NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 12, 2025): Rot-13 International Location

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jan 12, 2025): Rot-13 International Location

Q: Think of a well-known international location in nine letters. Take the first five letters and shift each of them 13 places later in the alphabet. The result will be a synonym for the remaining four letters in the place's name. What place is it?

I was sure the answer was going to be NICAR/AGUA, but sadly NICAR didn't become WATER.

On my map, the WATER is BLUE and the LAND is GREEN. Also, AGUA is a Spanish word we know to be WATER, while TERRA is a Latin word we know to be EARTH or LAND

A: GREENLAND --> TERRA, LAND

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 1, 2022): Take 4 Steps Forward

NPR Sunday Puzzle (May 1, 2022): Take 4 Steps Forward

Q: This week's challenge is more challenging than last week's. Write down the name of a number. Move each letter four spots later in the alphabet — so A would become E, B would become F, etc. The result will be a number that's 44 more than your first one. What numbers are these?

More challenging? That's debateable. This is basically a Caesar cipher, except shifting by 4 letters.

Edit: In retrospect, perhaps mentioning a Roman statesman whose eponymous cipher usually involves a shift of three letters was a bit too revealing.

A: THREE --> XLVII (47)

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 23, 2018): Caesar Cipher Time

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Sep 23, 2018): Caesar Cipher Time:

Q: Think of an affliction in five letters. Shift each letter three spaces later in the alphabet — for example, A would become D, B would become E, etc. The result will be a prominent name in the Bible. Who is it?

This puzzle is driving me batty.

Edit: Bats are believed to be the original carriers/reservoir of the Ebola virus.

A: EBOLA --> HEROD

NPR Sunday Puzzle (April 3, 2016): A=1, B=2, C=3, ...

NPR Sunday Puzzle (April 3, 2016): A=1, B=2, C=3, ...:

Q: Take the word EASY: Its first three letters — E, A and S — are the fifth, first, and nineteenth letters, respectively, in the alphabet. If you add 5 + 1 + 19, you get 25, which is the value of the alphabetical position of Y, the last letter of EASY.

Can you think of a common five-letter word that works in the opposite way — in which the value of the alphabetical positions of its last four letters add up to the value of the alphabetical position of its first letter?

I'm crossing this off my list of tough puzzles; this is way too EASY!

Edit: My hint was to crosswalks which are called "zebra crossings" in the U.K.

A: ZEBRA is one possible answer. TABLE, WHACK and MACED also fit the criteria.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 9, 2014): I got Caesar dressing on my clothes!

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Nov 9, 2014): I got Caesar dressing on my clothes!:

Q: Name a well-known clothing company. Move each of its letters three spaces earlier in the alphabet and rearrange the result. You'll name something you don't want in an article of clothing. What is it?

I generally enjoy these letter rotation type puzzles, but it took me awhile to figure this one out.

Edit: The two clues were "I general..." (referring to General Zod from Superman) = IZOD and "awhile" from the phrase, "In awhile, crocodile." Though many people thought the animal on the Izod Lacoste polo shirt was an alligator, it was actually a crocodile, referring to tennis player Rene Lacoste's nickname of "The Crocodile".

A: IZOD = FWLA --> FLAW

Explanation of Civil War Message, Decoded 147 Years Later

In the news today, I read about a Civil War message that was found in a bottle and decoded just recently. However the news article wasn't very clear on the how the message was encoded.

With a little trial and error, I too was able to decode the message. The message uses a Vigenère cipher and a key of length 15. After struggling with some transcription and encoding errors in the message, I was able to determine what was the intended coded message:

SEAN WIEUIIUZH DTG CNP LBHXGK OZ BJQB FEQT XZBW JJOY TK FHR TPZWK PVU RYSQ VOUPZXGG OEPH CK UASFKIPW PLVO JIZ HMN NVAEUD XYF DURJ BOVPA SF MLV FYYRDE LVPL MFYSIN XY FQEO NPK M OBPC FYXJFHOHT AS ETOV B OCAJDSVQU M ZTZV TPHY DAU FQTI UTTJ J DOGOAIA FLWHTXTI QLTR SEA LVLFLXFO.

If you repeatedly write the key phrase "Manchester Bluff" above the letters it tells you the offset from the actual letter. A is an offset of zero (the same letter in the plain text). B is an offset of 1, C is 2, etc. The decoded message is:

Gen'l Pemberton, You can expect no help from this side of the river. Let Gen'l Johnston know, if possible, when you can attack the same point on the enemy's line. Inform me also and I will endeavour to make a diversion. I have sent you some caps. I subjoin despatch from Gen Johnston.

After I figured out the key phrase I noticed in the Wikipedia article that the Confederate leadership primarily relied upon three key phrases, "Manchester Bluff", "Complete Victory" and, as the war came to a close, "Come Retribution".