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Smithy's code: new twist in Da Vinci drama
Guardian ^ | Thursday April 27, 2006 | Sam Jones

Posted on 04/27/2006 7:26:09 AM PDT by AdmSmith

After remaining undetected for three weeks - admittedly not much to rival the two millennia of the cover-up at the heart of Brown's book - it has emerged that Mr Justice Peter Smith could not resist slipping a code of his own into his judgment on the case.

For the past three weeks, lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic have been puzzling over a series of strange italicisations in Mr Justice Smith's 71-page judgment, which was handed down on April 7. The odd letters appeared to crop up randomly throughout the text and most people assumed they were typographical errors. But on closer examination, a pattern has emerged.

The first clue - the word claimants with the s in italics - is found in paragraph one of the document. In the next paragraph, the m in claimant is italicised. Read together, the italicised letters in the first seven paragraphs spell out the self-referential legend "Smithy code".

"When the judgment came out it caught my eye that there were these odd italic letters which I thought were just a humorous mistake," said Mr Tench.

Mr Justice Smith was remaining as tight-lipped as the Mona Lisa yesterday.

He was scarcely more forthcoming on whether or not he expected the code to be broken. "I don't know," he said. "It's not a difficult thing to do."

But he offered a glimmer of enlightenment to aspiring codebreakers, saying he would "probably" confirm a correct guess.

Mr Tench said the judge had teasingly told him that the code was a mixture of the italicised font code found in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail - whose authors sued Dan Brown's publisher for copyright infringement - and the code in The Da Vinci Code.

(Excerpt) Read more at books.guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: brown; code; davinci; smith
Here is the link to the judgment http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/images/judgment-files/baigent_v_rhg_0406.pdf
1 posted on 04/27/2006 7:26:12 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: nuconvert; ASA Vet; bam

For those of you that are interested in breaking the code; The italicized letters scattered throughout the judgment spell out: "smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz."

check out the words with the italicized letters...


2 posted on 04/27/2006 7:29:08 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: AdmSmith

Sales gimmick


3 posted on 04/27/2006 7:32:00 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: AdmSmith

It's been a while since I've done any cryptanalysis. Might be a fun little project for this evening.


4 posted on 04/27/2006 7:32:23 AM PDT by JamesP81
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To: AdmSmith

"Drink more Ovaltine."


5 posted on 04/27/2006 7:33:11 AM PDT by GreenLanternCorps (Jaffa! KREE!)
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To: GreenLanternCorps

LOL


6 posted on 04/27/2006 7:35:42 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: nuconvert
Sales gimmick

No, you can dowload the judgment for free. ;-)
7 posted on 04/27/2006 7:36:02 AM PDT by AdmSmith
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To: GreenLanternCorps

((Be sure to drink your Ovaltine))


8 posted on 04/27/2006 7:36:21 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: AdmSmith

Oh. Sorry.
I haven't been following this story.


9 posted on 04/27/2006 7:40:26 AM PDT by nuconvert ([there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: AdmSmith

It's code for "I am a fraud", LOL!


10 posted on 04/27/2006 8:39:21 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: AdmSmith

Bump for the anticipated breaking of the code by the wonderful minds at work here at Free Republic! I am quite sure that the code will be cracked and its message revealed in short order, courtesy of the Pajama Patrol!


11 posted on 04/27/2006 8:41:39 AM PDT by VRWCer (All things work together for good to them that love God. - Romans 8:28)
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To: GreenLanternCorps

Good one :-)


12 posted on 04/27/2006 8:43:46 AM PDT by T Minus Four (Laughing out loud out loud out loud out loud out loud.....)
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To: AdmSmith

Is it me, or does it look as if "Jaeie" could break into "Jesus"?


13 posted on 04/27/2006 12:46:22 PM PDT by MatD
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To: MatD

No, that is not the right answer.


14 posted on 04/27/2006 2:02:25 PM PDT by AdmSmith
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