Something Granddaddy Taught Me

I've read somewhere, or maybe heard it said before, that as you get older, a great way to keep your memory sharp is to constantly exercise it, with activities like crossword puzzles. Crosswords are easy--and my granddaddy was an expert. He would work about two of them everyday. And watch Jeopardy. In my estimation, he was a pretty smart man.

I haven't seen him in a while, though. Shortly after my grandmother died, my uncle and aunt began to take care of him, and now they've moved him far away from here, to the other side of the country basically. Whereas before he was only a few hours away, now he is much further so we never get to see him. My parents were going to take care of him but they moved him instead. So I haven't seen him in... years. He is in his late 80's, and he suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Nobody really noticed it, I think, until my grandmother died, except for her. She said he had something wrong with his brain, and nobody understood.

But Granddaddy taught me something which put me among the ranks of those who seek out something far more challenging intellectually satisfying than Sudoku and Crossword Puzzles. If you are asking what sort of puzzle might inspire me to rip it out of the newspaper and stuff it in my purse... the answer is: cryptoquote. Basically, a cryptoquote is an obscure saying by a lesser-known individual (or an anonymous one) which has been encoded, letter by letter. Each letter exchanged for another one in the alphabet--not in order, mind you. You have to guess each letter, but then it follows through the whole quote.

As an example: XWTFMPXXWI is LONGFELLOW. The encoded 'X' corresponds to the letter 'L' while the letter 'W' corresponds to an 'O.' Indeed... the example is hardly enough to get you started. In my case anyway, I don't know how many times I read the instructions and never figured out how to systematically decode a quote. But I'm curious if any of my wiser and more clever readers can.

If needed, I may gave hints in the comment section (in case anyone gets stuck...) But this one is pretty easy. If you get the answer... please post it! :-) (Yes, I already know the answer.)

M FWP OABALQGS CL W QCKO CN GWQML

WDAOMBW, WLJ QUA CLGS OATOAQ M UWRA

FWP QUWQ M JMJL'Q PQKJS GWQML UWOJAO

ML PBUCCG PC M BCKGJ BCLRAOPA FMQU QUCPA

XACXGA. -- JWL HKWSGA