I’m always forgetting my passwords, but I’m afraid to write them down in plain text. I leave myself two hints, one plain hint and another hint that’s obfuscated by a number of steps. I start with one word in step 1 and by adding, deleting, shifting, or replacing letters, I go through steps to reveal my second password hint.
Using the plain clue and the decrypted second clue, I try to remember my password. Note: my password is not the second clue.
Can you follow the cryptic instructions below to help me remember my password?
First clue: “Enterprising”
Second clue:
The study of plants
Add New Mexico’s region in the center.
Delete DC’s most famous Portuguese resident.
Invert Hanes’s plain whites.
On the border, insert “Fwd”, Twitter-style.
Delete the state w/ the most populous US city.
After a road text, add the most common English letter.
On the border, insert “Fwd”, Twitter-style.
a quick Google search told me that a Twitter-style ‘fwd’ is ‘rt’ (retweet), but I didn’t know what ‘on the border’ meant here…putting it at the beginning didn’t seem to do much; putting it at the end gave stwanyrt
Delete the state w/ the most populous US city.
'that would be ‘ny’, so we remove that: stwart
After a road text, add the most common English letter.
i’m guessing ‘road text’=‘st’, so that gives us stewart
Start with a tax agency.
‘irs’ at the front? irsstewart
Promote bronze to gold.
bronze isn’t an element, so there’s no ‘xx’->‘au’ transition…are we looking for a ‘third’->‘first’?
No, we move the third character to the beginning. sirstewart
Along with the first clue, that gives us Patrick[/spoiler]
I’m assuming that because ‘Enterprising’ is capitalized, that the first character of the password is capitalized as well.
So…as soon as you PM me your credit card number, I guess I’ll know if I’m right
Without looking at the spoilered answer, I’ll take a crack at some of these - I don’t know the answers to enough of the steps to get the whole thing though:
1. The study of plants - must be BOTANY I think.
2. Add New Mexico’s region in the center. - not sure what region New Mexico is considered to be in.
3. Delete DC’s most famous Portuguese resident. - no idea.
4. Invert Hanes’s plain whites. - no idea.
5. On the border, insert “Fwd”, Twitter-style. - no idea.
6. Delete the state w/ the most populous US city. - New York, so delete NY? Or is LA more populous, so delete CA? Or even IN if the answer is Chicago?
7. After a road text, add the most common English letter. - E.
8. Start with a tax agency. - I, as in the start of IRS?
9. Promote bronze to gold. - change BR to AU? No, wait - Br is the chemical symbol for Bromine, Bronze of course is not an element - so I think this means move the third letter to the start of the word.
On checking the spoiler, seems I did OK, but got nowhere near the password due to missing too many steps. Show us the next one!
Oh, and can someone explain the answers to 3 and 4 in a bit more detail please?
I think you’ve definitely succeeded in making it harder…
I think I have a few of the clues, but I’m missing enough that I can’t fill in the blanks, which I was able to do with the first one.
[spoiler]
Like Temple locks (5 letters)
I guessed that this referred to the ‘sideburns’ worn by Orthodox Jews, and Google tells me they are referred to as ‘payot’ (or peyot, or payos, or peyos, as well as several other non-5-letter variations)
Don’t ask me no questions
The only thing this brings to mind is the Lynyrd Skynyrd song, the next line being “and I won’t tell you no lies”…but that doesn’t seem likely to be the clue here
No pickle predecessor repeats
The first hit when I searched for ‘pickle predecessor’ was for the Dill Pickle Club…so perhaps ‘pickle predecessor’ = ‘dill’, and the ‘repeats’ refers to the letter L. If we need to remove all the Ls, that does make the Skynyrd lyric slightly more likely…but only slightly
Fill with Texas tea
Texas Tea, Black Gold…Oil, that is. so we stick ‘oil’ in the middle of whatever we have at this point?
Poke out one part, kid.
I got nothin’
Add an ambulance final destination
I’m guessing the ambulance destination is the Emergency Room, so we add ‘er’ to the end.[/spoiler]
Unfortunately, when I put it all together, I’m still a few puzzle pieces short…
I shall give you a hint by providing an anecdote. You’re the second person to think the first line refers to orthodox Jews, which is very far from what I intended. Strangely, their interpretation still produced the right starting word.
I would also like to edit it slightly. It’s not “poke out”, it’s “shoot out.”
I have absolutely no idea about the second set of clues, but from the first clue only, I’m going to guess your password is Oceania.Though actually, now I think about it I can’t see how that fits with clue #6, for which I think the answer is either ER, as suggested by Suburban Plankton, or H for hospital.
Pickle predecessors are cucumbers – “cu” is repeated – take it out – {rl}
Texas tea = oil, bubbling crude, black gold, etc.; putting “oil” in the center = {roill}
A Christmas Story reference – “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid” – remove I – {roll}
Ambulance final destination: ER (or possibly ED, “emergency department” in modern terminology) – {roller} or {rolled}[/spoiler]…neither of which are 7 letters long. They don’t fit the plain clue, either. Hopefully, this failure will help others.
The seven letters refer to the final answer, made by combining the ‘plain’ clue and the ‘cryptic’ clue, so the fact that your answer was only 6 letters long isn’t a problem.
I think the cryptic clue is ‘roller’ rather than ‘rolled’. A ‘roller’ could refer to a wave, and ‘nearer the brine’ could refer to the ocean, so I think you’re on the right track…but I can’t put it together…
I should say that if you get the final word correct, the password will relate to it in a direct, obvious manner. It’s never a tricky, mind bending sort of connection. If you play that word association ‘game’ that psychologists do in TV dramas, you can get it. If I say “desk,” you might say “chair.” If I say “Hawaii,” you might say “beach.” If I say “top,” you might say “bottom” or “hat” or “spin.”
Working from the plain clue (or “title,” as my coworkers have taken to calling it), you’ll never get it. Working from the cryptic clue, you’ll probably just blurt it out.
helix -> shelix -> shix -> sshix -> sshi -> susshi?
password: JapanI’m still stuck on #2, though. (Thanks for the reminder, Suburban Plankton – the fact that the normal clue seems to hint at a comparative adjective and the cryptic clue might end in “er” threw me off for a little while.)
