Apr 07, 2018
RAY: I don't know who sent this in, but here it is: When I was in school, our teacher had the habit of putting little cryptic messages on the blackboard. And one day--it was near the end of the school year--she wrote the following thing on the board.
TOM: Do I need a pencil for this?
RAY: You need a pencil.
TOM: OK, go ahead!
RAY: E I L N P U.
TOM: Huh?
RAY: And the only hint I'll give is that it was near the end of the school year.
RAY: At the end of the school year, what's often done is some kind of graduation photographs are taken. And so that they can figure out whose picture goes with what name, they ask the kids to line up in alphabetical order. That's what E-I-L-N-P-U.
TOM: Well, no, if you had said they were going to take a picture, that would have been a real hint!
RAY: That would have been too easy!
TOM: Ah, the idea.
RAY: In my never-ending quest to complicate and obfuscate, I felt that that was good enough.
