I can only try

am yisrael chai-

“last word in the 1st message is decode?“

You got it!

“I’m not a proponent of getting drunk in the middle of davening on ???? ????“

Likewise, I just couldn’t think of any other situation that a person davened everything up until shemona esrai, and then had a sobriety issue.

Hmmm, let’s think about this one…

“How did u manage that?“

Back channel communications – that’s all I can say ?

am yisrael chai-

I assume some people will enjoy decoding more than being presented with the answer, so…

B’rshus “squeak”, here are two clues:

1) The code is a one-to-one character replacement.

2) The phrase “DR PEPPER” (no quotes, no period) is present in the first post.

My technique is to cut-and-paste the entire post into Notepad, then use “replace all” to change one character at a time. You can cut-and-paste one character at a time into the “Find What” window when replacing all, so you don’t actually have to type the funny characters.

squeak-

Thank you for being understanding.

You’re right, I didn’t get the time. There was no possible way I could get it without any frame of reference. I assumed it was four different numbers without a colon, since you used no punctuation anywhere else. Upon further consideration, you may have used a colon or period for a time of 1:30, 2.15, 3:14 and so on.

I have no way of knowing for sure, but I believe “Dr. Pepper” was serious.

My initial request was more of a “Hah! I cracked your code.” than a real request, but if both you and “Dr. Pepper” has responded “OK”, I wouldn’t have minded being an attendee. While I’d be afraid of boring either one of you, as a fly on the wall that wouldn’t have been a problem.

And now the big question….

Is it OK if:

a) your posts are translated for all to see – I’m sure folks are curious.

b) I email an individual with the solution (confession – I already did so with a curious moderator).

c) none of the above, at least not right now.

I will b”n abide by your wishes.

Avram in MD-

Very well put.

I agree.

am yisrael chai–

If I had a way to get the info to you and you only I’d gladly do so, as I believe you’d keep it to yourself.

However, since this is a public forum, and the puzzle is a private message intended for just one recipient, I can’t post it here if it isn’t OK with “squeak” (which I believe it isn’t).

Sorry.

Dr. Pepper–

Thank you for the kind words, but apparently in this case you’ve misoverestimated me.

Perhaps the synapses are showing the strain of age or work-related stress.

Maybe it’s just rust from not trying your puzzles for several months.

Sometimes my kludged solutions are the result of brute force grunt work, sometimes there’s a “Eureka!” moment, but regardless of how it’s done there is some satisfaction to actually figuring out the answer.

In any case, although logic and trivia are more my thing, your puzzles are probably better as true mental exercises.

Please keep ’em coming.

sof davar-

We always read the report card comments. The time the rabeim and teachers take to add a remark is appreciated and shows they take an interest in the child beyond just getting the grading over and done with.

When I was in elementary school, I once brought home a report card with the following comment on it, from my rebbe:

“From outer space!”

That was it. Verbatim. Not paraphrased. I still remember it well, several decades later.

I don’t think it was meant as a compliment.

(I don’t hold it against the rebbe. He was reasonably nice, and I was a difficult student – his frustration probably got the better of him. Years later, when he was no longer a rebbe, I had business dealings with him and never mentioned this incident.)

Dr. Pepper–

🙁

If it’s because of me, sorry. Apologies to “squeak”, too. I b”n won’t horn in in the future.

Moderator-80–

Sorry, I ain’t buying ?

(? <== just a smile)

I have no idea what software interface “squeak” is talking about (I had to use standard decryption methodology), hence the above.

To give credit where it’s due, my opinion basically echoed “ChanieE”s post, but less succinctly.

Please supply honest answers to the following questions:

Pac-Man-

Who said I’m anti-southern?

Some of my best friends are penguins.

Dr. Pepper-

Thanks for the hints.

I already realize that only angles 0 – 90 need to be factored, because 91 – 180, 181-270 and 271 – 360 just duplicate the coverage the pencil achieves with 0 – 90.

B”N I’ll give it some thought.

(I hope you’re still active in teaching and/or tutoring in some capacity – you have a real talent not only for math but also for making it interesting and conveying the required knowledge and methodology.)

Oh, here’s something that maybe you can use: ??

If it didn’t come out well, it’s because I never tried it before – you can call it my beta theta <gong>.

(cut-and-pasted straight from Wikipedia)

$8,000 – $10,000 is most common in my circles.

Brooklyn, NY

Busy As A Bee-

There are several famous cases where a lie ended up being far worse than the misdeed it was meant to cover up:

-Richard Nixon lost the presidency due to engaging a cover-up of someone else’s crime.

-Bill Clinton was humiliated, impeached and disbarred for lying to cover inappropriate behavior.

-Best-selling British author Jeffrey Archer was imprisoned for lying to cover inappropriate behavior.

-Baseball superstars Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are facing prison for allegedly lying to Congress about their cheating.

-Anthony Weiner’s lying about his inappropriate behavior certainly hasn’t helped his cause.

These are just a few cases off the top of my head where lying made thing worse – in some of them much worse – than simply ‘fessing up to the original misdeed.

The specifics of some of the original misdeed are inappropriate to discuss here, and if the girl is a child (as I suspect she is, based on what you said), you will probably have to gloss them over or use a euphemism – e.g. “He took something that wasn’t his”.

I intended to write something in the form of a short children’s story and incorporate one of the above cases, but didn’t have the time – sorry.

real-brisker-

Yes.

100 ==> Page found

300 ==> Page not found

150 ==> Page not found

125 ==> Page found

137 ==> Page found

140 ==> Page not found

138 ==> Page not found

Therefore, 137 is the last page.

Pac-Man-

It’s my pleasure.

“Did you find that by giving it a shot to see if it would work?“

Yes. That’s how the URL changes when you go to any page besides the first on a thread, so I gave it a shot here, not expecting it to work.

Surprise! It worked.

“Like I said, a clickable link to the older pages should be easily added to the CR with, probably, a very simple config file change of a simple bbPress setting from a ‘0’ to a ‘1’.“

I’ll take your word for it since I don’t know bbPress at all.

I did notice books on bbPress in my version of candy stores (Barnes and Noble, Borders), if anyone is interested in learning how to work with it.

WolfishMusings-

Always a pleasure – I remember the Bronx Zoo days well.

Conversation between two ballplayers:

Reggie Jackson: “I have an IQ of 160!”

Mickey Rivers: “Out of what, a thousand?”

supposedly this actually happened

Busy As A Bee-

Why do people lie?

1) To escape punishment.

2) For personal gain.

3) To protect someone else.

4) To hurt someone else.

5) Because they don’t value the truth enough.

There may be times an untruth is allowed – to protect someone else’s feelings, for tznius reasons, for safety and so on.

I assume this case doesn’t involve any of these reasons.

This isn’t a magic cure-all for lying, but I’d emphasize how strongly you value the truth, how disappointed you are when told a lie, and how unfortunate it is to not be trusted because of a reputation as someone who is untruthful.

We do the above, and also stress how the lie itself is almost always worse in our eyes than the original transgression.

The Gemoroh is actually the first mishna in the third perek of Nedarim.

It states that four types of neder don’t even need a shailoh asked, but can be “broken” without any violation.

One of those is a “neder zairuzin” – a neder made to pressure someone to hurry up and deal.

The case given is that the seller makes a neder that he won’t sell for less than four, and the buyer makes a neder that he won’t pay more than two. It’s explained that since each really meant a price of three was acceptable, they can make the deal.

binahyeseira-

always here-

Thank you – glad you enjoy my cut-and-paste talents ?

ItcheSrulik-

Your first picture is nice, but I have no clue what it is – any hints?

Your second one needs to have all imbedded backticks replaced with ‘ or it won’t show correctly.

Also, put a period after the first backtick before your picture. This will prevent the first line of the picture from left-justifying.

Shticky Guy-

The rest of the candles were on the fourth level.

I ate it ’cause I was hungry, and hoped no one would notice.

Shhhhh, don’t tell “popa_bar_abba”.

sem20-

Happy birthday to you too.

“popa_bar_abba” will pass a slice over the mechitza.