November 2009 Puzzle Solution
There are actually only 12 distinct types of gibberish "words" in this text. When traced out on a QWERTY keyboard (as the many symbols might suggest), each makes the shape of a digit 0-9, a *, or a #. This leaves us with a single new gibberish "word" per line. Since we have only digits, stars, and pound symbols, we need to move to a telephone keypad and trace out shapes as before. This time, we get "words" consisting of the letters A-G and what look like lowercase b's. This set might bring to mind a third sort of keyboard: a piano, with b as a flat symbol. Tracing out shapes using these three words yields MNO. We can't go any deeper into the rabbit hole, so it must be time to go back up. MNO is printed on the telephone key also bearing 6; 6 is printed on the keyboard key also bearing ^. So we emerge from the rabbit hole with a CARET.

Back to puzzle    Back to archives