Lost great cryptogrammers - Maradnu and maybe Gryhnd51

[318WOZ]

I have sometimes checked the Cryptograms Hall of Fame and been impressed with the top scorers. I've seen that several of the leaders have often had the current date posted for their Last Game, which makes sense for high scorers. I don't keep up with the chat page, but I happened upon a note that says that Maradnu has died, and I see that the last game from Maradnu was on 06 June. I see also that the (presumably permanent) all-time top scorer, Gryhnd51, has not played since 31 July, after solving a 879,430th cryptogram puzzle. I don't think I ever saw many comments from Gryhnd51. I definitely saw many from Maradnu, and it's a bit strange to know that I won't see any new comments from him now. When Abra died, I definitely felt it and was uncommonly sad. I can't say I feel at all the same about Maradnu--it wasn't uncommon for me to disagree substantially with him in some way, either with the thought he was expressing or the way he expressed it--but I feel like it's appropriate in some way to memorialize him here as a significant member of our community. I remember him mentioning his writing. and I hope that as he neared the end of his life he found satisfaction in the efforts he had given. He's currently #5 in the Hall of Fame, having solved 549,273 puzzles, and I imagine he'll be in the top 10 for a long time.

[LLapp]

318WOZ - I think Gryhnd, aka Beth, is still with us but that maybe she just hasn't played lately. She lives with her husband in New Hampshire, and I don't see any indication in search results that she's not still kicking. She and I corresponded 8 years ago, when she gave me her grandfather's large 19th century dictionary (which sits a few feet away as I type this post), and I visited her in NH after I had the book restored. Maybe I'll check in with her and report back.

[Synonymous]

Maradnu was a great cryptogrammer, he wil be and already is missed. I corresponded with him on messages several times and read a little bit of his writing. I feel it when we lose anyone from our community and still enjoy, with a smile, when I see Pootie, Bansaisequoia, Abra and now Maradnu in comments. May they all live-on in this community and Rest In Peace.

[hrossa]

813woz, this forum thread is a great idea, thanks for starting it. Pootie and Bansai were gone before I started playing, but I still appreciate those of their comments and scores that still remain. I wish the comments went farther back in time. RIP to Abra, Maradnu and other less visible players who are no longer be with us.

[318WOZ]

I don't think I "met" Pootie before she died, and I wasn't involved enough in the site while Bansaisequoia was with us to appreciate him then. It's a strange sort of community we have here, but the people in it are important to me.

[oddcouple]

I wasn't aware that maradnu died. He certainly was a huge asset to me, even to extending suggestions-people always, etc

As to the greyhound lady, I'm sure she'd enjoying herself, perhaps with grandchildren. Almost 900 thousand puzzles and an outstanding 98% with sub 10 scoring. bansai was a huge loss. I don't think he did any boards, but he made a lot of comments, many of them funny. As to the oddcouple, I started doing cryptos 14 years ago. I've solved 120 thousand puzzles at a 98% clip. That's good for #31 all-time. My wife doesn't understand my addiction. I've recently slipped under 75% for the first time, but every time I check my recent games, it tells me that I have less than 75% solved. I've taken a look at my recent games (past week), and I see a lot of puzzles that Baron has sent me without my knowledge. I'm about four million behind lspiegel, whom I've never had contact with. It'll teach me to watch what the Baron is doing. It's not supposed to do that. I'll probably make my long-time goal of being top 30, but its be at least a year. There's an outside chance I could make it by Christmas 2025.

Happy Crypto Sunday, everybody!

[kb83]

Gryhnd51 is way out in front in terms of lifetime total points, with 250 million points, and the next cohort are all at about 160 million. Even if she has "crypto-retired," if someone in this cohort does 1 million points a month (that's a very intense rate, but some of these folks do that (as do I), it would take 90 months (7 1/2 years ) to overtake her. In other words, she's
way-y-y-y ahead!

[Eureka]

It is unfortunate that we don't know the fate of some of our longtime players, like Lily H, marnita, mmfs83, wvwoman and munchlet, all of whom haven't played in 2 or more years but have left many comments and were well known here. I felt very upset by abra's death and still miss her every time I play cryptograms. Somehow things are not the same without her. I appreciated many of maradnu's comments but he definitely liked to stir things up. I felt that he was a champion of the underdog, which is admirable. I agree with 318WOZ that we are a strange community, but have somehow developed friendships with one another over the years just through comments that we leave. It was wvwoman who first reached out to me in the Chat Box with a question about my avatar at the time. Before that I hadn't really paid attention to the Chat Box but I have been a regular contributor since then. I wish I knew what happened to her.

[LLapp]

Eureka, I've wondered especially about wvwoman, real first name Terri. She was the first person to reach out to me as well, when she messaged me on my birthday in 2015 and invited me over to the chat box. I recall from a few of her comments that she lived with debilitating COPD, and I've worried that she may have been taken by Covid. Her profile said her most recent activity here was in 2019. If I knew her full name, I would look for her.

[318WOZ]

Has it been that long since Marnita was on?? My goodness! She (like the others mentioned, to a lesser extent) is one of those people I have expected to provide thoughtful commentary after we solve puzzles. These people are important to me; my own opinion and experience aren't particularly important, but I wonder if the people we don't see any more realize their importance here. I know it will happen sometimes, but I don't like it that some of our community will fade away silently without us knowing what happened. Perhaps I should do more to get to know people personally so as to help keep track of everyone. I think I don't usually do that because I don't want to impose myself on other people, and also because it seems hard to add more relationships in my life--particularly when I have moved around geographically so many times and work in a profession that involves other people moving all the time, too, and thus have had to watch people move into and out of my life frequently. In more recent years, this community has felt more constant to me...and then, less so as we've lost people here.

[kitchenwitch]

This is very sad. I enjoy reading his comments even when I don't agree with them (that's the beauty of a forum, right?). I hope his family are coping as well as they can.