Today’s Cryptogram

[nikos1121]

XUUAIETT OW TOBK TOXK OA SKVJOSKW NKSWKDKSEQGK, WKTX-CKQOET, FESC YUSB, WEGSOXOGK, CKCOGEAOUQ EQC SKWNKGA XUS EJAFUSOAR. DOQGK TULIESCO

[nikos1121]

You can find this fun quotation puzzle, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. I challenge us with the best ones out there.

The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram).

Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated, you’ll be solving them all within a few days. If you’re stumped, take a break and return to it.

PLEASE DO NOT post the answer in general comments, but DO post your time and how you made out.

You can certainly send your solution to my private reply, or if you need a hint for today’s Cryptogram ASK THE GROUP FOR HELP!

I suggest printing these out and work them on paper. If you need a little help you can copy and paste it to Hal’s Helper below.

You can then work on the puzzle without using pen and paper, but I recommend that you do NOT look at the letter counter.

HAL'S CRYPTOGRAM HELPER

One last request. Feel free to post a fun or clever clue, the more tangential to the quotation the better, but please don’t put the actual words of the quote in the clue.

[nikos1121]

4 minutes good
3 minutes excellent
2 minutes exceptional

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Solution to previous puzzle (select the yellow text with your cursor to read):

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LITTLE FREEDOM. EITHER YOU ARE ALL FREE, OR YOU ARE NOT FREE. —WALTER CRONKITE

[nikos1121]

thank you thank you thank you for doing this

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

5:34.39 I found it difficult, but I persisted, put in the time, and effort. When do I get my ring and 120 million dollar contract, coach?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

My pleasure, absolutely. Check your email.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Just signed my contract! Check out my bonus!

[xrmusn]

Can only imagine what the author would think of todays ‘crop’.

[cartan]

A bit hard to get started, but suddenly, it all fell together…

[MustKnowHistory]

Most excellent. Thank you!

[Steven Tyler]

Very lucky this day
Common letter.
Lucky guess on word 14
Then word 13 fell into place.

Pretty quick after that

[1_Rain_Drop]

about the quote, I had no clue that that’s what it was all about. Pass the chips please.

[Stars&StripesNE]

Perfect!!

Go Bucs!!

[Magnum44]

[enumerated]

Thanks, I have been enjoying these!

In my opinion, there should have been some punctuation after “TOXK”; at least a comma, perhaps even a semicolon.

Question: What do most people consider “cheating”? (I use quotes because I realize it’s just for fun and different people hold themselves to different “rules”.)

For example, my dad used to do cryptograms and crossword puzzles with a felt tip pen to make it more challenging. I am the opposite; I like Hal’s Helper.

Also, he would never dream of looking something up, whereas I have occasionally been stumped on, say, the last letter of an authors’ name, where the name was obscure, the missing letter wasn’t used anywhere else, or there was no way to verify.

I was also recently stumped on one of your cryptograms with an incredibly long word. None of my other starting “clues” were working. There were no one or two letter words to get me started, or words with the same letter in a row, or words with apostrophes, etc.. I gave up and looked up long words.

Does anyone else “bend the rules” when they give up? Just curious.