Blog Archives

“I fear our cypher is detected”: When agony ads go awry

The “FLO. Ciphers,” sent between September 1853 and January 1854, were a lovers’ correspondence that appeared in the Agony Column of “The Times”. Identifiable only by their addressee, the correspondence was the subject of much intrigue due to the unique numeric cipher in which it was written. The cipher was broken and later intercepted by Charles Babbage, a Victorian mathematician with a knack for code breaking. The ever-witty Babbage let the correspondents onto his discovery by correcting the grammar and spelling of one of their messages. Finding themselves exposed, the lovers ended their secret correspondence in haste.

By: Ronny Litvack-Katzman, Research Assistant, ROAAr At first glance, the Agony Column appears a perfect outlet for clandestine correspondences. Throughout the 19th-century, thousands of writers across the British Empire successfully sent and received cryptic messages through popular Victorian newspapers such …

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A whole romance contained in four little lines: Introducing the Agony Column

Princess Henry of Battenberg reads the newspaper aloud to Queen Victoria in “A Glimpse of the Queen’s Home Life.” From the Illustrated London News (26 January 1901): 130. Illustrated London News / Gale Digital Scholar Lab

by Ronny Litvack-Katzman, Research Assistant, ROAAr “A whole romance contained in four little lines”, “seven words [that] gave a three volume novel in a nutshell” — such are the descriptions that 19th-century commentators gave to the collection of personal advertisements …

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Food for Thought: Riddles and Riddling Ways Exhibit

Explore different mealtime riddle practices in this curated exhibit of items from McGill’s Collections and beyond, and the way games, puzzles and play both educate and entertain. One way to connect with family and friends is over a meal or …

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New SSHRC Funding for The Riddle Project

Riddle text

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has granted support to the project over the next two years to investigate this new genre from an interdisciplinary angle. The team, led by Nathalie Cooke, Associate Dean of ROAAr, includes an energetic …

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Loving in truth and fain in Riddle my love to show: Mother’s Day Acrostics with The Riddle Project

Acrostic poem

By Leehu Sigler “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality”[1]– James Joyce Timeless Riddles is back …

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Can You Spot It?: Solving Visual Puzzles with The Riddle Project

Detail Lewis Carroll Rebus

By Leehu Sigler “Too many riddles weigh men down on earth. We must solve as we can, and try to keep a dry skin in the water.”[1] ― The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky Timeless Riddles is back with some more puzzling …

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Some Rhyme, Some Chime: Practicing Enigmas and Charades with The Riddle Project

By Leehu Sigler Timeless Riddles is a ROAAr project dedicated to transcribing, solving, and researching riddles found in early manuscripts! Help us solve them all! “It is one thing…to have very good sense in a common way, like every body …

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How Many Can You Solve? : The Riddle Project

Riddle text

By Leehu Sigler The Riddle Project is a ROAAr project dedicated to transcribing, solving, and researching riddles found in early manuscripts! Help us solve them all! What can promote innocent mirth, and I may say virtue, more than a good …

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