A Cryptic Tribute by George Barany / Edited by Patrick Berry

"Midrash" by George Barany (July and December, 2012)

This puzzle honored Alan Turing (see photo), the centennial of whose June 23, 1912 birthdate was celebrated internationally throughout the calendar year. For example, his alma mater Princeton University held a major symposium in his honor in May 2012, just as Patrick Berry and I were putting the finishing touches on the puzzle. [Interestingly, when the Princeton Alumni Weekly did its assessment of the most influential Princeton alumni of all time, Turing placed second behind only James Madison.] Check the symposium web site for a wealth of multimedia information about Turing.

Notes added in proof: The Hugh Whitemore play that answers 37-Across was recently posted on YouTube (90 minutes). In December 2012, Turing's biographer, Andrew Hodges, gave a public lecture at the University of Minnesota where I work. For Hodges' Turing web site, click here; note that Whitemore's play is based on Hodges' book (link given for the recently updated centenary edition). Stephen Hawking and other prominent scientists recently wrote to Prime Minister Cameron asking that Turing be pardoned (click here for details). Updated December 2013:  Exciting news!  The pardon came through (click here and here for details). With respect to the puzzle itself, it was a finalist for the 2012 Puzzle of the Year, and still comes up from time to time when various blogs discuss other tribute puzzles. Updated November 2014: Coincident with the United States release of the film The Imitation Game, our puzzle has received its own tribute, in the form of a Hayley Gold comic entitled Gobbledygook posted elsewhere on our site. You may also enjoy A Cryptic Tribulation, organized by Ralph Bunker and Chris Philpot.

Turning to the puzzle itself, there follows below a redacted version of what was blogged on Amy Reynaldo's Diary of a Crossword Fiend, along with numerous comments from regular visitors to her blog. See my own post at 11:17 p.m. which gives just a bit more history about how the puzzle came to be. It occurred to me, much later, that the name of the puzzle's honoree — a man whose professional and personal life was devoted to Breaking the Code— maps onto the name of H.R. Haldeman (photo to right of answer grid shown below) — a man whose legacy of encouraging, facilitating, and condoning secrecy, including the "breaking (and entering)" of the Watergate complex, was diametrically opposite.

Pannonica's off today, so here I am. I forget what my solving time was this morning but I think it was around 5:30. And then some time spent figuring out the gimmick. No matter -- this is a puzzle one would be happy to spend any amount of time on. A five-star puzzle, for sure. Will make it into the finals for Puzzle of the Year based on the star ratings.

Martin Herbach did the heavy lifting of blogging this puzzle down in the comments earlier this afternoon. He wrote:

The CHE is so amazing, I don't know how they did it. We've had other substitution cipher puzzles of the "W is E" variety, but the coded message is invariably garbled. Here, the "clear" message is a name but it encodes to another name!

If that's not enough, the name that is coded is ALAN TURING, the most famous code-breaker in history. He cracked the German Enigma machine during WWII, which had profound implications for the prosecution of the war. He was one of the first theorists to work on stored-program computers. He was a tragic figure who was hounded out of his field and underwent chemical castration in lieu of prison for his crime of homosexuality. And tomorrow would have been his 100th birthday.

George Barany squeezed a lot of information about ALAN TURING and his field of cryptology into a 15×15. He made it a cipher puzzle. But first he found HRHALDEMAN to be a substitution cipher coding of ALAN TURING. So he selected the eight digrams that would effect this coding and made them rebuses. Then he constructed the puzzle. Easy.

The theme plays out like so:

• 17a. [What eight squares in this puzzle contain, thus creating a cipher key], TWO LETTERS. Those are the eight rebus squares.
• 26a. [Institution at which this puzzle's honoree earned a Ph.D. in mathematics], PRINCETON.
• 37a. [1986 Hugh Whitemore play based on the life of this puzzle's honoree (or what you should be doing to read the real answer to 59 Across)], BREAKING THE CODE.
• 45a. BLETCHLEY [___ Park, where this puzzle's honoree did his most famous work].
• 59a. [This puzzle's honoree, born June 23, 1912 (but only if you've finished 37 Across)], H.R. HALDEMAN.

The eight rebus squares reveal a cipher. From top to bottom of the grid:

HA ER MI AN LT NG DU RL

If you eyeball the first letters of the pairs going down, those letters should look familiar. They're all in H.R. Haldeman. Where you find those letters in his name, substitute the second letter in the pair. Boom, the real subject of the puzzle is ALAN TURING. How insane is it that George found a famous name that could encrypt the name of legendary cryptologist Alan Turing? And, as Foodie points out in the comments, how perfect is it that Haldeman was famous for secrecy?

A magnificent puzzle. Hopefully George will chime in in the comments to tell us more about the puzzle's development. (All he told me via email is that working with editor Patrick Berry was a dream. I have heard before that Patrick has a knack for figuring out the perfect way to complete a theme in the most elegant fashion.)

Again, yes: Five stars, no deductions.

Responses to Friday, 6/22/12

 Bruce N. Morton says: June 22, 2012 at 7:03 am

The CHE is *fantastic*, especially for those of you who like a puzzle with an extra dimension, a gimmick, a meta. Not especially difficult, but a superb instance of such.

• Amy Reynaldo says: June 22, 2012 at 10:46 am

@Bruce, thank you for your CHE comment, which sent me off to download the puzzle right away AND didn't spoil the solve at all. Thanks for being nonspecific about the extra dimension! Like @cyberdiva, I give this one 5 stars.

cyberdiva says: June 22, 2012 at 9:20 am

I just want to second Bruce Morton's praise of today's CHE puzzle. It was clever but very doable. 5 stars! That makes two this week for me [Thursday's NYT was the other one]–a record.

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 12:58 pm

Six stars for the CHE. Blog it already so we can talk about the feat! (OK. Bloggers have lives too. Unfair but true.)

Amy Reynaldo says: June 22, 2012 at 1:26 pm

@Martin H: Go ahead and talk about the brilliant CHE. Pannonica hasn't clocked in yet today.

Todd G says: June 22, 2012 at 3:27 pm

I believe this is my first vote for a puzzle, but I simply HAD to give the CHE puzzle 5 stars! Thanks much Bruce et al. for pointing it out to me. I can't even be jealous, I'm so awestruck at how anyone could think this theme up.

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 3:49 pm

OK. Time's up. Pencils down.

The CHE is so amazing, I don't know how they did it. We've had other substitution cipher puzzles of the "W IS E" variety, but the coded message is invariably garbled. Here, the clear message is a name but it encodes to another name!

If that's not enough, the name that is coded is ALAN TURING, the most famous code-breaker in history. He cracked the German Enigma machine during WWII, which had profound implications for the prosecution of the war. He was one of the first theorists to work on stored-program computers. He was a tragic figure who was hounded out of his field and underwent chemical castration in lieu of prison for his crime of homosexuality. And tomorrow would have been his 100th birthday.

George Barany squeezed a lot of information about ALAN TURING and his field of cryptology into a 15×15. He made it a cipher puzzle. But first he found HRHALDEMAN to be a substitution cipher coding of ALAN TURING. So he selected the eight digrams that would effect this coding and made them rebuses. Then he constructed the puzzle. Easy.

Jeff Chen says: June 22, 2012 at 4:01 pm

Whoa. CHE. Mind-blowing!

Foodie says: June 22, 2012 at 4:07 pm

SPOILER ALERT- CHE Puzzle -- Martin et al, I agree that the CHE puzzle is a tour de force. I thought that the morphing specifically to HRHALDERMAN was genius, not only because it's a recognizable name, but because of the involvement of the latter in secrecy, Watergate, the 18.5min gap, etc. So, switching a famous code breaker for a famous secret maker was truly inspired. And the execution of the theme was flawless.

The NE sat empty till after I got through most of the puzzle. I figured out what the missing code square had to be (HA) and reverse engineered it into the incomplete area. It gave me special satisfaction!

Daniel Myers says: June 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm

It may interest you lot to know that Bletchley Park, where Turing did much of his work during WWII, recruited decoders from champion cruciverbalists. From the Wikipedia article:"Cryptanalysts were selected for various intellectual achievements, whether they were linguists, chess champions, crossword experts, polyglots or great mathematicians. GC&CS was ironically referred to as "the Golf, Cheese and Chess Society". In one instance, the ability to solve a Daily Telegraph crossword in under 12 minutes was used as a test."

Papa John says: June 22, 2012 at 4:52 pm

What? I never had a decoder ring when I was kid, so I have no idea what Martin means by "substitution cipher puzzles", "substitution cipher coding" or "digrams". (I looked up the later but all that came up was "no dictionary definition". However, I did find that it is a "pair of letters used to write one sound". Is that what the two letters in the rebus squares are? If so, how are they used in a cipher key?) Thanks, Martin, you made an already befuddling situation even more befuddled. :-(

Okay, so I didn't solve the puzzle on paper, as suggested in the Notepad. How was that a help? I solved it in Across Lite, with no more difficulty than most puzzles and in a reasonable time frame, but I have no idea what all the coded stuff is about. It is way beyond my ken. Must one be a cryptologist, as well as cruciverbalist, to completely solve this much-admired puzzle?

*David* says: June 22, 2012 at 4:53 pm

Ladies and gentlemen we have our puzzle of the year, all hail King George. Papa John it is simple substitution, you can do it!

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 5:01 pm

Re: Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, and codes, I highly recommend Simon Singh's "The Code Book", which IMO is the last word in the history of codes and ciphers: http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/0385495323

-MAS

Foodie says: June 22, 2012 at 5:08 pm

Papa John, The code in the square is of the simplest kind. XY means replace X with Y. So the DU square means take the D in HALDEMAM and make that a U. If you use the 8 pairs in this way, systematically replacing the letters in HR HALDEMAN , the name ALAN TURING emerges. I agree the notepad is a bit misleading. Solving in AcrossLite works perfectly well. A piece of paper is helpful in doing the mechanics of transformation. And in my case, to figure out what two letter square I needed to fit in an unfinished corner.

Papa John says: June 22, 2012 at 5:51 pm

Thanks, Foodie, you cleared that mess up. (So that's what Martin meant by "substitution cipher coding". Ah! So how does the "digram" thingy work? Because of that, I was trying to make the two rebus letters into a sound. Egads!) Those of you who have heard my many, earlier declarations about puzzles in puzzles in puzzles not being worth the time or effort, I stand by my commitment. I didn't even bother with King George's puzzle-within-a-puzzle until I came here and read Martin's cryptic message about ciphers. Then I got a headache trying to make sense of it all. FWIW, I thought the crossword solve was top-notch.

Amy Reynaldo says: June 22, 2012 at 6:00 pm

I think Martin was being puzzle-jargony with "digram." He meant nothing more than TWO LETTERS, as seen in the puzzle. This was a particularly smart puzzle-within-a-puzzle. Much more elegant than a connect-the-dots! And winding the theme up with H.R. HALDEMAN and half thinking, He studied math at Princeton and someone wrote a play about him called Breaking the Code? Huh. That's weird—it requires working the cryptogram substitution to pay proper tribute to Alan Turing (and get the Watergate taste out of one's mouth).

Daniel Myers says: June 22, 2012 at 6:05 pm

Martin, Book ordered! Thanks.

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 6:22 pm

George Barany, FYI: http://www1.chem.umn.edu/groups/baranygp/georgebio.htm

-MAS

Papa John says: June 22, 2012 at 6:26 pm

Don't get me wrong, Amy, I am as duly impressed as the rest of you with the intricacies of King George's puzzle. I usually am about other puzzles-in-puzzles, too, but only after coming here to find out what they are all about. I am not — what is it Shortz calls himself? — an enigmologist. (Should that more correctly, in this instance, be enigmaphile?) Other puzzle types, including code-breaking, have never caught my attention. I especially don't like riddles. And, as I said earlier, I am not a cryptologist, so not knowing that the cipher key, in this case, is substituting one letter for another doesn't dent my ego. I do the crosswords, mainly for the cross words.

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 6:44 pm

Will's field is enigmatology. It sounds less like he studies insects.

Jargony? Moi? "Digram" is probably not a puzzle term either. I'm just a lazy typist and "letter pairs" is more letters. I think "bigram" is a bit more common, but it looks like "big ram" to me so I prefer "digram." Who'd dig a ram? (I know. Ewe.)

Andy says: June 22, 2012 at 7:10 pm

Abandon hope, all other would-be Crosswords of the Year 2012. That CHE is just ridiculous, in the most complimentary sense of the word.

john farmer says: June 22, 2012 at 7:31 pm

I did think HR HALDEMAN was a somewhat random 10-letter name. I wondered if he also might have been having his 100th this week, or if he had been associated with "Breaking the Code" in some way. I looked it up but didn't find a connection. While HRH worked well for the puzzle, no doubt other names could have been made to work too. What it did, though, was give me a brief moment of thinking that someone had the audacity of making a tribute puzzle to a Watergate co-conspirator. That was worth it.

placematfan says: June 22, 2012 at 7:47 pm

What a great day for crosswords. I really thought the NYT was just everything a themeless should be, and the CHE is in a league of its own.

Martin says: June 22, 2012 at 7:53 pm

John, I'm not sure there are many other names that work. You need ABACDEFGCH, where A can't be A, B can't be L, C can't be N, D can't be T, E can't be U, F can't be R, G can't be I and H can't be G.

I'm amazed they found the one.

 john farmer says: June 22, 2012 at 9:25 pm

Martin, I missed a level to the name, in my hasty post before I had to run out. Thanks for pointing that out. I just spent a few minutes looking, and the closest name I could find is the relatively unknown Spanish actress Lola Duenas ("Volver"), which may not even work because of the u in the 6th slot. H.R. Haldeman is a lot less random than I had thought, and among names of people probably the best by far.

George Barany says: June 22, 2012 at 11:17 pm

I am flattered and humbled by all the nice things that Amy, Bruce, Cyberdiva, both Martins, Daniel, Foodie, and others have written, but should start right out by saying that Patrick Berry needs to share in this glow. An April 10 conversation with my son Michael, a graduate student at Princeton, put the Turing centennial birthday of June 23 on my radar screen. Since time was of the essence, I pitched to Patrick in late April a completely filled and clued grid that had already been run by a few of my trusted beta testers, and contained as theme entries ALAN_TURING, BLETCHLEY_PARK, BREAKING_THE_CODE, and COMPUTER_SCIENCE, as well as the "bonus" ENIGMA. Patrick replied and made the brilliant suggestion that we could pay true tribute to Turing by encoding his name in the puzzle. Patrick specifically suggested H.R._HALDEMAN, which at first glance seems like a name chosen at random but turns out to be the only moderately recognizable name that maps onto ALAN_TURING. During the first week of May, we traded back and forth no less than seven grids, Patrick gently guiding the project towards the kind of smooth fill for which his reputation as a solo constructor is richly deserved. I then had just a few days to come up with clues, and never got a chance to see the result of Patrick's editing until the printed Chronicle showed up in the mail. He certainly respected my creativity while reining in the more outlandish factoids that I had worked into clues. In summary, a dream collaboration!

joon says: June 23, 2012 at 12:00 am

it seems like i'm always 65th to the party, but yeah, this was a great day of puzzles. the CHE kept getting more amazing the more i poked at it, and it was a wonderful tribute to one of the greatest thinkers in history.

Tita says: June 25, 2012 at 1:44 pm

Tuning in late to the game, but just have to pile on even more praise for the ALANTURING tribute. After I finished, I printed another copy for puzzle spouse, who was an instructor in the army Signal Corps, and who (not whom) worked with cryptography devices.

Thank you Mr. Barany, both for the fabulous puzzle, and for stopping by to give us an always appreciated glimpse behind the curtain.

Keith says: June 27, 2012 at 2:32 pm

Sorry, but I can't share in the enthusiasm for the CHE puzzle. I don't want to have to solve codes in order to complete a word puzzle.

Martin says: June 23, 2012 at 9:54 am

Today's Google Doodle is an interactive Turing Machine game.

ktd says: June 23, 2012 at 11:39 am

I suppose it's not crosswords but Martin is onto something there–the Turing machine game is terrific, especially if you like logic puzzles.

Martin says: June 23, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Kyle, It's also crosswords. Did you miss yesterday's Puzzle of the Year and discussion?

ktd says: June 23, 2012 at 1:43 pm

Martin: I missed the CHE writeup, but I just went back to read it, so now I understand the context of your comment.

Martin says: June 23, 2012 at 1:51 pm

Kyle, In yesterday's blog there was a discussion of an outstanding Turing puzzle in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Check it out.

John Haber says: June 23, 2012 at 8:26 pm

I wonder if I was the only one who got through the Chronicle puzzle smoothly and then couldn't be bothered to verify that the code worked out. I wouldn't downgrade the puzzle for that, since I admired how well it had to be put together. But still, something on a gut level was bothering me.

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