Every well-read geek knows the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. In fact, later this year, I’ll encounter it on my birthday, being born in 1971. The meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything?
42.
Just recently, on my social media “wall,” it was pointed out to me that MATH was indeed the true meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. If we translate its letters into their ordinal position within the alphabet (i.e., A=1, B=2, C=3, … Z=26), we get M=13 + A=1 + T=20 + H=8, and 13 + 1 + 20 + 8 = 42.
Clearly, this couldn’t be the only such word that sums to 42… could it?
This week’s puzzle is based around the set of words that all sum to that universal total. Below is a word grid, and instead of providing the words themselves to fit into the grid, I have provided clues to find them. The unifying factor between them is, well, the unifying factor of Life, the Universe, and Everything: their letters sum to 42.
| 2 Letters 1080p prescription 3 Letters !(old) .rw2 format 1/80 Burmese kyat 1/cosecant aggressive dog file transfer protocol Roswell, NM 4 Letters 1 nodus + 1 nodus all but one prime Cera in Superbad Egyptian cat goddess Ichthyology subject Loxley alternate Mr. Auberjonois Perfect cube Roman satyr ruled combat Ruler of Asgard soft rime (frost) stately dance (HI) Romanian circle dance third prime |
5 Letters 1/2 of English spywork air valve in carburetor don’t forget this! Greek d Kermit’s stringed instrument love or radio Macedonic money Ralph of consumer rights Scale-y constellation the gripes (baby) uncanny or macabre distributed cards Larix conifers 6 Letters Catholic clergyman Cornell city degrade or debase Hydrocharitaceae other 1/2 of English spywork tiny stone 7 Letters C2, i.e., CaC2 prattle or chatter Muammar 8 Letters debt evader equilibrium resoluteness by virtue |
As usual, please send in your solutions to GeekDad Central before the end of day Friday, and all correct solutions (including valiant attempts!) will be entered into the drawing for this week’s $50 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate.
Good luck, and happy puzzling!
