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The History of Salt

The History of Salt

I just posted this on the current OWW, after a new user, Ashhenn, asked about “salt” again… and well, I always meant to do this at some point, so…


The History of Salt
The Tanga term “salt” was essentially invented by RedJack11, with, IMO, an assist from Bogden .

In this OWW from November 5, 2006, Redjack11, typed in the puzzle’s answer – SALT – into the Blog for that puzzle instead of into the Answer field. What he said at the time:
    “oh heck… sorry was jumping back and forth between blog and puzzle
    and put that guess in the wrong place”

I must confess, I don’t remember us having to discuss puzzles in a separate Blog like this back then – didn’t we always have the Comments section on puzzles? – but even so, a Blog post vs the Answer field… heh, I’m not sure how you’d make that mistake, which was part of why it was so amazing/funny/legendary.

You can read the original comments HERE. But, alas, for some reason, the actual “Salt” comment has been deleted :(

[and, no, we didn’t have the flag system back then – maybe Joe did it at the time..?]

On the next day’s puzzle, Nov 6, 2006, Redjack posted “salt! no, wait…” early in the Comments section as a joke on himself. This was followed by a user – Bogden – continuing the joke with “Thats an uber spoiler! Stop him!”

But it’s the puzzle after that, Nov 7, 2006, where it all happens. Redjack wrote:
    Okay, here’s what I’m working on…

    Tex(t) To Reign In Hell (part of the quote from Milton’s Paradise lost?)

    then it breaks down… ker ter pel (or something…)

    Although nothing’s working from that, not even salt.

This was followed, a few comment later, by Bogden again, just posting the single word “Salt!”

About 100 comments later, Redjack was still not getting this puzzle, but he was posting his work, and people were telling him he was “painfully close” while Xlorp jumped in with:
    “Redjack, does SALT ring a bell?”

Redjack eventually solved the puzzle:
    “It took you 1 hour, 11 minutes and 34 seconds.
    You are the 75th fastest Tanga member to solve this puzzle.
    You were the 75th Tanga member to solve this puzzle.”
[note: yes, after over an hour, he was still 75th!]

And after several people posted “Yay” for him, Xpsdude posted:
    “Salt..Salt..Salt! Redjack”

So… having solved the puzzle, Redjack hung around for a bit, adding a comment here and there, and other solvers are crediting his earlier “is this close?” posts as helping them.

Chachito:
    “Wow, redjack, seeing your post number #167 really cracked it for me,
    I’m just wondering why you chose to interpret the arrows in the directions
    you did…”

Samuraicat:

    “Have to give the credit to Redjack. His jumbled letters gave me the
    push I needed. Still, I agree with several others. I see nothing here to
    clue me into which letters to use. Not good.”

And then Bogden posts this:
    “Hey, I guess that sure showed me Redjack, I was about to tell
    everybody to stop posting their ridiculous guesses all over the
    blog! hihih, I MEAN heheh… SALT!”

I feel like this comment is maybe part of what planted the seed here. Redjack, the SALT Guy, manged to HELP other people get the puzzle answer by posting his “painfully close” attempts. So Redjack = Help. And Redjack = Salt. And also, according to Bodgen, Posting Guesses = Salt, as well.

But then the leap just happens.

On the very next day’s puzzle, November 8, 2006, Redjack, after solving this one, wrote this:
    "Back… actually took me 5 googles to get the answer…

    SALT #1: The person selling you this stuff won’t make change!

    SALT#2: What you see is what you got."

Redjeck just uses the word “salt” as the word “hint.” And, AFAIK, this was the first time that happened. Which is not to say that there wasn’t, maybe, some other discussion about it – private TG’s… or over on BoardGameGeek (there was a Tanga thread there back in the day)… or maybe some other Discussion Forum thread that’s long gone. Dunno.

But even if there is a “step” missing here, I think it’s safe to say that Redjack11 is the father of Tanga Salt.

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