# It's an Enigma. Part II: After the Math Riddle **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832 "2009-06-15T14:20:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/41 "2009-06-16T17:39:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > And the www.\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.com filename has ten blanks in it (by my count.) With 10 audio tracks and presumably ten clues it looks like we’re looking at collecting one letter at each site. If there were actually 11 blanks and 11 clues, with one of them being ‘t’, I’d bet large sums of money that the other letters would be ‘aaegiinnms’ in some order. Are we missing a blank and clue somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/42 "2009-06-16T17:54:02Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > If there were actually 11 blanks and 11 clues, with one of them being ‘t’, I’d bet large sums of money that the other letters would be ‘aaegiinnms’ in some order. > Are we missing a blank and clue somewhere? This was my thought as well, but I definitely counted one less than an anagrammed version of “[itsanenigma.com](http://itsanenigma.com)”. I had actually written a little script to test out all possible URLs that anagram to [itsanenigma.com](http://itsanenigma.com), and testing whether I get a 404 or a live webpage. I got a couple hits for web pages we already know exist, but I have to tweak the code, as I realize the anagram solver I was using doesn’t list all possible permutations (for example, it will list “agent simian” but not “simian agent.”) If anyone can provide me with a text file of all anagrams, including ones containing the same words but reordered, I could run them through the script. Yeah, it’s cheating. I don’t particularly care, but this puzzle seems like it should be easily solvable if we could find enough people to dig up the clues. I’m hoping we won’t need anywhere near all 10 clues and could just extrapolate the missing letters. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/43 "2009-06-16T18:05:00Z")
I think I might be sort of getting somewhere transcribing and examining that last file. I’ll post what I’ve got here in a bit if I don’t quite crack it. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/44 "2009-06-16T18:15:20Z")
I know some Russian speaking people if you guys still need help with that. I’m at work right now and if you PM me the track, I can get someone to translate it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/45 "2009-06-16T18:21:58Z")
> [@tr0psn4j](#): > > I know some Russian speaking people if you guys still need help with that. I’m at work right now and if you PM me the track, I can get someone to translate it. The tracks are posted [here](http://www.peterpawinski.com/enigma/). ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/46 "2009-06-16T19:26:28Z")
Ok, so number 10. I listened to it several times at half-speed and made a phonetic transcription. One thing I noticed was the repeating “theg” sound. With that, I’m sure it’s using the “-itheg” [Gibberish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberish_(language_game)) variant, but some of the sounds are still hard to make out (and since I’ve never played this “Gibberish” game, I am certainly not used to these types of sounds). Anyway, my (many times revised) phonetic translation is: > [@](#): > > pithegah > pithegat > ithegeh > ilithegee (this one was especially hard, but I think I know what it means) > ithegow > titheger > ithegats > ithegev > ithegin > withegest > itheyeeg > ithegerst > ithegeep (again, hard to pick out the sounds) > ithegin > bithegalt > itheguh > nthegore So, the first thing I got was ithegats, ithegev, ithegin which when you remove the "itheg"s becomes “at seven.” I was catching on a little, so realized that “withegest” would be “west” and from there I figured out the last part was “at seven West Eager Street in Baltimore.” So I went to Google Maps, and found out that 7 W. Eager St. does indeed exist in Baltimore, and is a grocery store. I still had to figure out the first part of the message, which seemed more garbled than the rest. “Ithegow, titheger” seemed like it could conceivably be “ithegcoun, titheger” ie. “counter” and so I think those and the really confusing one before it (sounds confusing because it has two vowels, and the -ithegs always come before vowels) mean “deli counter.” So I _think_ I have > [@](#): > > “Bob at the deli counter at 7 West Eager Street in Baltimore.” ---
**Author:** ![Shark\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Shark\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shark_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/47 "2009-06-16T21:03:24Z")
subscribing ---
**Author:** ![CMiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CMiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMiller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/48 "2009-06-16T21:51:32Z")
> [@troub](#): > > Great. So now we just need to find 8 or 9 more people around the country to pick up envelopes, huh? I am in Marina del Rey in Los Angeles, not more than 10 minutes away from Wilshire Blvd. A former professor of mine is from Russia, so I’ll email him and see if he can translate for me. If someone cracks it in the interim send me a PM and I’ll head on down and see what the story is. ---
**Author:** ![CMiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CMiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMiller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/49 "2009-06-16T22:33:05Z")
Just got an email back from my professor: “Under the FedEx mailbox in the mailroom in the lobby at 5700 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.” I’m headed there now to check it out. Should be back in an hour or so, hopefully with something cool. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/50 "2009-06-16T23:06:04Z")
> [@CMiller](#): > > Just got an email back from my professor: > > “Under the FedEx mailbox in the mailroom in the lobby at 5700 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.” > > I’m headed there now to check it out. Should be back in an hour or so, hopefully with something cool. Ah! “Mailbox” and “Mailroom” – those was the words that were causing me trouble. Should’ve been obvious as the word in Polish for mail is “poczta” (pronounced “pochta”) and you can hear something similar to that in the Russian mp3. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/51 "2009-06-16T23:34:05Z")
I just called Microsoft Building 88. The receptionist said the envelope has been in the drawer there for a long time. It was sealed shut, so I had her open it and tell me which letter is cut out of the dollar bill. It’s a “T”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/52 "2009-06-16T23:39:10Z")
> [@ntucker](#): > > I just called Microsoft Building 88. The receptionist said the envelope has been in the drawer there for a long time. It was sealed shut, so I had her open it and tell me which letter is cut out of the dollar bill. It’s a “T”. OK so we have “T” for #6 and #9. If (and this is a big “if”) the clues are in order to solving our puzzle and solving the puzzle will reveal the next URL, we have www.-----T–T-.com ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/53 "2009-06-17T00:31:47Z")
> [@](#): > > And the French one (#4), I believe, says “The reception at 1143 Stoneridge Drive, Bozeman, Montana.” I’ll check it out tomorrow or Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![CMiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CMiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMiller)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/54 "2009-06-17T00:51:02Z")
And I’m back! Sure enough there was an envelope under the FedEx box at 5700 Wilshire Blvd. It was in a similarly marked envelope as the previous ‘clue’. See below for pictures. [Front of the bill](http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7330/img00209.jpg) [Back of the bill](http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/9599/img00210.jpg) [Envelope](http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4813/img00208.jpg) [FedEx box](http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3554/img00207.jpg) The serial number is: ‘A 79250025 A’ The ‘D’ is cut out of ‘One Dollar’ at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/55 "2009-06-17T00:56:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ll check it out tomorrow or Thursday. Whoa. And I thought that was going to be the hardest one to get. ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/56 "2009-06-17T05:38:19Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > Holy crap, I think there’s something – extracting the audio into .wav form, I get something very different: > > [spoiler]“the security desk at 1055 thomas jefferson street, in Washington DC” > > …Anybody wanna go take a look?[/spoiler] I’m not too far from there. But downtown traffic during the day _shudder_. Too bad I didn’t peek in this thread earlier. I called the security desk and the man there said he was just leaving. I asked him if he knew about the clue, and he didn’t. The building opens up again at 7am. I really don’t want to brave DC traffic at that time in the morning… \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/57 "2009-06-17T06:21:08Z")
BTW, if you happened to see my post before I edited it, or you got a copy in email, I accidentally typed the wrong phone number in there the first time. Please don’t call the 703 number. \*\*\* Ponder ---
**Author:** ![CMiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CMiller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMiller)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/58 "2009-06-17T07:29:54Z")
> [@Here\_Come\_Dots](#): > > I’ve [uploaded the photo](http://bit.ly/zdBFD) of the dollar and the envelope. > > Both sides of the envelope say > > Inside is a normal-looking, fairly-worn one dollar bill. If it’s of any use, the serial number is 55863974 and it was minted in 2003. When you found your ‘clue’ was it just the dollar inside, or was it wrapped in a piece of plain white paper folded in thirds? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/59 "2009-06-17T08:10:09Z")
> [@troub](#): > > Ok, so number 10. I listened to it several times at half-speed and made a phonetic transcription. One thing I noticed was the repeating “theg” sound. With that, I’m sure it’s using the “-itheg” [Gibberish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibberish_(language_game)) variant, but some of the sounds are still hard to make out (and since I’ve never played this “Gibberish” game, I am certainly not used to these types of sounds). > > Anyway, my (many times revised) phonetic translation is: > > So, the first thing I got was ithegats, ithegev, ithegin which when you remove the "itheg"s becomes “at seven.” I was catching on a little, so realized that “withegest” would be “west” and from there I figured out the last part was “at seven West Eager Street in Baltimore.” So I went to Google Maps, and found out that 7 W. Eager St. does indeed exist in Baltimore, and is a grocery store. I still had to figure out the first part of the message, which seemed more garbled than the rest. “Ithegow, titheger” seemed like it could conceivably be “ithegcoun, titheger” ie. “counter” and so I think those and the really confusing one before it (sounds confusing because it has two vowels, and the -ithegs always come before vowels) mean “deli counter.” > > So I _think_ I have That’s bloody good work, there! So, we’re now at [noparse]www.-----T-DT-.com[/noparse]? According to [this page](http://www.morewords.com/), there isn’t any single word matching that pattern, and so far, I didn’t have any luck splitting it up, either (except for the obvious split -----t-d, which yields a ton of results). EDIT: [noparse][www.AddictedTo.com](http://www.AddictedTo.com)[/noparse] works, but that’s probably not it… Though it’s not what you’d expect it to be, either. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2009, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832/60 "2009-06-17T11:17:25Z")
> [@](#): > > “Bob at the deli counter at 7 West Eager Street in Baltimore.” We called the grocery store. The person who answered confirmed the envelope was there, but was unwilling to open it for a phone caller. He said Bob might be willing to do it over the phone, but wouldn’t be in until 2pm, but perhaps not today because he might have jury duty. If he’s not in today, he’ll be in tomorrow. In addition to the text we’ve seen on the other envelopes, on outside of the envelope was written “Bob” and the name “Alex Epsten” \*\*\* Ponder [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-an-enigma-part-ii-after-the-math-riddle/499832.md?page=4)