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Comment by giberson | Hacker News Reader

I kind of wonder if this is an alternative to the old "You've won a free trip, come to this location to collect your prize" used to catch criminals on the lamb.

It seems like this might be a ploy to tempt the ego of the murderer into providing the decryption of his own note. In other words, solving this puzzle may land you directly on the suspect list.

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A bit of pedantry: it is "on the lam" not "on the lamb" but that is a common enough misconception that I feel pointing it out is actually productive rather than nit-picky.

Absolutely. I am not a native speaker, so I appreciate it, when people improve my knowledge of the English language.

I just read your last two comments carefully. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have thought that you were a native speaker of English.

The lam/lamb mistake is exactly the sort of thing that even native speakers would screw up. You also have an extra comma in "appreciate it, when" but that's minor.

It's probably because you invite people to correct you that you're so good.

Same here.

Your last comma is probably superfluous, I think.

Thanks for the clarification.

To me, as an idiomatic expression goes, it always made sense to be on the "lamb". I thought the expression had originated from shepherding--like a shepherd chasing after a loose sheep.

The online etymology dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=lam) says it's of uncertain origin, but does not mention ovines.

It comes from lam meaning to thrash or pound. So you're stomping your feet running quickly.

Not really, the victim made the language himself and did this for quite some while.

I'd posit that solving this puzzle almost certainly will land you on the suspect list, however, I don't think that it's a ploy.

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