Yesterday’s Cryptoquote

I like doing the cryptoquote that is in our newspaper as well as some other newspapers around the country, but yesterday’s (see below) was rather nasty. (It started out with five two-letter words, and the first one had a comma after it.) After I had solved it, I realized there was an easier way to do it by thinking about the date.

I like these kinds of puzzles because, unlike crossword puzzles, they require logic (as well as a good knowledge of English). In fact, the last time I taught a logic class I brought one in on the first day and solved it in front of the class just to show them how deductive reasoning works. It is sad that no one in Britain seems to know anything about them. It seems to be an American thing.

Comments

[Mark Spahn]

What an easy puzzle. It's a simple substitution cipher where your are given seven(!) letters to begin with: A=l, X=o, Y=n, D=g, L=b, F=e, R=w. And your clue about the date tells me that the very last word KHRABSMBA fits the pattern of Valentine. The puzzle is half-solved before you even begin.

My local paper (the Buffalo News) runs a similar syndicated puzzle called Cryptoquip, where only one letter is given (not that that is really needed). Here is the Cryptoquip for 2/14/15:

RYN XMOMR KYMBVT DJIN

JA JZZMCARDNAR PCRY J

OVJUIKDCRY. YN'K UMAUNXANT

JOMBRE YCK DNRJV YNJVRY.

I have not looked at this puzzle until now, but I notice
(1) The fourth word looks spookily Islamic.
(2) The single-letter word J is either I or A,
and the JA JZZ* hints at something like AN APP*.
(3) YN'K and YCK are similar, but YCK=the leads nowhere, nor does YN'K=it's.
(4) But YN'K=he's and YCK=his is consistent, and promising.
(5) So let's try this, in which case the first word is RYN=?HE, making R=t.
(6) Then the last three words (which are probably the pun of this quip) are "his DetaV heaVth", which make V either r or l. Let's try V=l, which leads to "his Detal health". Aha, that suggests "his metal health",
a pun on "mental health" applied to a robot.
(The clue says "Y equals H", but I ignored this clue.)

I'll let you solve the rest (I haven't yet solved it.)
Sometimes I solve these Cryptoquips without writing anything down (while taking a walk).

[Steve Burri]

Got it.

[Mike]

I love logic puzzles. I coach a jr high team (12-14 years old) in logic for their academic decathlon competition. But this type of code breaking I find more tedious than enjoyable.

[Ann Murray]

After writing it out a second time I saw the word EVERY in AKAFO !!! Meanwhile, I had written out all the two letter possibilities . . In columns . . Putting some of the words next to each other to create similar word patterns and one thing led to the other . . oh . . and the names are always helpful . . There are only so many poisibilities once you get a few . . and should you really be stuck - just google some of the words you already have.

[John Pepple]

Yes, I should have noticed EVERY in there, but I think I got hung up on the beginning words. It seemed like nothing would fit in there. Just the other day I had one with EVERY in it, but it was at the beginning, so I picked up on it right away.