See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Eli Rosenberg
Brooklyn Daily
Back when she was a young spy (although she’ll never tell you who she was spying on or for whom) Ida often received communiques from the island she code named HOTROD through a book cipher.
She had chosen a musty old book for the correspondence — a tome dating back to 1897 — which she had found in her grandmother’s small Bronx studio entitled, “A Settler’s Garden: Reaping a Bountiful Harvest for Novice Landsman.”
She managed to dig up another copy for her man-about-town in Havana — but the copy she tracked down to the Bakersfield Public Library vanished mysteriously in 1962.
Library records show that the last person to check it out was one “Joe Marti,” a gentleman who lived in a trailer park in the outskirts of town — but overdue book notices to the address continually bounced back to the library’s registrar.
What happened to the book is shrouded in mystery, but the message Ida received after Thanksgiving Day, 1963, was clear as the sky above the library: “2, 345, 36, 2, 77, 91, 107, 36;” or “The squash and the hammer make good fences.”
Ida’s Picks:
Bills (?6), Patriots (?7), Chargers (?1), Raiders (1.5), Texans (?5), Colts (4), Broncos (?6.5), Panthers (?3), Eagles (7.5), Seahawks (4), Vikings (9), 49ers (?7)
Breakouts:
Falcons over New Orleans (4)
“Someone has put a hex on the Saints.”
Jets (?3.5) over Cardinals
“They gotta win sometime.”
Ravens (?6.5) over Steelers
“I like the Ravens this year.”
Kryptonite:
Giants (?2.5) over Redskins
“D.C. doesn’t beat New York in anything. Anything.”
Ida’s record:
80–92–4 (Last week 5-9-1; Kryptonite: 5–7)
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.