I’m guessing 8f they didn’t bomb the town the Germans would have gotten a clue we could read their codes.
Did the name of the town have a particular pattern that made cracking easier?
Did the name of the town have a particular pattern that made cracking easier? YES and I declare the puzzle solved. Well done.
I believe I either got this out of either Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon, or wandering around the WWII codebreaking museum at Bletchley Park so can’t verify details, but the story is that bombers were sent to the town of … lets say Szczyrk in Poland, knowing that German coded dispatches would mention the name of the town the next day. The knowledge that this very statistically unlikely series of letters were going to appear in the messages was then taking advantage of in efforts to decipher German codes, and aided in the final decryption of the Enigma machine.
Great lateral thinking there, Calavera. And a fun puzzle Aspidistra.
Well, I’m glad you found it enjoyable … I was somewhat worried we were going to lose the track on that one somewhere around the middle - but no need to fret as it turned out!
the floor is open…
OK, I’ve got another one:
Back when my brother was in high school, he used to car-pool to school with some friends. Usually, after picking the last person up they would drive directly to the school. But occasionally, when they were running late, they would instead drive for a while in the opposite direction from the school. One of them drove around in a circle, while another bought a copy of the Washington Post, even though he already had one at home. Then they proceeded directly to school, as usual.
Why did they do this?
Were they pretending that they were charged with bringing the newspaper to the library?
No.
If there was a newsstand closer to the school, would they have bought the paper there instead?
Were they pretending to be somewhere else?
Did the paper or receipt give an indication where or when it was bought?
If there was a newsstand closer to the school, would they have bought the paper there instead? No.
Were they pretending to be somewhere else? No.
Did the paper or receipt give an indication where or when it was bought? Yes.
Did they leave the school district to buy the paper?
County?
State?
Time zone?
Did the newspaper have some kind of feature that your bro used to justify his tardiness?
Did they spot somebody else that was supposed to be at the same school?
Did one or more of them have the occasional assignment that had something to do with the paper, and they all skipped the first period to work on it?
Did they leave the school district to buy the paper? It was a magnet school drawing students from across the county, so there was no “school district” as such.
County? Yes, I believe so (but I had to check where the county boundaries were before answering this, so it isn’t particularly relevant to solving the puzzle. The same situation, in principle, could exist within a single county).
State? No.
Time zone? No.
Did the newspaper have some kind of feature that your bro used to justify his tardiness? No.
Did they spot somebody else that was supposed to be at the same school? No.
Did one or more of them have the occasional assignment that had something to do with the paper, and they all skipped the first period to work on it? No.
Does the person who sold them the paper make a difference?
Was the main or only reason for the detour obtaining this indicator of time and place?
If so, would purchasing some other item have worked just as well or did it have to be that newspaper?
Does the person who sold them the paper make a difference? No.
Was the main or only reason for the detour obtaining this indicator of time and place? No, there was a more significant reason for the detour.
If so, would purchasing some other item have worked just as well or did it have to be that newspaper? Purchasing another item would also have worked.
Was the school locked after the bell rang?
Was the school locked after the bell rang? I don’t think so, but if it was, it’s not relevant.
Did they have to take a ferry so if they were running late, they’d have to wait for the next one?