SILENCE  IS  THE  UNBEARABLE  REPARTEE.  —  GILBERT  CHESTERTON. 

Correct answers came from  Margie Breckenridge,  Charlie Bruce,  Delmar Burkitt,  Carla Darnell,  Andrzej Derdzinski,  Jeff Gerken,  John Jackson,  Julia Minturn,  Kevin Skehan,  Dorothy Utendorf,  Dave Smith, and  Sally Yocom. 

Dorothy also had the November Cryptogram correct.  Chesterton's name usually appears with initials, G. K., but I coded his first name to give you a fighting chance, since neither initial letters appear in the cryptogram.  I still got both a comical and a nutty answer for Chesterton's first name, namely Dilbert and Filbert, which I accepted.

There are several possibilities for #2, the pentagon puzzle.  For example, 1-9-4-8-2-7-5-6-3-10 totalling 14 on each side, or 10-1-8-5-6-4-9-3-7-2 totalling 19 per side, where the bold numbers are at the points of the pentagon.  Correct answers came from Charlie,  Andrzej,  Jeff,  Alma,  Julia,  Dorothy,  Martha Davidson,  and  Greg West.  Andrzej had multiple answers and another of his fine mathematical analyses of the problem, which in fact showed the sums of the sides can be from 14 to 19, while the vertices always add up to a number divisible by 5.

This month's first puzzle is the cryptogram.  Each letter stands for a different letter in the decoded message.  This one is more difficult than usual.

L X ' D        G L T M        S M N I        W J        I G G        U W M O        I A I L K .       
 

— E U A L        Y M O O I       

This puzzle is adapted from the column Enigma by Martin Hollis in the New Scientist by permission.

Tom, Dick, and Harry spent last week hunting for fossils.  Tom's total haul was the largest, even though at least one of the others found more on each of the five days.  Dick came in second in total and Harry third.  Each day each boy found at least one but less than 100 fossils.

The table shows all of Tom and Harry's results and some of Dick's.  Any numbers below 10 are shown in the form 01, 02, etc., and, just to be awkward, letters have been substituted (consistently) for digits throughout.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Total Tom ab cd ef gh ij gii Dick de         gea Harry dc ja fg hi be gja

What is the fuss about age?  Some people prefer not to disclose their age, while others attempt the futile task of claiming the same age every year.  I suspect the honesty of the average person falls somewhere in between, as shown in the addition to the right.  In this addition each letter stands for a different digit, with consistent substitution throughout.  Note particularly that in this one  Y is twice R.

A G E S     E V E R Y       Y E A R           B Y           A S   N E A R L Y             A     L A R G E         A G E           A S A V E R A G E