) 2.3991275857893 x 10^-13 cubic miles

8) 0.0041932071802881 hogsheads

9) 0.0030551284485984 Imperial hogsheads

10) 0.00027589583376163 cords

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 1:51 pm Literboard

1) 1000 milliliters
2) 0.26417205235815 fluid gallons
3) 67.628045397969 tablespoons
4) 0.11351037303361 pecks
5) 0.028377593258402 bushels
6) 4.2267528377304 cups
7) 2.3991275857893 x 10^-13 cubic miles
8) 0.0041932071802881 hogsheads
9) 0.0030551284485984 Imperial hogsheads
10) 0.00027589583376163 cords

Think you might've missed me. I'm "0.028377593258402 bushels and 0.11351037303361 pecks and a hug around the neck."

@Al Sisti i was a Hotbox Girl in our high school production. The cows 'n chickens are goin' to the dickens! Killer lyrics.

Meg wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:27 pm @Al Sisti i was a Hotbox Girl in our high school production.

Meg. The instant you you return home, find your high school yearbook and POST A PHOTO!
G&D is possibly my favorite musical EVER. In fact, I just posted the "Fugue for Tinhorns" on Facebook on Derby Day.

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:45 pm

Meg wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:27 pm @Al Sisti i was a Hotbox Girl in our high school production.

Meg. The instant you you return home, find your high school yearbook and POST A PHOTO!
G&D is possibly my favorite musical EVER. In fact, I just posted the "Fugue for Tinhorns" on Facebook on Derby Day.

West Side Story is on TCM, tonight: 8 PM ET.

- Chino

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:55 pm

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:45 pm

Meg wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:27 pm @Al Sisti i was a Hotbox Girl in our high school production.

Meg. The instant you you return home, find your high school yearbook and POST A PHOTO!
G&D is possibly my favorite musical EVER. In fact, I just posted the "Fugue for Tinhorns" on Facebook on Derby Day.

West Side Story is on TCM, tonight: 8 PM ET.

- Chino

Yeah, it was on when I got home from the Pub. And even though I've seen it 942 times -- and own two copies of the DVD (yeah, I know), I still watched it to the end. "Te adoro Anton" kills me every time. Have you seen Spielberg's trailer yet?

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 2:50 pm

madhatter5 wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 1:51 pm Literboard

1) 1000 milliliters
2) 0.26417205235815 fluid gallons
3) 67.628045397969 tablespoons
4) 0.11351037303361 pecks
5) 0.028377593258402 bushels
6) 4.2267528377304 cups
7) 2.3991275857893 x 10^-13 cubic miles
8) 0.0041932071802881 hogsheads
9) 0.0030551284485984 Imperial hogsheads
10) 0.00027589583376163 cords

Think you might've missed me. I'm "0.028377593258402 bushels and 0.11351037303361 pecks and a hug around the neck."

Well that's all well and good, but what is the conversion to firkins?

Which reminds of my favorite unit, the firfurfor: firkins per furlough per fortnight.

BTW,I'm also off the couch after remembering Tuesday night's Muggles Forum chat.

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:44 am

Joe Ross wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:55 pm

Wendy Walker wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 5:45 pm

Meg. The instant you you return home, find your high school yearbook and POST A PHOTO!
G&D is possibly my favorite musical EVER. In fact, I just posted the "Fugue for Tinhorns" on Facebook on Derby Day.

West Side Story is on TCM, tonight: 8 PM ET.

- Chino

Yeah, it was on when I got home from the Pub. And even though I've seen it 942 times -- and own two copies of the DVD (yeah, I know), I still watched it to the end. "Te adoro Anton" kills me every time. Have you seen Spielberg's trailer yet?

I’m still trying to figure out why @Joe Ross chose to be Chino.

Meg wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:13 pm

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Fri May 07, 2021 1:44 am Yeah, it was on when I got home from the Pub. And even though I've seen it 942 times -- and own two copies of the DVD (yeah, I know), I still watched it to the end. "Te adoro Anton" kills me every time. Have you seen Spielberg's trailer yet?

I’m still trying to figure out why @Joe Ross chose to be Chino.

The HS drama director thought I'd shame the rest of the cast as Tony, so he let me shoot the gun & say very few lines, if any.

The promo looks great, @Al Sisti. Thank you!

We finally had time to solve this. Pretty sure we're off the couch!

I just got around to this one this morning.

I don't think that this comment is more of a spoiler than what has already been posted when I looked back at them but just in case:

My high school typing class from 53 years ago proved helpful in cracking the case. I knew it would come in handy one day.

Solution:

The phrase Barnie heard, Mr. Jock, TV quiz PhD., bags few lynx, is a perfect pangram (i.e. an anagram of the entire alphabet). The evildoers' code involved ciphering letters of the alphabet, using that sentence as the key:


Using this code, we can decipher the circled letters in the grid:

TWDBKOQ -> FLORIDA

Thus, the heist was going to take place at FLORIDA BANK.

The Piggies and I were making this much too hard because "we" were sure 44D OCTAL was involved. And since they were using their hooves.....

The normal alphabet to the pangram, not the pangram to the normal alphabet. Ugh, I thought I tried both, but I guess not!

Fun puzzle, even so!! Story was great.

I started writing a kids' mystery for my grandkids when the pandemic started last year... I even tried to use a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew-like font. Anyway, I'd mail them a chapter that usually had some kind of puzzle/code to solve, and they'd call me ("Mr. E.") and give me the answer/password which was my cue to send them the next chapter. Chapter 1 is here.

I never got back to solving this but where I got hung up (damn you, Gaffney's Zachary Taylor puzzle!) was in applying the concept of a pangram to the grid and noticing that X and Z were not present. Since the circles were in \ shape, my presumption was that the matching letters setting up a symmetrical / to make an "X" would do the trick. Of course, my one fallacy is that then the "Z" is cast aside...

Speaking of this thread and my aside above, many have mentioned that the story hooks like "if it was a brick of pure gold, it would weigh 300 pounds and he couldn't lift it!" stay in your head forever...perhaps meta constructions do the same to us as adults?