Replace the red numerals, 0 to 9, with a unique letter of the alphabet around the pentagram to form five 4-letter words which read in the direction of the arrows.

Allowing that letters have a positional value in the alphabet (1-26), the sum for each word value appears as a green two digit numeral on the diagram.

Each of the five words has some association with a different word in this phrase -
"Not the life of a sparkling female kid Paulette."
The words are common enough, but may not be mainstream in some gatherings.

It is interesting to note that if you fill in any two of the words the others are fixed because it leaves 3 unknown letters to make 3 sums.

For example 'kid' made me think GOAT = 43
then I needed another word starting with G.  'female' could be GIRL = 46
Then these would be the two words coming from the 0.
The only blanks left would be at the red numbers 2, 5 and 8.
Call them x, y and z respectively, then to give the green totals
x+I+O+z = 45 --> x + z = 21
x+R+y+T = 61 --> x + y = 23
z+A+y+L = 53 --> y + z = 40
Solving this system gives
x = 2 --> B
y = 21 --> U
z = 19 --> S
And the missing words are BIOS, BRUT, SAUL
I don't think these words have much to do the the phrase but it does outline way to try different words.

Posted by Jer on 2011-12-14 11:06:10