Mad Scrambles by Bob Lodge Part I: Introduction
You will be asked to repeatedly expand, scramble, and shuffle a String (I'll write it throughout the contest that way for emphasis) of letters, until a directive appears, whose answer is the goal of this contest. Extended complicated directions must be followed with great care. Any error or omission could render the final result incomprehensible and meaningless. If any step doesn't jibe with the work so far, STOP, and find errors before further steps compound them. In this challenging gauntlet of many small steps, just one mistake may tumble the house of cards! Can you make it all the way?
Most of the Parts that follow are of three types.
The Scramble sections will alter the String, either by adding new words or letters, or by rearranging what is already there. Other sections may generate words or letters to be added, or alter words into non-words (perhaps still referred to as words) and still others make keys to insertion points, to tell where to add the new words. While some puzzles generating data may be worked independently, others may not, and all Scramble sequences that alter the String MUST be done in order. For instance, if you are to remove the 3rd letter, then later switch the 5th and 6th letters, those letters would have been the 6th and 7th letters before the 3rd letter was removed. Doing the two steps in the reverse order will produce a different result! So, throughout the contest, each step is performed on a word, list, or String as it results from any previous steps, thus the order they are done is of paramount importance.
Below is the beginning form of the String. It has 108 letters. You must guard it well and maintain it as you progress, adding and rearranging letters. It will remain a scramble of letters, despite changes, until the very last step, when a message will appear suddenly. However, as you progress, some occasional Checkpoints may help you to stay on track. Go back if they don't check. If you copy it to a document in a fixed width font such as Courier New, then you can line up columns for manipulation and counting.
TONCAFWUEWDETSASNLAFMYIUNSSPFEDATNNS-
WARFRENSRAHUNDFOEHRSMETNOIFMISEUNAFL- EOIFDOMBRNMDFHHBNSRNDDOBHIRAETMLWDTR
Part II: Info: Cryptograms, Pictures, and Variables
All bold, underlined, upper case, non-italic WORDS appearing in this contest are ENCRYPTED using the same key. It is probably best to gather all 38 of them together early on, and decode all at once.
There are also ten pictures, [Fig 1] through [Fig 9], some partly obfuscated, to supply information. 4a and 4b are different posters for the same film.
Two sets of variables, all different integers, have constant values throughout the puzzle. In Part VI, a b c and d are found, and in Part VIII, six values α β γ δ ε and ζ are solved. Note: Variable ordinals use th, even ending 1 2 or 3. (e.g. nth may be 42nd)
Part III: Six easy words
Each word has four letters, with the 2nd letter the only vowel. Only 2 vowels are used, 3 of each.
* First word of anti-drug catchphrase from 1980s
* Meaning of one-word anagram of COINS OF AIDA
* First word of state capital with the most words
* Word in film title ending in a color and a month
* First syllable of POTUS whose last syllable begins
the String
* Follows mutual, equity, and money market
Arrange the six answers in alphabetical order, then number them #1-#6. Modify four of them by moving one letter as follows:
#1 and #5 -- Move the vowel to the end.
#3 -- Move the last letter in front of the vowel.
#4 -- Move the first letter to follow the vowel.
Part IV: Scramble 1 -- First change of the String
Carefully insert the six words from Part III, in order, into the String in these exact positions:
#1 - Just before the 100th letter
#2 - Just before the City of BIQNVT
#3 - Just after #2
#4 - Between the initials of the most distant
OZTYSKON EBRN
#5 - Just after the LAST word in the catchphrase
mentioned above
#6 - Between a nurse and a doctor (not a dentist)
Now the String has 132 letters. There are 5 pairs of double letters. (If there are not, go back and find mistakes.) Cut the String between the middle pair, and swap the two segments. The String now begins and ends with the same letter.
Part V: Scramble 2 -- Twelve Easy Pieces
Divide the String into 12 equal segments. Label each with a month, Jan-Dec in order. Checkpoint: The four intact double letters should be in Jan, Feb, Jun, and Jul. Reorder months, with String segments attached, according to this cryptogram:
BOOBIQN PICK KOANO NBRY EPOTC UNRBSN UPOCY SKICY KE ZIPCNA TCBCNT DONTPANIC
Now drop the months and reattach the segments, in the new order, back into a single 132-letter String.
Part VI: Three ZIP Codes = Seven Integers
String will now be cut into eight segments of varied size. The first starts at the beginning, and this section will yield seven ordered integers in the 1-132 range, representing interior first letter positions of the 2nd through 8th segments.
Preface: a b c and d are integers in ascending order (a and d are prime), whose product is half the ZIP code of the northernmost U.S. town named the same as the highest point in DPZCN County. They will also be used in other future sections of this contest.
THREE ZIP CODES
Two "rectangles" on the map of the continental U.S. each have 4 right angles, on land, and all sides aligned N-S and E-W. (The narrowing of longitude closer to the pole is small enough to ignore.) Each nests into a portion of a state boundary that is a right angle corner, so two adjacent sides lie on the border, while the other sides and the entire area lie within the state. The corners may be any of four orientations (NW-NE-SE-SW), but the boundary sides of the two rectangles combined are one of each; top, bottom, left, and right, thus the two state "corners" are oriented diagonally opposite.
One rectangle, in state A, is about d miles tall and c miles wide. The two boundary sides are each with different states, so for example it cannot be the NE corner of IN, as a detailed map shows it nests into a 4-mile jog in the MI border, and one side of the rectangle would border both MI and OH. Even smaller similar jogs are found in NW TX at NM and SE MT at SD, precluding them as answers. A town at the exact center of the rectangle has a two-word name.
The second rectangle, in State B, is b miles tall and 1 degree of longitude wide. Here both boundary sides are with the SAME state, C. A town at the center also has a two word name, whose second word is the same as the first word of the other name, of the town in State A.
Find these three 5-digit ZIP codes:
{1} {2} The ZIP codes of the two 2-word towns at the centers of the two rectangles in States A and B, and
{3} The largest ZIP code containing unequal adjacent digits in descending order, used for PO Boxes in a large (>25k) town in State C, about a miles from the southernmost point of a neighboring state.
Put the ZIP codes in an order (out of six possible ways) so when run together, then separated into seven numbers, six 2-digit and the last a 3-digit, they are in ascending order.
Part VII: Scramble 3 -- Pieces of Eight
The 132-letter String from Part V will now be cut into eight segments. The first one starts at the beginning. The seven numbers found in Part VI are the simple counted positions of the first letters of each of the remaining seven String segments. Count the letters and separate the String into 8 smaller Strings, and finally, alphabetize them. Checkpoint: Just one pair of segments have same first letters.
Part VIII: Two ZIP Codes = Six Greek Integers
For use in future sections, find six integers, more than zero and with no leading zeros, named α β γ δ ε and ζ in increasing order. First, find these:
TWO ZIP CODES
{1} The ZIP code of C..., in a short alphabetical drive through Alto, Baldwin, C..., and ANSKONTC. It takes well under 30 minutes, but beware speed traps!
{2} [Anagram of what they did regarding SKTNT, where his name is first mentioned in DTBVS [U + e], where U = the age at death of the author of [Fig 1], and e = b + c - (a + d)] : [Given name of eponym of the routine of doing a round-off onto a springboard, a back handspring onto a horse, then performing a salto] :: [Surname of fugitive in [Fig 2], on the Most Wanted list of a town using a ZIP code that is a palindromic multiple of the year of the [U - e]th birthday of the actor who, in the film where XYKKDP plays a character whose name appears twice in the title, was a character with the same name as the actor who plays a character named OBXVPIQT in the film in which an actor (who played the title role V in V's Peril, V's Magic Fountain, and V and the Slave Girl) played the character with the same name as the actor who once played a character named YEZYOZYZOO] : [Place whose ZIP code is sought here].
Each ZIP code is three values run together, using the same pattern and order of numbers of digits.
Checkpoint: Two are composite, and four are prime.
Caution: Take care to never confuse a and α (alpha)!
Part IX: Twenty-five Words
Answer the 25 definitions [01]-[25] below. Each is a single English word or a name, save one foreign word and two abbreviations, but all are called Words even after scrambling later. In the later sections, this list will be referred to as Words, underlined and capitalized but not bold. Cross-referencing precludes their being solved in order. Hint I: With one exception, these 25 answers are in alphabetical order! Hint II: Definition: Definitive U.S. stamps (as opposed to commemoratives), often called regular issues, are sometimes issued in large sets piecemeal over many years. Most references list them together at the date the series began, so later additions to the set may appear earlier in the catalog than their actual issue date, which is still properly noted. U.S. stamps are at http://album.dweeb.org/
[01] First word of the title of a film in which a W named [03] portrays himself, where W anagrams both first names of the actors in the scene, from a film made ε years earlier, with the line: "I haven't got much time, so if you love your country, if you're a patriot, you listen and you listen hard."
[02] USPS abbreviation of the state seen in [Fig 3] Hint: The town name initial is in the [Fig 7] logo.
[03] First name of the author of The X Elements of X Success, where X is the adjective in the title of a leap year film whose title character is played by the actor who, the next leap year, played the part of YBIL in a film whose title is a familiar β-word catchphrase first uttered by a man with the same name as the title character in a film whose cast includes the actress made popular by her role of Jill (with co-stars playing Kris and Sabrina) and one of the actors seen on a coin in [Fig 4a] (and also [Fig 4b]) on the birthday, the year his age became both a square and a cube, of the eponym of the structure in [Fig 5], from which RBCBVPIB Island can be seen, looking south on a clear day
[04] Surname of [03], spelled backward, which is still a word
[05] Thing seen on a KUT stamp whose Scott catalog number is the product of the numbers of the two of these 25 words which appear consecutively in one of the titles mentioned in [23]
[06] One-word title of film with the last starring screen role (she did some later TV and voice work prior to her death) of the actress who had once portrayed the wife of a character, portrayed by the actor on the coin in [Fig 4b] touching the one referred to in Clue [03], in another film, whose cast includes two major Hollywood stars (each born over 100 years ago but in the 20th century, which began in 1901) with first names almost the same except that, for each, the first letter is that of the other's surname (such as Joe Miller and Moe Jones) Hint: One of the two letters is in the logo in [Fig 7]. See also Clue [11].
[07] Subtitle of work by composer whose birth year is that of the person mentioned in [21] with two digits interchanged, cataloged with a G number that is the ZIP code, with the odd digits removed, of a place DKVBO is closer to than to NVCKI or DYVKM
[08] First word of title of a Shakspeare play whose characters include twins, one of whom is named GPKVB
[09] Contributing cause of SPVANX (8 letters)
[10] German for the English word that is the last syllable of the surname of the W referred to in [01]
[11] RKEENN division of the maker of a popular TIBRL whose name is the longest word in the title of an animated short film that won that category's Oscar exactly δ years after the year the two Hollywood stars in Clue [06] both received Best Leading Actor Oscar nominations, and one of them won!
[12] Palindromic wedge shaped shelter type, sans floor
[13] Top word in the standard solution to the puzzle using these letters, based on a popular 1880 sliding block puzzle:
╔═══╦═══╦═══╦═══╗
║ P ║ L ║ A ║ Y ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ D ║ R ║ U ║ M ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ I ║ N ║ T ║ O ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╬═══╝
║ E ║ A ║ R ║
╚═══╩═══╩═══╝
[14] The surname of probably the most famous ______, with two halves interchanged, becomes that of the actress known for portraying INVVPN in the film with the debut of another actress whose more recent roles include characters named JPIQ-JPIQ and MPKZ-MPKZ.
[15] Word immediately preceding the only previous occurrence of the last word, in the entire poem excerpted in [16] Note: A key reference has a critical typo. Try another source if stymied.
[16] Denomination (spelled out) in cents, of a U.S. definitive stamp honoring an important American leader whose birthplace is in Nebraska, who died on the ζth birthday of the American poet who wrote this apparent description of a burglary:
...two could creep:
One hand the tools, the other peep
To make sure all's asleep.
[17] αth word in the entire literary piece excerpted on a U.S. definitive stamp depicting a female face, issued the date of death of the film actress who portrayed Zelma La Claire
[18] In the referenced quote, [24] is the αth word following it.
[19] The generic Hamilton Beach item whose model number is the ZIP code of the southernmost town in the northernmost county in the easternmost state bordering the westernmost state bordering the state part of whose flag is seen in [Fig 6]
[20] Last word of the title of the sequel to the film in which a female character's surname is that of a male character (played by an actor whose monogram is in the obscured logo in [Fig 7]) in a Law & Order TV episode that first aired on the (posthumous) birthday of one of the four composers of: Elijah, Oratorio for Choir and Orchestra (op. 70); 6 Trio Sonatas for 2 violins and basso continuo (op. 1); Cantique de Jean Racine, for chorus and orchestra; and Liturgy of St John Chrysostom for a capella choir (op. 31), when the year ended in the same two digits as the sum of the ages of that composer and one of the other three (on his most recent birthday)
[21] Item seen on the stamp of SNMPRK whose Scott catalog number is the year of the γth birthday of the person depicted on the U.S. stamp whose catalog number is half that of the stamp depicted in [Fig 8]
[22] Word following these two: last half of [23], [17] in a formerly ubiquitous telephone message
[23] First word inside parentheses in the titles of Rhonda Graphics Top Ten Maya Tips & Tricks
[24] Word preceding "...the Y of Z." in a speech in the work referenced in [08], with Y and Z being two nouns (one plural) that anagram the three words immediately preceding the phrase "the influence of VPCYKCOKDYPR QOKZIAXBCNO" in an abstract that is published on the internet. All but one of these 25 answers have fewer letters than the singular noun Y.
[25] The two letters blacked out in two places in [Fig 9]
Checkpoint: The total letter count for the 25 Words is 128. Only two Words start with vowels. There are no double letters in the list.
Part X: Scramble 4 -- Quick Scramble Using Word List
You now have two lists: 8 String segments (referred to as Strings), from Part VII, and the 25 Words just completed, both alphabetized except for one "misfit" Word. If both lists are correct, the next steps can only be done one way.
First, locate two Spaces, intervals between Words, in the Word list. Space 1 is where the out-of-order Word is located, between the Words that precede and follow it. Space 2 is where the out-of-order Word would fit, between two Words, if you wished to move it into alphabetical order in the list.
Still thinking alphabetically, in the String list, identify the two consecutive ones that would fit into Space 1 (ignoring the out-of-order Word there), and a third String that would fit into Space 2.
Move that third String between the first two, then change its first letter so that it is once again in alphabetical order. Notice that this movement is entirely within the String list, with no movement of Strings to the Word list.
Part XI: Word List Preparation in 8 Procedures
Now some modifications must be made to the Word list from Part IX. They will continue to be referred to as Words, even though some may become non-word short strings of letters, no longer in alphabetical order. You may assume the leading zero for any single digit index ([0_]) referenced by variables. These steps MUST be done in order, else results will be altered.
Procedure 1
Make an ordered SUBLIST of the largest number of Words that have the same βth letter. Two of these Words have three other matches, of same letters in the same positions. Two of the matching positions are adjacent. Switch those two letters in both Words. In the longer of the two Words, move the letter immediately following the switched pair to the front of the Word.
Returning to the entire SUBLIST, remove the last letter of each of the first two Words. Also, remove the αth letter of the last Word. Return the Words as altered (only one was not) to the main list of 25.
Procedure 2
Back to the full list of 25, with alterations from Procedure 1 made, locate the Word whose index number ([??]) is the integer portion of the square root of the number portion of the TKZIANM code for the first name of the man referred to in [δ-c]. Also locate two related Words: the last Word preceding it with fewer letters, and the last Word preceding it with the same number of letters. REVERSE all three Words, so that they read backwards.
Procedure 3
Using A=1, B=2, etc., each Word in the list has a letter value total. Find the Word with the smallest total amount. Move the first letter to the end. You will not need these totals again. This entire procedure should take less than a minute.
Procedure 4
Alphabetize the 25-Word list, as modified, and then renumber them [01] to [25] in this new order. All subsequent referrals to these numbers are to the new reassignments.
Procedure 5
Remove the (δ/α)th and ath letters from the last Word long enough to do so. Insert them, adjacent, and in the order they were in the Word, just in front of the letter O that is farthest away from the first letter of another Word in the list. Then switch the two letters just in front of the insertion point.
Procedure 6
Switch the last two letters of [γ-c], and of [b-β]. Remove the last two letters of [c+β], and of the first half of [c-a].
Procedure 7
Move the αth letter of [α+b] 2 places to the right. Move the αth letter of [δ-d] 3 places to the right.
Procedure 8
Remove the letter P from the first Word that has one, and change the (a-β)th letter of that Word to the same letter you changed the first letter of a String segment to, at the end of Part X. One letter appears twice in [ε-a]. Change the first one to the letter that appears twice in the Word just altered.
Now the Words are ready to combine with the Strings! As a total of 8 letters were removed, the modified list has 120 letters.
Part XII: Scramble 5 -- A Quick Attachment
In Procedure 8, and in the referenced Part X, two letters were changed to the same new letter. Find the ordinal value (A=1, B=2, etc.) of that letter, then find the Word that is that number. (e.g., if the letter you had changed to both times was Q, you would want Word [17]. That's not it, of course.)
Take the entire Word and attach it to the end of the shortest of the 8 String segments! It is now part of the segment.
The 8 String segments are all different lengths. If any two have the same number of letters, you have an error somewhere, and must find it before proceeding.
Part XIII: Scramble 6 -- Shuffle the String
Arrange the String segments in order of length, shortest first. Take note of the number of letters in each segment, which you will need below. Then rejoin them into one String again, which will have 132 letters plus the number in the word that was added to one segment in the previous step.
Next will be a SHUFFLE operation, as defined here:
Shuffle: To rearrange the letters in a string by laying it out across into a rectangular array, then exchanging the rows and columns by reading down. Depending on the factorability of the total number of letters, there may be many non-trivial ways to do it. Additional directions or clues may indicate the right choice, or for a last step one may have to simply try various factors until lucid text results.
There are four ways, for example, to Shuffle a 12-letter string:
ABCDEFGHIJKL
AB = ACEGIKBDFHJL
CD (2 x 6)
EF
GH
IJ
KL
ABC = ADGJBEHKCFIL
DEF (3 x 4)
GHI
JKL
ABCD = AEIBFJCGKDHL
EFGH (4 x 3)
IJKL
ABCDEF = AGBHCIDJEKFL
GHIJKL (6 x 2)
Perform such a shuffle with the String, arranged so each row has the same number of letters as one of the segments that were just joined together, while the number of rows is also the number of letters in at least one word in the Word list.
After you have extracted the columns in order, join all together into a single string. Checkpoint: A triple letter occurs at positions 88-90.
Now both String and Word list are set aside while a KEY is developed to facilitate combining the two.
Part XIV: Begin the KEY: 5 ZIP Codes
The KEY to combine Words and String will be created in three sections, starting here with 5 ZIP codes:
FIVE ZIP CODES
Find five ZIP codes, here in no particular order:
* The one with twice as many others farther south than farther north, of all county seats of counties named for the person honored on a U.S. stamp whose design includes a knife and a gun, issued almost exactly (d/2) years before the stamp in [γ-α]. Note: The county whose seat has the same name was named for another person with that name.
* Town placed similarly to the first two in the analogy in TWO ZIP CODES in Part VIII, except it is in the second county to the south, and in the corner one quarter-turn clockwise.
* Town closest to (about 2 mi NE of) center point (where the 30' lines meet) of the "square", made by consecutive whole degree coordinate lines, two each way, enclosing the biggest piece of the next longest straight line boundary between two states that is not on latitude or longitude lines, but is parallel to the longest angled one, between NV and CA.
* If you could float downstream in a boat or raft, starting in the easternmost of potential candidates for corners of State B in THREE ZIP CODES in Part VI, you would pass quickly into another state, in a 4-letter county, then soon through three county seats, the second having the first name of a former U S president, and the third having two double letters. About five miles past that is a small town with a 2-word name, one being a make of automobile. But in between is another small town, also with a 2-word name, whose ZIP is sought here.
* Town with a 3-letter name, on the shore of a lake with the name of a neighboring state (which it is also partly in), just across the lake from a town on the opposite shore with the same name as the capital of a different state, whose southernmost point is at the same latitude as the northernmost point of the lake. The first letter of the town is the last letter of the state, and the other two letters are the USPS abbreviation of an adjoining state (not the one with the same name as the lake.) At least one state mentioned in Clue [d] is also mentioned here.
Further instructions for using these ZIP codes are in Part XVI.
Part XV: Continue the KEY: 12 Integers
Find the values of integers A-L, using previously valued variables and the best order of solving:
A = HL
B = A(D+E+F+G+H+I)
C = (H+1)2
D = LF
E = (DG)/K2
F = 2K
G = (D+F)/2
H = L+α
I = H-1
J = H2
K = H+L
L = cdεζ / [abδζ + β(γH-ε-αγ) - εα ]
Part XVI: Finally, build the KEY!
One of the 25 Words was added to a String segment in Part XII before combining them back into a single String, in Part XIII. Now the remaining 24 Words are to be added to the String, using the KEY, which is simply a set of 24 integers, created to represent insert points in the String. To begin, each of the 15 cells in this 5 x 3 GRID will contain an integer.
╔═══╦═══╦═══╗
║ Z1║ A ║ F ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ Z2║ B ║ G ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ Z3║ C ║ H ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ Z4║ D ║ I ║
╠═══╬═══╬═══╣
║ Z5║ E ║ J ║
╚═══╩═══╩═══╝
The first column will be filled with the five 5-digit ZIP codes found in Part XIV. Arrange them by latitude into the column, the northernmost at the top, and southernmost at bottom. Then they become simple 5-digit numbers again, and you may forget the towns. Divide the only even one by 2, halving it.
The other two columns are the values A through J found in Part XV, as indicated. K and L were only used to help find them, and are no longer needed.
You have 15 whole numbers in the 5 x 3 GRID, the first column being 5-digit numbers, while the other ten cells contain shorter integers, some only 1 digit. You must now trace a path through these numbers, assuming a normal NSEW orientation with N at the top. You may move any direction, including diagonally. The grid wraps around, both side to side and top to bottom. So, for example, not only does a move North from B go to A, and SW from C go to Z4, but moving West from Z2 takes you to G, NE from A lands on J, SW from Z5 goes to F, and so forth.
First, find a START Number and an END Number. The START number is simply the average of the two top smaller numbers, not in the first column, designated A and F.
The END Number is found by starting on one of the numbers, and adding as you go on this path: S-NE-N-SW. Notice you will end on the one where you started, so it will contribute to the total twice, and you will add five amounts. You could start on any of the fifteen numbers, but you must find the only one that gives a total END number that is an odd number doubled.
Now you are ready to trace a path through the GRID. Begin with the START number, and go to the same cell that you started on to find the END number. Do not add, but APPEND a copy of it to the start number, and continue on, tacking each new number to what you already have, encountering some more than once. After the last one, tack on the END number. Ready? Here is the path:
NE-NW-NW-NE-SE-S-SE-NW-NW-
NE-SW-NE-NW-SW-NW-N-W-SW-SE
and finally to the END Number. You now have a very long number, made by tacking 22 numbers together (START, beginning cell, 19 directional moves given, and END), over 50 digits! There is only one number of the 15 that was not used, but was avoided by the path. MULTIPLY the long number by this number, to make it even longer! This product, when separated, will become the KEY to your final insertion of the list of Words into the String!
Checkpoint: The product has 60 digits. Half of the last 12 are the same digit, which does not occur anywhere else in the 60!
The 60 digits of the KEY will now be separated into 24 numbers, each 2 or 3 digits. Start at the front and separate 2 digits at a time. BUT, when the next two digits are less than 25, include the third digit also. EXCEPTION: If the resulting 3-digit number will be a repeat of one already in the series, stay with the 2-digit number less than 25 instead. All the 3-digit numbers are to be different.
Checkpoint: 24 2- or 3-digit numbers result and no leading zeros are encountered.
Part XVII: Scramble 7 -- Add the 24 Words!
This section may be time consuming, but directions are simple. Starting with the next Word following the one that was used in Part XII, insert each of the remaining 24 Words into the String. When you get to [25], loop back to [01] and keep going, in order, until all 24 have been inserted.
The insertion points are determined by the numbers found in Part XVI. However, these are NOT first letter positions as in cutting the String in Part VII. At each step, insert the Word following this many letters. For instance, if the number is 72, count 72 letters and then put the Word after them, so the first letter of the Word becomes the 73rd letter of the String. Obviously to do these out of order would change the result, as all letters after the inserted Word are shifted to new positions!
You may proceed however you wish, but it is strongly recommended to be careful and check the count as you go. If the String is laid out in groups of, say, 10 or 20 letters, to facilitate counting, and after each insertion, the entire String is copied and then regrouped, any miscount will be easy to spot.
So, carefully, insert 24 Words into the String.
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!
Part XIX: The Final Answer!
If you did all correctly, you now have a directive or question to answer, which is the answer to submit to prove you solved the entire contest (as well as the question.)
Send this short answer to rclwa@nwi.net with your name and email address attached. Revisions will be accepted, but only the last submission from each entrant will count.
Mad Scambles Pictures
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4 a (left) and b
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figure 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Mad Scramble download
The whole kit and kaboodle is here! (Word doc)
