It is March and the lovely EnigMarch people have challenged puzzle designers to write a puzzle inspired by today's word: "case". As in, "In case of fire, break glass." Here, "case" describes a a condition. If there's no fire, please don't break that glass.
Oh no! The USA clown President Trump (egged on by his buffoonish adviser Elon Musk) has laid of thousands of federal workers and canceled government projects to make government more efficient: spend less, get the same benefit. (Well, except we expect to pay more recovering from unexpected weather disasters than we were spending on weather radar repairs; and a lot of those cancelled contracts, we'd already paid for; OK, these cancellations aren't actually going to save us money overall, but for now, the government is theoretically spending less.) Since the government is spending less, does that mean that Americans can pay less in taxes?
Okay, so we can pay less in taxes after Trump balances the budget. We are waiting for the same Trump who grew the national debt by about eight trillion dollars in his first term…(hoo boy); we're waiting for that guy to balance the budget. We are in for a long wait for this "case" to occur.
Here's a puzzle about some other unlikely cases. We've got some phrases that have been split up; beginnings on one side, endings on the other. Figure out which ending goes with each beginning. Notice that one letter in each ending is big and bold. Write that letter down next to the appropriate beginning. (We wrote in the B from Bleeds to the left of "When a stone" for you.) When you're done, the big and bold letters should spell out what kind of person will enjoy reduced taxes right away, without waiting for a balanced budget:
| (B) 🪨 When a stone… | | |
| 🗓️ On February… | …cAts😽 | |
| 🐖 When pigs… | …come togetheR 🔀 | |
| ☁️ When the sky… | …faLls 🍁 | |
| 📐 When you square… | …fLy 🪽 | |
| 👿 When Hell… | …freezes Over 🥶 | |
| 🐴 When you find the haystack's… | …Needle 🪡 | |
| 🤠 When you herd… | …sets In the east 🧭 | |
| 🌞 When the sun… | …tEeth 🦷 | |
| 📅 When two Sundays… | …the cIrcle 🟡 | |
| 🐔 When hens grow… | …thIrtieth 3️⃣0️⃣ |
Some hints, rot-13'd:
- Gurer ner gjb pnyraqne-l pnfrf: Sroehnel guVegvrgu naq gjb Fhaqnlf pbzvat gbtrgurE.
- Nppbeqvat gb gur fnlvat, uraf qba'g unir grrgu. (Va cenpgvpr, fpvragvfgf sbhaq n gbbgu-tebjvat trar va puvpxraf frireny lrnef onpx, cerfhznoyl yrsg bire sebz jura oveqf ribyirq sebz qvabfnhef. Znlor abj gurer ner uraf jvgu grrgu? Vf guvf ubj Whenffvp Pbbc fgnegrq?)
- Gur fxl jba'g snyy, ab znggre jung Puvpxra Yvggyr gryyf lbh. Gura ntnva, jr'ir orra jebat nobhg puvpxraf orsber. Uzz.
Puzzle solution, rot-13'd:
Jura n fgbar / Oyrrqf Ba Sroehnel / guVegvrgu Jura cvtf / sYl Jura gur fxl / snYyf Jura lbh fdhner / gur pVepyr Jura Uryy / serrmrf Bire Jura lbh svaq gur unlfgnpx'f / Arrqyr Jura lbh ureq / pNgf Jura gur fha / frgf Va gur rnfg Jura gjb Fhaqnlf / pbzr gbtrgurE Jura uraf tebj / gRrgu
