Code Breaker Contest #9!

In your official hint #6 is _> supposed to mean greater than or equal to?

Official Hint # 8: AH IT EZ BO

No. Hint # 8 does not tell you what each letter decodes to. It gives an additional hint as to the correlation between the colors specified in the Hints pictures, the numbers associated with the encoding mechanism and the similiar characteristics of the letters coded with each color.

My brain is dead beyond repair because of this. Can the next contest be a level 1 difficulty? :D

Any chance the colors indicate an arithmetic operation?

Official Hint # 10: Today: A poem.


Johnny looked at the puzzle,
why the letters and numbers,
and asked "why all the fuzzle?",
just a big coded blunder?

Red, blue, purple and green?
Weird colors, that's very true!
Why these strange colors, Moe,
purple, green, red and blue?

Maybe it's a quick code
that's easy to solve.
I'll do it fast, fast, fast
I just need resolve!

Alas, 'twasn't to be,
After hint upon hint,
the code remained coded,
none had a glint.

So, he thinks outside the box,
he looks at the letters in line,
as then as sly as a fox...
he notices a similiar design!

The shapes of the letters
must all be the same
since they share the very same color!
Each color means a shape
that the letters all share,
they then must all be brothers!

Maybe, he pondered
the colors all wander?
But No, Moe wouldn't do that.
The colors mean something,
like chicken and dumplings,
one leg, two leg, curved and then flat!.

Maybe he said, the red isn't just red;
something else must be done.
red could mean one leg,
like a chicken on an egg,
red letter legs equal to one.

And the blue also isn't just blue,
any way that could be true?
Count the letter's legs
I don't want to beg,
It means the blue legs equal to two!

So if the number is green
what ever could that mean?
The hint says "look at this bowl".
It's green and it's round
clues truly abound
green letters teeter I am told!

Green letters' bases curve
with a sweet gentle swerve
around a grassy knoll
They're truly unstable
could fall off the table
'cause a green base has to roll!

But not all round base letters roll,
sometimes just a small bended sway,
like the left can be droll
some rock and some roll
but the right curve completely away.

Just to keep things all cool
it's still the same rule:
Green's base has to curve.
The design's still the same
and green's still it's name,
if the base is only a knurl.

Purple's base is all flat,
something we all can discern.
We all can tell that,
from the shoe clue we learned!

Purple letters' base is straight
as they all swish and sway,
Only three letters like this
so get decoding today!

Let's look at the alphabet;
A is with H and K
standing strong on two legs
steady, ready, never to sway!

And I looks like F and P
they teeter on only one leg.
Pick a color to identify them
I don't want to beg!
What color to use
across the spectrum spread?
Green's gone, purple too
so one leg color is red!!

So start at the left and number away
across the entire number array,
red goes to six,
green goes to six
purple, three, blue to eight!!

All numbers will be letters,
that's easy to see.
The old letters are in the way,
ditch them, you're free!

Start the decoding at left,
don't switch any gears,
You're getting quite deft,
The message appears!!

X starts the code
and then ends the code too,
Why? 'Cause Moe's crazy,
you know that it's true!

So good luck my friends
with this newest code clue.
Solve the puzzle quickly
and the Ikes go to you!

Blue 1-8 = A, H, K, M, N, R, W, X (two legs)
Purple 1-2 = E, Z (flat base)
Green 1-9 = B, C, D, G, J, O, Q, S, you (rounded base)
Red 1-6 = F, I, P, T, V, Y (one leg)

It was unclear if I has one leg or a flat base (depends on the font), so I had to try it both ways, but it was obvious rather quickly that I was red).

Throw away all letters, decode per above, then throw away the leading and trailing "X" characters. (Moe loves him some weeds!)

NOTE: I have edited this TWICE and it keeps changing "U" to "you" above!