Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK - The Assignments (1/1)

Hello,

This vignette was a writing challenge I set myself to keep awake during a long and otherwise unproductive meeting at work.

I would imagine that some people read the feedback threads before reading the corresponding stories, perhaps to decide whether the stories themselves are worth their time to read. If you are one of them, I'll give you a warning now: If you do choose to read the story, read it before reading any more of this thread! The story poses a puzzle to the reader, and I would imagine that someone will probably post the solution fairly shortly after the story itself has been posted...I fully expect that the writing challenge I had set for myself will prove to have been more difficult than the challenge I set for the reader at the end of the vignette. In order to avoid anyone accidentally reading the solution to my reader challenge, I will end this post with some spoiler space.

This vignette was not beta-ed. As always, feedback welcomed.

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

spoiler space


*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Joy,
Lynn

Doesn't contain the letters J, Q, X or Z in the actual story, and doesn't use the word "said"

Probably other things I've missed.

Fascinating guesses, Marcus, but neither one was the solution I had in mind. I had already used a lipogram for my earlier challenge; I don't plan to use that idea again.

Incidentally, it also has nothing to do with Perry micromanaging Lois and Clark.

Joy,
Lynn

Well aside from that Clark would not just be allowed in the school to talk to the children, I'm stumped.

me too.

I'll post a hint here, but I am putting encoding it so that no one will read it accidentally. To decode it, copy and paste the numbers below, then go to the binary translator page and paste the numbers in the Binary box. Click on Encode below the box, and then read the message in the Text box.

Here's the hint:

01010000 01100001 01111001 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100011 01101001 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01100010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110

Joy,
Lynn

You got me, even with the hint! I'm stumped too.

Yeah, I got the hint. The word, per se, is not in the story. Working with the concept of the word, I originally felt that Clark should talk to the teachers and Lois to the students. But they would really talk to the teachers' rep (union) and the parent's spokespeople.
As to the big kahuna at the Planet with grandkids in the the school system, I don't see that him ordering the paper to cover something like this would be wrong.
So that's all I can get out of it.

Artemis

Hi Artemis,

I'm not sure precisely what you mean by this, so I don't know whether you are on the right track or not.

There is a reason for the assignments as they are given. And I agree, the whole situation is not the most realistic possible. I'll just say that my self-imposed challenge kept me from having the story be as realistic as possible.

Here's a second (stronger) hint:

01001000 01101001 01100100 01100100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 01110011

I have one last hint that I'll add this evening, if no one has guessed the solution by then.

Joy,
Lynn

I found several hidden words related to the show in your sentences but several wouldn't count in scrabble.

AmyN

Congratulations, AmyN. You're the first to solve this challenge!

Joy,
Lynn

Ah, so I did get it, but I didn't realize I got it! LOL. I found KENT when I first read it but didn't realise that it was the actual thing I was supposed to be looking for! Have now found 5 names all up and one more possible depending on the way it was spelt in the show (and I can't remember that without going to check).

Nice work Lynn!

Hi Elizabeth,

Congratulations. There were only five names You got all of them. I went for all of the last names of season 2 regulars: Kent (covering Jonathon and Martha as well as Clark), Lane, White, and Olsen. I also threw in season one's Grant for good measure. I would have liked to throw in Luthor, but I couldn't manage to work that one in. The closest I could come up with would have been to use two words together like, "slut, horrible" or "glut, horrible". Neither one would fit into the story.

I'm glad I was able to weave natural enough sounding sentences about the names so that the rigged phrases weren't too obvious.

Joy,
Lynn

You did well! The only one immediately obvious to me was Kent. Then after the other comments on this thread I found White and then when I knew for sure what I was looking for I found the others. Star(r) was the other one I wondered about.

Cheers
Elizabeth

I still don't get it. I can't make the words Kent, White and Olson out of anything. You're going to have to show us dumb ones by bolding or italicising the right letters.
Your first hint was: "Pay special attention to word boundaries." I now understand that better, but what my comment meant was the word "boundaries" was not in the story.

Artemis

Hi Artemis,

What I meant was the boundaries of words. Here are the relevant parts of the story, with the hidden names bolded:

schools. Engage the faculty in discussions

“Clark, enter the playgrounds, lunchrooms,

Before you start some big rant ...

So, you’ll stay on this story until a new contract has been signed.

Now, hit every school in the district.


Does it make more sense now?

Joy,
Lynn

@Lynn: wow! that was fun!

Thanks, Lynn. Yes, it does. I tend to look too hard for more devious things.

Artemis