Overheard at Table 1: Cryptograms

 "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
— John Muir
This Cryptogram's Statistics
Success Rate:    92.2%
Average Time:    46 seconds
Record Time:    6 seconds (will0416)
Your Time:    37 seconds
Performance:    Above Average
Difficulty:    
Currently 4.89/1012345678910
4.9 out of 18 votes cast
      

37

6    26    46    138    230    


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Previous Top Solvers For This Puzzle
#
Player
Date
Solve Time
1.
will0416    February 5, 2021    6 sec.
2.
n-j-b    November 6, 2022    7 sec.
3.
nanrich    September 5, 2016    10 sec.
4.
jgl_45    March 12, 2023    10 sec.
5.
azhang941    July 29, 2020    11 sec.
6.
Deanna48 Premium Member    July 23, 2024    11 sec.
7.
ivyk    June 10, 2023    12 sec.
8.
munchlet    October 11, 2018    13 sec.
9.
agneg05    March 16, 2021    13 sec.
10.
attercop    June 4, 2021    14 sec.
11.
ahnoah    April 8, 2023    14 sec.
12.
aaaaaa    May 23, 2024    14 sec.
13.
DefyScience    July 23, 2024    14 sec.
14.
Deatomization4thePeople    May 21, 2013    15 sec.
15.
Nautilus    April 14, 2020    15 sec.
16.
kb83    May 9, 2018    16 sec.
17.
Descifrador    March 19, 2022    16 sec.
18.
DMVJDCPA    July 28, 2022    16 sec.
19.
BirdyBirdyBirdyBird    October 30, 2023    16 sec.
20.
GramBow    April 25, 2018    17 sec.

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John Muir
John Muir
John Muir (21 April 1838 – 24 December 1914) was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. His letters, essays, and books telling of his adventures in nature, especially in the Si...  More

Comments on this Puzzle:
abra
February 21, 2014, 3:32 pm
Amusing, and it kind of paints a mental cartoon.
LLapp
April 22, 2015, 1:53 pm
This is so well put, and so terribly unknown to most people.
SippyGurl
January 17, 2017, 9:26 pm
like that tiny root you try to yank out but that just keeps going and going
darkyr
June 14, 2017, 7:48 am
Like the natural gas you try to siphon out from under the neighbors' yards.
phthelen
July 2, 2018, 1:42 pm
A single tariff? oops
Eureka
December 10, 2018, 9:53 am
Lucky for us, John Muir made sure we have beautiful wilderness to enjoy.
318WOZ
February 12, 2020, 8:18 pm
Man With Beard Pulls Root Across County Borders, State Lines -- A man was reported by multiple residents of Sacramento for trespassing as he continually tugged at a root that ran across their properties, according to the Sacramento Police Department. Unrelated local disturbances caused police to lose track of the man, but he was later seen several days later as far south as Fresno before he turned east, still removing more and more of the root as he moved along. Unconfirmed reports the following week put him in the fringes of Las Vegas; one resident of Henderson, who encountered him there, claims to have followed the bearded man along the eastern edge of Las Vegas until he got bored. What appears to be the last sighting of the man--an image captured by a highway camera--occurred north of I-15. He is now rumored to be moving toward Crystal Springs, still doggedly following the root and muttering under his breath about "damned morning glory", and he could be pursued by simply following the unearthed plant, but no one cares.
DrCryptell
August 13, 2020, 6:49 am
I tugged at a leaf the other day. I had to tug so hard it almost caused an 8.0 earthquake. Muir says that some day tugging on a leaf will do exactly that. What happens if you tug a tugboat too hard? Muir predicts: tsunami.
imported_Beverly
March 10, 2022, 6:00 pm
318WOZ, are you sure he wasn't muttering something about bittersweet?
Synonymous
October 7, 2022, 9:38 pm
318WOZ your book is equally entertaining. Nice stories, both.
pickleball
February 19, 2023, 10:10 am
waldo
bees
July 25, 2024, 5:20 pm
Any tips on killing off poison ivy and vinca?

Overheard at Table 3: Thought for the Day

 
"The attempt to force human beings to despise themselves is what I call hell."
— Andre Malraux

Overheard at Table 4: Two Cryptoquotes

 

 

 

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance."

— Unattributed

 

 

"All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire. "

— Aristotle

Overheard at Booth 4: Cryptoquotes - Least and Most by Terry Pratchett

 "When the least they could do to you was everything, then the most they could do to you suddenly held no terror."
— Terry Pratchett


universalmom
March 10, 2012, 1:14 pm
He's an amazing author.
MmeScherzo
August 20, 2013, 1:38 pm
Sounds like a quote from Solzhenitsyn.
ronasid
September 4, 2015, 1:40 pm
You are missed
xenia
September 17, 2018, 10:46 pm
This reminds m a quote from Solzhenitsyn found on this site: "You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's free again." (from The First Circle)
Majka
October 22, 2019, 10:25 pm
Don't know who said it but "A person is dangerous when they have nothing to lose or everything to lose."
mohamm1
February 17, 2020, 9:28 pm
And now it seems that everything has been said.
gracefulghost
November 24, 2021, 8:47 pm
I'm terrified that they're not through yet....

Overheard at Booth 1: Cryptoquotes - Some Luck by Garrison Keillor

 "Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted, had you known."
— Garrison Keillor

killdozer
March 23, 2015, 7:56 am
I like this one.
insomniac
April 17, 2015, 11:26 pm
So I really wanted this flu? I must be a masochist.
marnita
June 3, 2016, 12:28 pm
He said "some luck," not all luck. This rings true for me. In my own life, a few total disasters eventually led to some of the best things that ever happened to me.
darkyr
June 16, 2016, 10:11 am
Like having to stand in what looks like a longer line only to find out it's moving much more quickly.
letfreedomring
May 11, 2018, 9:51 am
A nice spin on moving on after not getting what ever we didn't get. I'm thinking of a job that, had I got it, I'd have been excessed within a few years. Instead I had a full career with that same agency.
YorkiesRule
December 16, 2018, 5:26 am
You can't always get what you want But if you try sometimes you might find You get what you need
Synonymous
March 6, 2021, 8:02 pm
letfreedomring similar situation, very early in my career I wanted to work at a company so bad but I took a job across the street from the company because they did not hire me. Looking out my window one day, I saw TV crews, camera trucks and a big commotion. The company I wanted so desperately to work for had gone bankrupt. I was glad I had NOT gotten that job over there.

Overheard at Table 2: Cryptoquotes - All Enterprises by Tacitus

 "All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end. "
— Publius Cornelius Tacitus

hopetheturtle
September 19, 2011, 3:35 pm
I disagree, some people see things through and don't lose their original zest for the project.
fredsevent
September 29, 2012, 3:20 pm
Is this a weird quote or what?
chopstix
December 6, 2012, 7:30 pm
All I know is that putting in "can", not "may" slowed me down quite a bit.
wvwoman
January 22, 2014, 10:20 am
me, too, chopstix--took me a while to find my error!
Highpoint
July 9, 2014, 1:59 pm
Meaning what? What is indiscreet zeal?
wvwoman
July 13, 2014, 11:49 am
good question, highpoint--who wants to take this one?!
kb83
September 9, 2014, 7:39 am
If you have to ask what indiscreet zeal is, it may just be hopeless.
montyb
December 23, 2014, 1:24 am
My end collapsed years ago.
LLapp
January 5, 2015, 4:51 pm
I think he means zeal that is untempered by due diligence -- that you need both zeal and prudence to bring a big pursuit to fruition. Does that help?
abracadebra
March 24, 2015, 2:37 pm
I think it means that the enterprises secrets are overly enthusiastic, that some things are just better unsaid.
killdozer
May 20, 2015, 2:53 pm
By "indiscrete zeal," he means recklessness, Enthusiasm without planning.
Andy451
October 11, 2015, 10:50 am
Is this why infidelity gets such a bad rap, in other words? Or marriage too, for that matter? Or even remaining celibate for that matter? What's a Roman to do then Tacitus? So Caesar should have written, "I came; I saw; I was conquered"? No wonder the Roman Empire crumbled in to dust. No wonder all empires that came before or after it, met the same fate. As the noble Roman Katie Couric would say, "Oh, now I get it!"
pegxpeg
July 20, 2016, 3:04 pm
Good explanation, killdozer.
CarpeLanam
November 7, 2016, 2:41 am
I spent some time trying to trace this quote... it may be from Annals XV, where there is a description of a conspiracy to assassinate Nero that fell apart and resulted in a bloodbath of the conspirators and their associates.
LLapp
November 28, 2016, 2:31 pm
Killdozer's explanation and CarpeLanam's context are so helpful. Thank you both!
blueladyblue
April 4, 2018, 8:26 am
This quote has been pursued with vigor by some of the comments here. Other comments were typed hurriedly with indiscreet zeal.
mohamm1
January 24, 2022, 7:09 pm
Therefore, use discrete zeal, or rent cars from National or Thrifty instead of Enterprise. ==================================== You solved this cryptogram in 83 seconds. That's worth 286 points!

https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/

Overheard at Booth 3: Cryptoquotes - One by Einstein

 "Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science."
— Albert Einstein

maradnu
March 3, 2015, 4:04 pm
Too many only want to live in a scene of hopes and wishes
vintage38
December 30, 2017, 1:50 am
54 seconds
Capy
April 23, 2019, 9:21 am
To question all the time. My hero AE
pickleball
November 25, 2020, 1:01 pm
and what a world it is !!
hrossa
March 14, 2021, 5:51 pm
Art and science are one realm. Lovely thought, thanks AE.
Fudi
July 11, 2022, 10:50 pm
I was trying to fake it as a free being ... as usual.




https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/

Overheard at Table 4: Cryptoquotes - Upon Books by Henry C Rogers

 "Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought."
— Henry C. Rogers

puzzleme
September 26, 2013, 2:33 pm
True no longer.
wordfairy
March 28, 2015, 9:07 pm
Not sure this was ever true.
kb83
May 26, 2016, 2:52 am
Well, tweets do not transmit thought.
LLapp
July 10, 2016, 7:17 am
Astute comment, kb83, and stated in well under 140 characters!
MamaB
May 29, 2017, 2:45 am
So kb83 could have just tweeted it!
SippyGurl
August 13, 2017, 5:36 pm
tweets only transmit thoughts if the tweeterer has any
munchlet
August 14, 2017, 3:16 pm
Does that last thought apply to our Tweeterer-in-Chief?
miawallace
June 11, 2018, 11:32 pm
I pride myself in not knowing before now that tweeting has to be under 140 characters. Never tweeted and probably never will.
abra
June 29, 2018, 6:05 pm
I do not tweet eithrr.
mmfs83
September 29, 2018, 7:35 am
Nor I
eholland
November 2, 2018, 6:45 am
The failing @maiwallace claims 140 character limit for tweets! Character limit was changed to 280 in 09/2017. FAKE NEWS! SAD!
LLapp
January 5, 2019, 9:14 pm
eholland for prez in 2020!
badbob
September 23, 2019, 2:45 am
another never tweeter never facebooked don't intend to do either ever. i did however pass notes in studyhall
LLapp
June 22, 2020, 2:48 am
When we passed notes in junior high, they were at least a full page long, with drawings and jokes, and actually we wrote them during class and then exchanged them between classes, in the hallways. It was probably my favorite part of school, and I still have a big bagful of friends' long notes in my memory box.
montyb
August 31, 2020, 8:26 am
^ Oooh, I see potential for a lucrative career in extortion!

from https://cryptograms.puzzlebaron.com/