bonanova

OK ... so the idea is 26 -- there are 26 LINE BREAKS -- well, 25 line breaks; 26 lines of text, each spanning perhaps more than a single sentence. So we parse by line breaks rather than by periods -- alluded to perhaps by the clue: "show off lipograms, and uses in periods gone.]" Then there's the clue about Tryphiodorus .. where the 24 Odyssey chronicles were missing the corresponding greek letter. And in the 9th line, corresponding to the letter I, he goes out of his way to avoid that letter by saying is was difficult to express one's own name instead of the more natural his own name. But that approach, hoped for by unreality and me, doesn't work: Lines 4,12, 14 and 20 contain, respectively, d, l, n and t. Here are the lines, with the number and corresponding letter in parens. Now, he said I came close but no cigar a couple times. That could mean his allusion to the letter manipulation in the fairy tale: Ella Minnow Pea, where letters are progressively outlawed until finally only LMNOP [hence the title!] remain in use. But I don't see a restricted letter set in the author's narrative. Finally, perhaps we should give attention to his paragraph breaks. Look at: ... I can't help but stop and reflect. [new paragraph] On Mr Burnmann. What's that all about ... ? certainly an unnatural way to break up a thought. There are nine paragraphs. Nine doesn't seem significant. In my first post, I looked at missing letters by paragraph and stopped after the 3rd because no pattern was apparent. Still scratching my head.

great list. one of mine is there, the other is not. i'll think of a clue or two...

I agree with your sentence count. I got 50 by counting the two ":"'s as sentence parsers - because he began the following clauses with capital letters. But I think that does not signify a new sentence, technically, and 48 is the correct count. Another thing i did was look at the paragraph breaks Paragraph 1 -- [no a b f q z - 4 missing letters] Paragraph 2 -- [no z - 1 missing letter] Paragraph 3 -- [no j q z - 3 missing letters] I gave up on paragraphs after the 3rd. I think a strong clue is that he said he tried to do something like what was done in the fairy tale, where letters were progressively outlawed. That is, a progressive disappearance of letters. But I didn't see any evidence of that. I'm actually getting to like this one ... and I am very interested to see if someone cracks it.

Tried it just now. I will need time to get the hang of it. Thx for the link.

Megamatt asked for a self-contradictory word [his was "cleave"] one that has alternative definitions with contradictory meanings. Cleave can mean to separate or to join. And he asked whether there were others. There are at least two other words with contradictory meanings. They are both common words. There is also a word whose palindrome [letters in reverse sequence] is a sort of definition or meaning of the original word. Now that's strange! Do you want clues? or do you just want to think about this for a while?

Yah I know about that potion ... I used it, actually, and it turns out that both Donna and Theresa are really hot !!! Ooops ... given the explanation Martini gave, how could I have seen the girls ... ?

Didn't notice your post till just now. Glad someone got it ... *grin*

What are the Northernmost, Southernmost, Easternmost and Westernmost states in the US?

My bet is that Forman started out in Alaska ... because AK is in the US, and it straddles the International Date Line - which itself is not straight. There must be some way that you end up on the other side of it and it's magically yesterday.

I hand you a sheet of paper with the following instructions: [1] Write down a 6-digit number. Say you write 352687 [2] Scramble the digits. Say you come up with 762853 [3] Subtract the smaller from the larger. You get: 762853 - 352687 = 410166 [4] Cross out one of the digits [but not a zero, cuz it's basically not there anyway.] Say you cross out a 6. [5] Scramble the remaining digits. Say you get: 61401 [6] Tell me the digits. You say 6 1 4 0 1. What are the odds that I will say, "you crossed out a 6"?

I looked at that possibility in my post above. Unfortunately, [1] I count 50 sentences, not 26 [2] The third sentence has a "c" in the word "called" -- to wit: Sentence 1: I've spent the previous hour or so discovering one interesting property concerning linguistics. [no a b f j k m q v w x z - 11 missing letters] - No "A" Sentence 2: It's given me much enjoyment while writing the text you're viewing just now. [no a b c d f g k p q z - 10 missing leters] - No "B" Sentence 3: Noted as far in the past as 1853, I speak of a unique literary marvel called the lipogram. [no b h j w x z - 6 missing letters] - Alas, there's a "C" Is that the way you count the sentences? It looks like you have two sentences as your first sentence.

OK, this might be it. Circles [aka bags] under the eyes.

I believe the answer is derived by the symbols and their position. Like this old one: [ignore the dots - they're there just to get proper spacing] STAND . . . . . . 2 . . TAKING -------- teUnd -------- --------- . . I . . . . . . THROW . MY which means, of course, I understand you intend to overthrow my undertaking

I got here too late to get my answer in, but here's my reasoning without reading what must be the only solution: [1] There's enough time to get the job done. [2] If you do two slices in the first two time slots, you lose - cuz you cant do both sides of the third slice at the same time. [3] So you have to involve the third slice during the 2nd time slot. [4] Then there's only one possibility for the 3rd time slot, and it's the answer.

Writersblock, I agree with your comments - absence of j's and q's aren't surprising. I posted basically my dead ends, throwing my ideas into the mix, tho they were wrong. I suspect that there is a solution regardless of what are probably typos. The author most likely paid attention to the critical issues of letters being present or absent in all the right places. I kind of lit up when I saw no "a" in 1st sentence and no "b" in sentence 2. c'est la vie. Should be interesting to learn eventually what the answer is.

You mean we have to take a counselor across, too?

Looking for missing letters: Taking clues from the text: Which might lead to: if "in periods gone" is significant, try looking only at sentences that end in "!", "?" and possibly ":" sentences with "periods gone". taken together, they are missing "j" "q" and "z".

A friend insisted the answer "had to be" 50%. So I asked him this: Of all the couples in the world with 2 children, statistically speaking, what fraction have a 1 boy and 1 girl? He answered: one half. and what fraction have 2 boys and 0 girls? He answered: one fourth. So, just taking these couples, what fraction have 2 boys and 0 girls? He answered: One third; and then: Oh.... OK I get it now.

watery eyes?

Right ... the pentagon is the stumper. The clue, What if there were five points? makes it come to mind, cuz the points of a pentagon create sides and diagonals of only one type, just like as square does. Then you just remove a point to get a 4-dot solution. It's seldom you get one solution to be fundamentally different from all the others.

cpotting, amazing story. You might find this amusing: A mathematician, an engineer and an accountant were asked What is 2+2? Mathematician replied 4 Engineer replied 4.000 plus or minus 0.001 Accountant replied - What to you want it to be?

Can you share your solution?

My answer is correct, because I was lying.

How about... "Do you refuse to answer this question"? If he answers "Yes," he lies. If he refuses to answer [attempting an affirmative response] he hasn't answered "Yes". Melchang, are you saying this question can, at some point be answered yes, according to situations and environments?

Answer for a jet: Yes. Answer for a propeller plane: Yes. Reasoning: An airplane takes off when its wings generate a lift force greater than its weight. Lift force is determined by air speed. A backward-running treadmill will not impede the plane's forward motion, nor limit its air speed, only make its wheels spin twice as fast! But what if an airplane's engine drove its wheels? Then the answer would be No. It could not achieve forward motion nor generate lift. That would be an interesting kind of airplane - after it took off it would become a glider!