2869: Puzzles - Revision history

Maxcodes: Swapped Cueball for Kidball.

2026-02-15T13:21:53Z

Swapped Cueball for Kidball.

FaviFake at 10:43, 28 July 2025

2025-07-28T10:43:59Z

172.70.163.46: Undo revision 356393 by Jkshapiro (talk) Rolled-back re-edit, reworking, revealing relevant reality reasonably rationalising reinstatement?

2024-11-11T11:43:56Z

Undo revision 356393 by Jkshapiro (talk) Rolled-back re-edit, reworking, revealing relevant reality reasonably rationalising reinstatement?

Jkshapiro: /* Explanation */ Remove irrelevant mention of AES

2024-11-11T01:24:39Z

‎Explanation: Remove irrelevant mention of AES

172.70.85.242: /* Explanation */

2024-10-01T17:20:33Z

‎Explanation

172.71.22.232 at 14:27, 5 June 2024

2024-06-05T14:27:31Z

172.68.26.172: /* Explanation */ Expand.

2024-05-31T18:57:24Z

‎Explanation: Expand.

172.69.65.49: /* Explanation */ Reword clue.

2024-05-31T18:51:52Z

‎Explanation: Reword clue.

172.71.178.110: /* Explanation */

2024-01-03T12:21:15Z

‎Explanation

172.70.85.46: /* Explanation */

2024-01-03T12:17:02Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 ==Transcript==
-:[Possibly teenage versions of Hairy, Jill, Ponytail, and Cueball, listed from left to right, are standing in a line. Hairy is in a thinking pose, Jill faces Hairy, and Ponytail and Cueball are walking to the right; Cueball is pointing off-panel.]
+:[Possibly teenage versions of Hairy, Jill, Ponytail, and Kidball, listed from left to right, are standing in a line. Hairy is in a thinking pose, Jill faces Hairy, and Ponytail and Kidball are walking to the right; Kidball is pointing off-panel.]
 :Hairy: Aunt Gertrude must have left a clue to the amulet's location.
 :Jill: Hmm. Wait a minute.
@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 :Jill: And "di'''G''' a hole!"
 :Ponytail: I'll get a shovel!
-:Cueball: To the yard!
+:Kidball: To the yard!
 :[Caption below the panel:]
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 {{comic discussion}}
 [[Category:Comics featuring Hairy]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring Jill]]
@@ Line 42: / Line 41: @@
 [[Category:Cryptography]]
 [[Category:Comics featuring children]]

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 [[Category:Cryptography]]
-[[Category:Kids]]
+[[Category:Comics featuring children]]

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 Aunt Gertrude is probably named after a supporting character in the ''Hardy Boys'' series; the Aunt Gertrude in that series didn't set puzzles, but main characters Frank and Joe Hardy frequently had to decipher clues to find hidden objects. The name may also be a nod to Gertrude Chandler Warner, whose Boxcar Children are an adventurous group of mystery-solving kids like those in the comic.
-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 be able to make a better puzzle than the one shown in the comic. Alice and Bob and other characters from the same set are the reverse of case of Aunt Gertrude, in that they have been given their names to reflect a convenient A, B, C, ... pattern. They have been mentioned previously in xkcd, like in [[177: Alice and Bob]]. Using modern cryptography in lieu of riddles in children's stories was also mentioned in [[370: Redwall]].
+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 be able to make a better puzzle than the one shown in the comic. The title text may also be referring to {{w|Advanced Encryption Standard|AES}}, a common modern algorithm used for encryption that begins with A and advances the alliteratively assisted approach to advancing an acquirable answer (and, accordingly, automatically attested as absolutely 'accurate'). In context, finding a key to decrypt a phrase with AES would be a reasonable puzzle. Alice and Bob and other characters from the same set are the reverse of case of Aunt Gertrude, in that they have been given their names to reflect a convenient A, B, C, ... pattern. They have been mentioned previously in xkcd, like in [[177: Alice and Bob]]. Using modern cryptography in lieu of riddles in children's stories was also mentioned in [[370: Redwall]].
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 Aunt Gertrude is probably named after a supporting character in the ''Hardy Boys'' series; the Aunt Gertrude in that series didn't set puzzles, but main characters Frank and Joe Hardy frequently had to decipher clues to find hidden objects. The name may also be a nod to Gertrude Chandler Warner, whose Boxcar Children are an adventurous group of mystery-solving kids like those in the comic.
-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 be able to make a better puzzle than the one shown in the comic. The title text may also be referring to {{w|Advanced Encryption Standard|AES}}, a common modern algorithm used for encryption that begins with A. In context, finding a key to decrypt a phrase with AES would be a reasonable puzzle. Alice and Bob and other characters from the same set are the reverse of case of Aunt Gertrude, in that they have been given their names to reflect a convenient A, B, C, ... pattern. They have been mentioned previously in xkcd, like in [[177: Alice and Bob]]. Using modern cryptography in lieu of riddles in children's stories was also mentioned in [[370: Redwall]].
+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 be able to make a better puzzle than the one shown in the comic. Alice and Bob and other characters from the same set are the reverse of case of Aunt Gertrude, in that they have been given their names to reflect a convenient A, B, C, ... pattern. They have been mentioned previously in xkcd, like in [[177: Alice and Bob]]. Using modern cryptography in lieu of riddles in children's stories was also mentioned in [[370: Redwall]].
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 Many children's books, especially those read by Randall's generation, feature in-story puzzles. Some of these hold up pretty well decades later, like the ones in {{w|Ellen Raskin}}'s award-winning mystery books for kids. Others, however, are…a lot less impressive. Randall doesn't specify which children's books have "terrible" puzzles, but the ''{{w|Hardy Boys}}'' series by Franklin W. Dixon, the ''{{w|Boxcar Children}}'' series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and the ''{{w|Encyclopedia Brown}}'' series by Donald J. Sobol are all strong possibilities. (The Riddler in the 1960s ''{{w|Batman (TV series)|Batman}}'' TV series famously played the trope for laughs.)
-In the panel, characters from one such book (presumably a made-up example) are contemplating a puzzle involving somebody's Aunt Gertrude. The characters guess Gertrude's amulet must be hidden in the Ground, because that starts with a G, like Gertrude, and that they should diG a hole. These guesses are not very practical; it seems unlikely that Aunt Gertrude either (A) chose to be known indefinitely by a G-name purely as a clue about where she hid an amulet, or (B) was inspired by her own name to choose a vaguely relevant hiding place. Even if she ''did'', there are many other words that begin with G, such as Gulf, or Gull, or Get-a-Glider-and-Go-to-Greenland, and any of these would be just as plausible "clues."
+In the panel, characters from one such book (presumably a made-up example) are contemplating a puzzle involving somebody's Aunt Gertrude. The characters guess Gertrude's amulet must be hidden in the Ground, because that starts with a G, like Gertrude, and that they should diG a hole. These guesses are not very practical; it seems unlikely that Aunt Gertrude either (A) chose to be known indefinitely by a G-name purely as a clue about where she hid an amulet, or (B) was inspired by her own name to choose a vaguely relevant hiding place. Even if she ''did'', there are many other words that begin with G, such as Gulf, or Gull, or Get-a-Glider-and-Go-to-Greenland, or Get-a-nuke-and-bomb-the-USA, and any of these would be just as plausible "clues."
 Moreover, once deciding, even more implausibly, that this "clue" is telling them to dig a hole in the ground, because 'dig' ends with a G, the search is not significantly narrowed as the world is a big place and "underground, somewhere" leaves a huge range of possible locations. As for the comic, perhaps it could be a Garden, which the characters don't figure out. If you're still lost, you may need {{tvtropes|XMarksTheSpot|at least one more letter}} to narrow the options down. All this leads us to Randall's point — that these connections made by the characters are tenuous at best and are unreasonable to make, especially as part of a riddle.

@@ Line 15: / Line 15: @@
 In the panel, characters from one such book (presumably a made-up example) are contemplating a puzzle involving somebody's Aunt Gertrude. The characters guess Gertrude's amulet must be hidden in the Ground, because that starts with a G, like Gertrude, and that they should diG a hole. These guesses are not very practical; it seems unlikely that Aunt Gertrude either (A) chose to be known indefinitely by a G-name purely as a clue about where she hid an amulet, or (B) was inspired by her own name to choose a vaguely relevant hiding place. Even if she ''did'', there are many other words that begin with G, such as Gulf, or Gull, or Go-Get-a-plane-and-fly-to-Greenland, and any of these would be just as plausible "clues."
-Moreover, once deciding that this "clue" is telling them to dig a hole in the ground, the search is not significantly narrowed as the world is a big place and "underground, somewhere" leaves a huge range of possible locations.{{cn}} You may need {{tvtropes|XMarksTheSpot|at least one more letter}} to narrow the options down. All this leads us to Randall's point — that these connections made by the characters are tenuous at best and are unreasonable to make, especially as part of a riddle.
+Moreover, once deciding, even more implausibly, that this "clue" is telling them to dig a hole in the ground, because 'dig' ends with a G, the search is not significantly narrowed as the world is a big place and "underground, somewhere" leaves a huge range of possible locations. You may need {{tvtropes|XMarksTheSpot|at least one more letter}} to narrow the options down. All this leads us to Randall's point — that these connections made by the characters are tenuous at best and are unreasonable to make, especially as part of a riddle.
 Aunt Gertrude is probably named after a supporting character in the ''Hardy Boys'' series; the Aunt Gertrude in that series didn't set puzzles, but main characters Frank and Joe Hardy frequently had to decipher clues to find hidden objects. The name may also be a nod to Gertrude Chandler Warner, whose Boxcar Children are an adventurous group of mystery-solving kids like those in the comic.