Posts from — August 2009

We’re having a going-away party for Gothicstorm & sweetpea3 on Sat Sep 12. You’re all invited.

This post is the first of an N-part series, where N is a number between 0 and infinity.

I have been working on a few puzzles lately that involve letter-to-number mappings of A-1, B-2, C-3, etc. Thanks to many years as a child playing Battleship, I still know that H is 8 and J is 10 … but I can’t remember many of the mappings after that. I know that T is 20, but I can never seem to remember the rest without writing out the entire table … is M 13 or 14? And what’s Q? Or V?

Because I’m extremely lazy (it comes with being a Perl programmer), I created a little mnemonic that saves me from having to write out the entire table every time I need it. I write it like this:

A B C D E
F G H I J
K L M N O
P Q R S T
U V W X Y
Z

Written this way, I get a simple visual reminder that the letters at the ends of the rows correspond to the multiples of 5 (E-5, J-10, O-15, T-20, Y-25). It’s easy to just count to the next letter. So Q is 17 and V is 22.

I found a puzzle cache yesterday. I thought you might appreciate the log entry from it. It’s all 100% true, even the entry from 2:35:12.

August 20 by ePeterso2 (580 found)

WEDNESDAY

12:40 pm – Begin work on solving this puzzle with the intent of finding it on the way home

12:55 pm – Puzzle solved. Well, most of the puzzle is solved. I’m only missing one of the words, but I’m so sure about the crossing words that I know I must be right.

4:30 pm – Get ready to skip out early to have enough time to get to the cache. Co-worker walks into cube and asks for “just a minute of my time”.

5:27 pm – One minute of my time ends.

5:28 pm – Give up hope of finding cache today.

THURSDAY

8:30 am – Arrive at work. Plan to leave at noon. Need to be in downtown Fort Lauderdale at 4:00 pm.

10:42 am – Doctor’s office calls. The doctor will be in surgery the rest of the day – all appointments today are canceled. Reschedule for tomorrow!

12:59 pm – Get son to band camp with one minute to spare! Have lunch.

2:30 pm – Arrive at the cache parking lot. Power up GPSr, punch in coordinates, and head in the direction of the arrow. “Battery Low” warning appears on GPSr screen.

2:31:15 pm – GPSr turns self off. Press on in same direction.

2:33 pm – Trail veers sharply away from the direction I know I need to be traveling. Remember signs at trailhead that say “STAY ON TRAIL”. Begin debate with self as to whether heeding that guidance is a good idea or not. If I stay on the trail, I don’t think I’ll find the cache. Ever.

2:34 pm – Debate with self concluded. I must find this cache! Leave trail.

2:34:30 pm – Restart GPSr, hoping to get a few minutes of battery life out of it. Stare at GPSr.

2:35 pm – Walk face-first into a massive spider web across the trail.

2:35:01 pm – Drop GPSr, shake head violently, and hope the spider isn’t in my hair. Frantically swipe at hair in hopes of brushing away any potential spiders.

2:35:05 pm – Consider that if the spider is in my hair, I will have smashed it and spider guts will now be in my hair.

2:35:06 pm – Check hair for spider guts. No spider guts found. Remainder of spider web removed. Pick up GPSr to find that it has died and powered off again.

2:35:12 pm – Grab a stick to use to clear away spider webs in front of me. Look up at remains of spider web. The spider is as large as my outstretched fingers.

2:35:25 pm – Exhale. Press on.

2:36 pm – Avoid spider webs 2, 3, and 4.

2:38 pm – Power up the GPSr again. It stays on just long enough for me to walk around a particular area of interest. Cache must be there.

2:39 pm – It is. Container is in hand!

2:39:01 pm – But I can’t open it. RATS. But I do remember what I need to open it!

2:39:03 pm – What I need is the last bit of the puzzle I wasn’t able to solve. RATS. And my solution to the puzzle is back on my desk at work. 30 miles away.

2:40 pm – Piece together what I think is the correct solution to the puzzle from memory. Ignore insect stings. Ignore pain of being poked by a thorny plant. Keep trying to open the cache. Keep failing.

2:45 pm – Give up squatting. Realize that I need to work on this some more. Decide to take the container with me back to the trailhead and work on it there.

2:50 pm – Return to trailhead after avoiding spiders 4, 3, 2, and 1 successfully. Fail to open container.

3:00 pm – Make notes about the container. Return container to hiding spot. Return to car and leave the area to try to find a nearby WiFi spot to cross-check my puzzle solution.

3:10 pm – Find WiFi spot. Order frozen lemonade which is awesome relief for being outside in the afternoon heat. Check answers. Discover potential solution that I totally overlooked.

3:35 pm – Return to the cache site. Apply solution – SUCCESS! Sign log, leave Red Otter pathtag for next finder.

3:45 pm – Return to the car. Miraculously hit a lucky combination of green lights. Make it to my meeting on time.

Thanks for the cache!

-eP

Several of you have asked if I’ve considered doing a Puzzlehead podcast. I love the idea and have the equipment and technical skill to do it and make it sound good, but I don’t have the time to commit to doing it right. I figure this blog is just effort-intensive enough for me right now.

However, there are several interesting puzzle-related podcasts around. Here’s the ones I know exist, either from personal experience or from searching around in the iTunes store. If you know of more, please let us know in a comment here.

NPR’s Puzzle on the Air

http://www.npr.org/puzzle

The Car Talk Puzzle

http://www.cartalk.com/content/puzzler/

The Puzzle Podcast

http://www.puzzlepodcast.com

Here’s a fun little brainteaser I saw that I thought I’d share with y’all:

Rearrange the letters of the four words in each set to form four new words that rhyme. For example, given the words BEARD, HERDS, DAIS, and ADDER, you would anagram them to spell BREAD, SHRED, SAID, and DREAD.

1. ONSET, NEWS, WRONG, HORNET
Show Answer ▼

2. CURES, SOWER, SEVER, STEER
Show Answer ▼

3. DUNE, WELD, CURED, TWEEDS
Show Answer ▼

4. SINGER, ASPEN, VINES, SPINAL
Show Answer ▼

5. RANGED, ENLARDS, DACRON, DARNED
Show Answer ▼

6. BUSIER, SOLE, HOSES, WIVES
Show Answer ▼