Someone better figure out how "X's" and a red dot add up to "Jack" or else I'll start to feel really, really old!
Jn
Tolkien's Pictorial Code Letters
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Sassafras
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Easy Jn.
It's a red ball and those X's are little metal thingies called jacks.
We played a version of Jacks in England called Fivestones ... only we were poor and played it with bottlecaps.
Now I feel really,really old!
http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/jacks-rules.htm
It's a red ball and those X's are little metal thingies called jacks.
We played a version of Jacks in England called Fivestones ... only we were poor and played it with bottlecaps.
Now I feel really,really old!
http://www.mastersgames.com/rules/jacks-rules.htm
Ever mindful of the maxim that brevity is the soul of wit, axordil sums up the Sil:
"Too many Fingolfins, not enough Sams."
Yes.
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truehobbit
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Ah, cool - thanks!
When I was a kid, I used to like a comic book that came with a "gimmick" each week - once there was this game consisting of five red and one white oddly shaped plastic parts - the idea was to throw one into the air and pick up the others before catching it again - it was called the "stone age game" because, they said, it was played with bones way back in the stone ages.
Not to make anyone feel old!
Jny, to think it only took you 15 minutes to come up with the ideas for the encryption!
I wonder if I'd ever be able to come up with workable stuff. But I think I'll just have to try!
But it sounds like a great game!
Hmmh, I have some more ideas for the rest of the text, am just doubtful on another two things - but I'll let some others play now!
When I was a kid, I used to like a comic book that came with a "gimmick" each week - once there was this game consisting of five red and one white oddly shaped plastic parts - the idea was to throw one into the air and pick up the others before catching it again - it was called the "stone age game" because, they said, it was played with bones way back in the stone ages.
Not to make anyone feel old!
Jny, to think it only took you 15 minutes to come up with the ideas for the encryption!
I wonder if I'd ever be able to come up with workable stuff. But I think I'll just have to try! That would be a lot of hard work - and probably not so hard to decipher, if someone knows their text well!It would be fun to do a series of quotes from Tolkien all done in pictorial code.
But it sounds like a great game! Hmmh, I have some more ideas for the rest of the text, am just doubtful on another two things - but I'll let some others play now!
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
Sass, thanks!
Yes, the game is called "Jacks" in the U.S. too. You could buy a set for about $0.25 when I was a kid. Luckily I'm not old enough to have played it with bones and a rock!
Btw, Hobby, the X's have six points sticking out in six different directions so they 'sit up' when you toss them on the ground.
Re the difficulty of coding a message ... when you see how simple the message is, and how many of the letters are replaced by numbers or even just letters (like 'ure'), it doesn't take that long to come up with appropriate code. Also, I had all of Tolkien's original choices to choose from. It just takes time to find recognizable pictures and to position everything so that it fits on the page.
I don't know how much more difficult it would be to do it in a second language.Your English is so perfect that I forget it's not your native language. I think one might see 'words within words' more quickly in one's native tongue, or recognize homonyms more quickly, but I'm not sufficiently fluent in any foreign language to know for sure.
Jn
Yes, the game is called "Jacks" in the U.S. too. You could buy a set for about $0.25 when I was a kid. Luckily I'm not old enough to have played it with bones and a rock!
Btw, Hobby, the X's have six points sticking out in six different directions so they 'sit up' when you toss them on the ground.
Re the difficulty of coding a message ... when you see how simple the message is, and how many of the letters are replaced by numbers or even just letters (like 'ure'), it doesn't take that long to come up with appropriate code. Also, I had all of Tolkien's original choices to choose from. It just takes time to find recognizable pictures and to position everything so that it fits on the page.
I don't know how much more difficult it would be to do it in a second language.Your English is so perfect that I forget it's not your native language. I think one might see 'words within words' more quickly in one's native tongue, or recognize homonyms more quickly, but I'm not sufficiently fluent in any foreign language to know for sure.
Jn
A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell.
Ok, here's what I think we have so far...
The picture must point to the word; so if Peter Jackson had been locked in a room and forced to
Here I think we have
solve Tolkiens letters
but so + 450 E should be "so LD E" wouldn't it? LV would be 55?
Toll + Canes = Tolkiens
then two letters = letters.
Wood = Would
Hiss - S = His
Move +IES = Movies
Bee = Be
Gamblers = Better?
Finally... Jay + Ten - T + USA = Jnyusa
So I get:
The picture must point to the word; so if Peter Jackson had been locked in a room and forced to solve Tolkiens letters would his movies be better?
Jnyusa
About the heading.
Serve or Pour? The Rome bit was cause it looked like the Forum to me at that size. Maybe Ruin? So "Rune"
Unfortunately "Servaruna" doesn't mean a lot so I imagine I'm way off!
Nearly there!
Alatar
The picture must point to the word; so if Peter Jackson had been locked in a room and forced to
Here I think we have
solve Tolkiens letters
but so + 450 E should be "so LD E" wouldn't it? LV would be 55?
Toll + Canes = Tolkiens
then two letters = letters.
Wood = Would
Hiss - S = His
Move +IES = Movies
Bee = Be
Gamblers = Better?
Finally... Jay + Ten - T + USA = Jnyusa
So I get:
The picture must point to the word; so if Peter Jackson had been locked in a room and forced to solve Tolkiens letters would his movies be better?
Jnyusa
About the heading.
Serve or Pour? The Rome bit was cause it looked like the Forum to me at that size. Maybe Ruin? So "Rune"
Unfortunately "Servaruna" doesn't mean a lot so I imagine I'm way off!
Nearly there!
Alatar
The body of the message is correct, Alatar!
(the prize will have to be another one of Mrs.Whistler's potholders)
Also, you're correct that the 450 should be 55 ... I was working back and forth between two drafts to paste things from the internet and then position them, and I know I fixed that mistake at one point because I recall doing it, but I must have then switched to the other draft and never made the edit on the final version.
I'll fix it sometime today, for posterity. There's also a mistake in my name.
Now, for the address - that should really be the easiest since most of you know where I live.
Jn
(the prize will have to be another one of Mrs.Whistler's potholders)
Also, you're correct that the 450 should be 55 ... I was working back and forth between two drafts to paste things from the internet and then position them, and I know I fixed that mistake at one point because I recall doing it, but I must have then switched to the other draft and never made the edit on the final version.
I'll fix it sometime today, for posterity. There's also a mistake in my name.
Now, for the address - that should really be the easiest since most of you know where I live.
Jn
A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell.
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truehobbit
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Ack, that was giving me a headache! Very well done, Alatar!Also, you're correct that the 450 should be 55 ...
And I knew the last should be "Jnyusa" but I still don't understand how to get there, really.
As to the address - hmmh, I tried comparing it with your address but couldn't make sense of it.
Edit: ARGH! I kept thinking PA was Pennsylvania, and that didn't make sense, so now I thought about what other similar state names there are - it's Philadelphia!
Fill + A + Delphi + A
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
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truehobbit
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I just suddenly realised the picture was Delphi, so the answer was then obvious, particularly as I have been there several times (although not for many years).truehobbit wrote:But you didn't know where Jny lives, did you? So you did much better figuring it out without help - after all I knew I should look for "PA"!
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truehobbit
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Ooo, I got that!
Although I have no clue who the woman in pink is (I assume her name is Jan or Jane?) or how the port... no, wait, I just got it, it's a HAVEN!
There's hope for me, it seems.
Although I have no clue who the woman in pink is (I assume her name is Jan or Jane?) or how the port... no, wait, I just got it, it's a HAVEN!
There's hope for me, it seems.
"What a place! What a situation! What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter."
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
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Sassafras
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The woman in pink, Frelga, is Jeannie. An American tv sitcom from the 60's?
called, 'I dream of Jeannie.'
Oooo! I got it too.
I am not entirely stupid.
Dear Jn,
PJ would not have (figured? fig + u) that out in (a?) 100 years,
truehobbit.
called, 'I dream of Jeannie.'
Oooo! I got it too.
I am not entirely stupid.
Dear Jn,
PJ would not have (figured? fig + u) that out in (a?) 100 years,
truehobbit.
Ever mindful of the maxim that brevity is the soul of wit, axordil sums up the Sil:
"Too many Fingolfins, not enough Sams."
Yes.
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truehobbit
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I knew it was too easy!
I didn't write the "a" in "a hundred" because I thought that was involved when you say the number.
And in my mind I pronounce Jny like Jinny - which is close to Jeannie.
You haven't explained how "figured" and "truehobbit" are constructed, though!
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
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truehobbit
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You guys are good (kind of proud of the red U and the rue plant myself )!
They don't let me near the chamber where they keep they potholders, though, so I can't sneak some out for you!
So, how about some plum cake instead? (Ok, I know it's not the season, but we can pretend! )
)! They don't let me near the chamber where they keep they potholders, though, so I can't sneak some out for you!
So, how about some plum cake instead? (Ok, I know it's not the season, but we can pretend!
)but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.
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truehobbit
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Y + ears? Thanks! Actually I felt a bit silly not finding a picture for the "Y" - Tolkien used a map of the river Wye, but I thought that was something too local to just copy.
Which reminds me - you haven't solved the location!
No cake yet!
Actually I felt a bit silly not finding a picture for the "Y" - Tolkien used a map of the river Wye, but I thought that was something too local to just copy. Which reminds me - you haven't solved the location!
No cake yet!
but being a cheerful hobbit he had not needed hope, as long as despair could be postponed.