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Part XVIII: Scramble 8 -- The Final Shuffle!
This step is to perform one last Shuffle procedure (defined in Part XIII) on the String, now more or less doubled from its previous size. The Good News is that this time, the result should be something you can READ, actual lucid text! The Bad News is that you are given no hint how to factor the number of letters in the String to set up a rectangle for the Shuffle. You just have to try various numbers of rows until you spot some actual words (IF you have not made errors that make it still a jumble!) But that was the spirit of this whole contest, to try to run the gauntlet of all these challenges and still find the epiphany at the end of the tunnel!
Comments
I'll get back to this tomorrow, but if you still wish to see it for yourself first, take the 252-letter string from the previous answer and try 12 x 21!
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Mar 13, 2007 4:19:11 AM
With the built-in variable width type here, I cannot neatly portray the grids, but essentially, you must try the various factorings of 252 to see which yields lucid text when shuffled. It is also possible you might pass right by the solution of you were only examining the first column that results, because as it turns out, the solution is achieved by making 12 rows of 21 letters each, but the first column (row, after the shuffle) reads IFSWNCATLWME, which doesn't look much like English, does it? The message contains a couple of ACRONYMS, which are therein defined. After the entire shuffle, and with spaces added, the message reads:
IF SWNCATLW MEANS STATE WHOSE NAME CONTAINS A THREE LETTER WORD AND FUSP MEANS FORMER UNITED STATES PRESIDENT FIND THE NUMBER OF STARS THAT WERE ON THE U S FLAG ON THE HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY OF A FUSP BORN IN A SWNCATLW FOUND IN THE LAST NAME OF A FUSP WHICH IS ADJACENT TO A SWNCATLW FOUND IN THE FIRST NAME OF A FUSP
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Mar 14, 2007 2:13:00 PM
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