Fed II Star - March 12, 2006

CRYPTOGRAMS
Saturday March 4
by Catspaws

Lately I've had a craving for rare beef and, since the cows on Catseye objected loudly when I approached them with a knife and fork in paw, I steered my ship to Sol in search of a meal. After a search of upper Sol, I remembered back to my days as a brave adventuress and headed for Magellan, and Brasserie Camile Saint Saens, which serves a delicious steak frite that is so rare it almost moos back at you.

My meal complete, I settled down to this week's game of Cryptograms, in which I was joined by Fancy, Gilar, Guido, Caesar, Gwaptiva and a friendly Monkey. This week's warmup puzzle was the ever-popular player names puzzle, and Fancy finished it first, naturally, followed by Guido and Monkey.

PLAYER NAMES STARTING WITH "R"
D X J R D
D M P
D X Z A N P
D M W A L J L N B
D X P R V A R
D X U M L

For our second puzzle I got a bit tricky, as some of the commodities the players expected weren't in the list. Fancy, Monkey and Gilar finally finished the puzzle. For me, the starting point would be the fact that most of the words ended in Z, so I would assume Z=S.

COMMODITIES THAT SHOULD CARRY A "HANDLE WITH CARE" LABEL
R W K P N R K K A M
W P K M X Z
Y X B A M Y R D F Z
U R Z D V P Y Z
N I W P K P X W Z
N P D M X Z D R O Y A O Z

Guido, Monkey and Gilar shut out Fancy for our third puzzle which took our brave explorers to the worlds outside the link. (You can always type DI SYSTEMS to see a list of these worlds.) For a starting point, I would look to the double letters in the first word.

INTERESTING PLANETS OUTSIDE THE LINK
A I M L L K
Z M T I Z
W I R J Y T Y
I W X A E K I R I
V I K Z V I F I M
W X F Y

I miss my depots. I loved and cherished each one dearly. So, for the next puzzle, I looked back to my days as a factory owner and the things I did with my depots. (The obvious starting point is the two-letter word that appears in each entry.) Monkey, Fancy and Gwaptiva finished this puzzle.

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH A DEPOT
C G V M N C / N Q
H G B B / N Q
L T F / N Q
H Q K C G / Q Y T M C O H / N A / N Q
T V D C M I G / N Q
H Q K C G / Z M P Q K C F / N A V T Q H / N A / N Q

I had intended to do a list of the restaurants found on Magellan, but due to an accident I blame on Fancy, I accidentally gave out the answer to the puzzle. So our last puzzle dealt with the different types of cuisine found on Magellan. The obvious starting point is the single letter that appears. Monkey, Fancy and Guido finished this puzzle.

THINGS TO EAT ON MAGELLAN
K / V I A Z G Y B R / W O D T / J K B N A Y W C
K / S G Z B W C / W I B V Y B Z B V K O / T G Z K U S K J V
K B / Y B W G Z N Y T O E / J V G I B R / K B Y J Z Z N - S O K P I G Z N / O Y H Z D G
V C Z / V Y B Y Z J V / X I G J Z O / I S / W K P Y K G
J V Z K U / S G Y V Z
K / W G I H D Z / X I B J Y Z D G

When the scores were tallied, Guido finished third, Fancy second, and Monkey was our champion! We play Cryptograms each Saturday at 4.00pm eastern. Next week, maybe you can be our winner. And if you want the answers to this week's puzzles, you can email me at catspaws_fed@sbcglobal.net.