p.s. It’s as simple as ABC

Kryptos fans will come across the phrase “p.s., It’s as simple as A-B-C” which is an anagram of Palimpsest and Abscissa.  The question we must ask ourselves is whether this is a clever observation/manipulation or an actual clue.

It would seem the correct phrase is:  “As simple as, do re mi”

Okay, so, is it a clue?

That’s going to be opinion.  There’s simply no proof that it is or not at this point in time.  It’s certainly a clever play on words since some of the ciphers use the vigenere tableau and because it gets down to the basic letters of the alphabet when decrypting Kryptos.  I would posit that clever does not equal true.  I would further present the case that without further context, no one anagram of a group of letters is more likely than the rest to be the one true message.

In the interest of trying to convince people that you can actually anagram other messages out of the same letters, here are my submissions.  Keep in mind that I’m not the best anagrammer out there but if we’re going with the hypothesis that if you can form some arbitrary message which must certainly be true then my anagrams are as equally deserving of your attention.  It’s a form of FSM argument.

Palimpsest+Abscissa?

Impassable spastics
Simplest basics, ASAP!
As a psalmist’s biceps…
Spies basalt maps (sic)
Spies Cabalists maps
Basic S.A.L.T. spies maps
Class bait spies maps
For all the dubstep fans: Spacial Bass Missteps

Let’s take it further, no clever anagrams of the misspelled words?

Iqlusion+Undergruund+Desparatly?

Nursery riddles?  Unadult opaquing!
Sunland, requires auditory unplug.
A purr resoundingly unequal didst…
A ruddy opaque gunrunner distills.
“Sirs?” – prudently auld unique dragon

There are many more available.  Anagramming is a fun word game or a sometimes useful tool to pick apart a transposition, it’s not really a cipher system.  It’s a little too easy to get a confusing or wildly incorrect message instead of the one you were intended to receive.

On the other hand, I can talk at people all day long but it would be nice to have someone else weigh in on it.

Anyone?

-Kryptosfan