The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Cec]

Cec, you could try googling December 23rd 1823 and see what you come up with....."

Well, here's me thinking there was no Santa Claus and a lovely angel came to my rescue whilst I slept last night. Yes, googling this date came up with various possibilities including the following poem....

Twas The Night Before Christmas And All Through The House

The first letters of each of these words is TTNBCAATTH and the rest of udosuk's lines are all from that poem.

RTRNRD is Rudolph the RNR and so on.

My apologies udosuk, I thought your above letters were a glass but it could be a chimney with S for Santa at the bottom.

After this I'm stuck again. If somebody knows the answer then post it to the forum so I can concentrate on my Xmas shopping, cards and etc. etc. before Santa comes to reward me for being a good boy ... well, most times anyway

Cec

[MCC]

It seems that everyone has got this, the riddle refers to the poem:

"A visit from Saint Nicholas" or as it is more familiarly known "T'was the night before Christmas".

The riddle refered to the reindeer that pulled Santa's sleigh, by their initial's, in the reverse order.

In the first part of the riddle, it says to "look back" i.e.,reverse the order.

All the other lines lines mentioned are the same, initialled and reversed.

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

Merry Christmas Combatants

[udosuk]

I didn't follow MCC's way of reversing the letters, all my letters were "straight forward" initials ...

AVFSN = A Visit from St. Nicholas
TNBC = The Night Before Christmas
CCM = Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
...
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
...
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

And the shape I depicted was Santa's sleigh:

Code: Select all

 Dasher Dancer
Prancer Vixen
  Comet Cupid
 Dunder Blixem
     Santa

(My sources are this, this and that...)

Now is MCC & underquark's turn to explain these initialed messages:

HAVSN

AOTORUTLACHN

MRTEHCTCAHWASACTBN

It's Christmas time... You don't wanna keep people puzzled...

[MCC]

HAVSN

AOTORUTLACHN

These are from:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer : Lyrics

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then all the reindeer loved him
as they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you'll go down in history!

And:

MRTEHCTCAHWASACTBN

From "A visit from Saint Nicholas".

...But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!...

MCC

[underquark]

And, hence, alcohol (Ethanol - or, as we found out in another posting E1510) isn't traditionally mentioned but could be one explanation for Rudolph's very shiny nose. And the explanation for his and the other reindeer guys' flying behaviour? Could it be due to the consumption, conversion, urinary excretion and subsequent re-consumption of certain compounds contained within certain mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe? I liked the formation flying of reindeer with Santa at the back, by the way.