Today is the day to code!
Yes my coding friends, the time has come for a new code, as this edition looks at a timely way to hide a message. It’s also a great use of old calendars.
Time For Letters And Numbers
Once again we start with lining up our alphabet against the numbers 1-26 in order.
Then give each letter of your message a numerical value. Time flies so hurry up!
Your Days Are Numbered
Next, take a page of a calendar as your reference. To make things a bit simpler, we’ve gone for the month of August 2021.
Each letter’s number is going to be the same as the numbered day of the month. So the letter A, given the value 1 on our grid above, would also be 1st of August. Z, being 26, would be 26th August. So far so good?
Now we add in the tasty extra step: A, being 1, being 1st, on this month is a Sunday, and is the first Sunday of the month. So A is going to finally be S1. B would be represented by M1 as it would fall on the first Monday of the month. H, lining up to the Sunday on the second row, becomes S2.
But what about those pesky Thursdays and Saturdays (or, Sundays, depending on how your calendar is set out)? Simple, just add a symbol next to whichever one comes second. So on our August 2021 page, C = T1, E = T1, J = T2, L = T2, U = S*3, and so on.
And so, our message becomes encoded as:
F3, T5, F2, M3, S3, T3; F1, S3, S*1, M2, F3.
If Only I Could Turn Back Time
If you find a sequence of the letters M, T, W, F and S in your Escape Room, along with a low value number for each (and the occasional bit extra for our Thursdays and either Saturdays or Sundays as per above), then that’s a clear indication you need to go find a calendar to help you decode.
Be careful though, it might be even trickier when multiple months are required. Or, as we have seen before in previous articles, sometimes the alphabet has been offset (or pushed back) by a keyword!
Timing Is Key
As a lot of calendars are designed with a theme that runs across the images for each month, this is the perfect spot to tuck away a reference to help your friend know what will help to crack a more advanced code. Here’s one to have a go at cracking.
Happy puzzling!