Today's Cryptogram

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

KJPAK, P. Q FDQKVYWQMG TESIC XQWDLJ ZAIASP ICCI LEAPYI QI LECJ QMC PSL QI LECJ SWYEL LS FC.  - QBFMSIC FACMKC, LEC WPQFMAGYCG GCZAD'I GAKLASPQMJ.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

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.## ping list message

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If you need a clue ask the group to send you a letter to your private reply.

4 minutes good
3 minutes excellent
2 minutes exceptional
90 seconds superior

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Previous puzzle, Saturday, November 23, 2024

S UE ANWVWBEVW SPZSAW KQ BWCCEJ ISASXWPY SP WZWVQ MGVA EB ANW RPSAWU YAGAWY, GPU GCYE ANEYW JNE GVW GA YWG GPU ANEYW JNE GVW YELERVPSPT SP BEVWSTP CGPUY, AE YWA GMGVA GPU EDYWVZW ANW CGYA ANRVYUGQ EB PEZWKDWV PWHA, GY G UGQ EB ANGPFYTSZSPT GPU MVGSYW AE ERV DWPWBSIWPA BGANWV JNE UJWCCWAN SP ANW NWGZWPY. GDVGNGK CSPIECP, EIAEDWV 3, 1863

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

I DO THEREFORE INVITE MY FELLOW CITIZENS IN EVERY PART OF THE UNITED STATES, AND ALSO THOSE WHO ARE AT SEA AND THOSE WHO ARE SOJOURNING IN FOREIGN LANDS, TO SET APART AND OBSERVE THE LAST THURSDAY OF NOVEMBER NEXT, AS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE TO OUR BENEFICENT FATHER WHO DWELLETH IN THE HEAVENS. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, OCTOBER 3, 1863

HAL'S CRYPTOGRAM HELPER

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[BlueLancer]

"Life, as it is."
I have lived for over 40 years and I've seen "life, as it is": pain, misery, cruelty.

I've heard all of the voices of God's noblest creature: moans from bundles of filth in the streets.

I've been a soldier and a slave.
I've seen my comrades fall in battle or die more slowly under the lash in Africa.
I've held them in their last moments; these were men who saw "life, as it is".
But they died despairing. No glory. No bray of last words. Only their eyes filled with confusion, questioning "Why?"
I do not think they were asking why they were dying, but why they had ever been born.

Life itself seems lunatic. Who knows where madness lies?
Perhaps to be too practical is madness.
To surrender dreams, this may be madness;
To seek treasure where there is only trash.
Too much sanity may be madness.

But maddest of all, to see "life, as it is" and not as it should be!

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The other side is heard from.

[Magnum44]

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Taken from a book that is today considered to be the first novel.

[Magnum44]

[Baldwin77]

[scrabblehack]

I suppose the main character in “An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge” wasn’t one of them.

Hitchcock and Serling both did adaptations of that story.

[TheThirdRuffian]

You didn’t happen to live in the San Fransisco Bay Area between 1966-69, own a .22 rifle, 9mm pistol, a knife and have a pension for wearing black executioner hoods, did you? If so, the police would like to talk with you.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge is a haunting story, and, of course, the occurrence was provoked by a Union agent provocateur, the original Ray Epps.

[ComputerGuy]

Is this the guy whose mother exploded?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Author was a Union officer during the Civil War. Read “What I Saw of Shiloh”, an amazing account. He was a journalist. He vanished without a trace sometime after December 26th, 1913, while accompanying Pancho Villa’s army as an observer.

[manna]

Thanks.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

My pension does not include black hoods.

[gitmo]