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Eschew Obfuscation Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

The Rat: Despite the fact this was found yesterday, it is not there today. I checked it because of repeated logs saying it was falling out of its spot, etc., and it is now gone. I will not replace this cache. Thanks to all finders for some amusing reading.

Here's a sample of some of the rules I collected to use on the cache page or which I expected to be logged by others. Some were used in one variant or another and some were not.

Eschew Obfuscation.
No Fragment Sentences.
Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.
Avoid cliches like the plague.
Apostrophe's are for possessive's and contraction's, not plural's
Never be repetitive and redundant - never!
Run on sentences should be avoided they are a mark of poor grammar.
Is it pretentious to use rhetorical questions?
Don't never use double negatives.
Always ensure the subject and verb agrees.
Try not to incorrectly split infinitives.

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Hidden : 5/27/2003
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

I thought about calling this Word Police Quiz #2, but it's too different. The cache really is at the posted coordinates this time, but there is a "quiz" of sorts.

The cache container is a magnetic micro, and should be relatively straightforward to find. My GPSr kept changing coordinates as it averaged, though, so the coordinates may be off just a bit. Feel free to post corrected coordinates with your log if you think mine are wrong.

Here's the hard part. Once you find the cache, you must log a self-violating rule of English language grammar, usage, or style. I will delete logs that do not meet this criterion, or those that are essentially repeats of previous logs. Each log must be a new rule violation. If you don't get it, I'll explain. The title is an example. Eschew means to avoid. Obfuscate means to confuse or hide. Thus the title "rule" means: Avoid Confusion - or, in plain English: Write clearly. It is stated in the form of a rule (i.e., do this or don't do that) and it violates itself. There are at least a dozen or so good rules of this sort that are pithy, witty, or silly enough to be entertaining, perhaps twice that many. Do not bother to find this cache and log it if you do not have a rule in mind, because I will delete logs that don't qualify. If in doubt, e-mail me your proposed rule first, and I will either approve it in advance, say no, or possibly suggest a more elegant or entertaining way of expressing the same idea, if I happen to have come across one. If you don't want to wait for the e-mail exchange, go ahead and log, and I may encrypt your log and email you to reword it if I think the idea has merit, since I cannot edit it directly. Or I may just delete it, so log at your own risk. I fully expect that after ten logs or so, finders will no longer be able to come up with original ideas. If I find that too much time has passed without good rules or too many bad logs have appeared and been deleted, I will raise the difficulty level. However, I will still delete bad logs, so move fast on this one. Expect no mercy. I am, after all, the Word Police.

In order to be sure the cache will stay available for a reasonable length of time, however, I will bend these rules after two months of no good logs, or six months from approval, whichever comes first. At that point I will log a note on the page that I will provide finders with a rule to post that has not been used (if I know any and they e-mail me first), or I'll modify the cache page to allow for other good Word Police related postings. I'll decide exactly what when the time comes. Maybe I'll allow real-life examples of political correctness that result in ridiculous grammatical constructions. But for now, self-violating rules only, please.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

[Edit as of 11/16/03: I have removed the requirement for logging a self-violating rule of grammar, so this is just a regular cache now. I have lowered the difficulty rating to 1/1. However, I still strongly encourage finders to log a grammar rule as described. There are still a bunch of clever ones that haven't been used here. If you can't think of that, at least try to log a good pun or play on words. But I won't delete logs without them.]

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)