Guy's father presented him a matching table (letters to digits and *) -see at the bottom of this page - and asked him to decode the following message:
681, 091 02 32 *0 9*670.
78991 84!
What's the meaning of the puzzle's title?
The matching table:
3245 = a foolish person
24-53 = another opinion
1267890= fermented milk product
The digit to letter assignment is as follows:
2 4 5 3 1 6 7 8 9 0
o p e d y g h u r t
Now,
3245 => dope, meaning "a foolish person"
24-53 => op-ed (#)
1267890 => yoghurt (British spelling), is a fermented milk product.
(#) According to Wikipedia, "An op-ed short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine which expresses the opinion of an author usually NOT affiliated with the publication's editorial board."
Therefore, this is in full conformity with the clue "another opinion inclusive of the problem text.
Hence, the message now translates as:
"guy, try to do it r*get!
hurry up!"
Replacing the asterisk with "i", the message is now fully decoded as:
"guy, try to do it right!
hurry up!"
Consequently, the puzzle title is the coded form of "hurry up!"
Edited on June 20, 2022, 3:02 am