CRYPTOGRAMS
by Catspaws
Saturday July 1
This week we marked a special holiday for those who live in the United States - Independence Day, aka, the Fourth of July. This is a big summer holiday, celebrated with fireworks, family barbecues, concerts, and lots of outdoor activities. In honor of this holiday, we held the Firecracker Edition of Cryptograms. Oddly enough, our regular crowd of British and European players was absent...
I love good food, as anyone who's been around me can attest. Which might explain why Cryptograms is held in bars and pubs throughout Sol. Because of this love, the first puzzle was dedicated to delicious foods that can be cooked on a barbecue grill. This proved to be a harder puzzle than I'd anticipated, with only Fancy completing it.
FOOD TO COOK ON THE GRILL:
K C A K H W T H / W J Y W O H E
J C N K T A B H A L
P A C E O P T A U H A L
L U H C O L
W Q A E / Q E / U J H / W Q K
N C A L J N C M M Q V L
Did I mention we had two brand-new Cryptograms players this week? Ondine and Priscilla joined us. Ondine had gotten a bit discouraged with the first puzzle and decided to just watch, but the second puzzle changed her mind. Fancy, Priscilla, Ondine and Zand completed this puzzle.
THINGS TO DO ON THE FOURTH OF JULY:
O N / C N / C Y X / A X Q R Y
E Q C R Y / Z F I X E N I B J
O N / N G / Q / W F R G F R
O N / C N / Q / R N G R X I C
J C Q T / Q C / Y N L X
O N / C N / Z X K / W Q I C F X J
There is only one thing that makes me a bit skittish on the Fourth, and that's fireworks. I wanted to be prepared this year, and show no fear, so I studied up on different types of fireworks. Fancy, Priscilla, and Zand proved to be our fireworks experts.
TYPES OF FIREWORKS:
X E M A Q B W A X
C G R R B W / A G V Q W R X
N G T F R M Z F X
N Z A W V A M V Q W A X
X Q P A G V Q W R X
A G J M F / V M F L B W X
Fancy, Priscilla, Zand and Ondine obviously attend a lot of Independence Day parades, because they were up-to-date on their Independence Day symbology. I am betting at least one of them has seen a fife-and-drum corps as well.
INDEPENDENCE DAY SYMBOLS:
N R Q F E
P T H R A / E Q L
N O C A Z Y C U E
E K Q K P A / Y N / R O I A C K S
R O I A C K S / I A R R
B A H R Q C Q K O Y T / Y N / O T B A X A T B A T H A
For the final puzzle, I referred back to that famous American document, the Declaration of Independence, and to the patriots who signed the document. Fancy, Priscilla, and Ondine were able to solve this puzzle.
SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (http://www.holidays.net/independence/declar.htm):
L X Q S I A / M B G G B O A Q Z
V B Q O V B / U I A X R Z V L Q Z
M Q X Z / X I Z J Q J P
M Q X Z / I K I S A
A I S H B T / I K I S A
E B S M I S R Z / G O I Z P T R Z
When the scores were tallied, Fancy had a comfortable lead for first, but Priscilla, one of our newcomers, came in with a strong second, and won one of my precious slithy toves for her efforts. Zand beat out Ondine, our other newcomer, by a mere two points to secure third place.
Join me each Saturday at 4.00pm eastern for Cryptograms, the game that exercises your brain, and hosted by Catspaws, the Fed game hostess who outshines all the other game hostesses paws down.
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