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Solve the "Smithy Code"

By maggie wittlin on April 27, 2006.

You may have seen the rather exciting NY Times article this morning: "Judge Embeds a Puzzle in 'Da Vinci Code' Ruling." Apparently, Judge Peter Smith stuck 40 bold/italic letters into his ruling on a suit against Dan Brown (Brown won). The first ten letters spell out SMITHY CODE, giving us a clue that there is meaning in the madness. I've gone through and picked out the rest of the letters, checked them against some bloggers, and now I present them to you:

Jaeiextostgpsacgreamqwfkadpmqzv

Beautiful, ain't it? So...what are you waiting for? Solve the Smithy Code! According to the Times, mathematics is key, and we should look at how the protagonist of The Da Vinci Code decodes messages. The reporter also writes:

He drew attention to his own entry in Who's Who -- in which he lists an interest in the history of Jackie Fisher, an admiral who modernized the British Navy, a possible reason that his e-mail address contains the word "pescator," implying fisherman -- and said that the date 2006 was significant.

We'll give you something if you solve it first. It may be a shoutout on Stochastic, it may be a free issue of Seed, I don't know. But everyone will think you're brilliant. Isn't that prize enough? ISN'T IT?

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