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  • Bridge, or...?
  • SE Oban (J)
  • Part 'un'
  • Di- Tri- Po-
  • Dubber
  • R&L
  • Pre- v. IC
  • 'P' or TV man
  • A stat: I=RA
  • M????: Al, Ga, B (or O), N, ??

Which tool has been used to make this puzzle?

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2 Answers 2

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19
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The tool is

The guillotine. Quite morbid but we'll see why this works in a bit.

Reasoning:

Let's remove all the punctuation and change the capitalization a bit and give the lines their proper spacing:

Brid geor
Seo banj
Par tun
Di tripo
Dub ber
R L
Pre vic
Port v man
Asta tira
Mal gaboron

Then,

By modifying each pair of nonsense words (and adjusting the capitalization again), they become:

Bridgetown Georgetown
Seoul Banjul
Paris Tunis
Dili Tripoli
Dublin Berlin
Rome Lome
Pretoria Victoria
Port-Vila Manila
Astana Tirana
Male Gaborone

and all twenty of these are state capitals!

But

What is this modification anyway? What we did was we added the same nonsense fragment to each nonsense word. Respectively, these fragments are getown, ul, is, li, lin, ome, toria, ila, na, and e. And if we look at the first letters of these fragments, they spell out guillotine! This also happens to be appropriate for the puzzle because the fragments can be seen to be chopped off from the capitals to give the nonsense words.

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6
  • $\begingroup$ Oh sorry - I didn't check to see if answered - and well ahead of mine! $\endgroup$
    – Tom
    Commented Sep 20 at 17:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Tom No worries, and at least you got the j in there first (thanks Weather Vane for noticing!). $\endgroup$
    – oAlt
    Commented Sep 20 at 17:37
  • $\begingroup$ Correct, and awarding you the checkmark on basis of time :) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 21 at 7:09
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    $\begingroup$ I guess it's a form of rot13(pncvgny chavfuzrag)! $\endgroup$
    – psmears
    Commented Sep 23 at 19:24
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    $\begingroup$ @psmears I'm glad somebody has noticed that! :) I originally debated alluding to that in the title but decided to leave it as an Easter egg in the end... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented 2 days ago
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This sharp puzzle clues a

guillotine

Each line clues

two world capital cities like thus

Bridge, or...? Bridgetown , Georgetown
SE Oban (J) -> Seoul, Banjul
Part 'un' -> Paris, Tunis
Di- Tri- Po- -> Dili, Tripoli
Dubber -> Dublin, Berlin
R&L -> Rome, Lome
Pre- v. IC -> Pretoria, Victoria
'P' or TV man -> Port Vila, Manila
A stat: I=RA -> Astana, Tirana
M????: Al, Ga, B (or O), N, ?? -> Male, Gaborone

and take the initial letter of each line's added string. An apt tool to chop head places.

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1
  • $\begingroup$ Correct :) But I've given oAlt the checkmark for posting an answer slightly sooner. Both good answers with small differences in ways of explaining it... $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Sep 21 at 7:11

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