Welcome once again to Sunday Puzzle -- a weekly party featuring puzzles suitable for group solving. Everyone is welcome, and you don't need to be a puzzle genius to take part; often it's a humorous comment from the sidelines which breaks things open when the solving team is momentarily stumped.
On tap tonight:
* one still-unsolved Bad Translation movie quote
* five still-unsolved Crypto-Gremlins
* and a brand-new rather fiendish JulieCrostic.
Last month science challenged us with 20 movie quotes that he'd run through the Bad Translator. We've managed to solve 19 of them (which you can find here. That leaves only this one:
3. ‘This is not true. The answer to this question.' (1988)
If you think you know what that originally said, come on down and post it in comments. (Or if, like me, you still can't figure out the original quote, come on down and join the party anyway.)
A couple of weeks ago I posted a set of 5 Crypto-Gremlins, as part of the special Super Bowl individual puzzle-solving edition. Well, no individual solved any of them; so let's see if a group effort tonight can crack them.
If you're not familiar with Crypto-Gremlins, they're a special kind of cryptogram -- a kind which online programs can't solve, but which can be cracked by human reasoning. You can find a full explanation of how they work here. (And you can find a helpful tool --which won't crack the codes for you, but will help you make letter substitutions easily -- here.)
NOTE: Vowels were accidentally left off two of the words in CG-1 in previous postings. The puzzle was still easily decodable -- but should be even easier tonight now that those errors have been fixed. Apologies for my error.
Crypto-Gremlin #1:
Bowl mewcexeclous and gisobmp go uoa rnord fdwmfeswfs rsuums neyl temo mlwqlmrs, xowcd and aeuuewvup yoffskrmo rns kswourp kdzl jeykiemdwyswre tewo bdicsio rd aoidlms rns fdwmfeswfs kdzl rns fdyylwerp xdxsip qerml mewqlmrefs, aemo tewo isouerp mstkismmewvs rns nevnsmro ismksfrd zdie rns uoa.
Crypto-Gremlin #2:
Posts care iepk beis wace gerzags zsuiaicy meta funny, posts care leink pos zsuiaice xs hsugoe cals pe zeyts nams, fuiy waivalavyuns zsuiaicy, fuiy
waivalavyuns qnepy, nads fuiy waivalavyuns ielsnu, fu weedy meta hsugoe qstreik.
Crypto-Gremlin #3:
No games halt combs roxy pa ntikambopzy grobydymy ba xaztybq. Wtbt dtxa vapcq ntikambopba ba bry etputdtusocy.
Crypto-Gremlin #4:
Spanish jump bonptnen sopig spran mpasy. Dopsu mntpepsnmn son spanisnxu fuixucuxypan kehfh son mybbnmmkyan chin jump jp ahsy lhkg opexu dhely.
Crypto-Gremlin #5:
Jamsamoyeawl: bowl newtlwearch flxejl damo pavyoewewtl smadeye keygarya newfexefrour mlcsawceveueyh.
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Puzzle Party / SUNDAY PUZZLE / Puzzle Party / SUNDAY PUZZLE / Puzzle Party /
SUNDAY PUZZLE / Puzzle Party / SUNDAY PUZZLE / Puzzle Party / SUNDAY PUZZLE /
All right, here's the part of the diary you've probably been looking for: tonight's JulieCrostic.
The gremlins were amazingly well-behaved this week. Yes, once again they removed all the capitalization from the clues (so you'll need to provide your own); yes, once again they bunched the clues into tidy little bundles of 3, regardless of whether there actually are 3 answers to a row or not; and yes, they may have fiddled with punctuation or spacing in some of the clues. (And I think they might have changed one letter in one of the clues, but the difference it makes is so minor I decided to leave it alone.) But that appears to be all the mischief they pulled this week.
Even so, I think y'all may find tonight's puzzle hard to crack. So, as a small bit of assistance, I've provided a helpful hint which you'll find right below the clues.
Have fun, and I'll see you in comments!
1. kind of pie
2. beck's trivia
3. kind of salt
4. paul brown
5. french powder
6. famous stone
7. kiss and cuddle
8. academic evening
9. mr. dead
10. feminist tory leader in the '70s
11. johnny's predecessor on the tonight show
12. famous company
13. smith in the comics
14. ~
15. twittered
16. object
17. overseer
18. kind of strip
19. often described as free
20. as a rule this is often confused with 19
21. well-known red
22. a very poor nominee (fortunately rejected)
23. allow
24. washington, informally
25. right, as this could easily be confused with 19 or 20
26. wind, bike or county
27. kind of call
Helpful hint:
Old admonisher but'of ysxd edted wrtonhn fur euhad old grkkhd kstzu puuphd oldyr.