..in which all is revealed - 11/21/02 10:36 PM
well, there's still a chance for connie to slip in the back door of the other still-obvious thread and vote, but with a lawsuit once again hanging over my head I've got to post this and go meet with my crack lawyer team, Cohn & McCarthy..
codos to ASp for garnering four actual votes plus identifying cilly as cryptology terminology. I think that's worth six(6) points all tolled [sic]. honorable mention to Fiberbabe for garnering three votes, Wordwind for three votes minus one of those execrable se'f votes, and teD for also decoding this riddled mass.
here's caradea's exegesis, which accompanied her suggestion:
cillies are predictable message "keys" used by lazy axis Enigma operators, who were supposed to choose three *random letters to determine the positions of the scramblers each morning. Bletchey cryptanalysts discovered that consecutive keys such as QWE or ASD were sometimes used, and it was just what they needed to crack Enigma. the name "cillies" supposedly comes from the initials of one of the operators' girlfriends: C.I.L. ~ it was evidently easy for him to remember. Bletchley was already using the Polish bombes, but they took too long ~ feeding a list of cillies into the bombes often reaped quicker results.
the definition as given is from The 1944 Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary, which can be found online.
here then are the compleat results; as always the contributor is in brackets with votes following..
a) describes the facial expression of one who has a nasal hair tickling the side of his/her nose [RC]
b) the name for the mechanism that produces several graph lines at once as may be found in a lie detector, a seismograph, etc [consuelo]
c) an Italian version of chili, somewhat similar to the Tex-Mex variety but substituting cannellini for kidney beans and featuring traditional Italian herbs, including basil, oregano, and garlic [slithyt] dodyskin
d) WITHDRAWN, for lack of support (this is what is known in hogwash circles as an Alabama Bounce [apologies to Bill Safire and his 'Jersey Bounce'])
e) type of mathematical puzzle popular in the 19th century [Bingley] bonzai
f) the wrapping at the base of a double-reed that assures a snug fit onto the bocal of the bassoon or oboe [f'babe] sjm, Faldage, dxb
g) descriptive of tiny, eyelash-like protrusions on lower marine life forms [ASp] Bankroll, Bingley, rkay, RC
h) to use as the outside indicator of an Enigma message the letters appearing in the windows at the end of the enciphering of the previous message, thereby revealing the finished position for message and, in certain circumstances, facilitating the determination of its true setting and wheel-order (from the initials of the girlfriend of a German operator, who found them easy to remember) [The 1944 Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary] ASp, teD
i) (slang) insanity induced by lead poisoning [musick]
j) a Coast Guard officer [Jazzo]
k) a battlefield formation used with great success by the Roman legions during Caesar's earliest campaigns [WO'N]
l) a meadow strewn with flints (These meadows are found on chalk downs and are used for grazing sheep. The soil is too shallow for crops and the grass insuffiently lush to fatten cattle adequately. Originally was two words, "cill lye". Cills being igneous rock intrusions and lye being the old word, or one of them, for a meadow.) [dxb]
m) an obsolete variant of the word silly [ron obvious] Jazzo
n) the decorative, frilled hem of a slip that is designed to peep from under the skirt of a latin dancer [dodyskin] musick
o) a hairlike tail or end [Wordwind] F'babe, Ww (se'f-vote), W'ON, slithy t,
codos to ASp for garnering four actual votes plus identifying cilly as cryptology terminology. I think that's worth six(6) points all tolled [sic]. honorable mention to Fiberbabe for garnering three votes, Wordwind for three votes minus one of those execrable se'f votes, and teD for also decoding this riddled mass.
here's caradea's exegesis, which accompanied her suggestion:
cillies are predictable message "keys" used by lazy axis Enigma operators, who were supposed to choose three *random letters to determine the positions of the scramblers each morning. Bletchey cryptanalysts discovered that consecutive keys such as QWE or ASD were sometimes used, and it was just what they needed to crack Enigma. the name "cillies" supposedly comes from the initials of one of the operators' girlfriends: C.I.L. ~ it was evidently easy for him to remember. Bletchley was already using the Polish bombes, but they took too long ~ feeding a list of cillies into the bombes often reaped quicker results.
the definition as given is from The 1944 Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary, which can be found online.
here then are the compleat results; as always the contributor is in brackets with votes following..
a) describes the facial expression of one who has a nasal hair tickling the side of his/her nose [RC]
b) the name for the mechanism that produces several graph lines at once as may be found in a lie detector, a seismograph, etc [consuelo]
c) an Italian version of chili, somewhat similar to the Tex-Mex variety but substituting cannellini for kidney beans and featuring traditional Italian herbs, including basil, oregano, and garlic [slithyt] dodyskin
d) WITHDRAWN, for lack of support (this is what is known in hogwash circles as an Alabama Bounce [apologies to Bill Safire and his 'Jersey Bounce'])
e) type of mathematical puzzle popular in the 19th century [Bingley] bonzai
f) the wrapping at the base of a double-reed that assures a snug fit onto the bocal of the bassoon or oboe [f'babe] sjm, Faldage, dxb
g) descriptive of tiny, eyelash-like protrusions on lower marine life forms [ASp] Bankroll, Bingley, rkay, RC
h) to use as the outside indicator of an Enigma message the letters appearing in the windows at the end of the enciphering of the previous message, thereby revealing the finished position for message and, in certain circumstances, facilitating the determination of its true setting and wheel-order (from the initials of the girlfriend of a German operator, who found them easy to remember) [The 1944 Bletchley Park Cryptographic Dictionary] ASp, teD
i) (slang) insanity induced by lead poisoning [musick]
j) a Coast Guard officer [Jazzo]
k) a battlefield formation used with great success by the Roman legions during Caesar's earliest campaigns [WO'N]
l) a meadow strewn with flints (These meadows are found on chalk downs and are used for grazing sheep. The soil is too shallow for crops and the grass insuffiently lush to fatten cattle adequately. Originally was two words, "cill lye". Cills being igneous rock intrusions and lye being the old word, or one of them, for a meadow.) [dxb]
m) an obsolete variant of the word silly [ron obvious] Jazzo
n) the decorative, frilled hem of a slip that is designed to peep from under the skirt of a latin dancer [dodyskin] musick
o) a hairlike tail or end [Wordwind] F'babe, Ww (se'f-vote), W'ON, slithy t,
(except for it bein' fun, of course!) "Course it wouldn't surprise me if it was sjm who made that chart "go away"...he of the famous Aught...or was it One Point? 
Is that your first, K-L?