LIFE'S  A  WITCH,  AND  THEN  YOU  FLY. 

A take off on "Life's a bitch and then you die."  I coded W as B so you would know "bitch" was not it, but the correct word "witch" was elusive.  A coding error slipped into the second cryptogram (computer virus?), making the author's name problematic.  The translation is:

IF  YOU'RE  TOO  TENSE,  REDUCE  IT  TO  ONE  FIFTH.  — MARTIN  MULL.

Recognizing these difficulties, I gave credit for both cryptograms to  Delmar Burkitt,  Carla Darnell,  Andrzej Derdzinski,  Sam Gerhardstein,  Jeff Gerken,  John Jackson,  Alma Litten,  Julia Minturn,  Kevin Skehan,  Dennis Tomlinson,  Dorothy Utendorf,  Dave Smith,  and  Sally Yocom.  Dennis and Jeff also had the January cryptogram correct, but were not credited.

In puzzle #3 the actual question was left out of the Col-M version but was in the web site version.  That didn't seem to bother our puzzle solvers.  The complete matches with abbreviation used are: 

A = I + S  
B = A + E
C = A + P
D = L + P
E = I + L
F = E + G
G = S + G

Correct answers came from  Andrzej,  Sam,  Jeff,  Kevin,  Dennis,  and  Dorothy.

P K N        W B        K        B V N W V B        C E        L K Y K B Y N C Z I V B        Y I K Y        N V B A R Y        W M        K        X W L Y C N O.        — U V C N U V B        L R V T V M L V K A       

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

"The school sports were a qualified success", wrote Mr. Prendergast, "even though there were only three events, since the principal had pawned the equipment.  The same four boys had won the heats for each, so they took part in all three events. 

"Young Arnold secured a gold medal and Brian a silver one.  Clark won a silver for the 400 meter run and outraced Brian in the 800 meter race.

"David outran Arnold in the mile.  No boy gained two golds, two silvers, or two bronzes and the order of finish in the mile was the exact reverse of that in the 800 meters".

Some perfect squares are palindromic numbers, that is they read the same backwards or forwards.  Thus 1111 squared equals 1234321.  In fact, any string of ones up to eight in length will give a palindromic number.  Then there are others we can call irregular, like 264, which gives 69696.  All of these, however, result in a palindromic number with an odd number of digits.  There is a three digit number which gives an even number of palindromic digits and it is the smallest such number.  What is it?