Cryptograms are encoded puzzles, often appearing in grocery store variety puzzle magazines...the above photo is of one of these. Each letter in a message is encoded with another letter...the trick is to find certain patterns of letters and pick out the more common words like "the" and some of the two-letter words. Then, after getting some of the more common letters like e, s, t, r, l, ....you know, the ones Wheel of Fortune automatically gives its final puzzle contestants...I should be able to piece the rest of the cryptogram together. There is always a threshold I reach after decoding a certain number of letters beyond which I can go back to the beginning of the message and then plow right through it. Although I enjoy the process of solving cryptograms, the resulting message is often a disappointment. Unsolved on the page, they all look very intellectual and profound...much like how an unknown foreign language sounds...but like another language, they are in the end just transformations of things whose meanings we are already acquainted with. The first puzzle above, for example, turned out to be a silly, corny joke while the next one was a serious, positive motivating statement from a famous figure in history. Once I bought a book of cryptograms at a used book sale. Unfortunately, many of the quotes therein were by Benjamin Franklin: it got too easy to pick out his name at the bottom of those cryptograms and almost instantly translate the puzzle. The longer the cryptogram the generally easier it is to solve...the same goes to putting the name of the individual who said it at the bottom. There are variations to cryptograms as well...one that I like has a category at the top and then lists come coded words that fit it...these also tend to be in those variety puzzle mags...
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