a 20 year old mystery solved in 14 minutes

February 3, 2022 11:52 AM

For Doubles Jubilee month, relive the thrills of this classic Ask from JannaK: In my grandmother's final days battling brain cancer, she became unable to speak and she filled dozens of index cards with random letters of the alphabet. I'm beginning to think that they are the first letters in the words of song lyrics, and would love to know what song this was. This is a crazy long shot, but I've seen Mefites pull off some pretty impressive code-breaking before!

MetaTalk bonus thread: The hive mind is a genius

posted by roger ackroyd (14 comments total)

When I'm on my deathbed, I'm going to do this but with

WNSTLYKTRASDIAFWITOYWGTFAOGIJWTYHIFGMYUNGGYUNGLYDNGRAADYNGMYCNGSGNGTALAHY
posted by Schmucko at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2022 [11 favorites]

When I'm on my deathbed, I'm going to do this but with

WTYSCATDSCFTTRAIHTGRDMSNTLFFYBGSBYHGDSMTDSMTSSWWWTTBSYNKIYDGYNSIYDG
posted by curious nu at 12:30 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

That is one of my favorite Asks ever. The grandmother who left the notes was from my hometown and I was part of the Lutheran community there. There's a decent chance I met her sometime because it was a pretty small town at the time. I asked pastors and fellow church musicians about the unbroken bits of code and they didn't have any more ideas but now I kind of want to try again. I lost my very religious Lutheran grandmother a few years ago and this is the kind of thing she would have done if she couldn't talk though it never came to that.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 12:30 PM on February 3, 2022 [10 favorites]

Oh man I loved this one... as a person of the puzzle-loving but very-Jewish persuasion I could only read on with awe as new pieces kept being added. Thanks for reposting!
posted by Mchelly at 12:40 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's a very Metafiltery thread:

- obscure question
- amazingly, a partial answer
- the community chips in to expand the answer
- duplicates appear as people stop reading but keep posting
- noise and discursion threaten to overwhelm the signal
- the OP thanks everyone and asks them to close up shop, but...
- the thread denizens continue to obsess over it for MONTHS
posted by echo target at 1:10 PM on February 3, 2022 [24 favorites]

I recall that AskMe and enjoyed following along in real time. I think that was really a Metafilter highpoint and great example of the utility of AskMe.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:24 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Now I intend to mess with my grandchildren by doing this on my deathbed with Violent Femmes lyrics.

LMGOLABITSLMGOBHIKYTO
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:09 PM on February 3, 2022 [6 favorites]

WNSTLYKTRASDIAFCWITOYWGTFAOG
IJWTYHIFGMYU
NGGYUNGLYDNGRAADYNGMYCNGSGNGTALAHY
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 2:12 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yes, hopefully this thread will inspire tons of deathbed brainteasers.

One Weird Trick To Puzzle Your Heirs -- Grandchildren Hate It!
posted by roger ackroyd at 2:16 PM on February 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

For whatever stupid reason, I didn't notice that Schmucko had my idea first.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:44 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's Never Lurgi: great minds think alike. This parallels the original post's step 4 according to echo target where

- duplicates appear as people stop reading but keep posting
posted by Schmucko at 3:57 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

SOTMTWIGRMIATSTITS
posted by saturday_morning at 4:16 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Hahaha, I love that this keeps rearing its head every once in awhile! I still get emails from cryptographers and documentary folks every year or two about this code!

I knew the Metafilter community was pretty amazing, but was so incredibly grateful to get some answers on that Ask. Y’all gave my family a lot of comfort and my grandpa LOVED talking about this right up until he passed a couple of years ago. I owe @harperpitt a beer any time she may be near Minnesota!
posted by JannaK at 5:30 PM on February 3, 2022 [20 favorites]

One Weird Trick To Puzzle Your Heirs -- Grandchildren Hate It!

My partner has, in anticipation of our eventual deaths, started faking letters about our clearly impossible and world-altering inventions, false-aging them, and hiding them in books. I think the idea is they’ll be so puzzled by the mystery they won’t be able to grieve.
posted by corb at 9:00 PM on February 3, 2022 [6 favorites]