Cracked!

You guys are really smart, but you knew that already.  I've had several fans diligently assisting me in deciphering that Little Alien Schoolgirl sampler unearthed earlier this year. I'm happy to say that with their help, a new section has shed the veil of mystery.

Alert stitchers realized this snippet of text was featured in a multi-part documentary called Futurama about a 30th century civilization. The future glimpse of society in New New York at the turn of the next millennium offered many previews of technology and culture. For those who question the veracity of this source, I offer that this acclaimed documentary has received seven Annies and five Emmy Awards and an Environmental Media Award!

Only after watching hours of recorded installments, pausing at each scene that included this mysterious script, were we able to provide enough text samples to input into the same computer system that linguists used to crack a 250-year old code by the Oculists.  (You MUST learn more about that, as it is the best win for the codebreakers in the last century - there is a great article in the current Wired Magazine, or you can see some stuff here. For real.)

With this key in hand and using the letters that Ms. Dala started with, I was able to piece together the missing symbols.  So, the good news for stitchers making reproductions of this sampler is that you now have an option to encrypt your very own message in this spot. It would be a great place for your name and date, or perhaps to say that YOU rock.  Of course, reproduction purists will want to stitch the sampler exactly as it will be made in the original.  Here is a pdf to the charted alphabet.

Watching this documentary, the viewer is also introduced to indefinite life extension technology wherein the head is maintained in a jar. Upon closer examination of the jarred heads in this sampler, I've concluded that these are more likely to be preserved specimen heads, rather than living heads of the sort seen in Futurama.

On signing off, I leave you with a link to the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Oliver Messiaen. If you don't know the connection, you need to watch more documentaries.