-Fine Quality- Bacmsfots Rgo Quassrmkg (Inquire Within)

September 22, 2014 11:05 AM

At Deetjen's Inn in Big Sur, on the backside of one of the cabins, hangs this sign. Some sort of word game cipher thing. I tried rotational substitution in 1-step increments, but it's gibberish all the way. Any ideas?
posted by anazgnos to Grab Bag (22 answers total)

Is it an anagram or a scrambled-letters thing, maybe, rather than a substitution?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:21 AM on September 22, 2014

Try asking on their Facebook page -- someone might chime in there.
posted by vickyverky at 11:23 AM on September 22, 2014

I ran it through the a jumble finder and the anagram server and got nothing, so I am assuming it's a simple letter substitution with RGO representing THE, or more likely, AND:

BACMSFOTS RGO QUASSRMKG

XXXXXXDXX AND XXXXXAXXN

Working from that premise, you could try scrabble solvers next.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:28 AM on September 22, 2014

NYT: "The cabin of the late Stokes Evans — the inn’s resident handyman, who made furniture and the whimsical wood-burned signs that hang all around the property..."
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:32 AM on September 22, 2014

Whoa: http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/cryptogram-solver.php

HOMESPUNS BTU CROSSBELT
WINDSOCKS ARC GLISSADER
ROUNDHEAD ISE PLODDINGS
posted by gregvr at 11:37 AM on September 22, 2014

Remember that even the CIA cryptogram had accidental (and possibly purposeful) typos in it ..
posted by k5.user at 11:39 AM on September 22, 2014

Dump my idea, it doesn't work. There are no 9-letter words with a double letter in positions 4 and 5 that map letters from THE or AND in the right position. (I used this site to generate words.)

In fact, I think I'd focus on QUASSRMKG -- it is unusual to have a double letter where the SS appears, there cannot be many nine-letter words that match that pattern, regardless of encryption pattern.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:43 AM on September 22, 2014

Fine quality campsites and bathhouse, inquire within is my best guess.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:45 AM on September 22, 2014

The fact that the last word begins "QU" strongly suggests that it isn't any kind of cipher. An anagram is possible, but I think it's just gobbledegook.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:50 AM on September 22, 2014

Double letters at 4th position: agreement, challenge, classical, classroom, brilliant, screening, scattered, emissions, pressures, exceeding, blessings, triggered, schooling, omissions, shattered, swallowed, guerrilla, smuggling, crossover, filmmaker, dwellings, ecommerce, stiffness, teammates, flattened, shellfish, grassland, crossings, spellings, agreeable, clippings, pressured, squeezing, staggered, stillness, grappling, shillings, crippling, stallions, crossword, smugglers, flammable, asymmetry, reassured, channeled, threefold, shuffling, glassware, cluttered, diarrhoea, rearrange, classmate, newsstand, trappings, blossomed, overrides, dressings, onlookers, prettiest, droppings, redeeming, flattered, plummeted, guesswork, roommates, crossfire, overruled, shuddered, classpath, reappears, proffered, trimmings, schoolers, streetcar, shallower, unopposed, stiffened, schoolboy, trillions, overrated, headdress, rebooting, reaffirms, scurrying, ineffable, quarrying, fluttered, scaffolds, spinnaker, scalloped, vacuuming, stillborn, smallness, uprooting
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:51 AM on September 22, 2014

My guess is it's a substitution code with a key.
posted by empath at 11:54 AM on September 22, 2014

The fact that the last word begins "QU" strongly suggests that it isn't any kind of cipher.

eh, 1 in 26 chance that a q would be followed by a u in a random sequence.
posted by empath at 11:56 AM on September 22, 2014

The last word appears to be added some time after the first two lines - maybe by a different hand. It looks brushed with lighter shade of white, the M and S's are a little different than those above, the circle of the Q was made differently than the O above.
posted by klarck at 12:21 PM on September 22, 2014

Could this be a sign painter's practice board? "Fine Quality" and "Inquire Within" are common phrases of a bygone era that any sign painter would need to use often. And most of the letters in the alphabet are used. The letter S seems to be one the painter was practicing in particular. As much as I would like to see the code broken, I think gibberish is definitely possible.
posted by oxisos at 12:39 PM on September 22, 2014

What if each letter is just the first letter of a word in a larger quote/saying?

IE. We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union would look like: WTPOTUSIOTFAMPU
posted by Captain_Science at 12:58 PM on September 22, 2014

I just went through the list that MonkeyToes posted (thanks) and can now rule out straight substitution. The letters that are the 6th and 9th are the same as the 1st and the 2nd in the second word (Rgo), so it's easy to go through the list and eliminate them all as possibilities.
posted by unliteral at 10:45 PM on September 22, 2014

It's not a Norwegian anagram.
posted by unliteral at 10:55 PM on September 22, 2014

I just went through the list that MonkeyToes posted (thanks) and can now rule out straight substitution

Except it's not a comprehensive list. Bathhouse isn't on it, for example!
posted by DarlingBri at 1:57 AM on September 23, 2014

I was looking into the Norwegian angle, too, and it was a bust.

Feel like last word is shorthand for quilting and scissor making or Quaker scissor making or... Yeah, clearly I have no idea. Curiouser and curiouser!
posted by misha at 9:20 AM on September 23, 2014

Bedding and curtain matching sets for one, twin size?

Quilts and sheet sets ...?
posted by misha at 11:43 AM on September 23, 2014

..ready made king?

All I can figure for RGO is "Registered Guests Only."

Could also be a message about "bedrooms and cabins (most, must) share facilities (on the site)?
posted by misha at 12:03 PM on September 23, 2014

I tried Vigenère ciphers with keys like "finequality", "applywithin", "deetjensinn", "bigsur" but came up empty. So did an online solver I tried, unless the plaintext is "tuonergnessaiomtedees" and the key "IGOZOO".
posted by jepler at 8:17 PM on September 23, 2014