On Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 12:09:29 AM UTC+1, Clive Tooth wrote:
The first two sentences of Moby-Dick by Herman Melville are as follows:
~~~~
Call me Ishmael.
Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
~~~~
Those sentences might be reconstructed, following a certain constraint, to give:
~~~~
My name's Ishmael.
Ages ago - exactly how long ago isn't germane - knowing I had but a meagre store of coinage wearing a hole in my purse, and not a special thing to concern me at all on shore, I formed the idea of, maybe, sailing the seas a little and thus viewing our
very amazing planet's oceanic regions.
~~~~
Note that the constraint does not uniquely determine the reconstructed sentences. Many other sentences would be possible, whilst still following the constraint.
Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to discover the constraint. And then, to prove that you have determined it, produce a constrained reconstruction of the third sentence of Moby-Dick:
~~~~
It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. ~~~~
Good luck.
The constraint is as follows:
Draw a vertical bar before the reconstructed sentences. After every seven letters draw another vertical bar. No bar must ever be within a word...
|My name's| Ishmael|.
Ages ago| - exactly| how long| ago isn't|
germane| - knowing| I had but| a meagre|
store of| coinage| wearing| a hole in|
my purse|, and not a |special| thing to|
concern| me at all| on shore|, I formed|
the idea| of, maybe|, sailing| the seas|
a little| and thus| viewing| our very|
amazing| planet's| oceanic| regions|.
--
Clive Tooth
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)