Comments on: MANF ANGWA RDASM ORT = ?

Question: MANF ANGWA RDASM ORT = ?

0xFCAF — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:14:55 -0800

MANF ANGWA RDASM ORT. What does it mean?

Mike Doughty's guitar has letters (like the stickers you'd put on your mailbox) that spell out the above words, one per line. It's not rot13 or any other Caesar shift. Google turns up nothing. Nothing obvious looking at anagrams. Any ideas?

By: b33j

b33j — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:41:42 -0800

Have you thought of emailing him? His email address is available on this page if I have the right Mike Doughty.

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:44:46 -0800

I'll try, but I was just at his show and someone asked. He said "It's a secret code".

By: amyms

amyms — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:00:50 -0800

If you separate the letters differently, you get MAN FANG WAR DAS MORT. Maybe a mix of languages, something decrying war and death?

By: b33j

b33j — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:02:31 -0800

Something that doesn't work: I tried simple alpha substitution for all letters of the alphabet and it didn't result in anything useful.

By: Sand Reckoner

Sand Reckoner — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:27:12 -0800

This German translation of the Gospel of John begins with "Im Anfang war das Wort." Could you have a couple of the letters wrong?

By: Maximian

Maximian — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:44:43 -0800

I think Sand Reckoner wins, especially if the 'I' fell off, and the 'W' was turned upside-down for cryptographic value. (but hey, I have this neat perl script now that does substitution ciphers!)

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:53:04 -0800

Re: Sand Reckoner's response, that particular phrase translates to "In the beginning was the Word."

By: Scattercat

Scattercat — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:10:57 -0800

Or Mort could be a jump to Latin, giving "In the beginning was Death."

By: sambosambo

sambosambo — Sat, 16 May 2009 05:32:00 -0800

Here's a picture of him and the guitar. It's clearly "manf angwa rdasw ort." Sand Reckoner has it.

By: gemmy

gemmy — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:48:18 -0800

Yea, Sand Reckoner has it right. Also, looking at that picture it seems to me that the neck of the guitar substitutes for the missing "I" in "Im".

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:52:47 -0800

Re: Sand Reckoner's response, that particular phrase translates to "In the beginning was the Word."

King James translation of the full verse: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So "GOD" (German "GOTT") would be your secret password to open the bank vault.

By: browse

browse — Sat, 16 May 2009 08:04:10 -0800

0xFCAF, jeepers, what a coincidence! I was the one who put that question in the jar. :-)
Thanks for posting the question to AskMeFi!

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:20:43 -0800

I knew you guys could do it.

By: musofire

musofire — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:56:42 -0800

Arguably the guitar neck gives the "I".

By: kittyb

kittyb — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:14:36 -0800

...and serendipitously, via Twitter: MikeDoughtyYeah: Am Anfang war das Wort.