Friday, March 20, 2009

Joseph's Puzzle

I am re-posting Joseph's puzzle. There was a mistake in it, so here is the corrected version. Sorry to anyone who did it before, especially Craig!

Here is a puzzle that Joseph made up:

This exercise is designed to test your ability to FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. In the end, this should turn a brand of Dictionary into a famous author. Write this on a sideways sheet of notebook paper, using the blue lines as a guide. Write out each step.


  1. Print WEBSTERSDICTIONARY – Record your starting time
  2. Remove the first letter
  3. Change all the vowels except for the letter E into Ts (Y is not a vowel)
  4. Switch in position the second letter and the sixteenth letter
  5. Change the third letter into an O
  6. If any of the same letters are in succession with each other, remove them all
  7. Change the thirteenth letter into an E
  8. Insert a J before each E
  9. Move the letters in the fifteenth and sixteenth position, keeping them in order, to the seventh and eighth position
  10. Remove any of the same letters that are in succession, and from left to right replace the first set of letters with one L, and the second set of letters with one K
  11. Switch the letters in position 10 and position 13
  12. Change the first C into a T
  13. Remove the first D
  14. Change the letter in position 9 into an I
  15. Remove any of the same letters that are in succession with each other
  16. Switch the letters in positions eight and nine
  17. Remove the last letter
  18. Switch the second vowel with the third consonant
  19. Switch the first vowel with the second R
  20. Print the name of the Author – record your time


Post your answer in the Comments section!

1 comment:

croc said...

Okay --- that puzzle is fun. I started at 11:06 am and ended at 11:26 am. JRRTOLKIEN.

I made four major mistakes. Step 9 (twice!), Step 10, and one more that I can't remember. Thanks Joseph!