What is Venona? Or, More Accurately, What Connection Does Venona

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

This is a really weird one, even for me, and I am someone who is accustomed to rather high levels of strange and weird. Okay, here goes...

 

My main question is this: What is the seemingly rather shadowy organization called "Venona" and what is its persistent connection with geocaching?

 

Let me start at the beginning... Up till a few months ago, I had never heard the word "Venona", and that was just fine with me. Then, starting around July 2008, I started to hear vague references in the geo world -- at events, on regional forums, in private PMs received from cachers around the world -- to a shadowy Russian organization called "Venona" with strong ties to geocaching in the USA. I eventually received three private emails (from the address disclosed on our profile page at Groundspeak) from a person or agency calling themselves "Venona", each asking me very intricate and detailed questions about some of my Psycho Urban caches. However, what was worrisome was that the person or persons who authored these three emails (the IP address traced to a server in the Ukraine) also knew quite a bit about me, about local geocaching luminaries, and about where I live.

 

At about this point, I finally broke down and did a quick Google search on the term, and discovered, via Wikipedia and other more reliable sources, that Venona had been the name for a very long-running (1943 until well into the 1980s) secret collaboration between intelligence agencies in Great Britain and the USA, focused particularly upon intelligence from within the Soviet Union. And, apparently, much of their focus was on decrypting coded messages sent by Soviet KGB and GRU agents. Supposedly, all vestiges and traces of the USA-GB Venona project ended by around 1982 or 1983.

 

However, there are some interesting references on the web to another "Venona", a loose-knit, decentralized Russian-born organization that arose in the years after the USA/GB Venona project had ended. So far, so good, and none of this is/was important to me. In fact, it was all kind of a dead end.

 

And then, in late July 2008, while I was hunting a few geocaches in Malaysia, one of my Malaysian geocaching buddies noticed a folded note addressed to me in the second cache which we found. It advised me that I would shortly be contacted by "Venona".

 

When I returned back home from Malaysia, it occurred to me to search the forum archives at Groudspeak and a few regional geocaching societies for the term "Venona", and the only references that I could find were to some kind of mystery caches apparently hidden in the following areas:

• San Diego, CA
  
• San Francisco, CA
  
• Minnesota
  
• Nebraska
  
• Washington DC (for this one, the link is rather tenuous and iffy, and involves Freemasonry as well)
  
• Colombia (the country, and again, much as was true for DC, the link was rather tenuous)
  

Frankly, none of this information made any cohesive sense to me, and none of this helped me, and so I put the matter aside.

 

Finally, just as I started to forget all the nonsense about Venona, I started receiving reports from local seekers of our Psycho Urban caches that they were finding notes and business cards bearing the single word "Venona" at the hide sites while seeking some of our caches.

 

And then, the near-final capstone was that a local cacher reported to me that while hunting his very first Psycho Urban cache, he had been approached by a "very weird" and "very weirdly dressed" man wearing a long black trenchcoat, with a thick Russian accent, who, without preamble, asked him three times "You be Venona?". The cacher related that just as he was poised to either run or dial 911 on his cell phone, the man turned and walked briskly away, dropping behind him in his wake a single white business card that read "Venona".

 

The final straw came yesterday, when I made a quick run by car to Shepherdstown WV to check on PUC #13 and PUC #14. As I always do on my visits to Shepherdstown, after I was done my chores and was ready to head home, I stopped by the bakery in the middle of the town to buy several pieces of apple strudel. As the girl at the register rang up my order for the strudel, she looked at me closely and gasped. She then told me that a tall man in a trenchcoat, with a thick foreign accent, likely a Russian accent, had come into the store a half-hour earlier, shown her a photo of my face, and asked if she had ever seen me. She told that she had truthfully replied to the effect that she had never seen me. She said that he turned on his heel and left without purchasing anything, and without saying anything more, once she had answered his question. I then returned to my car, and, as I pulled into traffic, discovered that someone had used their finger to scrawl the word "Venona" backward in the dust and grime on the rear window of my car.

 

Very strange...

 

So, my question for you is this: does anyone here know anything about this shadowy "Venona", and can you shed any light on the link between mystery caches in the above-listed regions and my caches? Is Venona a person? An organization? What do they care about geocaching? Lastly, how can I contact this Venona?

 

I thank you in advance for any help that you can offer, even the tiniest light that you may be able to shed on the matter.

 

 

.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[+Juicepig]

wow! i actually got to read the whole thing before the mods deleted the OP.. That must mean they don't exist

[+Y2KOTA]

OMG That's creepy!

[+Kealia]

It's a local thing.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

It's a local thing.

Local to what or where? To you or to me, or to somewhere else? Can you give me any further hints or clues beyond that?

[+Harry Dolphin]

From the Shakespearean play "Two Gentleman of Venona"? There might be two men answering to Venona.

[+9Key]

Sounds like someone is setting us up for a new Psycho Cache.

 

http://www.nsa.gov/venona/

[+fizzymagic]

It's a local thing.

Local to what or where? To you or to me, or to somewhere else? Can you give me any further hints or clues beyond that?

There is a geocacher registered named Venona. He has hidden a couple caches out here in Northern California. He is a known ex-Soviet spy who has a history of stealing valuable geocaching items and taunting the locals to solve his puzzles (he calls them ACTIVITIES) in order to retrieve them.

 

He doesn't appear to have stolen anything this year, but just yesterday a new cache by him appeared. We expect that this will lead us down the rabbit-hole as it has in past years. A lively discussion is taking place on the Geocachers of the Bay Area website.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

It's a local thing.

Local to what or where? To you or to me, or to somewhere else? Can you give me any further hints or clues beyond that?

There is a geocacher registered named Venona. He has hidden a couple caches out here in Northern California. He is a known ex-Soviet spy who has a history of stealing valuable geocaching items and taunting the locals to solve his puzzles (he calls them ACTIVITIES) in order to retrieve them.

 

He doesn't appear to have stolen anything this year, but just yesterday a new cache by him appeared. We expect that this will lead us down the rabbit-hole as it has in past years. A lively discussion is taking place on the Geocachers of the Bay Area website.

Urk... your reply raises more questions than it answers. First, any mention of "Soviet spies" is soooo 1970s and soooo retro.

 

Next, okay, so you seem to have a local cacher who goes by that name, and it seems that you are located near San Francisco, but what the heck does any or all of that have to to with the following:

• San Diego, CA
  
• Minnesota
  
• Nebraska
  
• Washington DC
  
• The House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in DC
  
• Colombia (the country)
  
• Malaysia
  
• Shepherdstown, WV
  
• Frederick, MD
  
• me (or my Psycho Urban caches)
  

Frankly, I am more confused than ever...

 

.

Edited November 4, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[jholly]

.

Edited November 4, 2008 by jholly

[+bflentje]

I think it's just your creative way to brag about geocaching overseas.

 

ADFS JUAM POOY NMAB ATGF AJKK QBAP

 

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

It's a local thing.

Local to what or where? To you or to me, or to somewhere else? Can you give me any further hints or clues beyond that?

There is a geocacher registered named Venona. He has hidden a couple caches out here in Northern California. He is a known ex-Soviet spy who has a history of stealing valuable geocaching items and taunting the locals to solve his puzzles (he calls them ACTIVITIES) in order to retrieve them.

 

He doesn't appear to have stolen anything this year, but just yesterday a new cache by him appeared. We expect that this will lead us down the rabbit-hole as it has in past years. A lively discussion is taking place on the Geocachers of the Bay Area website.

Fizzy, this is very strange. During my extensive search of the forum last month for traces of Venona, I found references to the Venona account at Groundspeak, but when I checked his/her/its profile page, I discovered that the account owner had not logged in for over one year. And now, you are trying to tell me that she/he has created a new cache? Very strange...

 

Anyway, I have something even weirder for all of you: I took some time early this afternoon to go to the Geocachers of the Bay Area website, and I registered for membership so that I could view the forum threads. On the last page of my registration, I happened to look at the top of the page, and discovered that the page header banner had morphed into two banners side by side, one reading "Cachers of Venona" and the other reading "Venona". I will attempt to display the images below, although I have initially had some problems in getting them to display; here goes with my best try:

 

First banner:

 

Second banner:

 

So, it seems that Venona is pretty well known in the SF bay area. What I now want to know is that Venona has to do with me, with my Psycho caches, with Shepherdstown, WV, with Malaysia, with Washington DC and with the multi-billion dollar House of the Temple in DC which belongs to a Freemason sect. This is getting stranger and stranger.

Edited November 5, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team

[Skippermark]

This is most intriguing...seeing as a new "Venona" cache was just published in Westchester, NY this past weekend. Hmmm, maybe someone is up to no good and using Venona as a way to conceal their plan. Yet, by doing it so publicly, under the guise of geocaching, it doesn't draw any attention the them.

[Clan Riffster]

Vinny, I'm surprised that you haven't figured this out.

Remember your PUC-26 cache that was published in August 2010?

(Oh, wait. You haven't built it yet.... uh... This is gonna sound odd...)

Suffice to say PUC-26 involves what you built to be an instant transportation portal to another reality. Hiders were supposed to get teleported to another dimension where most of our physical laws do not apply, and would then have to figure out how to retrieve the ammo can in plain view.

However, you did what Spock does every time he needed to fix the Enterprise: You reversed the polarity.

PUC-26 is now, (will be?) a temporal transference device. You neglected to install a variometer into the system, so the temporal displacement is seemingly random, (but possibly related to the subject's body odor). I beta tested it for you and I was sent back to 2004.

 

You, sir, are Venona. Check your Christmas presents. You'll find that Sue bought you the trench coat this year... (or was it next year?).

Because your body odor is significantly less than mine, you were sent all the way back to 1975. You've aged somewhat, and the early onset of mental illness is showing. You are trying to warn yourself not to publish PUC 26. Hopefully, you'll fail, as I've spent the last 4 years catching up on past episodes of Seinfeld. This will not happen if you do not publish PUC-26.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Vinny, I'm surprised that you haven't figured this out.

Remember your PUC-26 cache that was published in August 2010?

(Oh, wait. You haven't built it yet.... uh... This is gonna sound odd...)

Suffice to say PUC-26 involves what you built to be an instant transportation portal to another reality. Hiders were supposed to get teleported to another dimension where most of our physical laws do not apply, and would then have to figure out how to retrieve the ammo can in plain view.

However, you did what Spock does every time he needed to fix the Enterprise: You reversed the polarity.

PUC-26 is now, (will be?) a temporal transference device. You neglected to install a variometer into the system, so the temporal displacement is seemingly random, (but possibly related to the subject's body odor). I beta tested it for you and I was sent back to 2004.

 

You, sir, are Venona. Check your Christmas presents. You'll find that Sue bought you the trench coat this year... (or was it next year?).

Because your body odor is significantly less than mine, you were sent all the way back to 1975. You've aged somewhat, and the early onset of mental illness is showing. You are trying to warn yourself not to publish PUC 26. Hopefully, you'll fail, as I've spent the last 4 years catching up on past episodes of Seinfeld. This will not happen if you do not publish PUC-26.

At first glance, I was very much tempted to dismiss your entire post as a poorly-scripted grade-B sci-fi fantasy, as rubbish, but the scary thing is that one some inner level, much of what you wrote resonates and rings as somewhat true and authentic. Yikes! And, what is REALLY weird is your theme about time travel and inventing things in the future which then can come back in time, because, in the real world (that is, the non-geocaching world), a scientist buddy from St. Louis, Missouri constantly harangues me on online technical forums and list groups, claiming that all of my exotic inventions are not really mine at all, and rather, he claims, he invented them in the future, between the years 2014 and 2024, and then (he claims) I used a time travel portal to travel to the future, where I stole his ideas and then returned to this current time, where I built them in my lab and claimed credit for them. Very scary stuff!

[+fizzymagic]

Very scary stuff!

Indeed. I find it highly suggestive that this "venona" character to whom you refer seems to have shown up in your area at the time the Large Hadron Collider was about to become operational in Europe and you were bravely trying to warn us all about the potential cosmic consequences. It is even more unusual, and perhaps sinister, that the LHC experienced a major malfunction at around that same time and is out of commission until next spring.

 

Add to that the solution to this so-called "venona's" geocache puzzle, which (it turns out) involves large prime numbers. As you well know, time travel requires the use of just such prime numbers along with the liberation of strange and charm quarks from their asymptotic confinement. And now he has presented the Geocachers of the Bay Area some very strange-sounding music that appears (to me) to be alien in origin.

 

You, Sir, are clearly caught up in something bigger than all of us.

[+Sioneva]

What's he doing in Nebraska?

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Very scary stuff!

Indeed. I find it highly suggestive that this "venona" character to whom you refer seems to have shown up in your area at the time the Large Hadron Collider was about to become operational in Europe and you were bravely trying to warn us all about the potential cosmic consequences. It is even more unusual, and perhaps sinister, that the LHC experienced a major malfunction at around that same time and is out of commission until next spring.

 

Add to that the solution to this so-called "venona's" geocache puzzle, which (it turns out) involves large prime numbers. As you well know, time travel requires the use of just such prime numbers along with the liberation of strange and charm quarks from their asymptotic confinement. And now he has presented the Geocachers of the Bay Area some very strange-sounding music that appears (to me) to be alien in origin.

 

You, Sir, are clearly caught up in something bigger than all of us.

Dare I say it, but there may be shades here of the tale often told in the halls of the still-standing academies of alchemy and freemasonry that the famed alchemist Fulcanelli approached France's top atomic scientist in the late 1930s and warned him of the multitudinous dangers to humankind if the research on atomic energy and weaponry were to continue. Perhaps this strange "Russian" is a doppelganger or analogue of Fulcanelli, come to warn me to cease and desist from my work with the interdimensional portal, much as Clan Riffster has already hinted.

 

Only Sioneva knows for sure...

[+markandsandy]

Or, maybe Vinny is off his med's again.

[jholly]

Or, maybe Vinny is off his med's again.

Actually I was thinking he was found a street corner pharmacy technician that has some really good compounds.

 

Jim

[Venona]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

[+Too Tall John]

Bear with me for a moment, as I play with the words involved:

 

venona

 

Reversed, gives:

 

anonev

 

Take the "a" and put it on the end:

 

noneva

 

Now, we take the word "SIN" and replace one of the letters common to both words, and replace it with the remaining letters in "SIN": (That is, replace the 1st "N" with "SI")

 

Sioneva

 

Something truly evil is afoot....

Edited November 5, 2008 by Too Tall John

[+KJcachers]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

 

BACK IN THE USSA! (United Socialist States of America.....for now)

[+iwikepie]

Thats so freakin weird! This sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, yet strangely it is not.

I want to know more about what Venona stole from the GBA.

[+forman]

I stopped by the bakery in the middle of the town to buy several pieces of apple strudel.

 

How was the apple strudel?

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I stopped by the bakery in the middle of the town to buy several pieces of apple strudel.

 

How was the apple strudel?

The apple strudel from the bakery in Shepherdstown was, as usual, great. However, my REAL weakness is for poppyseed rolls (made with real butter, not fake fats) and fruit stollen (made with real butter), and regarding the latter, luckily for me, there have been several threads on this forum in the past on stollen caches, which seem to be caches set up expressly for the purpose of distributing and trading fruit stollen. And, as you have likely guessed, I am therefore a great fan of stollen caches!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

Very bizarre... a post from an account that, until a few days ago, had been inactive for over a year. Okay, assuming that you are real, will you please illuminate me regarding the following:

• are you a person or a group of persons?
  
• what is your agenda?
  
• And, what does your account or name have to do with the following:
   
  
• San Diego, CA
   
  
• Minnesota
   
  
• Nebraska
   
  
• Washington DC
   
  
• the multi-billion dollar House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in DC
   
  
• Colombia (the country)
   
  
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (where you left the note for me in July)
   
  
• Shepherdstown, WV (where I was stalked on Monday by you or one of your cronies...)
   
  
• Frederick, MD
   
  
• me (or, at least, my Psycho Urban caches)
   
  
• a cache in Westchester County, NY?
  

Frankly, despite the emergence of this Venona character, I am now more confused than ever...

 

 

.

[+scubafrog]

As a member of the GBA here in california, he seems to pop up around this time every year to cause mischief. We are working on a puzzle cache of his now as a huge group. But it has been mentioned some things may be from out of the area.

[+Sioneva]

Bear with me for a moment, as I play with the words involved:

 

venona

 

Reversed, gives:

 

anonev

 

Take the "a" and put it on the end:

 

noneva

 

Now, we take the word "SIN" and replace one of the letters common to both words, and replace it with the remaining letters in "SIN": (That is, replace the 1st "N" with "SI")

 

Sioneva

 

Something truly evil is afoot....

 

What are you talking about? You can't prove I was ever in:

 

San Diego, CA

Minnesota

Nebraska

Washington DC

the multi-billion dollar House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in DC

Colombia (the country)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Shepherdstown, WV

Frederick, MD

a cache in Westchester County, NY

 

Why does my post says Venona?

[+Sioneva]

<snip>

Dare I say it, but there may be shades here of the tale often told in the halls of the still-standing academies of alchemy and freemasonry that the famed alchemist Fulcanelli approached France's top atomic scientist in the late 1930s and warned him of the multitudinous dangers to humankind if the research on atomic energy and weaponry were to continue. Perhaps this strange "Russian" is a doppelganger or analogue of Fulcanelli, come to warn me to cease and desist from my work with the interdimensional portal, much as Clan Riffster has already hinted.

 

Only Sioneva knows for sure...

 

And we're not telling!

[+Wacka]

Venona first appeared in 2002 and kidnapped a TB in the SF Bay area. Several geocachers solved his "ACTIVITIES" in about a week, and retrieved the TB.

He surfaced again in 2004 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the USSR getting the atomic secrets. That year, we had to solve more ACTIVITIES to lead us to a new night cache called Dead Drop 238, which was located in a park near the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. About 20 of us met and received instructions from a "stranger" dressed all in black with a ski mask. It was enjoyable and ended with pizza.

The another year, a TB hotel in a cacher's front yard was taken by Venona and we received photos of a kidnapped TB with black electrical tape across it's eyes. After solving many activities, it was returned at an event, but only after some people solved an activity that was online for only 15 minutes during the event.

Another year he somehow replaced our "Welcome Geocachers" banner (present at Geowoodstock VI) with one that had a purple V on it .

This year he has managed to deface the banner at our regional group's web site and we are in the process of solving this year's ACTIVITIES.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Venona first appeared in 2002 and kidnapped a TB in the SF Bay area. Several geocachers solved his "ACTIVITIES" in about a week, and retrieved the TB.

He surfaced again in 2004 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the USSR getting the atomic secrets. That year, we had to solve more ACTIVITIES to lead us to a new night cache called Dead Drop 238, which was located in a park near the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. About 20 of us met and received instructions from a "stranger" dressed all in black with a ski mask. It was enjoyable and ended with pizza.

The another year, a TB hotel in a cacher's front yard was taken by Venona and we received photos of a kidnapped TB with black electrical tape across it's eyes. After solving many activities, it was returned at an event, but only after some people solved an activity that was online for only 15 minutes during the event.

Another year he somehow replaced our "Welcome Geocachers" banner (present at Geowoodstock VI) with one that had a purple V on it .

This year he has managed to deface the banner at our regional group's web site and we are in the process of solving this year's ACTIVITIES.

Wacka's report seems to be true. Late last nite, I received emails from two of the administrators at the Geoachers of the Bay Area website, advising me that Venona had hacked into their site and replaced their normal page banner with the "Venona" banner which I had noticed on their website pages a day earlier. And, they also advised me that Venona has stolen entire caches in the past and held them hostage. This gets stranger and stranger.

[+Quiggle]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

 

BACK IN THE USSA! (United Socialist States of America.....for now)

 

Keep it out of the forums, please.

[+Moose Mob]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

 

BACK IN THE USSA! (United Socialist States of America.....for now)

 

Keep it out of the forums, please.

This whole thread is off topic!

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Okay, I am slowly getting the picture that Venona is likely a large group of people, likely spread across the world, but with most of them centered on the west coast of the USA, and they apparently publish one large Venona puzzle/adventure/challenge cache each year. And, apparently, the latest Venona challenge cache was released just the other day, and hundreds of cachers, mostly on the west coast, but some elsewhere as well, seem to be trying to tackle the thing. I surmise this because, in light of my having created this thread asking for more info about Venona, I have started to receive private emails hourly from desperate Venona cache seekers around the world, hoping that I might have "inside knowledge" and might therefore be able to help them with their impossible riddles and challenges (and of course, I know nothing; I hate puzzles....) In any case, all I can tell them in reply to their plaintive queries is that I am more in the dark than they are.

 

BTW, I spent some time this morning visiting the Geocachers of the Bay Area (aka GBA) forum (where one of their two page banners still displays the commie pinko Venona banner hacked by Venona) this morning, and apparently this once-per-year Venona challenge/adventure cache thing is very HUGE out there! Not only are there six threads on the forum devoted to the Venona puzzle/adventure cache, but one thread has reached a whooping 86 pages! Bizarre!

[+wimseyguy]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

 

BACK IN THE USSA! (United Socialist States of America.....for now)

 

Keep it out of the forums, please.

This whole thread is off topic!

Perhaps we should have another separate forum where only Vinny can make the OPs'?

[+Moose Mob]

WE ARE CELEBRATE ELECTION SOCIALIST PRESIDENT FOR UNITED OF STATES TODAY.

 

IS NOT VINNY TAKING DRUGS OTHER THAN WHAT WE GIVE UNKNOWINGLY.

 

BACK IN THE USSA! (United Socialist States of America.....for now)

 

Keep it out of the forums, please.

This whole thread is off topic!

Perhaps we should have another separate forum where only Vinny can make the OPs'?

That's a great idea. Let's present it to upper management.

[Clan Riffster]

Perhaps we should have another separate forum where only Vinny can make the OPs'?

Just Vinny, or Vinny & The Socks?

(Isn't that an Elton John song?)

[Venona]

Very bizarre... a post from an account that, until a few days ago, had been inactive for over a year. Okay, assuming that you are real, will you please illuminate me regarding the following:

• are you a person or a group of persons?
  
• what is your agenda?
  
• And, what does your account or name have to do with the following:
   
  
• San Diego, CA
   
  
• Minnesota
   
  
• Nebraska
   
  
• Washington DC
   
  
• the multi-billion dollar House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in DC
   
  
• Colombia (the country)
   
  
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (where you left the note for me in July)
   
  
• Shepherdstown, WV (where I was stalked on Monday by you or one of your cronies...)
   
  
• Frederick, MD
   
  
• me (or, at least, my Psycho Urban caches)
   
  
• a cache in Westchester County, NY?
  

Frankly, despite the emergence of this Venona character, I am now more confused than ever...

IS NO ANSWERS FOR VINNY PERSON UNLESS COMPLETE ACTIVITIES. SEEING GEOCACHER OF BAY AREA WEB SITE DETAILS. ALSO IS NO USE VINNY ACT INNOCENT. WE KNOWING HISTORY WELL.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Very bizarre... a post from an account that, until a few days ago, had been inactive for over a year. Okay, assuming that you are real, will you please illuminate me regarding the following:

• are you a person or a group of persons?
  
• what is your agenda?
  
• And, what does your account or name have to do with the following:
   
  
• San Diego, CA
   
  
• Minnesota
   
  
• Nebraska
   
  
• Washington DC
   
  
• the multi-billion dollar House of the Temple of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in DC
   
  
• Colombia (the country)
   
  
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (where you left the note for me in July)
   
  
• Shepherdstown, WV (where I was stalked on Monday by you or one of your cronies...)
   
  
• Frederick, MD
   
  
• me (or, at least, my Psycho Urban caches)
   
  
• a cache in Westchester County, NY?
  

Frankly, despite the emergence of this Venona character, I am now more confused than ever...

IS NO ANSWERS FOR VINNY PERSON UNLESS COMPLETE ACTIVITIES. SEEING GEOCACHER OF BAY AREA WEB SITE DETAILS.

Well, I guess an oblique answer is better than none at all. Unfortunately, due to genetics and a resultant abysmally low IQ (try single digit), I am constitutionally unable to solve puzzles or riddles, and in fact, even trying to tackle such things makes me so sick and disgusted that I end up tossing my breakfast in a unique mode known as projectile vomiting. So, I will pass on your invitation to solve the endless chain of puzzles, riddles and challenges that, from what I have learned over the past two days, seem to comprise your Venona challenges. (My wife Sue is very adept at solving puzzles, but she is in Australia for a few weeks, and thus unable to help me.)

ALSO IS NO USE VINNY ACT INNOCENT. WE KNOWING HISTORY WELL.

You have NO business dredging up that ancient matter of the Rosicrucian Illuminati breakaway sect that I headed years ago, the unfortunate death of 45 of my followers who had filed fraud charges against me regarding their $54 million in donations to the sect, and the resultant federal fraud and homicide convictions. That was a minor and trivial issue, the charges were minor, and, in any case, I paid my dues to society and I am now a redeemed man. In fact, I have fewer than ten homicidal thoughts per minute, so I am completely cured. Please leave that matter -- which is, in any case, ancient history -- out of this conversation. As far as you or anyone else is concerned, there is no "history". Thank you for doing the needful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[+Too Tall John]

Thank you for doing the needful.

Ok, I'm curious.

 

What does that mean?

 

Is it, as this article suggests, a phrase introduced by outsourced IT support?

 

Is it just a regional thing I've never heard before?

 

Is it some sort of code for Venona that you're using to obfuscate things?

[Clan Riffster]

Vinny's talking to himself.... again.

That's a very bad sign!

[CacheNCarryMA]

Wasn't there a song in the 80's, by The Knack, called "My Venona"?

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Thank you for doing the needful.

Ok, I'm curious.

 

What does that mean?

 

Is it, as this article suggests, a phrase introduced by outsourced IT support?

 

Is it just a regional thing I've never heard before?

 

Is it some sort of code for Venona that you're using to obfuscate things?

Let me tell you where that term comes from... it is quite hilarious. It comes from India, were English is the unofficial common language that unifies India. In my consulting work, which often involves projects in India, I have often been often approached -- sometimes in person (such as during my 2005 consulting gig in India), and sometimes via email or phone -- by people in India who are complete strangers to me, who have then proceeded, simply because I seemed to be an American, to ask me to do preposterous things (i.e., find them a high-paying job in the USA, ask the US president for free resident visas and airline tickets to allow their family of 24 to move to the USA, to do a thousand hours of free consulting for the business they own, to wrangle a permit for them from the leaders of their state, to give them ten thousand dollars as a gift, etc.) for them. They don't ask these things just of me, but of every "Americanr" and "European" they see -- it is simply part and parcel of middle-class Indian culture to demand such preposterous things with a straight face. Then... the best part is that when they are done outlining what they expect you to do for them, they do NOT wait for you to say "Yes" or "No" or "Are you on crack?" or "Bite me", but rather, they simply assume that you will do what they asked, and thus they close their spiel (or their email) with the words "Thank you for doing the needful." or "Please do the needful, immediately!"

 

In fact, this strange cultural habit of middle-class folks in India of demanding massive favors from strangers is so well-known, and these closing phrases about "doing the needful" are so well-known, that the phrase ""Thank you for doing the needful" has become a long-standing joke among anyone who does much business with people in India. Incidentally, this behavior that I have described is ONLY a phenomenon of the some folks in the Indian middle-class, that is, the folks who own cars, TVs, PCs, cell phones and who are trying to "climb the socio-economic ladder". Such behavior is entirely unknown among the very poor in India (who tend to be very friendly, very gracious, very tactful, and very kind and generous) and also among the wealthy and ruling class in India (who despise this particular behavior of many in the Indian middle class and who often talk about this trait of their fellow Indians angrily at their parties and soirees.)

[+rafermadness]

I can't believe I read this whole thead searching for the cliche response of "if we told you, then we'd have to kill you".

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Vinny's talking to himself.... again.

That's a very bad sign!

Unfortunately, Keystone (who is my sole supplier) recently throttled down my supply of Chemical X, and, as I have been going into withdrawal from Chemical X, I have moments where I slip into talking to myself. Sorry!

 

...sad

 

...very sad

 

 

 

 

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

I can't believe I read this whole thead searching for the cliche response of "if we told you, then we'd have to kill you".

Gosh... I am sure that if you were to ask Venona, she/he/it would be happy to send you a post in reply on the forum saying something along the lines of:

IF WE TOLD YOU, CAPITALIST SWINE, THEN WE NEED TO KILL YOU WITH HASTE.

 

The more I see/hear of Venona, the more I worry... I wish that I had never heard the word "Venona"....

[+rafermadness]

I can't believe I read this whole thead searching for the cliche response of "if we told you, then we'd have to kill you".

Gosh... I am sure that if you were to ask Venona, she/he/it would be happy to send you a post in reply on the forum saying something along the lines of:

IF WE TOLD YOU, CAPITALIST SWINE, THEN WE NEED TO KILL YOU WITH HASTE.

 

The more I see/hear of Venona, the more I worry... I wish that I had never heard the word "Venona"....

 

Yikes! My cold war era babelfish translation software missed that one...

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Hmmmm... I think that some possible reasons for Venona having hounded me are becoming clear...

 

The following message, among others with similar content, just appeared on the Geocachers of the Bay Area (GBA) forum thread about the latest annual Venona challenge cache:

Topic: Venona 2008

From: doogelah

Thread Replies: 370

Thread Views: 5993

Forum: General Geocaching Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:07 pm Subject: Venona 2008

 

decoded:

americans making baby steps

progress easy activities now must obtain key next from stage second psycho urban

cache number three waypoint gcq nine one y

we recommending provide compensation for local retrieve key you

for because americans shameful capitalist pigs

nominal coordinates for beginning

north thirty nine degrees. . .

 

So, it looks to me like one of the members of the Venona cabal hid something at the site of my Psycho cache. However, due to the degree to which Venona has been hounding me lately, I suspect that there is more to it than just that...

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Oops! Yet another double (or triple) copy of my post! Deleted!

Edited November 8, 2008 by Vinny & Sue Team