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        riddles >> medium >> Cryptic Address
        
(Message started by: James Fingas on Nov 20th, 2002, 1:25pm)
Title: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Nov 20th, 2002, 1:25pm
Willy Wutang is writing to his overseas sweetheart. He writes a steamy love letter, seals the envelope, and then inscribes the following cryptic address on the front:

Wood, S
April
England

Strangely enough, the letter reaches its intended recipient. What is Willy's sweetheart's address?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Garzahd on Nov 20th, 2002, 2:57pm
Any knowledge of British geography required?

Guessing randomly, I'd say that the address means something significant if upside down, but I think that'd require a different font.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Chronos on Nov 20th, 2002, 3:24pm
Willy's in love with the dead-letter clerk, isn't he?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Nov 20th, 2002, 10:10pm
Don't we have to assume that Mr. Wutang's lady friend's address is

Wood, S
April
England

After all, the letter arrived. But, I get the feeling that a different, better and more refined answer is what you have in mind. Back to the trenches.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Nov 22nd, 2002, 2:17am
I'm just guessing, but how about: Somewhere in Greece
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Nov 22nd, 2002, 9:22am
No knowledge of English geography is required. In fact, I don't even know if this is a valid address (of course it must be, or a letter couldn't have gotten delievered there, but I digress).

Here's a hint to get you thinking:
I didn't make up this puzzle--I just added the street address.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by TimMann on Nov 22nd, 2002, 4:01pm
The puzzle doesn't say that Willy put the letter in the mail, just that it reached its intended recipient. Maybe he hand-delivered it after flying overseas to see his sweetheart. But then we have no information about her address at all, except to assume that Willy had some reason for writing what he did on the front, so it probably is some kind of lover's-code abbreviation for the full address.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by william wu on Nov 24th, 2002, 12:29am
For what it's worth, willywutang is stumped :D

P.S. I'm very flattered by all the stories about me. If only I really did have an overseas sweetheart ... :)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by jeremiahsmith on Nov 24th, 2002, 12:07pm
Well, you're probably not too overjoyed about the story where you might get an STD :D

Anyway, maybe Willy wrote the address on the back and the post office eventually caught on.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Nov 25th, 2002, 9:21am
Okay, you guys think you're all so funny, but there actually is a good riddle here.

To fatten up the story, let's say that Willy posted the letter with sufficient postage (his sweetheart doesn't live in the Bureau of Unreturnable Mail), using the regular postal service, and there was some genius working that day that figured out Willy's cryptic address and wrote the more everyday version of the address on the letter so that it could be delivered the rest of the way.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Brett Danaher on Dec 11th, 2002, 9:09am
Listen guys, I come back to this thread EVERY day just to see if someone has made any progress.  I've thought through it a hundred ways and none make sense.  

So does anyone have any thoughts, or does the riddler himself want to illuminate our lives a bit more with another clue?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Dec 11th, 2002, 10:11am
Brett,

I appreciate your consternation. Unfortunately this is one of those puzzles that once you get the idea, you can quickly solve the whole thing. Here's a hint, anyways:

You can probably figure out which part of the address is Willy's sweetheart's first name. But why is it where it is?

If you want, you could also guess which part is the street address, eliminate it, and try the problem that way ...
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by aero man on Dec 11th, 2002, 11:32am
Hmm, tricky.  Mayhaps Willy has travelled to April England's small town where everyone knows each other and he therefore doesn't need the full address.  Or maybe his postman is related to her.  OK, that second part is lame.  I'm guessing it has something to do with the letter being local and the overseas sweetheart was a trick to throw us off.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by aero man on Dec 11th, 2002, 11:35am
Hmmm, maybe her (or his) name is Samantha Wood, april is the street and England the town?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Dec 11th, 2002, 12:00pm
Good try, Aero Guy.

However, Willy's sweetheart is in England. Yes, the country England. And Willy isn't. Just so we're clear. ;)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Dec 12th, 2002, 2:26am
I've got it.

April is his girlfriends name, she's Robin Hood's niece, and she lives with him in Wood,S Forest.

This abbreviation of Sherwood Forest is common knowledge among all British postpeople.

Jolly good show
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by TimMann on Dec 12th, 2002, 10:08am
Well, from the hint, I suppose that: her name is April Underwood. But I don't know what the S is doing there, or how this one letter tells the postman where in England she lives. Maybe if I understood the whole thing I'd make Underwood the name of the street or the town. Who knows..
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Brett Danaher on Dec 16th, 2002, 8:10am
I agree with the "April Underwood" idea, but the "s" is confusing me.  Can't think of any special trick to that.  And of course, after that all I have in England, so I have to get a full street address out of "s" and it's relation to the other words.  We'll see about that...

Any ideas guys?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by SgtAcid on Dec 16th, 2002, 2:44pm
Brett and Timman

   "April Underwood" makes sense, but if you look at one of the James Fingas hints it says


Quote:
"If you want, you could also guess which part is the street address, eliminate it, and try the problem that way ... "


By looking at the address that was given "April" seems to be the street name.  So I don't know if I would agree with you guys. Also because the "S" wouldn't make sense if you did it that way.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by SgtAcid on Dec 16th, 2002, 3:53pm
If I take back what I just said, consider this:

April is also the 4th month, what if that stands for the street address. Meaning "4 April St."
Also If you take a look at "Wood, S"  there is a comma after Wood.  When we write an address we put a comma after the city.

Could the Address be:
Wood, S
4 April St
Wood, England
???

I know this is a pretty weak answer, but I threw it in so maybe one of you, will change your style of thinking when you look at it, and get the correct answer.  
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Dec 16th, 2002, 11:43pm
Back with my tuppence

The mystery girl is named S. Wood.
She lives in Woods upon April in England.

Okay, April Underwood is a more lyric name for a lady, but I'm thinking of Shakespeare who hails from bonny Stratford upon Avon.

Just some grist for the mill.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by voltrader on Jan 7th, 2003, 3:25pm
Has anyone figured this out yet?

How about another clue?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 7th, 2003, 5:15pm
Okay, I've been boggling over this one for a while... and while I'm not positive I've got it all right, I think I might have the gist of it.  It's time for an Official Cap'n Curry Wild Stab™!  I cross my fingers, hope I get the colour right, and:   I'm thinking April Underwood, 1 Comma Street, Andover, England.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by wowbagger on Jan 8th, 2003, 5:40am
Well, I found a town called Andover in England, but no Comma Street. There is, however, a South Street which seems rather matching to me. I don't know about the house number though.

BTW:

on 11/22/02 at 09:22:49, James Fingas wrote:
No knowledge of English geography is required.

I'm inclined to dispute this, even if Capn_Curry's idea should be wrong.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 8th, 2003, 11:17am
Wow, you guys are doing pretty well! My street address still has you stumped though! <maniacal laugh>

Please note that this story occurs in a hypothetical universe (in which Willy has an overseas girlfriend), and therefore the address, although it sounds perfectly reasonable, may not exist in our universe. That is to say, don't bother Googling.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Garzahd on Jan 9th, 2003, 12:48pm
Perhaps this reasonable-sounding address is actually a major landmark in your hypothetical universe. Clearly, any self-respecting hypothetical postman must have lived in a cave all his life if he can't recognize this address on sight.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 9th, 2003, 8:12pm
Here is the original address.
Wood, S
April
England

It seems that Mr. Fingas acknowledges the following:

April Underwood
Andover
England

Which leaves us with the street address (manic depression)

So we need something to go like this:
April Underwood
?????
Andover
England

Upon stating the obvious we have only to do a little creative straw grasping. Lets stay with the prepositions and see where we can go.

Using the comma and the S, we might say
April Underwood
S after Comma
Andover
England

No. Not yet.

April Underwood
19
Andover
England

Maybe, but it just doesnft have that gAhah quality that the correct answer better have if Mr. Fingas intends to avoid a riddle led fatwa.

April Underwood
S on the upper right
Andover
England

Maybe this is stretching a bad thing too far.

April Underwood
Commons over April
Andover
England

Like quicksand, the more one thrashes, the more one's position becomes untenable.

April Underwood
House of Commons
Andover
England

Is this OK? Comma + on + s

April Underwood
Es comma over her
Andover
England

Ow, I think I'm developing a cramp in my brain
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 9th, 2003, 9:31pm
Speaker, I followed you right up until

April Underwood  
19
Andover  
England  

Where did you drum up 19 from?

To add to the manic gyrations of your own riddle-captured mind, let me add some things that bounced around in mine:

April Underwood
Wood Commons
Andover
England

As Speaker mentioned, it's kind of a stretch to get commons from comma s, and I'm not sure I like "Wood" showing up twice in the solution.

April Underwood
South Wood
Andover
England

This is following the reasoning that names are often listed "Last name, first name," and this portion of the address sits where a name would.  It's not got a number, though, and that troubles me.

The only kind of number I can pull out of this riddle is the one comma, which is why I'm extra keen to see where Speaker got 19 from.

Well, I've puzzled till my puzzler is sore.  Looking forward to seeing what else is said on the mysterious matter of the Cryptic Address.  :)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 10th, 2003, 1:01am
ABC easy as 123...

Michael Jackson told me that S is 19.

But if the address was hand written, then maybe the S is actually a 5.

Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Cyrus on Jan 10th, 2003, 8:34am
I figure I might as well take a stab at this street address too:

19 Upright St. or
19 South Upright St
(s = 19th letter in upper-right corner)

or

4157 South Upright St.
(4 letters in Wood, 1 in S, 5 in April, 7 in England)

or how about this for a stretch . . . .

1,019 South Upright St.


I'll see if I can think of some more, or maybe someone can improve on my ideas.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by SWF on Jan 10th, 2003, 5:39pm
April Underwood
One Post S
Andover, England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by udippel on Jan 12th, 2003, 8:57pm

What would be the logic behind this but a guess?

Maybe I'm wrong, but usually we'd write 4 lines of address to a foreign country, like:
Name
Street
Place
Country

And since in the original text we have one empty line above the first, I was trying something to fill that one. Like
April Twotoolow
Wood, 19
Andover
England

Alas, without reasonable result, as you see.
But what about the idea in general? :-/
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by redPEPPER on Jan 13th, 2003, 6:59am
The "Andover" part only works if you previously have "under", or "below" or something similar.  As in:
April under wood blah blah, and over england.

This riddle is so fuzzy that I don't think the official answer is strong enough to be claimed as the most logical possibility.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 13th, 2003, 10:52am
RedPepper, I think that's true.  Gauging from the last few posts, it looks like we're really off-track as far as logical problem solving is concerned.  The forums remind us that the reasoning used to arrive at a solution is more important than the solution itself, but there's no reasoning to be had anywhere... all the solutions we're coming up with involve lateral thinking.  

I've never seen a lateral thinking puzzle that was able to be solved just upon hearing the problem.  In fact, lateral thinking puzzles are intended to be interactive, with the person who posed the problem answering 'yes' or 'no' questions about it until the solution is arrived at.  The reason for this is that there are so many possible answers to fit a puzzle, one could never arrive at the 'correct' answer without having benefit of the yes and no answers.

I think the questions we need to approach are these:  If there is a logical solution, as opposed to an intuitive one, why haven't we been hitting on it?  If there is no logial solution, only a lateral thinking answer, how are we to determine the 'correct' one out of the dozens of possibilites we have presented?  Can we begin to ask "yes" or "no" questions of Mr. Fingas?

Just my thought process on paper (screen, you know what I'm talking about......)

- Cap'n Curry
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 13th, 2003, 1:50pm
redPepper,

I'm disturbed that you don't think the "official" answer will be logical--would I ever try to be confusing and cryptic? ;) The street address is actually very logical--more so than any of the solutions presented so far, and more so than the rest of the puzzle. That being said, it requires a lot of lateral thinking to figure out what the street address is.

The whole puzzle is relatively logical too (a little less than the original, but whatever...). As you have pointed out so far, the address:

Wood, S
April
England

can be read as "April, under 'Wood, S' and over England", which can be parsed: "April Underwood, <street address>, Andover, England".

Hint: I would also like to say that the street address is encoded a little differently from the rest of the puzzle (ie. it does not depend on the position of words like the rest of the puzzle does).
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by redPEPPER on Jan 13th, 2003, 4:16pm
Good thing the postman didn't send this to a Mrs "Bellawood" in "Andon" instead, hm?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 13th, 2003, 6:22pm
And now, knowing the track we should be on, we can discard the lateral thinking portion of the puzzle and work on the logic.  If we are to to take

Wood, S
April
England

And parse out

April Underwood
<Street Address>
Andover
England

We've used everything except the comma, the S, and the space separating them.  We now have to logically decode the string ", S" into a street address; namely, a house number and a street name.  Being that the postman who was able to deliver the letter is assumed to have read the address off of a paper envelope, we can probably assume that we don't need any computer-based aid to decrypt this, such as ASCII tables or the like.  

For my two cents at this point in the game, the only number I can see in there is Speaker's 19 (from S's ordinal value), or the total of three characters.  These, then, are the only street addresses I can see in the mix:

19 Comma Space
19 Common Space
Space 19

If anybody else has any spark of inspiration, post it here... we're starting to home in on this one as a group, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone posts something that leads someone else to the answer.

- Cap'n Curry
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by udippel on Jan 13th, 2003, 7:12pm
Makes some sense. It was said that the street had been added. That means, the original one must have been around

Wood
April
England

otherwise no

April Underwood
Andover
England

or not ??

The street added was the addition of
, S
not lateral and position independant, somehow. And no Hex- or Binary stuff either, correct? ASCII?? Blank = 32
Comma is an interval (musics), bacteria or butterfly.
Comma is not-dot and not-semicolon and not-colon
... and now I'm lost!
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Cyrus on Jan 14th, 2003, 9:25am
How about PO Box 19 or Suite 19??
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 14th, 2003, 2:05pm
I had thought about the P.O. box thing, but the answer has always come up in terms of "street address"... and there doesn't seem to be anything to suggest box in the puzzle.  As for suite 19, it's a possibility, but we'd still be needing a number and street name.  A suite number alone won't deliver a letter.

Incidentally, this riddle has become a small part of my daily routine... get home from work, check e-mail, read the responses to this puzzle, boggle over it for a bit, short nap... half of me wants the puzzle to go on forever, and the other half is developing a nervous tick over mailing addresses.   ::)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 16th, 2003, 1:17am
Back for the daily dose.

Maybe the S needs to stand alone. Maybe the comma is just to set it apart from the rest of the information in that line, this is the common use of commas anyway.

So maybe if the address was handwritten, the S really is a 5.

And, that leads me to
April Underwood
5
Andover
England

But, not good enough.

James said that the S was not dependent on its position in the cryptic address, otherwise, I would say

5 on April St.  (as the S is on April, and the S is actually a 5). And street, because that is expected in an address.

However, there are other street address words,
Avenue
Road
Boulevard
Route
Street
RFD
Lane
ROW
Way
Highway
Freeway
Track
Alley
Course
Byway
Row
Path

And, I am sure their are more.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by wowbagger on Jan 16th, 2003, 5:49am
How about reading the relevant part as "one capital 's'", thus: 1 Capital Street?
(I deliberately preclude the existence of a "Capitol Street" even in fictitious Andover.)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by udippel on Jan 16th, 2003, 9:09am
Well possible ...
My hopes are that *the* solution is better, if it comes out ever. So far we haven't had anything that falls into its place like the last piece of a puzzle. And this is what we expect, don't we !
The
1, Capitol Street is a nice one, but we (at least myself) are looking for better, since it doesn't offer any hook to attach confidence. It remains probable only.

My proposals are worse, though:
4, Blank Street
(4 letters-comma-blank-S)
4, Right Street
(right-hand side of address field)
4, Spaces
(space-S)
Right Spaces
(right-hand spaceS)
4, Milky Way
(Space Street)
... and worse rubbish.

Good night !
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 16th, 2003, 9:33am
Wowbagger,

I really like 1 Capital Street, but the problem with many answers suggested so far is that there's not much justification for putting "street" after them. 'S' could be interpreted as "one capital" or even "one capital s", but then it takes a leap of faith to stick "street" on the end. "The" answer justifies the road-type word at the end.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 16th, 2003, 9:37pm
April Underwood
On that big double curve
Andover
England

Or something different.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 16th, 2003, 10:27pm
April Underwood
19th Ltr
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 17th, 2003, 12:23am
April Underwood
19th Post.
Andover
England

(Post. as an abbreviation for Position)
(Above, Ltr as an abbreviation for Letter)
(Howabout 19th LT as in letter and something that means street.)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Capn_Curry on Jan 17th, 2003, 2:05am
How about:

April Underwood
One Comma Space, South
Andover
England

Kinda similar to a couple answers we've already had, but this one feels to me like it has a better fit.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Yo Mamma on Jan 17th, 2003, 4:23pm
How about...

April Underwood
1 S St
Andover, England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by SWF on Jan 17th, 2003, 6:04pm
James Fingas said the answers that pull the number or the term "street" out of nowhere are incorrect.  Only two interpretations so far sort of make sense to me.  "One Comma Space, South" is one of the few answers that reads correctly except it uses "Space" as the type of location or street.  I never heard of that but maybe.

The suggestion of "One Post S" is the other that makes some sense.  There is single post S at the end of the first line.  April Underwood might live on a military base or along a national border with different posts identified by letter.  I know some streets are named by letter, for example there is an "Avenue S" in Palmdale, California.

Since everyone is throwing out far fetched ideas, here is another.  The S is at the end of line, so it is followed by a carriage return (CR).  Looking in a table of abbreviations, SCR is an abbreviation for "South Circular Road", but unfortunately that is in Dublin not Andover, England.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Munchkin on Jan 18th, 2003, 5:14am
well, i don't really think the "CR" is justified either. afterall how many people will read an address on an envelope and say "CR" when the address start a new line?

I'm thinking it maybe "1 Short Street". or something to do with the fact that S is the first letter of "street"... then the "street" part might be justified...
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Dan Elliott on Jan 19th, 2003, 10:18am
  Since South is a direction or 'Way', could the answer
have something to do with that?  1 South Way or
1 compass way or something similiar.  Are there any
other street designation (Way, Lane, Street) that have
a double meaning that could be applied to the problem?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 20th, 2003, 11:14am
One of those answers hit rather close to home ... Keep up the good work!
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Jabber on Jan 20th, 2003, 1:04pm
April Underwood
1 Blank S
Andover
England

Sort of a rework of a previous guess.  The S would have to be assumed to mean Street.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Munchkin on Jan 20th, 2003, 1:35pm
ooo... i know!
S is the first letter of Street right...1 st letter of street

now st can also stands for saint....
i need a St "Letter of"  ;D (or some other saint that sounds like "Letter of"?)

so it'd be something like
1 St. Letterof Street? (assuming there's is a St Letterof? :P)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 20th, 2003, 3:56pm
Munchkin,
when I read your "ooo I know" I almost fell off my chair, I thought you really knew.

How about

April Underwood
South End-of-the-line
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 20th, 2003, 4:19pm
April Underwood
19th Let
Andover
England

Let is a term used in the UK to indicate an apartment.

James, are you out there?

I guess you might also say Let 19.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 20th, 2003, 4:33pm
Okay, I know this is the third post in a row, but no one else is awake. So definitively, the answer must be, I hope.

April Underwood
Let 19
Andover
England

Let meaning apartment and letter.

Now, I am going back to work.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Munchkin on Jan 20th, 2003, 4:57pm
speaker: well i was honestly hoping that could be a starting point for an answer. seeing it actually justifies the "street" part. Although i must admit making up a saint to solve to the puzzle is getting a wee bit desperate.  ;D (but hey! this riddle has been the curse of me for the last few weeks! THAT'S when I can't stand this any longer and start posting.  :P)

hmm... I'm not too sure how the appartments are named in Andover... but I got a feeling that there's more than one street with appartments... 19th Let or Let 19 won't go too far.. would it?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 20th, 2003, 5:19pm
Munchkin
You may be right, there may be something more. But, at least with my answer we only need James to confirm it. Your answer requires the Pope to grant sainthood on this letterof guy and then the municiple government in Andover to name a street after him.  ::)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by SWF on Jan 20th, 2003, 8:14pm
There is one S on the right: One Right S.  Abbreviation for right is Rt. which is also the abbreviation for Route, so the street address is "One Rt. S" or

One Route S

The S is also "high" since it is on the top line, and it is "way" over on the right.  So there is one high way right S:

One Highway Route S

Just like Avenues, as explained previously, routes can be labelled with letters just as they can with numbers.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Jamie on Jan 21st, 2003, 2:13am
Pretty much a rehash of what's been said before, but with alternative explanations:

Although streets are normally named rather than numbered in the UK, S could be read as "1st [letter of] Street", and for the number (a bit more tenuous), we could run-length encode " " as "1 ". Then ", S" becomes ", 1 1st Street".
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by hemmings on Jan 21st, 2003, 4:43am
1st of Word Street ?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 21st, 2003, 12:09pm
I've been trying to think up a riddle that means "close, but no cigar", and I can't. Oh well--looks like you already have enough to figure out ;)

I honestly didn't know that "Let" was used to indicate an apartment. So that's not the answer. Pretty good, though.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 21st, 2003, 9:37pm
Well Munchkin you were right.
And for anyone curious, you can find let in the dictionary as probably the second meaning of the noun form of the word.

James
I will keep trying. And, just because you were wondering:

What did the fat-cat banker have in his suitcase after being stopped at customs upon his arrival home from his trip to Cuba?  

Hint: The banker has a slight lisp, or somebody has a lisp.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Munchkin on Jan 21st, 2003, 11:41pm
LOL @speaker's riddle  ;D

quick recap:
the position of S with respect to the rest of the address has nothing to do with the street address. and the proper answer will justify the street type.

problem is when james said it's getting close he didn't say which one so what happens is i get all confused  :-/

the two "street type" that has been "justified" so far is "street" and "way".

'S' has been guessed as short for "street", "south", or being the 19th letter.

and james said we got everything to solve this puzzle....

...  ???

write a program to put together all the possible combination and print it out to see what gives us the "aha!" answer?

there's a few thoeries of mine, which are all things like 1 Abbreviated Street or 1 Shorthand Street. but it doesn't really "flow"...

any break through guys?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Rob L on Jan 22nd, 2003, 5:08am
Other guesses for street address:

1 Ess end
1 Commerce end
1 double crescent
1 Woodcut street
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Deepan on Jan 22nd, 2003, 11:24am
April Underwood
1 South End
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 22nd, 2003, 1:47pm
The reason that "the" solution is difficult to figure out is that there is no clue to work backwards from. To put it schematically:

<street address> --> [encoding procedure] --> <encoded address>

The problem is that the encoded address doesn't give you any clue as to the encoding procedure. It can't, because it's so short. Maybe you will have to think of the question from the other direction. What sort of trick would you use to collapse a full street address into a single letter?

But you are already thinking about the question in this way, and I can't think of any way to help without giving the solution away. I guess this post is useless :(
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Munchkin on Jan 22nd, 2003, 3:39pm
James, juts one more question (for now anyway :P)

Would the street address itself give us the encoding procedure (so to speak?) What I guess I wanted to know is that whether there is some sorta of external information that we need... from the look of it it doesn't.

I'm guessing the street name can somehow be interpret as the letter "S"... Does it matter whether it's in capital or lower case? (getting desperate here... :( )
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 22nd, 2003, 7:00pm
I like the post by Deepan.

1 South End

Except for the "1" it seems to make sense and sounds quite British.

Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Jan 23rd, 2003, 9:03am
Munchkin,

Yes, the address does give you the encoding procedure, just like "1 st. letterof street" gives you the encoding procedure.

Speaker,

The street address doesn't sound particularly British. Maybe I should have picked a different country...
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jan 23rd, 2003, 3:28pm
James, thanks for the clues, if I understand correctly, we need to do a little reverse engineering. QED not.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by qwerty on Jan 27th, 2003, 8:50am
How about...

April Underwood
B4 Capital S. (before capital s?)
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Phil on Jan 28th, 2003, 1:48pm
How about:
April Underwood
1 Woodby Forest Lane (before S lain)
Andover, England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by kdkaboom55 on Mar 28th, 2003, 10:31pm
Question for James: when you tell us to think of a trick which can be used to condense an entire street address into a single letter, can we assume that the encoding procedure could work with [i][/i]any street address? or only those which are, as you said, as short as this one is? By now I'm convinced that the address is a single number, but I can't figure out the street name.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Mar 31st, 2003, 1:36pm
The "encoding procedure" I chose can only be used with a few special addresses. I had a choice between "S" and one other possibility that had two letters. But I wanted to make it difficult, so I used "S".
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Megan on Apr 12th, 2003, 7:41pm
shrug...  
April Underwood
1st letterof Street
Andover
England?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by btiboy on May 17th, 2003, 12:52pm
Instead of reading it as "1st letter of Street", could you read it as "1 Letter of Street", to give:

April Underwood
1 Letterof Street
Andover England

 This eliminates one canonization...  :)
 This method would allow a lot more encoding possibilities, as well.  For example, "BEAR" = "4 Lettersof Blvd", etc.
 Hmm, and to read the entire original puzzle, would it then be "April under Wood by one letter of street and over England" to give (after adding an extra "by"):

April Underwoodby
1 Letterof Street
Andover England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Shany on May 26th, 2003, 3:09pm
Going with the clue that the street address could be given with two letters, the "S" might be a "u" and an "n" stuck together (with the "u" on the top) and on its side, making it look like an S.
Then, finding the number values of u(21) and n(14), one might be able to conclude that the street address is 2114.
To find the name of the (street, road, court, etc..) the "u" and "n" could be formed to words or mean the abbreviation of union, but my brain hasn't traveled that far.

April Underwood,
2114 _____
Andover, England

Yeh, never know.. ^^
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Chronos on May 26th, 2003, 6:41pm

Quote:
April Underwoodby
1 Letterof Street
Andover England
We do, at least, know that the lady's name is April Underwood, since James (who should know, after all) has since posted riddles featuring her by that name.

And since the riddle was presented to us using standard characters, rather than an image, I don't think that we should assume any non-standard way of drawing characters.

And now that I've so helpfully pointed out what we shouldn't do, someone else can say what we should ;).
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by jackper on Jun 1st, 2003, 9:14pm
Well, "S" could be '6 Third Row' .... cause S is the symbol for sulphur, which appears 6 over in the third row of the periodic table.

But this doesn't fit with James' clue that he had options of a single letter 'S' or a double letter.

Anyway, just thought we might look at 'S' as a symbol, (such as stock symbol for  Sears), rather than simply a letter.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by AibohphobiA on Jun 2nd, 2003, 3:52pm
How abt,

April Underwood
1 invisible street South
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by jade on Jul 6th, 2003, 7:00pm
James Fingas:
Why is there no correct answer to this question?


-- That's what I'd like to know :-/
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by jade on Jul 6th, 2003, 7:07pm
Singletter Street??

Did anyone suggest Short Street?
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jul 6th, 2003, 9:17pm
Throw him to the lions...

April Underwood
Stadium
Andover
England

Stadium, as in S, and as in the Webding for capital S.

I tried to cut and paste it, but no luck.

Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jul 6th, 2003, 9:49pm
Okay

April Underwood
The area under the curve
Andover
England


As in S meaning an integral.  I guess you can also measure other areas and volumes and whatever by using integration, but I can't. So some other phrase may develop from this that I wouldn't be able to imagine.

I also like to use the term curve, as James might have pointed us in that direction a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.  
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Jul 7th, 2003, 1:55am
Just a different idea. As S is spelled "ess" then we might use that.

April Underwood
East S South
Andover
England
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by PaulH on Aug 13th, 2003, 3:39am
How about

April Underwood
1  6th Street
Andover
England

beause the letter S is "one sixth" of the word Street?
Mind you, I live not far from Andover and I'm pretty sure there's no "6th Street" there... not very English  ;)
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by PaulH on Aug 13th, 2003, 4:40am
Forgot to add that if James had wanted to use two letters he could have said

ST (One Third Street)
or even AV (One Third Avenue)
A (One Sixth Avenue) is another possibility...
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by James Fingas on Aug 13th, 2003, 1:38pm
Give the man a cigar!!!

Great work PaulH!

Yeah, I know it's not very English, but I didn't put nearly as much time into making the riddle as people have into solving it ... and even when I went on MapQuest (a long time after posting the riddle) to see if there was a better street I could use, I couldn't find anything better.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by jade on Aug 13th, 2003, 1:49pm
well, thank god that's over!
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by towr on Aug 13th, 2003, 3:02pm
yeah, you can say that again..
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by Speaker on Aug 13th, 2003, 5:52pm
Here here, huzza huzza

Nice answer.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by aero_guy on Aug 14th, 2003, 2:18am
I'm a little sad it's gone though.
Title: Re: Cryptic Address
Post by wowbagger on Aug 14th, 2003, 4:16am
Well, yes, it is a little sad. But we can take pleasure in the fact that we were involved in solving it.
Or at least in trying to do so.

Well done, PaulH.


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