# O Lark, the Judge of Dan

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-lark-the-judge-of-dan/354447>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 27, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-lark-the-judge-of-dan/354447 "2006-04-27T14:25:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-lark-the-judge-of-dan/354447/1 "2006-04-27T14:25:01Z")

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A lawyer reading the judgment in _Da Vinci Code_ author Dan Brown’s recently-concluded copyright infringement trial has noticed a sprinkling of italicized letters that appear to be a hidden message of some sort.

The judge isn’t confirming whether or not he deliberately embedded a cipher into his judgment, but he’s definitely winking a lot.

The letters in question: smithcodeJaeiextostpsacgreamqwfkadpmqz

And millions of cryptography geeks immediately leap to their keyboards to be the first to break the code and read the judge’s secret message.

(My apologies if this messes up the schedule for any of the SDMB’s obsessive analytical types who are compelled to set aside their planned work to chew on this.)

(Also, since this is more about the judge’s code than Dan Brown’s book, I figured it’d be better in MPSIMS. Move as appropriate.)

[news story](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060427/od_nm/davinci_code_dc;_ylt=AgXtCXZwn8ZwHck7XgEcDHas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-)