9.02.2010

Vox Populi, Vox Dei

This is your VORP season right here, folks. It starts in a very familiar way. I trust you will approve

"A very pleasant good evening to you, wherever you may be."

1. Change "Pleasant" to the last name of the MLB player who shares his first name with Dodger farmhand Paul, and move after the name of a month.

2. Delete every vowel, including Y

3. Replace every R with LL

4. Change every V to U, every H to A, and every W to O

5. Replace the last name of a Washington National with the position he plays.

6. Replace an ordinal number with "only"

7. Switch the first letter that appears before a double letter with the letter that occurs before the next double letter.

8. Change G to IS.

9. Move the last letter to the front, then move the 16th letter to the end.

10. Move the 16th and 17th letters four positions to the right. 

11. Move the 15th letter 9 positions to the right.

12. Move the antonym for "acid" to the beginning of the line.

13. Add a D before every U             

14.Go to http://caveemptorem.blogspot.com/p/last name of the person quoted.html



The answer to the puzzle is a Dodger. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:
  • email me with the first and last name of the Dodger who is the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). Please include your screen name somewhere in the email.
  • Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until 11pm PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

78 comments:

Nostradamus said...

Mornin, boys and girls! Today's VORP entry should be both self-explanatory and frustrating, which is what I'm hoping for.

It also has a lot of moving parts, which makes me nervous. If you run into trouble, let me know.

Josh S. said...

I need to retrace my steps. I have half a quote and half gibberish.

Nostradamus said...

Josh, which step # are you hitting trouble?

Steve K said...

I'm with Josh... I've got a bunch of gibberish half-way through.

Josh S. said...

Email sent.

Josh S. said...

Going for coffee. Make your move, everybody!

Nostradamus said...

I'll be able to look at the steps in about ten minutes.

Josh S. said...

The steps are OK. I found where I went wrong.

Steve K said...

I have no idea where I went wrong and sent in an email for some help...

Nostradamus said...

Two clarifications. I've added the .html after clue 14.

The puzzle contains only alpha characters. If you use numbers, they should be spelled out.

Josh S. said...

Welp. I'm stuck again.

Nostradamus said...

Point of clarification. For the later steps, use only the quote, not the name of the person. The names only get you to the next steps

Golem said...

I'm only on the 315th page so far, but I'm getting tired. Answer sent.

Nostradamus said...

We have our first finisher to survive the marathon!

1. Golem @11:17a

Nostradamus said...

I will give a hint that I gave to Golem to clarify the final clue. It asks you to go back and look at the the previous quotes on each page. One of the answers. The final answer refers only to the specific people quoted in the puzzle.

This will sound needlessly cryptic until you reach that step.

Kyle Baker said...

Wait, there's more than one page? Damn. Brother's gotta get some work done. Real work.

Grrrrr...

Nostradamus said...

@Dusty

So must we all, from time to time. Personally, I've been on cruise control into the long weekend since about 5pm on Tuesday.

Nostradamus said...

J Steve is on the knockin' on the door.

Steve K said...

And I'm in!

Nostradamus said...

...and there are two!


1. Golem @11:17a
2. J. Steve @12:12p

Kyle Baker said...

@Mr C

I'm truly sorry it wasn't closer to 4PM on Tuesday.

Josh S. said...

Fack. Screwed up something on the last(?) page.

Nostradamus said...

@dusty

Hell, I'm sorry it wasn't Monday, but what can you do.

Josh S. said...

Answer sent.

*punches a hole in a wall*

Nostradamus said...

Josh is in at 1:32p

I'll update the record when I return to my abacus.

Nostradamus said...

I think Josh has this thing sewn up, though only 85 points in front of J. Steve.

Kyle Baker said...

I see you put a Dusty-bomb in one of the clues on 2nd page in order to send my dirty mind off onto a tangent from which I could never return....hung me up.

Nostradamus said...

@Dusty

There's one on the penultimate page, too. Kept cracking me up.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

When you say delete every vowel, including Y, is that only when Y is the vowel, or all Ys?

Nostradamus said...

@MLASF

Every vowel, including every Y.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Damn your cryptic nonsense!

Nostradamus said...

*giggles maniacally*

Kyle Baker said...

You mean "*gggls mncll*"

Josh S. said...

There is also a rogue apostrophe to hunt down, Dusty. I blame Steve Jobs.

Nostradamus said...

Shit, I will find that little fucker and beat it senseless!

Nostradamus said...

Killed two!

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Stuck on the second page.

Nostradamus said...

Which #, MLASF?

Kyle Baker said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyle Baker said...

Yeah I got stuck on second page too and had to move on to other things (e.g., work). The phone one killed me. Dry humping cell phone doesn't fit anywhere.

Kyle Baker said...

You're going to beat Steve Jobs senseless? Cool. Tell him it's for no end of page support for iPhones.

Nostradamus said...

Nah, I was just putting those sneaky little things out of their misery. Can't blame anything but my giant clumsy thumbs.

Nostradamus said...

What is it that most folks do (after dry humping) with their cell phones now days? It ain't using it to make calls.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Now I've breezed right through it. I'm stuck on the end of page 4. Question sent.

Kyle Baker said...

Surfing for clown porn? Commenting on SoSG?

Seriously, I think I know the answer to that one, but can't make it fit anywhere, which means I screwed something else up before that, though I didn't think I had, but that could easily be the case given that I'm an idiot and a person who really enjoys long sentences punctuated with appropriately-placed commas.

Nostradamus said...

If only there were a quote about clown porn from anyone but Dibble, I totally would have used it.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Still waiting for a response.

Nostradamus said...

Sorry MLASF, did you send another question?

Nostradamus said...

Hold on, let me see if I can clarify my response.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

That's my fault, Mr C. My mail is acting very strangely.

Mr. LA Sports Fan said...

SO DAMN CLOSE

Nostradamus said...

Wait for it…

Josh S. said...

Dusty, you shouldn't have spent extra time on that one clue.

Mr. LA Sports Fan said...

I GOT IT!!!!

Kyle Baker said...

I'm confused...know the answer to one of the page's final riddle, but can't pug it into my browser and get it to render the page.

Mr. LA Sports Fan said...

One of my fruitless endeavors led to a Victoria's Secret page, so even if I couldn't solve the puzzle, I had something to be proud of.

Nostradamus said...

Good work MLASF.

1. Golem @11:17a
2. J. Steve @12:12p
3. Josh S. @1:32p
4. MLASF @8:58p

Kyle Baker said...

^plug

Nostradamus said...

@Dusty

Not rendering? It should go direct to the answer page using the directions based on the last line.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

So did J Steve usurp my place? Do I usurp Jason's?

Kyle Baker said...

On #73...that's the one I'm confused on.

Nostradamus said...

J. Steve did move up into the second spot. I haven't run the other numbers.

Nostradamus said...

@dusty

It's a one-word answer, similar to the other quotes. The full title is not used.

Kyle Baker said...

I just got it to work. It's the same g.d. word I was typing in an hour ago. I will never get this frickin hour back!

Nostradamus said...

MLASF into the #3 spot, barring a stealth strike by Jason.

Nostradamus said...

Being the puzzle maker is a bit like being Reverse Santa Claus.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Wait, you mean #2, right?

Nostradamus said...

@MLASF

Current top 5

Josh - 589
J. Steve - 511
MLASF - 357
Jason - 335
Golem - 320

The comparatively fast solve really pushed the first two solvers up in the rankings.

Mr. LA Sports Czar said...

Aw nuts.

Nostradamus said...

Hmm. Took me all day to find a bit of lazy Latin. Good thing there are no Romans around to complain.

Kyle Baker said...

Answer sent.

Nostradamus said...

Y uno mas.

1. Golem @11:17a
2. J. Steve @12:12p
3. Josh S. @1:32p
4. MLASF @8:58p
5. Dusty @9:48p

Kyle Baker said...

Bar's closed!

Kyle Baker said...

In your Mr. Reading List, you have Erin's site listed as "Robot's Took My Medicine."

Bad, bad, Mr. Customer.

Josh S. said...

I am da champeen*!








*Made of paper, because I didn't have to face ubragg. Or Mr. C, at least not in direct competition. But still, CHAMPEEN!

Kyle Baker said...

Lap dances for Josh!

Nostradamus said...

Someday, I will have a T-shirt, a la VSIMH, that reads DUSTY BAKER IS MY COPY EDITOR.

Jason said...

Just for the hell of it, I solved this today since I was too busy destroying company property yesterday.