Contemplating.

Contemplating.
Wayzata, Minnesota

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Alphabe-Thursday - The letter X

THIS IS AN   ALPHABE-THURSDAY POST

The Infamous XYZ Affair of 1797 involved coded words......

My Letter X for Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursdays is... The XYZ Affair, its code name is
    XYZ Nomenclator (nomenclators were used by royal houses throughout Europe to conceal diplomatic and personal dispatches and messages)   I'll define its meaning with a student's quest.......




      There once was a girl named, Xabiere Xalbadora who was born in Xenia, Illinois long ago. Xabiere was very concerned that her name was not very popular (beginning in X) and that her classmates felt she was inferior to them. She was determined to prove that there were plenty of exciting and important things that began with the letter X.  Her searching ended with discovery of the legendary  XYZ Affair of 1797.

     The  XYZ Affair  involved secret demands from French officials for monetary commitments from the United States. U.S. delegates in France, sent details of such discussions to Timothy Pickering, the Secretary of State. They were encoded with a number-letter nomenclator that included the following coded words and fragments:

This is the first of the coded words and fragments....
The U.S. commissioners were outraged by these proposals of what they determined was "bribery" and sent the following encoded answer:

                                 449.449.457.1193.1178.27.493.
                          
This decoded message spelled out one of America's most famous replies in all of American history......
decoded it stated:  no no not a sixpence  (they refused to be bribed)



Oh such sweet joys from making and breaking secret codes and messages....
I hope you enjoyed my offering of the xcellent- letter X and if you care to see more or post your own
go here 

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/09/alphabe-thursdays-letter-x.html

19 comments:

My name is Riet said...

What a great X post. I love it.
Riet

jfb57 said...

What a clever, clever idea! Really enjoyed this one!

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and clever! I love secret spy stuff! Thanks for sharing!

noexcuses

Debra Gray-Elliott said...

Interesting...thanks for stopping by Words are Tiemless

Cathy Kennedy said...

So cool! I just loved this post, truly original and unexpected. Xcellent job!

Today’s post…
X is for
Have a good Thursday!

Cathy Kennedy,
Children's Author, “The Tale of Ole Green Eyes”

Unknown said...

This was such fun! I love what the coded message turned out to be.

Lola said...

Love your ‘X’ post - so clever & original!

And thanks too for stopping by.

Have a great weekend & look forward to *seeing* you again next time,

XOXO LOLA:)

Susan Anderson said...

This really caught my interest. Thanks!

=)

Alan Burnett said...

Now that is a fascinating introduction to an episode in American history I had no idea at all about.

H said...

I loved your post! I deciphered the code before reading on to discover that you had provided the answer. Great reply!

Judie said...

You win! What a terrific "X" post!!! Brava!!

Karen S. said...

Alan, thanks, glad you happened by! This letter of the week thing is kind of fun!

Judie, no way....I'm not even close to your remarkable fun info packed besides stunning absolutes awesome shades of YeLlOw!!! But, I'm having trouble getting Jenny's linky thing to work ...so unless I follow the person or they stop by here...I haven't been able to comment on the others yet...and last night there were already like 45 or something! thanks for your nice comment Judie...I do appreciate and value your comments!

H- I know, I just love codes too....and I did the same thing when I first saw it! thanks for stopping by!

Karen S. said...

F H- blogger wasn't letting me comment, Oh thanks so much for the lovely photos...I just envy those who live in England....your cow photo is my most favorite...they seem to just love their life...even though they say cows don't really feel much....I like to think otherwise! The red phone booth I took lots of photos of when in Folkestone....you just don't see them much anymore...and I really like them! Thanks for stopping by ...nice to visit your blog as well!

Galen Pearl said...

As my son would say, x-cellamente. Very clever--I would not be able to come up with anything for X!

Coralie Cederna Johnson said...

What a fun and interesting X-post!!! Hope your day is wonderful and thanks so much for your visit!
Hugs,
Coralie

Visits With Mary said...

I have never heard of this, I found it very interesting....Great Post

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

karen!! this was Xcellent!! i love codes...puzzles...and tried to send you a coded message back...but...couldn't put anything together that made 496s!! (haha)

Jenny said...

Karen! Wow. This was really, really amazing. I'm sending this post to my daughter who is always totally intriqued (and able to understand) codes!

This was so different and Xtremely Xcellent!

Thanks for sharing it.

A+

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...

I love your X post! I also am one that likes spy stuff and codes! :o) ...love action and adventure movies and books too. Thanks for sharing this one!

Blessings & Aloha!
I am so very behind in my blog visits! I want to say thank you so very much for stopping by and for your comment! I noticed that you live in Minnesota...my "little" sister does too...she is 20 years younger than me and also younger than our oldest daughter :o)