We’ve had a few leads on ‘alphabafitti,’ as Kym Chapple calls it, appearing about town.

But there’s something about this one, on Roslyn Street, Kings Cross, that makes me wonder – copycat or the real? So I went back to the source, and it’s no copycat.

I like running through some of the recent this is for that hits, W is for “Weather Girl” is a particular favourite.

For a moment we worried the chalk graffiti around the neighbourhood would stop when we put two and two together -i.e. when someone tipped us off (though we could have googled at any time) – and discovered the alphabetical riddler.

Fortunately, we needn’t have worried. This one – U is for “Unlikely” – is on Little Surrey Street, Darlinghurst, across from the Victor Chang cardiac research institute.

We hope that the latest “R is for” is not spelling the end of our much-loved chalk alphabet riddle.

Spotted by Rachel a couple of days ago, on Roslyn St, down near St Luke’s Hospital was this.

Deep breath.

It’s all okay. “R” is followed by “S” and “T”.

Moments after that last post, I received news from my co-blogger that he was closing in on the mystery chalker.

Hours later, two emails popped up in my inbox from readers, Shawn and Fred, saying they had (independently) captured the chalker’s latest stunt, on the Hardie Street wall of the Darlo Bar: “L is for Libation.”

Reemski commented about “K is for Kleptomania,” too, but didn’t get a snap.

Following a couple of leads, I found the chalker.

He thought it seemed a shame to ruin a good mystery. I agree, but we reckon we owe it to you guys.

The This Is For That series/chalk alphabet is just a celebration of great words, or at least favourite words. They’re not, as a rule, linked to the location or what’s going on in the world, just words that are excellent for some reason.

The first one was “a is for atom” on a toilet door, then “b is for brain” on the footbridge, then “c is for cephalopod,” which was the first one to get photo’d, and is of course another word for a squid.

Other words are really normal, but when put out there on their own they get weird, like “igloo.”

Some are great sounding like “wobble,” or kind of moving like “heartache” or “fiasco.”

Some are beautiful words and things like “filament” and some are excellent concepts like “entropy.”

Then others are interesting concepts that need a bit of research, like “azimuth” (which someone modified by adding “z is for zenith”, which is a word describing a similar thing, but starting with z… brilliant).

Other great modifications include someone taking letters out of “g is for gyroscope” and making “g is for goop.”

I’m up to my second alphabet now. Currently up to, um, “m”… not sure what that’s for yet.

The z is for zipper is the z from the last alphabet.

So, the mystery is solved!

Hmm, turns out that had we the nous to type “a is for azimuth” into a search engine, the mystery may have been solved long ago. But where is the fun in that?

Incidentally, the letter m, it’s for meddling.

Is that “meddling” directed at us?

Itching to crack the chalk alphabet code?

One of our readers, Fred, dropped the letter I into our inbox this week.

He came across it on Oswald Lane.

Come to think of it, I passed by “A is for Azimuth” on Friday, on Barcom Avenue, just near Oswald Lane, and I am sure there was another entry for “Z”, but not for “Zipper”.

Will have to go back and check it out. Perhaps it was done by the copycats.

The mystery continues. More chalk on the walls in Darlinghurst.

These were picked up by Allie Townsend. They’re hard to read because of the light, but both are on Craigend Street, the photo on the left is on the corner of Surrey Street.

So to recap, we now have:

A is for “azimuth”
C is for “cephlapod”
D is for “diatribe”
E is for “entropy”
F is for “fiasco”
G is for “gyroscope”
K is for “kibosh”
M is for “modulate”
N is for “nebulous”
T is for “thought bubble”
Y is for “yesterday”
Z is for “zipper”

Anagram, riddle, random inspiration?

There’s another chalked up alphabetism under the Boundary and Burton Streets Bridge, behind St Vincent’s Hospital. As our eyewitness Ben notes, it’s the bridge “with the occasional cool cup art” (by Andy Uprock).

So, now we have:

A is for “azimuth”
C is for “cephlapod”
D is for “diatribe”
E is for “entropy”
K is for “kibosh”
M is for “modulate”
N is for “nebulous”
T is for “thought bubble”
Y is for “yesterday”
Z is for “zipper”

It is looking fairly random from this list. Anagram fans, does anything jump out?

This chalk alphabet riddle is puzzling, but we have eyes on the street. Step by step, we’re getting closer to the answer.

One of our regular contributors, Blake, doesn’t think it’s a riddle/code. But he’s been keeping his eyes open for new examples. He found a copycat today, right next to E is for “entropy” on Liverpool Street, Darlinghurst.

And Blake seems to have caught the (original) alphabetic graffitiist in the act:

Lex and I came across this copycat graff this afternoon right next to E is for Entropy and started chatting to another couple who were admiring the work. One of them had seen the culprit in the act! He was described as male, with a beard, carrying a shoulder bag-satchel type thing and an English Staffordshire Terrier by his side.

We’ve had another eyewitness account in the comments, from Nathan:

On Wednesday evening, a surreptitious man was seen on the corner of Hardie and Liverpool Streets, before producing a large piece of chalk from his pocket and wielding it in front of an innocent group of bricks. His accomplice was an unleashed wolf on lookout. The man left the scene and may or may not have a fake beard.

Copycat graffiti! Eyewitness accounts! We’re getting close.