ThinMan wrote (November 11, 1997):

> 1)  2-8-3-28-23-8 1 23-8-23-2-8-53 28-11 58-13-8
> 1-3-21-1-25-28-23-15-3 55-81-2-12-8-25-15-81-55
>
> 2)  13-1-82-8 1 51-53-28-55-58-13-8-58-15-3 "5-28-2-2-55" 13-8-1-5
>
> 3)  13-1-82-8 1 55-23-28-21-15-25-12 "11-53-28-51" 51-15-51-8
>
15 2-53-28-21-8 58-13-8 3-28-5-8 2-8-11-28-53-8 1-22-11-82-1-8-25,
2-81-58 15'23 55-58-81-3-21 28-25 58-13-8 3-1-58 58-13-15-25-12.  15
5-28-25'58 58-13-15-25-21 15 83-15-22-22 83-28-53-21 28-25 15-58
1-25-88 23-28-53-8, 58-13-28-81-12-13 -- 15 11-15-25-5 58-13-8
3-13-81-53-3-13 28-11 58-13-8 55-81-2-12-8-25-15-81-55
5-15-55-58-1-55-58-8-11-81-22, 15-25 1 23-15-22-5-22-88
13-81-23-28-53-28-81-55 55-28-53-58 28-11 83-1-88.

Alfvaen wrote (November 21, 1997):

> It appears that Alfvaen, noted treasure hunter, has found my treasure.
> I'm not sure what the procedure for reporting this is, so I thought I'd
> post this, and a copy of the map.

> The map to the Puzzle Box and the Trinket of Awesome, Near-Infinite
> Possibilities:

> 1) Become a member of the Ackanomic Subgenius.
> 2) Have a prosthetic "Dobbs" head.
> 3) Have a smoking "Frop" pipe.

This was all posted encoded, of course.  I first tried to do it just as
a cryptogram, but then I noticed that the numbers would fit in a square
grid:

   1  2  3  5  8
-  a  b  c  d  e
1  f  g  h  i  j
2  k  l  m  n  o
5  p  q  r  s  t
8  u  v  w  x  y

I still didn't know what 4) meant, but I undertook the actions specified,
figuring that if someone else figured it out before I did, they'd have to
strike a deal with me first.  :-)

(By the way, ThinMan's message said:
   i broke the code before alfvaen, but i'm stuck on the cat thing.
   i don't think i will work on it any more, though  i find the church
   of the subgenius distasteful, in a mildly humorous sort of way.

I agree on the distasteful bit, which is one reason why I didn't go to the
effort of making the Ackanomic Subgenius into a Church.
)

> 4) Post a public message with these two attributes:
>    i) The body must be an appropriate response to the questions, "Are
>       cats on the upgrade?"
>    ii) The subject must be a proper name that fits the question posed in
>        part i).

This one took me a while; I'd decided that it must have something to do
with the Subgenius thing, but I couldn't find a reference to it anywhere in
the limited resources I had available(i.e. an issue of "Bob's Favourite
Comics").  So today I did a web search for it, and happened across the
lyrics page for Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick".  Apparently the line I
quoted occurs just after the beginning of Side II.  (Haven't heard the
album, although it is on my somewhat length list of albums to look for
sometime...)