Four old puzzles #1
James Dow Allen
some were even well received! But I don't need to
compose new ones now; I can just re-submit some that
were never answered!
Let's start with this one (which I didn't think was
going to be overly hard). The entire post (or *any*
excerpt therefrom, not just the quotations) complies
with a constraint you're asked to discover.
On May 10, 4:04 pm, James Dow Allen wrote:
> Please don't reveal why I aver this memo has unique looks.
> Rather do make your best original theme and post in reply.
>
> Famous Will Shakespeare did secure it:
> So true a fool is love, that in your will, ...
> Or in Poem LXII:
> As I all other in all worths exceed ...
>
> A Supreme Book can do it:
> From Ecclesiasticus book LXIII verse XXXII see:
> Glorify the Lord as much as ever you can,
> for he will yet far exceed.
> Or in Gospel by John:
> My sheep do hear my voice.
> And I know them: and they follow me.
>
> Can you write a sentence (or seven) which keeps faith
> under my new paradigm?
> by James Dow Allen
James Dow Allen
is the SPAM onslaught. Why don't we find an otherwise
idle ng, perhaps rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids as I
have done here, begin cross-posting there, and hope
the spammers don't follow?
>> Please don't reveal why I aver this memo has unique looks.
>> Rather do make your best original theme and post in reply.
>>
>> Famous Will Shakespeare did secure it:
>> So true a fool is love, that in your will, ...
>> Or in Poem LXII:
>> As I all other in all worths exceed ...
>>
>> A Supreme Book can do it:
>> From Ecclesiasticus book LXIII verse XXXII see:
>> Glorify the Lord as much as ever you can,
>> for he will yet far exceed.
>> Or in Gospel by John:
>> My sheep do hear my voice.
>> And I know them: and they follow me.
>>
>> Can you write a sentence (or seven) which keeps faith
>> under my new paradigm?
>> by James Dow Allen
Richard gave a hint for #2, so I'd better give a
hint for "Four old puzzles #1".
I won't bother to rot13 the hint.
The entire message (that is, the lines
beginning ">> " above) is a sequence of
words that satisfies a constraint. (*Each* contiguous
subsequence of words in the message satisfies the same
constraint.) The *meanings* of the message and
the individual words are *irrelevant.* My full name
"James Dow Allen" satisfies the constraint, but
"Richard Heathfield" does not, nor does "James Allen".
This "hint" may tell you little new, but I hope it's
enough. This type of puzzle was very popular in this ng
a few years ago. Despite that no one's solved it yet,
I still believe that this one is of, at most, average
difficulty compared with those posted a few years ago.
James (Dow) Allen
PS: I hope my use of middle name doesn't make me
seem like a pretentious "preppy"! It's a habit I
started with the World-wide-web since "James Allen"
is a *very* common name.
Richard Heathfield
wrote:
> I think one reason rec.puzzles has become less popular
> is the SPAM onslaught. Why don't we find an otherwise
> idle ng, perhaps rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids as I
> have done here, begin cross-posting there, and hope
> the spammers don't follow?
I wonder how the cichlid fans will feel about that, when they get back
from their decade-long expedition to Cichlidia to find their
newsgroup stuffed to the gunwales with puzzles?
<snip>
> Richard gave a hint for #2, so I'd better give a
> hint for "Four old puzzles #1".
> I won't bother to rot13 the hint.
>
> The entire message (that is, the lines
> beginning ">> " above) is a sequence of
> words that satisfies a constraint.
I guessed all that.
> (*Each* contiguous
> subsequence of words in the message satisfies the same
> constraint.)
That's additional information, but I'm not sure how useful it is. That
is, I don't immediately see an application for the new knowledge.
> The *meanings* of the message and
> the individual words are *irrelevant.*
I guessed that, too.
> My full name
> "James Dow Allen" satisfies the constraint, but
> "Richard Heathfield" does not, nor does "James Allen".
Bang goes Theory #6.
<snip>
--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line vacant - apply within
jonnie303
wrote:
>
> - Show quoted text -
Given your "hint", a puzzle which seemed too hard is now much easier
to unravel. I am writing a short piece to claim to have found a
solution. Am I correct?
---------------
jonnie303, uk
James Dow Allen
On Oct 22, 9:53 pm, jonnie303 <john.gri...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> Given your "hint", a puzzle which seemed too hard is now much easier
> to unravel. I am writing a short piece to claim to have found a
> solution. Am I correct?
Yes, yes! Callooh, callay!
John's post satisfies the constraint!!
(Though my response here does not.)
Maybe I *will* post another of these next decade,
after all!
... And I hope you agree mine was orders of magnitude
easier than Mr. Heathfield's (at "#2").
> jonnie303, uk
Well, *almost* satisfied the constraint. Next time
edit your .sig.
James
ken
I solved it (.....pause for applause.....) too.
But I am finding the proof a bit hard to manage.
I'll try a riddle.
Why did the gnu cross the road?
The gnu wished to see a gnu view.
*almost* ken
James Dow Allen
>
> I solved it (.....pause for applause.....) too.
> But I am finding the proof a bit hard to manage.
> I'll try a riddle.
> Why did the gnu cross the road?
> The gnu wished to see a gnu view.
>
> *almost* ken
Two cheers! (And sorry, ken, that I couldn't say three!)
*almost* J. D. Allen
ken
Alas, my proof is not valid :(
There is an error.
Bahhhhh...
ken
Martin DeMello
>
>>> Please don't reveal why I aver this memo has unique looks. Rather do
>>> make your best original theme and post in reply.
Mentioning subsequences provided a very big hint (assuming that I have
truly solved your puzzle). Also, writing this way is a lot harder than I
assumed it would be; kudos!
martin
James Dow Allen
Alas! I'm sorry, Ken, if wrongly I challenged you.
(I was in The Grand City, Webless, and just now
did see your message.)
Full cheers did you deserve, but *I* couldnt give
you three of them and still obey this rule.
I'm not sure that I agree this puzzle is too hard.
Book called _Origin_ by Darwin, yes, did effect my goal:
"Hence it seems to me, as it has to many other ..."
and
"were to build for themselves a thin wall of wax,
they could make ..."
or
"abundance of the individuals of many species all over"
Khayyam did obey in best known Rubaiyat:
"Come fill the cup ...
"The Bird of Time has but a little way To fly ..."
And more casually,
"I beg thou, Yes?" "No." "Please, oh yes?" "No!" "Please, oh
please?"
"No ... well, OK, yes." "Oh, yes!" "Oh yes!! Oh yes! Oh Yes!"
"Ohhhhh!!!!!!"
James Dow Allen
ken
Two cheers you sent,
I was fully content,
Alas! on review of my text, I found my 'But' following my 'too' :)
James Dow Allen
> to unravel. I am writing a short piece to claim to have found a
> solution. Am I correct?
>
> jonnie303, uk-
(My response is unconstrained.)
Kudos to Jonnie303 and Ken, and thanks for solving my
puzzle! Clicking on Google's "Find other posts"
button I see both of you have solved my puzzles
in the past, often with very clever solutions.
Apologies to Ken for not noticing the small error
in his post. I do have a simple executable for
testing such passages, however the executable runs
only on Unix and I read Usenet only on Windows.
I won't waste time looking for a Linux driver
for my cell-phone Internet connection: it's so
dreadfully slow (Note 1) I'm likely to throw the
cell-phone against the wall any day now!
Note 1: Actually the connection is plenty fast
enough for what I *want* to view, but not fast
enough to cope with the huge armadas of ads,
stylesheets and javascripts "needed" these days
to display a few sentences of simple text.
James Dow Allen
Vicious Cat
@2g2000prl.googlegroups.com:
Light dawns (I hope?)
Scary how many hours I pondered this - and how many rules got despatched.
I agree with a prior message - It has been a struggle in the making of this
reply.
I can't go any further
Sid
Martin DeMello
>
> Let's start with this one (which I didn't think was going to be overly
> hard). The entire post (or *any* excerpt therefrom, not just the
> quotations) complies with a constraint you're asked to discover.
Well? Time for the answer, surely? :)
martin
James Dow Allen
>
> Well? Time for the answer, surely? :)
>
> martin
A message complies if adjacent words never have a letter
in common. For example, in Vicious Cat's post:
On Nov 1, 5:06 pm, Vicious Cat <sid...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Light dawns (I hope?)
> Scary how many hours I pondered this - and how many rules got despatched.
> I agree with a prior message - It has been a struggle in the making of this
> reply.
> I can't go any further
>
> Sid
L-I-G-H-T has no letters in common with D-A-W-N-S; neither that word
nor hope has an I; H-O-P-E shares no letters with S-C-A-R-Y; etc.
This type of puzzle used to be very popular in this ng. Googling
for an example, the first that showed was a 2004 thread started
by Martin DeMello yourself!:
Newcomers (or us oldtimers with poor memories) may
wish to solve Martin's puzzle from 2004:
Martin wrote:
> An unlucky man from Japan's
> Dejected, for all of his plans
> For bliss will be shredded -
> Yum-Yum's to be wedded
> And he's not a part of the banns
>
> Spot the constraint and write a poem (of any style) using the same
> constraint as a followup.
>
>
> martin
In that thread, I see I was Johnny-come-lately for solution,
so posted an anti-solution instead!
Five years ago Martin replied to me:
> James Dow Allen <jdallen2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Martin DeMello <martindeme...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > Spot the constraint ...
>
> > Perhaps James solved Martin's constraint,
> > However one does make idle complaint:
> > Limerick's overly difficult:
> > Could you allow himself somersault?
> > Wrote anti-poem solving your anti-constraint.
>
> Heh :) I must say that's an excellent job of trying not to follow it.
>
> martin
The only other such thread that showed up in rec.puzzles
with the Google search term
(constraint OR constrained) (poem OR poetry)
was one of mine, which several people solved even though
I think it was harder than this 2009 puzzle:
On Dec 3 2004, 1:15 pm, jdallen2...@yahoo.com (James Dow Allen) wrote:
> Guess the simple rule operating in this apt poem.
>
> Unlettered fellow will find this coincidental structure hard: Count on it!
>
> Subject doesn't matter; speak of perfected jukebox or approximations,
>
> Or even supercomputers and academic conversations.
>
> Poems wholly without rhymes or meter triumph.
>
> Can you write lawful lines that always follow this constraint?
>
> Contribute your own which obey.
>
> Dearest regards, James Dow Allen (mail address: jamesdowallen at gmail)
Other search terms turned up some other threads:
Heathfield in 2006:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/51177bef0acdd2d5/c627c5741c0f0501?hl=en
One of my own from 2006
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/5003cc6c8d917e11/f5c76561d8fa691d?hl=en
Mark P puzzle from 2006
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/b07b820522dc9965/96af520e3094f3a9?hl=en
Another Mark P puzzle from 2006
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/2fae9c4d7037aca3/34e971db9bdfe62e?hl=en
Tim S. Roberts from 2006
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/2c1580cae45e7b6b/91be3f8d39a7099?hl=en
A 2004 puzzle which seems never to have been solved
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/ae850b677d0fd873/ff37a09053c759c2?hl=en
James Dow Allen
James Dow Allen
Wow! Reading my own post just now, I'm struck!! I
have a comment and a question.
The comment is:
My claim that this 2009 puzzle was not "going to be
overly hard" is VINDICATED, because rthearle wrote in 2006:
> Much too easy. I solved it before I could even blurt "Jack Robinson".
> Why not give us a more difficult one, Tim?
That was in response to the Tim Roberts puzzle I found Googling:
On Nov 11, 3:16 am, James Dow Allen <jdallen2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Tim S. Roberts from 2006
> http://groups.google.com/group/rec.puzzles/browse_thread/thread/2c1580cae45e7b6b/91be3f8d39a7099?hl=en
Looking at Tim's puzzle I see it had the same constraint as this
2009 puzzle!! I plagiarized him, subconsciously.
This brings me to the question:
Is there a good way I can test myself to see how advanced
my senile dementia is?
James
Martin DeMello
>
> A message complies if adjacent words never have a letter in common. For
Ooh, so close! I thought it was that the first and last letters of a word
didn't appear in either of its adjoining words.
martin
alexy
>A message complies if adjacent words never have a letter
>in common. For example, in Vicious Cat's post:
>
>On Nov 1, 5:06 pm, Vicious Cat <sid...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Light dawns (I hope?)
>> Scary how many hours I pondered this - and how many rules got despatched.
>> I agree with a prior message - It has been a struggle in the making of this
>> reply.
>> I can't go any further
>>
>> Sid
>
>L-I-G-H-T has no letters in common with D-A-W-N-S; neither that word
>nor hope has an I; H-O-P-E shares no letters with S-C-A-R-Y; etc.
However, "got dispatched" presents a problem! It is amazing how hard
such a simple rule is to obey, or even to test in plain text!
--
Alex -- Replace "nospam" with "mail" to reply by email. Checked infrequently.
Vicious Cat
news:hdmbo5$4m2$1...@news.eternal-september.org:
> James Dow Allen <jdall...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>A message complies if adjacent words never have a letter
>>in common. For example, in Vicious Cat's post:
>>
>>On Nov 1, 5:06 pm, Vicious Cat <sid...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Light dawns (I hope?)
>>> Scary how many hours I pondered this - and how many rules got
>>> despatched. I agree with a prior message - It has been a struggle in
>>> the making of this reply.
>>> I can't go any further
>>>
>>> Sid
>>
>>L-I-G-H-T has no letters in common with D-A-W-N-S; neither that word
>>nor hope has an I; H-O-P-E shares no letters with S-C-A-R-Y; etc.
>
> However, "got dispatched" presents a problem! It is amazing how hard
> such a simple rule is to obey, or even to test in plain text!
AAAaaarrrggghhhh
James Dow Allen
> AAAaaarrrggghhhh
Is that the sound of a Vicious Cat?
Anyway, your one-word post complies. :-)
James