A Great-Aunt's Cryptic Invitation

Question

My great-aunt is one of those stuffy old ladies whose house looks like it was transported intact from the 1950s. It always smells a little like mothballs, and the amount of framed embroideries and cross-stitch on the walls makes it difficult to determine the pattern on the faded wallpaper.

She's a nice enough person, but not exactly the most scintillating conversationalist, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, she's been trying for years to get me to come to her house for a visit, but I've always "unfortunately" had something else scheduled whenever she tries to make a date. I'm sure she's figured out by now that I'm brushing her off, but she doggedly keeps trying.

She recently learned that I'm a big puzzle fan, and shortly thereafter, the following email appeared in my inbox:

From: Great Aunt Edna
To: GentlePurpleRain
Subject: Won't you join me for tea?

My dear great-nephew. You have avoided me long enough. Please solve the following, and then we can discuss it when you come to visit.

Much love, Aunt Edna

FU DD IR RH
EH NF UR LE
2M TH UL MN
NX SS DN NR
S2 ½½ MT

She just cornered me at the latest family gathering with a calendar and made me pick a date and time to get together. Can you help me solve the puzzle so that we at least have something in common to discuss when we meet?

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Notes/Hints

• Yes, I am aware of Code Puzzles: What (Not) To Do?
• Yes, I tagged this puzzle correctly. No additional tags are needed.
• The story is 99% flavourtext. There are a few small hints as to the content of the message, but nothing that will help you solve the puzzle.

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EDIT: I fear that I may have misled people by declaring that "no additional tags are needed." When I wrote that, I was thinking mostly of the cipher tag, which does not apply here. There is one tag that I considered adding, but, getting a little pedantic, I felt that it didn't directly apply. It probably would, however, give a lot of clues as to the solution of the puzzle. Since there has been little progress as yet, I will mention it here: rebus This puzzle doesn't fit the tag, according to the tag description, but it certainly does employ certain similar methods.

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Hint

The spaces are entirely irrelevant to the puzzle. They only serve to structure it a little more nicely. Try munging all the letters together and see if that helps at all.

Answer 1

Continuing form @TwoBitOperation's work:

Put all

characters into a long string, then read the letters phonetically, pluralizing where appropriate (DD=deez, RR=arz).

FUDDIRRHEHNFURLE2MTHULMNNXSSDNNRS2½½MT

Aunt Edna is telling you, in rhyme,

FUDDIRRHEHN
If you desire satiation,

FURLE2MT
If you are really too empty,

HULMNNXSS
Eschew all immense excesses;

DNNRS2½½MT
The answer is to have some tea.

Answer 2

OK, the trick seems to be:

Read each letter phonetically (F = "eff"). When there are two of the same letters in a row, read it as a plural (DD = "Dees"). Pronouncing it this way leads to the message.

Partial, nonsensical answer for others to work off of, or to be edited as I get more:

If you desire sage
Each and if you are LE
To empty a jewel, a man's
Excesses, the answer
is two halves empty