This post brings you the first of what we hope will be a long new line of irregular cryptograms – word puzzles with an irregular political theme.
A cryptogram is a code puzzle, simple in format yet sometimes tricky to solve, in which every letter of the alphabet is replaced with another letter. (Sometimes in this code, a letter is replaced by itself, but it’s up to you to find out when that’s the case.) You have to figure out what the code is, and decode the message to find out what it is.
Lucky you, I’m offering you a few clues to help you figure this one out.
~~~~~~~~~~
CLUES:
The letter A is replaced by the letter B.
The letter T is replaced by the letter o.
The message is the statement of a prominent politician made on January 1, 2005, about investigating the scandal of spying against Americans by the National Security Agency.
After the dash at the end of the cryptogram message is the identity of the politician who made this statement.
“I HTOB QHB PHIQB HTRLB PTCQ HIFB ABHICF LXUICJ TH, BYBERQIMB OWIMISBJB, PB EXCQ FILERLL QHIL. QHXQL QHB PWTCJ XQQIQRFB. X FILERLLITC, OBWHXOL X EHXCJB IC QHB SXP, QHTLB XWB XSS SBJIQINXQB. RCISXQBWXSSU EHXCJICJ QHB SXP ABEXRLB QHB MIEB OWBLIFBCQ TW OWBLIFBCQ QHICKL IQL PWTCJ, PIQHTRQ FILERLLITC TW EHXCJB, QHXQL CTQ QHB XNBWIEXC PXU.” – LCMBOPU LNHYVCU
Call for Clarity
Good Sir or Madam, I’ll solve your puzzle, and probably rather quickly, if you will be clear.
You say, “The letter A is replaced by the letter B.” Does this mean you have made this replacement while encoding the quotation, or does it mean I am required to make the replacement?
Put more simply, do I turn A’s into B’s, or B’s into A’s? (And similarly, T’s and O’s: who’s doing the replacement?)
Yours in the progressive spirit, in which clarity enhances dialog,
Frank
Thanks for the question, Frank. I’m tempted to say, “Figure it out! That’s part of the puzzle!” – but I won’t, because I’m feeling mellow, and not cruel, this morning.
All As in the original statement have been replaced by Bs. Similarly, all Ts in the original statement have been replaced by Os.
So, to start to solve the cryptogram, you would copy it down, replacing all the Bs with As and all the Os with Ts. I find that doing this in a word processor, with extra lines for inserting temporary guesses, is useful, but everyone has their own technique.
A new cryptogram will be up later today, so get scribbling!
Dear Mr. or Ms. Fizer,
Thank you for clarifying things. Sort of.
Almost half the words in your coded quotation end with the letter “B.” If your coding is
correct, and I follow your instruction by changing those “B”s back to “A”s, I will have a
quotation in which almost half the words end with the letter “A.”
If this is the case, you are offering a puzzle whose solution is not in standard
English; perhaps the politician in question woke up on New Year’s Day in the
bathroom, regretting his excesses of the previous evening, as in
“Blaa! Bahooa! Glaaa!”?
I truly would like to address your coded challenge, but I feel something is wrong. Can you assure me that your coding and instructions are correct?
Ifa youa knowa whata Ia meana.
Yours,
Frank
I won’t be solving one of your puzzles again any time soon, Sir or Madam; the accuracy of your instructions was much like the language that comes out of the White House (or “PHIQB HTRLB” as it is sometimes known) confusing, misleading and not entirely truthful.
For starters, those B’s become E’s, not A’s. Similar problem with the second hint. And the speaker’s name is unintelligible; I think your algorhythm-generator crashed.
Neverthe less, I solved it, although I will not give the translation here; it would ruin it for others, and “that’s not the American Way,” if you know what I mean.
Yours in the true progressive spirit, in which colleagues do not chew each other out in public, even when one of them is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Frank
You are correct sir. I screwed up. My algorithm appears to be faulty.
I don’t mind admitting I’m wrong – when I am. And I am.
I’m going to amend my process so this won’t happen again.
Boy, I screwed up. Sorry. You have my sincere apologies.
“I hope the White House won’t hide behind saying ‘executive privilege, we can’t discuss this. A discussion, perhaps a change in the law,” he said, “those are all legitimate. Unilaterally changing the law because the vice president or president thinks it’s wrong, without discussing the change, that’s not the American way.”
Charles Schumer.
Once Truman said this was here I had to find it. I have loved doing these since I was in middle school.
… and now Charles Schumer is voting on legislation that HE says is informed by executive privilege. Does Schumer oppose Obama’s use of executive privilege? Not in the slightest.