airport codes

[swp]

I am typing this from the public wifi at MCO airport. I wrote a
puzzle a number of years ago where the clues were the names of cities,
and it you lined up the main airport codes for those cities in a
column, the 3 letter codes formed words in the first and third
columns. if you only took the words in the first column, you got the
wrong answer, as the last word in that column had the "s" split off
and it was the first letter of the 3rd column.

so.

who can make a set of sensible words of any length out of just airport
codes when read in vericle columns? for just 1 column, any 1 column
that is, this is trivial and scores no points. for any 2 columns,
score 1 point for each letter used in each word so the longer the
words the better your score. for all 3 columns, score 5 points for
each letter used in each word. remember, the words must be sensible
and for something that looks like a sentence or sentence fragment.
abbreviations are discouraged, so divide your score by 1/2 for each
abbreviation used.

it is considered good sport to mention the actual city/state for the
airport with each code. high score wins. I will post my entry in 1
week. good luck!

swp

[Mark Brader]

Stephen Perry:

> who can make a set of sensible words of any length out of just airport
> codes when read in vericle columns? for just 1 column, any 1 column
> that is, this is trivial and scores no points. for any 2 columns,
> score 1 point for each letter used in each word so the longer the
> words the better your score. for all 3 columns, score 5 points for
> each letter used in each word.

See below.

> remember, the words must be sensible
> and for something that looks like a sentence or sentence fragment.
> abbreviations are discouraged, so divide your score by 1/2 for each
> abbreviation used.

I don't understand the "sentence of sentence fragment" bit. Do you mean
the words are supposed to go together or what?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, there's

PPP Proserpine, QLD
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
CCC Cayo Coco, Cuba
HHH Hilton Head Island, SC, USA
YYY Mont-Joli, QC, Canada
DDD Dabba, Sudan
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
CCC Cayo Coco, Cuba
TTT Taitung, Taiwan
YYY Mont-Joli, QC, Canada
LLL Lissadel, WA
YYY Mont-Joli, QC, Canada

But "pachydactyly" is not in my RHU1, although it is in the online
word list from Webster's 2nd, which of course is what I used here.
Then there's

BBB Benson, MN, USA
HHH Hilton Head Island, SC, USA
UUU Manumu, PNG
TTT Taitung, Taiwan
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
TTT Taitung, Taiwan
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
TTT Taitung, Taiwan
HHH Hilton Head Island, SC, USA
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
TTT Taitung, Taiwan
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia

"Bhutatathata" *is* in the RHU1 as well as the online list, but is
capitalized there.

If we aren't supposed to repeat airports on the list, then there is

HHH Hilton Head Island, SC, USA
UUU Manumu, PNG
MMM Middlemount, QLD
PPP Proserpine, QLD
BBB Benson, MN, USA
AAA Anaa, French Polynesia
CCC Cayo Coco, Cuba
KKK Kalakaket, AK, USA

and the words constructing in the same manner, aptychus, buckstay,
dactylus, dayblush, scybalum, scyphula, and splatchy, all on the
Webster's 2nd list, can be constructed in the same manner.

HTH.

(Which is Hawthorne, NV, USA.)

Of course, I assume the *right* way to do this puzzle is to use
words you know and airport codes you know, so I'm just posting
these outlandish answers for fun.

(It might be an interesting programming task, though, to construct
the longest possible triple of three different vertical words, from
a list of words (about 250,000 in the Webster's 2nd list) and a list
of airport codes (about 10,000 3-letter codes).)
--
Mark Brader, Toronto, m...@vex.net
#define MSB(type) (~(((unsigned type)-1)>>1))

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[swp]

On Dec 5, 9:19 pm, m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:
> Stephen Perry:
>
> > who can make a set of sensible words of any length out of just airport
> > codes when read in vericle columns?  for just 1 column, any 1 column
> > that is, this is trivial and scores no points.  for any 2 columns,
> > score 1 point for each letter used in each word so the longer the
> > words the better your score.  for all 3 columns, score 5 points for
> > each letter used in each word.
>
> See below.
>
> > remember, the words must be sensible
> > and for something that looks like a sentence or sentence fragment.
> > abbreviations are discouraged, so divide your score by 1/2 for each
> > abbreviation used.
>
> I don't understand the "sentence of sentence fragment" bit.  Do you mean
> the words are supposed to go together or what?
>

change that 2nd part to read "the words must be sensible and FORM
something that looks like a sentence OR sentence fragment." the
letters should form distinct words which can be read as a sentence or
question, which would be very hard with the same words in all 3
columns. the idea is to read contiguously down column 1 and then
continue in column 2 and then continue in column 3, if possible.
otherwise, start in column X and continue in column Y while ignoring
column Z. yes, this implies that you can do it backwards if so
inclined but I've never tried it that way.

I wasn't aware that there are about 10,000 airport codes, but in
retrospect it isn't surprising.

I should note that punctuation within the sentence/question can be
assumed, such as commas, apostrophes, or question marks.

swp