Editing 2869: Puzzles

{{comic
| number    = 2869
| date      = December 18, 2023
| title     = Puzzles
| image     = puzzles_2x.png
| imagesize = 328x455px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Why couldn't the amulet have been hidden by Aunt Alice, who understands modern key exchange algorithms?
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a WORD CONTAINING "G" - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}


The title text references {{w|Alice and Bob|Alice}}, a fictional character commonly used in discussions about cryptography. In those discussions, Alice is often sending and receiving encrypted messages, and she would be expected to make a better puzzle than the one shown in the comic. Alice and Bob and other characters from the same set have been mentioned previously in xkcd, like in [[177: Alice and Bob]].

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
:Hairy: Aunt Gertrude must have left a clue to the amulet's location.
:Hairbun: Hmm. Wait a minute.
:Hairbun: '''G'''ertrude. '''G'''.
:Hairy: As in "'''G'''round!"
:Hairbun: And "di'''G''' a hole!"
:Ponytail: I'll get a shovel!
:Cueball: To the yard!

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Some of the authors of books I read as a kid were '''''terrible''''' at designing puzzles.

{{comic discussion}}