"Han Solo Point" Solution

The original point tweet:

Looking for a hashtag: NLKAGPRWKHWHRQPVETLSSIVVNHZCQKOXXVII #thegintercode

— Ginter Code (@TheGinterCode) March 15, 2015

And some follow-up clues:

This current point is in honor of a recently injured star who ironically never seems to cease rising. #thegintercode

— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 16, 2015

No points today. More help on this one as it progresses. #thegintercode

— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 18, 2015

Sorry to disappoint, but no points today. Keep moving ahead this weekend. #thegintercode

— GinterCode (@TheGinterCode) March 20, 2015

I think it was probably after the first clue ("recently injured star") that I began trying what would be the correct method, but I just didn't follow all the way through with it. Funny that Adam posted about the assist from Steve Thoemke on the Vine point earlier today, because we got a tip from Steve on this point as well. After the first clue, Steve tweeted "Harrison Ford" at the CM. This wasn't needed to solve the point, but it was a huge clue.

To the method: Honing in on the "never seems to cease rising" hint, I began playing with increasing the letters in the string. I started by keeping the first letter fixed, then increasing the second letter by one, third letter by two, etc:

-- N + 0 = N
-- L + 1 = M
-- K + 2 = M
-- A + 3 = D
-- G + 4 = K
-- P + 5 = U
-- R + 6 = X
-- W + 7 = D

Hmm ... yeah, that's nothing. Definitely not readable English. Next, I tried the same method, increasing the first letter by one, second letter by two, etc:

-- N + 1 = O
-- L + 2 = N
-- K + 3 = N
-- A + 4 = E
-- G + 5 = L
-- P + 6 = V
-- R + 7 = Y
-- W + 8 = E

NOW we had something that might be English ... but definitely not words. So, given that I had no other ideas, I put this one away for a couple days. Those next two clues kept hinting at the same method ("as it progresses", "keep moving ahead"), but I just couldn't see it.

Finally, that Saturday, I forced myself to sit down and use the method on every letter in the sequence. My result was:

-- ONNELVYETRHTEEELVLEMNESTMHAETOTDEDRS

I knew I was cooking with grease now ... but I stared at it for 30 minutes or so and had nothing, so I put it away. My youngest woke up from her nap, so I put her and her older sister in the car to go get a couple of pizzas for dinner ... and as I was backing out of the driveway, it hit me. In one of my prouder moments as a Codebreaker, sitting in my wife's minivan, I parsed out the even and odd letters from the string in my head (sadly, even when you stare at a string of gibberish for 30 minutes you tend to memorize it). I didn't need to do the whole thing explicitly, because "Harrison Ford" seemed to be enough. :)

In the converted string, the odd letters parsed out to "ONLY THE EVENS MATTER". The even letters: "NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS".

@TheGinterCode #nevertellmetheodds

— ParanoidAndrew (@ParanoidAndrew) March 20, 2015

- Grant