CISRA Puzzle Competition 2011 - Solutions

5B. Cognitive Text Fix

This puzzle can be started on any line, you just need to notice the pattern. Perhaps one of the simplest lines to see the pattern is the line:

Miss CERN vaster tract

"Miss CERN" sounds like "discern". In fact several of those word can be prefixed by 'DIS':

DISmiss DIScern V DISaster DIStract

But it seems there is an extra letter "V" in the middle of that line.

Examining the other lines will reveal that each line is comprised of several words, all missing the same prefix, but each line also has one additional letter. In some cases the new words cross word boundaries or split up words of the original line. Here are all the lines decoded, with the additional letters moved to the end.

in  + Got: bun (date)           => ingot inundate                     + B
in  + Fancy sultan ate          => infancy insult innate              + A
im  + Pale peach rage           => impale impeach image               + R
in  + Ching! Test Kate          => inching intestate                  + K
dis + Cuss, turban ice          => discuss disturbance                + I
ex  + Creten cites Hume act     => excrete excites exhume exact       + N
un  + Til ion git dies          => until union unit undies            + G
dis + Miss CERN tract vaster    => dismiss discern distract disaster  + V
en  + Tree tailor mouse         => entree entail enormous             + E
em  + Path ploy: rend it        => empath employ emend emit           + R
in  + Vent continent shale      => invent incontinent inhale          + S
in  + Cure? Put solvent         => incur input insolvent              + E
ex  + Pert Trude bit alter      => expert extrude exit exalter        + B
in  + Dig, O Klingon Spector    => indigo inkling inn inspector       + O
ig  + Nor Sam uses nite-loo     => ignoramuses ignite igloo           + S
en  + Gross sign tires Sue      => engross ensign entire ensue        + S

The left over letters spell out a message. Who is the "barking verse boss"? The next step is to realise each of these words can be prefixed again:

em + barking
in + verse
em + boss

These prefixes form the answer: EMINEM, who could be described as a boss of "barking verse".

Puzzle design notes:

For a long time this puzzle was titled "Text Fix", but the puzzle creation team felt this wasn't quite hinty enough to suggest a way into the puzzle. We debated changing the name to "Pre-Text", but decided this was too hinty. When the idea came to extend the title to three words that could be modified by the same prefix, several options were floated, including things like "Cursive Capitulation Citation". An amusing favourite was "Vader's Voice Box", but we decided this was going too far in the direction of a blatant red herring.