Did you know that intellectually stimulating activity is known to have the potential to stave off Alzheimer's and other brain diseases, and crossword puzzles in particular are well-suited to this purpose, as they involve a daily burst of sustained mental activity? Studies have found that older people who regularly flex their brains almost halved the risk of developing Alzheimer's.
Originally posted on this site.
So, don't ignore those crossword puzzles any longer. Cryptoquotes are equally stimulating, in my opinion, as they force the brain to recognize letter and word patterns.
Your daily Cryptoquote brain exercise can be found at CRYPTOQUOTE.COM.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Cryptoquotes
Cryptoquotes, or Cryptograms, are word puzzles that anyone can do. They normally appear somewhere near the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. There are also many websites that publish cryptoquotes on a daily or weekly basis.
If you've never tried them, or got frustrated with them, or don't know quite where to begin... you 've come to the right place. Cryptoquotes are simple letter substitution puzzles. Very simply put, one letter stands for another.
For example, the word THE might be represented by ACH, where the A stands for T, the C stands for H, and the H stands for E. Those subtitutions would hold throughout the puzzle, so everywhere there is an A, you would write T above it.
Many times letter patterns are clues to the substitution. Lets say you see ACH and somewhere else in the puzzle you see ACXA, you can almost guarantee that ACH stands for THE, and ACXA stands for THAT. Another common three-letter word, of course, is AND.
Very short puzzles are difficult, and longer ones are easier because there are more word patterns. Also, don't forget that the most common letter in the English language is E. So, if you see a lot of any one letter in the cryptoquote, you might try substituting E for that letter and see what happens. USE A PENCIL... you can always erase.
Here, let's try an easy one:
(Hint: Do you see the patterns as described above?) I know this is a short one, but it should be easy once you get the first few letters. If you can't solve it, write me at benmondello@aol.com. Another hint: An American version of TW3 was broadcast on the NBC television network; initially as a one-time pilot episode on November 10, 1963, and then as a regular series from January 10, 1964, to May, 1965.
For more cryptoquote fun, please visit CRYPTOQUOTE.COM
Watch for the next installment on this blog.
If you've never tried them, or got frustrated with them, or don't know quite where to begin... you 've come to the right place. Cryptoquotes are simple letter substitution puzzles. Very simply put, one letter stands for another.
For example, the word THE might be represented by ACH, where the A stands for T, the C stands for H, and the H stands for E. Those subtitutions would hold throughout the puzzle, so everywhere there is an A, you would write T above it.
Many times letter patterns are clues to the substitution. Lets say you see ACH and somewhere else in the puzzle you see ACXA, you can almost guarantee that ACH stands for THE, and ACXA stands for THAT. Another common three-letter word, of course, is AND.
Very short puzzles are difficult, and longer ones are easier because there are more word patterns. Also, don't forget that the most common letter in the English language is E. So, if you see a lot of any one letter in the cryptoquote, you might try substituting E for that letter and see what happens. USE A PENCIL... you can always erase.
Here, let's try an easy one:
F L D F S D M F L N S N N U
F L D F S D M.
(Hint: Do you see the patterns as described above?) I know this is a short one, but it should be easy once you get the first few letters. If you can't solve it, write me at benmondello@aol.com. Another hint: An American version of TW3 was broadcast on the NBC television network; initially as a one-time pilot episode on November 10, 1963, and then as a regular series from January 10, 1964, to May, 1965.
For more cryptoquote fun, please visit CRYPTOQUOTE.COM
Watch for the next installment on this blog.
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