Daily puzzles/problems.

[JuniperWoolf]

Ah, bird brain! Of course! It's a bit ironic that I didn't pick up on that.

[MarkBastable]

You're supposed only to post the proposed connector, not the group itself. But what the hell.


Bird is not a group-of-three connection.

Neither's liturgical.

[prendrelemick]

I have 2 groups of 5 at the moment.

[prendrelemick]

I'm thinking "bird." (free)bird, bird(of song), bird(cage).

Oi Mick, I've been wondering all night, how'd you get "pig?" I can only find two, being pig(latin) and pig(pen).

Seeing it was wrong I can reveal- Pig pen, Pig iron, and Pig ignorant I had never heard of Pig Latin.

[MarkBastable]

See, the problem I always have with setting problems here is that if they're solved quickly I think, "Damn, shouldn't have made it so easy", and if they take a while I think, "Damn, the problem is probably badly set up."

The conversation at the moment is making think that 'free' was a bad clue - not attached sufficiently strongly to the word it's supposed to go with. So I'm going to make a small change to the problem....


Substitute 'cousin' for 'free'.....

[billl]

This puzzle is firing on all cylinders. People are trying, for God's sake. If we each come up with three groups of five, and they're all different, imagine the fun we'll have paring them down together.


EDIT: "Liturgical" is out of the question, I guess?

[MarkBastable]

This puzzle is firing on all cylinders. People are trying, for God's sake. If we each come up with three groups of five, and they're all different, imagine the fun we'll have paring them down together.


EDIT: "Liturgical" is out of the question, I guess?

Yeah. Should have said that. Have edited prior post to do so.

[JuniperWoolf]

I had never heard of Pig Latin.

Evernay eardhay ofhay igpay atinlay? Aybemay stihay nahay ericanamay ingthay.

[MarkBastable]

Here's a little side question, the answer to which I haven't verified but which sounds true. (In other words, I'd like it to be.)


Only one fully-functional spoken language was invented in the twentieth century. What was it? (And it's not Esperanto.)

[billl]

Here's a little side question, the answer to which I haven't verified but which sounds true. (In other words, I'd like it to be.)


Only one fully-functional spoken language was invented in the twentieth century. What was it? (And it's not Esperanto.)

gotta be Klingon, right?

To be, or not to be... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRMGYQfXrs)

[MarkBastable]

gotta be Klingon, right?

To be, or not to be... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRMGYQfXrs)

Yeah - isn't that brilliant?

[Link]

What the ****

[billl]

I saw a dictionary on sale recently--no way am I going to learn the language, but I still think I should've picked it up, oh well.

[billl]

Two Things:

1) I'm still wondering if there's a rule about word position. For example, could "bird" form a group including both "bird brain" and "early bird"?

2) Is "Country" responsible for the group of three?

[MarkBastable]

Two Things:

1) I'm still wondering if there's a rule about word position. For example, could "bird" form a group including both "bird brain" and "early bird"?

2) Is "Country" responsible for the group of three?



Yes.

And yes. (Smattering of applause.)

So - if 'country' is the group of three connector, what are the other three connectors for the groups of four?

[prendrelemick]

Ok. Billl has "country."

everybody has " bird "

so can I suggest "Light" for the next group.

[MarkBastable]

Ok. Billl has "country."

everybody has " bird "

so can I suggest "Light" for the next group.

Yep...

[prendrelemick]

Evernay eardhay ofhay igpay atinlay? Aybemay stihay nahay ericanamay ingthay.

agI hagavage hageagard agof vagulgagar Lagatagin.

[MarkBastable]

So to sum up...


Pig - iron, ignorant, pen, Latin,

Bird - cage, early, brain, song

Light - year, source, relief, entertainment,

Country - cousin, mile, music


I had it as 'birdsong' - but i guess 'song bird' will do.



Anyway, bill got 'country' so he's next up. Thanks to all for playing.

[billl]

OK, I'm on the case. (For me, "pig" was the more impressive discovery/puzzle-piece, though.)

[JuniperWoolf]

For me it was "light." I never would have gotten "light entertainment" or "light relief," I've never even heard the latter term. Nor do I know what a "pig iron" is.

[billl]

OK, same type of puzzle that Mark did: These words can be grouped together (based on a shared connection to some other term, that you must discover for each group) in three groups of four, and one group of three.

We'll begin by looking for the group of three, and see who finds it first.


way, right, record, reverse
rain, wide, change, new
level, under, birth, real
log, camera, sesame



(NOTE: I've never made one of these before. Don't know about pitfalls, or what might be too hard... Is it really easy to make them near-impossible/unfair? Because I was shooting for something pretty difficult.)

[Calidore]

Brain's foggy because it's late, but I see "open sesame" and "open wide" (or "wide open") for starters.

[prendrelemick]

I suspect it is us Brits' turn to be bamboozled.

I have 3 groups of 3 so far.

[MarkBastable]

...Sea?

[billl]

...Sea?

No, sorry.

(Well, it isn't what I had in mind, that is--I guess, if you could come up with good candidates for the three groups of four to go along with it, you could go ahead and provide those as well. I think it would be a pretty amazing coincidence, though--more likely there'd be trouble finding good fits...)

[billl]

It's the weekend. I'm hesitant to provide any clues just yet, since people might only barely have started. However, if one or two of you are really working on it, but having no luck, I could maybe give a clue. Just take a few wild guess or something...

Otherwise, I'll consider going the clue route no sooner than Monday, maybe Tuesday (in the U.S.)--if it turns out people really aren't making any progress.

[prendrelemick]

How about "deal" for the three?

Other wild guesses to follow.

[billl]

"deal"?

Intriguing.... but no.

[iamnobody]

My wild guess is...water.

[billl]

ooooh! Y-

No, I'm sorry.

[billl]

My wild guess is...water.

I repeat--this is NOT the group of three, but a great guess, nonetheless.

[JuniperWoolf]

Live?

[iamnobody]

Time?

[prendrelemick]

I have water as a four, I also have a couple of other "groups", but until you get them all you know they're probably not quite right.

[billl]

Sorry, Juniper and iamnobody!

[prendrelemick]

perhaps "angle" is a three (though it could be a four if wide goes with...)

[billl]

perhaps "angle" is a three (though it could be a four if wide goes with...)

not a three!

[billl]

OK, HERE IS A LAME HINT, NOT REALLY A HINT EVEN, JUST CLEANING UP AND CLARIFYING:

No one has guessed the "group of three", however two of the "groups of four" have been discovered. Mark was wrong about "sea", but iamnobody (confirmed by Mick) was right about "water". Mick got the one I thought would be toughest: "angle".

[prendrelemick]

Ok another guess, "World" but that would leave a very dispirate last group.

[billl]

OH! So very close, but... No, I'm sorry, Mick--not a three!

[JuniperWoolf]

Was he REALLY close, or are you just saying that to give us false hope?

[billl]

"Star Wars--A New Hope"... Is that the sort of clue you are looking for, Juniper? Then, yes, it was that close when he guessed "world".

[prendrelemick]

OK, same type of puzzle that Mark did: These words can be grouped together (based on a shared connection to some other term, that you must discover for each group) in three groups of four, and one group of three.

We'll begin by looking for the group of three, and see who finds it first.


way, right, record, reverse
rain, wide, change, new
level, under, birth, real
log, camera, sesame



(NOTE: I've never made one of these before. Don't know about pitfalls, or what might be too hard... Is it really easy to make them near-impossible/unfair? Because I was shooting for something pretty difficult.)

Ok time to share I think.

WATER. way, level, birth, under.
ANGLE. right, reverse, wide, camera.

perhaps someone has different groups?

then, WORLD, (wrong but close) real, new, record,

That leaves. sesame, rain, change, and log. HOWEVER - my groups obviously have mistakes in them, so what has anybody else got?

Am I right in thinking "Sesame" can only have - open, close, bun, street or seed.

And "Log" can't have too many connections either -jam, captain's, pine, split, book, ship's, yule, before we delve in to the scatalogical.

EDIT of course. RAIN water I'm an idiot!

[MarkBastable]

I was pretty sure about 'world' too.

Incidentally, 'log' could be part of the 'water' group, which would free up one of those. I'd take 'birth' out.

And, while I'm at it, I've got a two-er - sesame oil, oil change. If I knew more about cars, I could convince myself that what a dipstick does is check the oil level. Which, if 'log' went with 'water' would give


oil sesame, change, level
angle camera reverse right wide
water log rain, under, birth



and a remaining four of:

way, record, new, real


which brings us back to 'world', if we can offload 'way' into the probably-not-oil group.




Ok time to share I think.

WATER. way, level, birth, under.
ANGLE. right, reverse, wide, camera.

perhaps someone has different groups?

then, WORLD, (wrong but close) real, new, record,

That leaves. sesame, rain, change, and log. HOWEVER - my groups obviously have mistakes in them, so what has anybody else got?

Am I right in thinking "Sesame" can only have - open, close, bun, street or seed.

And "Log" can't have too many connections either -jam, captain's, pine, split, book, ship's, yule, before we delve in to the scatalogical.

EDIT of course. RAIN water I'm an idiot!

[billl]

Wow, Mark--I got lost in the edits there, and just checked back to see that you almost immediately came up with a lot of further ideas. This thing is VERY close to being solved.

[JuniperWoolf]

Is the group of three connection not "oil," then?

[billl]

Is the group of three connection not "oil," then?

That's right--OIL along with WATER, ANGLE and WORLD.

Who wins?

[JuniperWoolf]

I think it'd be Mark, he's the one who identified the group of three.

[MarkBastable]

So it's 'underworld' and 'waterway'?


I'm sure you phrased it carefully*, and I should go back and look, but I definitely got the impression that 'world' was wrong.


*Yeah - you said 'not a three'. Which it isn't.

[MarkBastable]

These places have something in common. It's not something you have to be British to know. You don't even have to know where the places are.

I want you to give me another place that could make the list - there are five or six candidates... But don't say why you think it qualifies, because then we can keep it going, by adding your right answer to the list. If you're wrong, I'll say so and then you can say what the thought process was, which'll be informative in itself.



Bishopsgate
Ukraine
Tucson
Gibraltar
The Isle of Wight
??????????

[prendrelemick]

Blackburn.

[MarkBastable]

God, I hate you.

So now we have....


Bishopsgate
Ukraine
Tucson
Gibraltar
The Isle of Wight
Blackburn


Anyone else like to add one, although Mick has won, obviously? I just thought this was too good a puzzle to kill as soon as someone (my money was indeed on Mick) got it right.

[MarkBastable]

I can see how the thrill might be gone, now Mick's won, so I'll give a bit of context for each place to help things along, and if no-one's showing any interest by the weekend, I'll kill it.

Bishopsgate - the scene of spectacular world-challenging feats
Ukraine - where the women are far superior to their Occidental equivalents
Tucson - hometown of a traveller bound for greener pastures
Gibraltar - convenient because of its proximity to Spain
The Isle of Wight - good place for a self-catering holiday
Blackburn - subject of a void survey

[prendrelemick]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8928088/GCHQ-spy-recruitment-code-solved.html

Meanwhile, MI5 could be approaching us litnet puzzlers very soon.

[Basil]

Anyone else like to add one, although Mick has won, obviously?
The Black Hills of Dakota.

For some reason, I needed Mick's contribution in order to make the connection. I'm very annoyed at myself for not solving it from the original list.

[MarkBastable]

The Black Hills of Dakota.

For some reason, I needed Mick's contribution in order to make the connection. I'm very annoyed at myself for not solving it from the original list.

I'm rather glad you're annoyed.

But - yes - the Black something Hills of Dakota qualify. We could get picky about what's precisely the right phrase.

[MarkBastable]

The celebrated Mr K performs his feats on Saturday at Bishopsgate.

The Ukraine girls really knock me out - they leave the West behind.

Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona for some California grass.

You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain.

Every summer we could rent a cottage in the The Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear.

...ten thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.


Mick's go.

[Jack of Hearts]

Come and keep your comrade warm!!

... d'oh. Missed it. A little slow. Just like the elementary school counselor predicted.






J

[billl]

The celebrated Mr K performs his feats on Saturday at Bishopsgate.

The Ukraine girls really knock me out - they leave the West behind.

Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona for some California grass.

You can get married in Gibraltar, near Spain.

Every summer we could rent a cottage in the The Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear.

...ten thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.


Mick's go.


I absolutely SWORE to myself that I would look at this band before doing anything else upon the arrival of a MarkBastable puzzle. Won't get fooled again!

[prendrelemick]

Now, I have a fiendishly simple cypher that is so ridiculous I shall wait till I'm emboldened with drink to post it.

Meanwhile here are some more of those double sounding almost matching rhyming words. I think we should call them "Kasies"

1. Angry pattern 5/5
2. Globe trotters 3/3
3.anyhow, anywhere 5/5
4. sounds very faithful 2/2
5 slippery Richard 6/5
6 A con 5/5
7 hurry up 4/4
8 Gossip 6/6
9 A thin man 4/3
10 Lovely and funny 3/3
11 40's style 4/4
12 Girls top 4/4
13 The best TV 5/4
14 Thankyou ma'm 4/3
15 many flavours 5/6
16 daft william 5/5
17 Lit genre 3/2
18 youngster running free 4/5
19 Get a move on Poppins 4/4
20 card game 5/4
21 An expert 3/4
22 South African tribe 9
23 too soft 7/7
24Scared 4/6
25 I can't I can't I'm sick 4/4
26 Ian dury's brainy man 6/6
27 hand signals 3/3
28 one legged 3/3

[Jack of Hearts]

This reader has an eye for low hanging fruit. Thank you, public education!

5 tricky dick

15 ample sample

16 wills skill

21 hot shot

[MarkBastable]

5 tricky dicky
7 chop chop
8 tittle tattle
9 slim jim
12 boob tube
14 wham bam
15 tutti frutti
16 silly billy
17 sci fi
20 black jack
22 hottentot
26 clever trevor
27 tic tac

__________________

[billl]

18 wild child
22 shaka-zulu
28 peg leg

[prendrelemick]

Well, that's shot down most of them!


Mark's are all right

billl and Jack have two each

[kasie]

Oh! Fame at last! How honoured I am, Mick. I'm not joining in, however, as I'm dropping off the edge of the planet on Sunday (a little 'holiday' courtesy of the NHS) and just haven't the time atm.

[prendrelemick]

Good luck with that Kasie, Watch out for those medical students!

[MarkBastable]

1. criss cross ?

[prendrelemick]

This reader has an eye for low hanging fruit. Thank you, public education!

5 tricky dick

15 ample sample

16 wills skill

21 hot shot



Hang on a minute Jack, Public Schools are where all the rich kids go in dear old England.


Criss cross is right.

[kasie]

Thanks, Mick - chance would be a fine thing!

[prendrelemick]

Now, I have a fiendishly simple cypher that is so ridiculous I shall wait till I'm emboldened with drink to post it.

Meanwhile here are some more of those double sounding almost matching rhyming words. I think we should call them "Kasies" (Or Kasie-wasies)

1. Angry pattern 5/5 CRISS CROSS
2. Globe trotters' collection of fast planes 3/3 JET SET
3.Bill does it anyhow, anywhere 5/5 WILLY NILLY
4. sounds stratospherecally faithful 2/2
5 slippery Richard 6/5 TRICKY DICKY
6 Con 5/5
7 hurry up 4/4 CHOP CHOP
8 Gossip 6/6 TITTLE TATTLE
9 A thin man 4/3 SLIM JIM
10 Love and laughs genre 3/3 ROM COM
11 Man's 40's style 4/4 ZOOT SUIT
12 Girls top 4/4 BOOB TUBE
13 The best TV horologically speaking. 5/4 PRIME TIME
14 Thankyou ma'm 4/3 WHAM BAM
15 many flavours 5/6 TOOTY FRIUTY
16 daft william 5/5 SILLY BILLY
17 Lit genre 3/2 SCI FI
18 youngster running free 4/5 WILD CHILD
19 quickly Poppins, see the saliva. 4/4 SPIT SPOT
20 card game 5/4 BLACK JACK
21 An expert 3/4 HOT SHOT
22 South African tribe 9 HOTTENTOT
23 too soft, mushy to the touch 7/7
24 Greek goddess is feeling scared 4/6
25 I can't, I can't I'm sick but friuty. 4/4
26 Ian dury's brainy man 6/6 CLEVER TREVOR
27 hand signals 3/3 TIC TAC
28 one legged 3/3 PEG LEG


Nearly there, I've extended a few clues

[MarkBastable]

11. Zoot suit

[JuniperWoolf]

2. Dream Team

[MarkBastable]

13. Prime time
19. spit spot

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

3. Willy Nilly

[prendrelemick]

Yes to all those except Dream Team - which I would've had if I'd've thought of it.


more clue extensions above

[MarkBastable]

2.jet set
10.rom com

[prendrelemick]

Yes. only 4 to go

6. talking up a con, selling it to the Mark. Informal. n. 1. Nonsense; humbug. 2. A deception; a swindle. 4/4
23. Too soft, mushy to the touch. 7/7
24. Sounds like Greek Goddess is feeling a tremor of fear. 6/7 (there is some leeway in the spelling here)
25. I can't, I can't I have a fruity disease. 8 (sorry not 4/4 )

[MarkBastable]

25. I can't, I can't I have a fruity disease. 8 (sorry not 4/4 )

I can't find any way to make beriberi work for this.

[prendrelemick]

"Beriberi" Translates from the native language where the disease was first documented (Singhalese) as "I can't I can't". ( According to University Challenge t'other week.)

and it sounds a bit fruity!

[MarkBastable]

I'll claim that then.

[JuniperWoolf]

23. Ooey gooey?

[MarkBastable]

24. afro-dightey

(=frighty. Hellenic rhyming slang, with allusion to what happens to your hair when you're really terrified)

[prendrelemick]

You see, put the work in and you get the rewards!

Only not in this case. Both wrong.




I think I shall reveal the answers tonight, if no more guesses are forthcoming.

[prendrelemick]

flim flam
squishy squashy
heebe jeebies

[JuniperWoolf]

Damn, I was going to say squishy squashy.

*edit* now there's a sentence you don't hear very often.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Could 25 be Lemmon Lime? (Lyme disease)

[MarkBastable]

I've tried to come up with something fiendish to get us to Christmas at least. It's so difficult to judge whether one's made it too hard or too easy.

Ready? This might need some lateral thinking, some internet research and some cooperation.

Each of these clues - some of which are straightforward and some of which are a bit cryptic - leads to an answer. The answers form four groups of three, with one over. What is the odd answer?

1. An impromptu gathering to lose the smog.
2. The state of swamp cabbage.
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation.
4. "I’m the hero," he says lassitudinously.
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy.
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request.
7. Once tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle.
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly.
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night...
11. A tempting metaphorical girl heading west.
12. A lopazoo on the coast.
13. A southern girl with two left feet.

[MarkBastable]

Have I made this so difficult that no one knows where to start?

[Jack of Hearts]

No, no... just savoring the image of swamp cabbage. Which apparently is a real thing and not a rude euphemism.






J

[prendrelemick]

Must clear my mind of trouser snake imagery with number 5. Then I may be able to progress.

[Scheherazade]

1. An impromptu gathering to lose the smog.
2. The state of swamp cabbage.
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation.
4. "I’m the hero," he says lassitudinously.
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy.
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request.
7. Once tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle.
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly.
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night...
11. A tempting metaphorical girl heading west.
12. A lopazoo on the coast.
13. A southern girl with two left feet.3. Rapunzel?

9. Charlie Brown?

10. Snoopy?

I feel there is something about peanuts and Florida in there but no time to google.

[Jack of Hearts]

Oh lord. Hahahaha


10. Edward Bulwer-Lytton?

This reader has no idea about any of the others, but then again he's pretty stupid. So you've failed to make this puzzle accessible to stupid people.






J



EDIT: Is 'Florida' the state of swamp cabbage?

[MarkBastable]

I don't want to give affirmatives or negatives as you go along, but just to get things started I will say that Scheh is heading in the right direction with a couple of hers.

I'll also say that where the clue is essentially a quote, I tried to rephrase the question in such a way that you couldn't just Google what I'd typed - you'd have to re-cast it if you were going to search on it. So if I wanted you to get to 'Jude', the clue might be He's advised that things'll be made better if he sings a sad song.

[Scheherazade]

Something to do with hurricanes?

[prendrelemick]

In the spirit of sharing we also may have Charleston, Casper, Eve, Bird, Busta Rhymes and many more possabilities

Is the temptress Delilah? = Repunzel = Hair? Who knows its early days

[Basil]

Swamp cabbage (#2) is another term for sabal palmetto, the state tree of both Florida and South Carolina; however, it is South Carolina that is known as "the Palmetto State." Also, as Mick pointed out, #12 is likely to be Charleston, a South Carolinian city. And Florence and Myrtle (#8) are also the names of cities in South Carolina.

I'm guessing #3 isn't Rapunzel, but the name of a girl mentioned in a song. Isn't it a common trope in rock music for a girl to be prevailed upon to lighten up, let her hair down, and have some fun despite the fact her daddy is the local alderman or something? This one has been bugging me all day.

#7 could be Charles Bukowski, which could match up with Charlie Brown (#9), assuming they are both correct. If #10 is Snoopy (and not Bulwer-Lytton), then I would be willing to bet that he fits into a different category than Charlie Brown; Mark would never have put those two clues consecutively like that if they were to be grouped together.

[prendrelemick]

I was thinking Sth Carolina too, but "Flighty" steered me away as Florence and Myrtle are also the names of American Birds. But I didn't know the Swamp Cabbage - Carolina connection then.

If #1 was a crossword clue it would be "clear the air" if that helps anyone.

The Cult wanted an indian girl to let her hair down, but no daddy mentioned.
So did Slade

[MarkBastable]

I'll give a few pointers to keep this going.


1. An impromptu gathering to lose the smog. (You're looking for a song.)
2. The state of swamp cabbage.
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation. (You're looking for a song.)
4. "I’m the hero," he says lassitudinously.
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy. (You're looking for a song.)
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request.
7. Once tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle.
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly.
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night...
11. A tempting metaphorical girl heading west. (You're looking for a song.)
12. A lopazoo on the coast.
13. A southern girl with two left feet. (You're looking for a song.)

[iamnobody]

I'm pretty sure 3 is Sloopy, of Hang on Sloopy.

[Calidore]

5 would be "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror.

[MarkBastable]

5 would be "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror.


Because the hint was a bit misleading, I feel bound to say that that's very nearly right. It's the 'she' that matters.

[prendrelemick]

^It must be Columbia - also in Sth Carolina.

So is that now 4 South Carolina's?

Number 13 could be Jennifer with skin like cinnamon.

Hang on Sloopy, wikis up one Dorothy sloop. Also the state of Ohio.

[MarkBastable]

Okay, this isn't generating quite the maelstrom of fun and interest that perhaps I'd hoped. I can't have pitched it well.

However, let me have one last shot at keeping it alive by telling you what you've got right so far. I've also changed a couple to make them (I hope) a bit easier.



1. An impromptu festival to lose the smog. (You're looking for a song.)
2. The state of swamp cabbage. The Palmetto State (South Carolina)
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation. (You're looking for a song.) Sloopy.
4. "I’m the hero," the dog says lassitudinously.
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy. (You're looking for a song.) Columbia
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request. Casper
7. Once gastronomically tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle. (Airports in) South Carolina
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly. Charlie Brown
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night... Snoopy
11. A tempting metaphorical heroine heading west. (You're looking for a song.)
12. A lopazoo on the coast. Charleston
13. A southern girl with two left feet. (You're looking for a song.)

To recap the goal - the answers form four groups of three, with one over. What is the odd answer?

[billl]

4. Lassie.

[MarkBastable]

Not Lassie. Seriously, dude, would you consider me so low as to employ a pun like that? Who do you think I am? Mick?

[billl]

Well, with Mick, it would've been be a generous stooping. This turned out to be a trap.

[Calidore]

#11 wouldn't be Holly from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," would it?

[prendrelemick]

The dog is Droopy I think.

So we have droopy snoopy and sloopy - we need another oopy


EDIT:

Or not, I've just found "Woodstock" by Joni Mitchell and the lyrics fit the smog thing. (No. 1)

so we have Woodstock, Charlie Brown and snoopy.

[MarkBastable]

#11 wouldn't be Holly from Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," would it?

Nah - she was heading east.

Actually, now you mention it, I think she was from Miami, and she hitchhiked her way 'across the USA' which would imply west. But she ends her journey in New York. So - not for the first time - Lou has been a bit lazy on the lyric there.

[prendrelemick]

Well, with Mick, it would've been be a generous stooping. This turned out to be a trap.


I stoop to concur.

[MarkBastable]

I stoop to concur.

Now that one I'd claim.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I put a little thought into number 11...

“The Unsinkable Molly Brown” a heroine of the Titanic. Tempting - ? difficult to tell due to the unrevealing protocol of fashion in that time. Titanic headed west (only)
Song – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulRpS-HE_W4
Any takers?...

OK, this one has to be it; “Isis”. She looks pretty tempting based on images the ancient Egyptians left behind. Worship of Isis spread “westward” to the Greco-Roman empire.
Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2Z5p_piv8&feature=related
Hmmm…nothing still?

Got it! - How about “Venus”? – The planet “moves westward” across the sky. Foxy virgin {edit} (Virgo crossed my mind), still Venus is hot = tempting. Associated with military victory, among other things = heroine.
Song – “Venus” by Shocking Blue - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LhkyyCvUHk

Man, I’m good!......what!?, unhand me, you cannot refute Venus.

.

[prendrelemick]

Okay, this isn't generating quite the maelstrom of fun and interest that perhaps I'd hoped. I can't have pitched it well.

However, let me have one last shot at keeping it alive by telling you what you've got right so far. I've also changed a couple to make them (I hope) a bit easier.



1. An impromptu festival to lose the smog. (You're looking for a song.)
2. The state of swamp cabbage. The Palmetto State (South Carolina)
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation. (You're looking for a song.) Sloopy.
4. "I’m the hero," the dog says lassitudinously.
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy. (You're looking for a song.) Columbia
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request. Casper
7. Once gastronomically tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle. (Airports in) South Carolina
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly. Charlie Brown
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night... Snoopy
11. A tempting metaphorical heroine heading west. (You're looking for a song.)
12. A lopazoo on the coast. Charleston
13. A southern girl with two left feet. (You're looking for a song.)

To recap the goal - the answers form four groups of three, with one over. What is the odd answer?

Oh 4 groups of three!! :frown5: Thats about two weeks of my life wasted then.


GG, what about Atlanta - carried west on the back of a bull?

[MarkBastable]

Oh 4 groups of three!! :frown5: Thats about two weeks of my life wasted then.


GG, what about Atlanta - carried west on the back of a bull?

I really thought this was one of the easier ones, especially for Brits of a certain age. Mick - '...metaphorical heroine...' - come on.

Here's a weird thing, though. If GG's first guess from his last post were what I'd meant, it would be right.

Three left to get.... Just to check myself, I've tried Googling combinations of the key words or phrases, without giving any thought at all to the sense or context of the clues. Within a couple of tries, the answers came up on the first returned page, except for #13, which I've now made easier. (It really sounds like I'm desperate to help you now, doesn't it?)

1. An impromptu festival to lose the smog. (You're looking for a song.) Woodstock
2. The state of swamp cabbage. The Palmetto State (South Carolina)
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation. (You're looking for a song.) Sloopy.
4. "I’m the hero," the dog says lassitudinously. Droopy
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy. (You're looking for a song.) Columbia
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request. Casper
7. Once gastronomically tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle. (Airports in) South Carolina
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly. Charlie Brown
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night... Snoopy
11. A tempting metaphorical heroine heading west. (You're looking for a song.)
12. A lopazoo on the coast. Charleston
13. It ain't her sister - it's a southern girl with two left feet. (You're looking for a song.)

I'll give this a couple of days, then fill in the remaining answers so that you can do the groupings.

[prendrelemick]

Brown Sugar?

I really hope it isn't that, as it just complicates the groups situation.

[billl]

Ruby Tuesday was heading for the new day (off in the West, presumably), but was she tempting?

[MarkBastable]

Brown Sugar?

I really hope it isn't that, as it just complicates the groups situation.

Brown Sugar really isn't that metaphorical, I don't think. I mean, 'Brown Sugar - how come you taste so good? Just like a black girl should'. It's all he can do not to swap out 'taste' for what he really means - but he sings it like he means what he means.

Still, I'd settle for it.

[prendrelemick]

Oh gawd, just found another Brown.

No.13. Sweet Georgia Brown.

I m sure Brown Sugar is a metaphor for SOMETHING.


I only hope Gordon Brown wasn't gastronomicly tipped anywhere in LA

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I put a little more thought into no. 11.
Looking at heroine in terms of a drug led me to "Molly" or "Brown Molly" and somehow made my way to "Golden Brown"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_51bEKfOfw

There's a line in there about heading west. Will that one work??

That means there's still a chance that "Isis" could be the odd one out, right?

[MarkBastable]

I put a little more thought into no. 11.
Looking at heroine in terms of a drug led me to "Molly" or "Brown Molly" and somehow made my way to "Golden Brown"... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_51bEKfOfw

There's a line in there about heading west. Will that one work??




Yep, Golden Brown is right. One left.

1. An impromptu festival to lose the smog. (You're looking for a song.) Woodstock
2. The state of swamp cabbage. The Palmetto State (South Carolina)
3. Girl told to let her hair down, regardless of her father's occupation. (You're looking for a song.) Sloopy
4. "I’m the hero," the dog says lassitudinously. Droopy
5. She was evilly winked at by a snake of a guy. (You're looking for a song.) Columbia
6. "Will you be my friend?" is his spirited request. Casper
7. Once gastronomically tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.
8. Flighty Florence and Myrtle. (Airports in) South Carolina
9. "Good grief!" he says roundly. Charlie Brown
10. His opening line: It was a dark and stormy night... Snoopy
11. A tempting metaphorical heroine heading west. (You're looking for a song.) Golden Brown
12. A lopazoo on the coast. Charleston
13. It ain't her sister - it's a southern girl with two left feet. (You're looking for a song.) Sweet Georgia Brown

[MarkBastable]

7. Once gastronomically tipped on Wilshire and North Vine.


If you Google:

"Wilshire" "North Vine"


the first returned page is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Derby).

So now, if any reader yet gives a flying one, all you have to do is arrange them in four groups of three in order to identify the one left over.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

...GG, what about Atlanta - carried west on the back of a bull?

I read about a a pioneer family that left Atlanta heading west to Oregon. They used a bull to carry their belongings including Grandma Atlanta.

Can't find the correct song, so we'll go with this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXRHZboVzM&feature=related


[B]

..."Wilshire" "North Vine"


the first returned page is this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Derby).

So now, if any reader yet gives a flying one, all you have to do is arrange them in four groups of three in order to identify the one left over.

Is this the correct order?...

Woodstock - Charlie Brown - Casper = animated characters

The Palmetto State - South Carolina - Charleston = Relative to South Carolina

Sloopy - Droopy - Snoopy = "oopy"

Golden Brown - Sweet Georgia Brown - Brown Derby = "Brown"

Odd one out "Columbia" - completes the third airport in the list of clues, but not part of the answer list

[MarkBastable]

I read about a a pioneer family that left Atlanta heading west to Oregon. They used a bull to carry their belongings including Grandma Atlanta.

Can't find the correct song, so we'll go with this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXRHZboVzM&feature=related



Is this the correct order?...

Woodstock - Charlie Brown - Casper = animated characters

The Palmetto State - South Carolina - Charleston = Relative to South Carolina

Sloopy - Droopy - Snoopy = "oopy"

Golden Brown - Sweet Georgia Brown - Brown Derby = "Brown"

Odd one out "Columbia" - completes the third airport in the list of clues, but not part of the answer list

Nope. Apart from anything else, 'The Palmetto State' and 'South Carolina' would appear to be the same answer stated two ways. Did you mean 'Tha Palmetto State' and 'Florence and Myrtle'? In which case, what makes Columbia the odd one out?

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

...Did you mean 'Tha Palmetto State' and 'Florence and Myrtle'? In which case, what makes Columbia the odd one out?

Uh...yeah?...maybe?
(aside) No, couldn't be Columbia. Why Columbia? Why not Charleston? Charleston has an airport too. Florence was in the Brady Bunch, but that was filmed in California. Myrtle...oh the hell with it!
Prendrelemick where are you? someone, anyone.

.

[Basil]

I can't really help you, Gilliat, but I'll list my hunches--such as they are--in the hopes they will possibly assist someone more capable than myself in solving this blasted puzzle maelstrom of fun:

1. I'm not sure Charleston and Columbia match up very well with either of the South Carolina answers; I'm thinking the third answer to complete that grouping may be Casper (as in Casper, Wyoming) for 'U.S. Cities beginning with the letter C'.

2. Sloopy, Droopy and Snoopy, almost certainly.

3. Charlie Brown, Golden Brown and Sweet Georgia Brown.

...which leaves Woodstock, the Palmetto state, the Brown Derby, and (Airports in) South Carolina; two of which seem to go together, but I can't for the life of me figure out which of the other two would join them. Anyone?

[prendrelemick]

Thinking out loud..

I suspect Casper is the odd one out, as all the other seem to go together, though not in the right grouping.

There's a "oo" group,

a South Carolina group,

a Peanuts group,

and a Brown group.

and Casper.

These are all overlapping and would easily make three groups of four (dropping the peanuts group)

GG spotted there may be a cartoon group - but that would leave Sloopy high and dry (or odd one out?)

The other thing that works is "names of towns that are also names of characters" group

Woodstock
Casper
Columbia

Then the oopies
Droopy
Sloopy
Snoopy

Then the Carolinas
Palmatto
Airports
Charleston

Then the Browns - but there are four of them, any could be odd one out, but "Brown Derby" isn't a person so I would say that one...

[MarkBastable]

Thinking out loud..

I suspect Casper is the odd one out, as all the other seem to go together, though not in the right grouping.

There's a "oo" group,

a South Carolina group,

a Peanuts group,

and a Brown group.

and Casper.

These are all overlapping and would easily make three groups of four (dropping the peanuts group)

GG spotted there may be a cartoon group - but that would leave Sloopy high and dry

The other thing that works is "names of towns that are also names of characters" group

Woodstock
Casper
Columbia

Then the oopies
Droopy
Sloopy
Snoopy

Then the Carolinas
Palmatto
Airports
Charleston

Then the Browns - but there are four of them, any could be odd one out, but "Brown Derby" isn't a name so I would say that one.

Nope. You may or may not have more than one group right - but I'll give you one for sure. The 'oopies' are right.

[MarkBastable]

Okay - I obviously failed to attract popular interest here. My apologies. I wanted to come up with thirteen items that suggested multiple possible groups, so that the actual correct one left over would be inarguably so only when all four groups of three slotted together in a way that was solidly and satisfyingly self-evident. I might have made that too rubbery.

Last giveaway before I give it all away...

The odd-one-over is Woodstock. So what are the four groups of three? 'Oopies' is one of them.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Maybe I should change my name to "Stretch Armstrong"...

Sloopy - Droopy - Snoopy = "oopy"

Charlie Brown - Golden Brown - Casper = Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UnPzp2lmNk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_51bEKfOfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlyR9U1pQ70

(Airports in) South Carolina - Columbia - Charleston = airports in SC

Sweet Georgia Brown - Brown Derby - The Palmetto - restaurants

(btw - I've been to Sweet Georgia Brown a few times for some down home south Dallas Soul Food)

Woodstock = one leftover (extra song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_XB5xrHS4

.

[MarkBastable]

Maybe I should change my name to "Stretch Armstrong"...

Sloopy - Droopy - Snoopy = "oopy"

Charlie Brown - Golden Brown - Casper = Songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UnPzp2lmNk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_51bEKfOfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlyR9U1pQ70

(Airports in) South Carolina - Columbia - Charleston = airports in SC

Sweet Georgia Brown - Brown Derby - The Palmetto - restaurants

(btw - I've been to Sweet Georgia Brown a few times for some down home south Dallas Soul Food)

Woodstock = one leftover (extra song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_XB5xrHS4

.

So, as I understand it, your argument is that Woodstock is the odd-one out because it's a song that you haven't included in the group of, er, songs.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

So, as I understand it, your argument is that Woodstock is the odd-one out because it's a song that you haven't included in the group of, er, songs.

A fitting response would be; “good grief!” I see your point.

(quick damage control)...

Uh…what I meant is…it’s the only song that begins with a “W” and…and therefore it’s the odd one out since it is the fourth song in alphabetical order?

(Let me quickly rearrange the other three, so this argument makes sense)

Casper - Charlie Brown - Golden Brown - Woodstock

No, no…I didn’t mean song. I meant to say it is the odd one out because it represents an event rather than a song, airport, oopies or restaurants. That has to be it, right?

That’s it for me; Prendrelemick?...Basil?...someone?

.

[billl]

Casper is pure white. Woodstock had brown acid. So three browns, and Casper left over.

EDIT: a bare 10 seconds of checking my idea over reveals that there'd be at least five browns if brown were a category.

[Basil]

I think I may have discovered the missing link:

1. Sloopy, Droopy, Snoopy - the oopies

2. Golden Brown, Sweet Georgia Brown, Brown Derby - the brownies

3. The Palmetto State, Florence and Myrtle, Charleston - South Cackalacka

4. Casper, Charlie Brown, Columbia - all names used by NASA for Apollo mission Command Modules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Command/Service_Module)

[MarkBastable]

I think I may have discovered the missing link:

1. Sloopy, Droopy, Snoopy - the oopies

2. Golden Brown, Sweet Georgia Brown, Brown Derby - the brownies

3. The Palmetto State, Florence and Myrtle, Charleston - South Cackalacka

4. Casper, Charlie Brown, Columbia - all names used by NASA for Apollo mission Command Modules (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Command/Service_Module)


Yep. I feel a bit guilty that this one proved difficult to the point of being tiresome.

[billl]

Might've been pretty satisfying for Basil at the end, though.

My only complaint about this one (and my limited participation ended up silencing me on the issue) was that I never understood about the South Carolina thing, and the two cities, or was it airports, or was it the state of South Carolina itself that might be a member of something else, or what--I'm not so good at this type of puzzle usually, so having this confusion spread over a couple pages and a few attempts sort of scared me off.

Otherwise, it looked to be an appropriately devilish one with several layers to deal with. This thread has been sort of low on steam for a couple months or so, and I think that's probably why this one went so long. Our habitual dedication got pummeled by a couple strange ones or something (I can only vaguely remember).

[MarkBastable]

My only complaint about this one (and my limited participation ended up silencing me on the issue) was that I never understood about the South Carolina thing, and the two cities, or was it airports, or was it the state of South Carolina itself that might be a member of something else, or what...

I felt it went "Charleston, the airports and 'the Palmetto State' are all associated with South Carolina." But you're right - you could argue that 'South Carolina' was both the clue and the answer, which was arguably a category error and it did cause me some sleepless minutes. But by the time I'd come up with all those deliberately misleading cross-references for the whole thirteen first-level answers, I was exhausted.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Great job Basil and Mark.
I didn't find it tiresome at all, in fact the longevity turned out some interesting responses, which made the whole experince enjoyable. billl beat me to the punch on the (airports in) South Carolina point, but alas I hear the ah so sad tune of a violin.
I'm still working on a better bull carrying Atlanta heading west response. I'll save it for the family though.

[billl]

My research for this one taught me that "The Charlie Brown" was a dance move, but not a dance in itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REKU1GmYJsI&feature=related#t=2m40s
Of course, the song is by DJ Casper...

But wait, does this qualify as a dance?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5IGoJcd1ak&feature=related

[prendrelemick]

I admit to some admiration of Mark. I would've crumbled and given the answer weeks ago.

[prendrelemick]

Soo, if we're all recovered. Basil it's your go.

[prendrelemick]

Here is the most ridiculous cypher ever devised by anybody ever.


afkpugmiejoty bcdhmrvwx abcdfkpuvwx adfhklprux

[prendrelemick]

I don't know if anyone has looked at this yet.

However first clue is, you can put the letters of each group in any order and it will still work.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

It hasn't gone unnoticed. I briefly looked at it when you first posted.
I'm currently shopping for an Enigma on E-bay to aid me.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

I believe the answer is "12"

[prendrelemick]

Nope.

Next clue :- The number 5 is the key.

[billl]

Nope.

Next clue :- The number 5 is the key.

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMFK) is undoubtedly not the answer.

EDIT: But big clue, I do see the distance of 5 happening for a while, and then stopping at the start. And then similar sequences plugged into different spots. Hmph.

[MarkBastable]

Different minds, outlooks, skills.... I have absolutely no idea how to go about solving a problem like this, and - perhaps a bit defensively - I have no interest in finding out. I'm not knocking those who can and do, you understand. It's just that I look at it and think, "Oh dear. Call me when it's over..."

[prendrelemick]

It may take a "different mind" to do this one.


This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMFK) is undoubtedly not the answer.

EDIT: But big clue, I do see the distance of 5 happening for a while, and then stopping at the start. And then similar sequences plugged into different spots. Hmph.


You're getting close. Look at the third group - it almost gives it away:p

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Nope.

Next clue :- The number 5 is the key.

Answer: The Double Nickel Steakhouse in Lubbock Texas

http://www.doublenickelsteakhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=55

and here’s how the Enigma arrived at the answer:
A 4 f 4 k 4 p 4 u -13 g 5 m -3 I -3 e 5 j 4 o 4 t 4 y = 14
B 0 c 0 d 3 h 4 m 4 r 3 v 0 w 0 x = 14
A 0 b 0 c 0 d 1 f 4 k 4 p 4 u 0 v 0 w 0 x = 13
A 2 d 1 f 1 h 2 k 0 l 3 p 1 r 2 u 2 x = 14

(note this counts the number of letters between the beginning and end of each range)

Therefore:
14+14+13+14 = 55 aka “Double Nickel” = The Double Nickel Steakhouse in Lubbock Texas

Btw- My first answer of “12” turned out to be a faulty vacuum tube.

[prendrelemick]

Like your thinking Gilliat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6a97SpWrgE


Still wrong.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Answer: The Double Nickel Steakhouse in Lubbock Texas

http://www.doublenickelsteakhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=55

and here’s how the Enigma arrived at the answer:
A 4 f 4 k 4 p 4 u -13 g 5 m -3 I -3 e 5 j 4 o 4 t 4 y = 14
B 0 c 0 d 3 h 4 m 4 r 3 v 0 w 0 x = 14
A 0 b 0 c 0 d 1 f 4 k 4 p 4 u 0 v 0 w 0 x = 13
A 2 d 1 f 1 h 2 k 0 l 3 p 1 r 2 u 2 x = 14

(note this counts the number of letters between the beginning and end of each range)

Therefore:
14+14+13+14 = 55 aka “Double Nickel” = The Double Nickel Steakhouse in Lubbock Texas

Btw- My first answer of “12” turned out to be a faulty vacuum tube.


Like your thinking Gilliat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6a97SpWrgE


Still wrong.



billl
I see you're online.
Have you put anymore thought into this?

.

[billl]

billl
I see you're online.
Have you put anymore thought into this?

.

Actually, no. Not, that is, until I noticed your most recent post. You inspired me to spend maybe more than two hours working on a way to get my computer to check something that I could probably do by hand in 5-10 minutes (and so I won't tell you what I'm checking--just let me say that it isn't a very promising idea, it's probably wrong, but I'm having fun with the computer). I'm almost there, will definitely finish tomorrow.

P.S. I actually like this one a lot. If people get frustrated or whatever and want something else to work on, might I suggest leaving this one unanswered (until those of us interested in it have given up)? This thread seems to have a different vibe these past few months. Perhaps we could have two puzzles going on at once--it might keep people's eyes on it a little more, satisfy a wider variety of tastes...

Then again, some people might be dying to know the answer. This idea might be unfair to them... Basically, I just got interested in this one again a little bit, I guess that's all I'm saying.

[prendrelemick]

Another clue.

This is not a math cypher. Maths will not help you at all.

remember former clues.

It is ridiculous
the letters of each group can be in any order
5 is significant.

and finally, you're looking for a 4 letter word.

[billl]

I KNEW IT was a four-letter word!

[billl]

Just to get all the info back on the current page:


Here is the most ridiculous cypher ever devised by anybody ever.


afkpugmiejoty bcdhmrvwx abcdfkpuvwx adfhklprux


Another clue.

This is not a math cypher. Maths will not help you at all.

remember former clues.

It is ridiculous
the letters of each group can be in any order
5 is significant.

and finally, you're looking for a 4 letter word.

Well, my computer experiments from 3 posts ago are at an end, and sure enough, the results were negative--UNLESS "qmcq" is the answer we're looking for...

*crosses fingers*

Yes, well, in the unlikely event that is the correct answer, my method is as follows. For each group of letters:
1) sum the ordinal values of the letters (e.g. a=1, b=2, c=3 ... f=6... z=26).
2) divide the resulting sum by 26, and look at the remainder (a modulus operation).
3) convert the remainder to a letter (via ordinal value). If the remainder is 0, use "z" as the letter.

Thus we get
GROUP SUM / MODULUS / LETTER
afkpugmiejoty 95 / 17 / q
bcdhmrvwx 117 / 13 / m
abcdfkpuvwx 133 / 3 / c
adfhklprux 121 / 17 / q

There's a guy with a myspace page called "qmcq", and his profile pic is him with a dog, which is "god" spelled backwards, of course...

[prendrelemick]

Nope, the nearest you came to the answer is when you typed the word "pic."


We're in a bit of a gridlock here. you need to co-ordinate your efforts to get the picture.

[billl]

GOT IT.

A clue like that, well, it was what was needed. A great cypher, tough without the grid or co-ordinate hint... I have no pride, here. I'm just the one up late enough to get the news (and get saddled with the curse of next puzzle!), but here it is:

Mick has made each letter represent a pixel in a 5 by 5 grid (so "z" isn't involved), in which the shape of the letters is portrayed:


abcde
fghij
klmno
pqrst
uvwxy


when we "color in" the areas corresponding to the letters in each group, we get the following four images (i.e. "four letters"):


x---x
xx-xx
x-x-x
x---x
x---x

-xxx-
--x--
--x--
--x--
-xxx-

xxxx-
x----
x----
x----
xxxx-

x--x-
x-x--
xx---
x-x--
x--x-


which, of course, spell out a dirty word.

[billl]

Well, I loved that one--it'll be hard to top. I don't have a lot of time, so I'm not left with many options--I'll just try a twist on Mick's idea.


abcdekrvy aefghimnoptxy bcdjklrvy abcdeijklmquy

[MarkBastable]

GOT IT.

A clue like that, well, it was what was needed. A great cypher, tough without the grid or co-ordinate hint... I have no pride, here. I'm just the one up late enough to get the news (and get saddled with the curse of next puzzle!), but here it is:

Mick has made each letter represent a pixel in a 5 by 5 grid (so "z" isn't involved), in which the shape of the letters is portrayed:


abcde
fghij
klmno
pqrst
uvwxy


when we "color in" the areas corresponding to the letters in each group, we get the following four images (i.e. "four letters"):


x---x
xx-xx
x-x-x
x---x
x---x

-xxx-
--x--
--x--
--x--
-xxx-

xxxx-
x----
x----
x----
xxxx-

x--x-
x-x--
xx---
x-x--
x--x-


which, of course, spell out a dirty word.

That's very clever. I like that.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Well, I loved that one--it'll be hard to top. I don't have a lot of time, so I'm not left with many options--I'll just try a twist on Mick's idea.


abcdekrvy aefghimnoptxy bcdjklrvy abcdeijklmquy

billl, before I go off on a wild hair with numbers, should I go off on a wild hair with numbers?

[billl]

billl, before I go off on a wild hair with numbers, should I go off on a wild hair with numbers?

No, don't do that. It's a bit like what we've seen (not a complete re-imagining in sheep-farmer's clothing).

[prendrelemick]

I've gone mad with shapes, grids and lines, nothing yet. but there are sequences or blocks of letters that are telling us something...




(You really wouldn't want to go anywhere near a sheep farmers clothes.)

[billl]

I'll go ahead and mention at this point that the original post (#1659) on this latest one contained a clue. (Actually, there's a few more clues in it as well, but they're maybe not as useful to begin with as the main clue.)

[prendrelemick]

Ooo I see, sneaky

The word is "THIS"

[billl]

That is correct, sir.

[prendrelemick]

Bill had done the same as my previous encryption, only his grid was twisted (hence the clue) and spiraled to the centre.

abcde
pqrsf
oxytg
nwvuh
mlkji

Now, remembering this is supposed to be the daily puzzle thread, here is something quick from Jamaica.

Mr Parrott sittin' in de tree
some pigeons am flyin pas'
"Mornin' Mr Parrot" dem say
"Mornin' Mr Hundred" say Mr Parrott.
Pigeon say. "We not Mr Hundred,
want twice as much, half as much,
quarter as much an' you Mr Parrott
to make a hundred."

How many pigeons were there.

[MarkBastable]

Nine.

[billl]

Thirty-Six!

(with an assist to Mark)

[MarkBastable]

Thirty-Six!

(with an assist to Mark)

Oh, crap. Having started with the quarter as x, I forgot to multiply by four at the end.

This is what happens when you do maths while cleaning your teeth, looking for socks and listening for the toaster to ping.

[billl]

Well, I was struggling with the accent, definitely needed the head-start.

Here:

Marsha and Marjorie were born on the same day of the same month of the same year to the same mother and the same father, yet they are not twins. How is that possible?

[MarkBastable]

Well, I was struggling with the accent, definitely needed the head-start.

Here:

Marsha and Marjorie were born on the same day of the same month of the same year to the same mother and the same father, yet they are not twins. How is that possible?

They are two-thirds of triplets.

On the tangential basis of which, here's an extract from a novel that's about to ricochet around London's publishers, looking for a place to settle...


--------------

We all trooped back to Auntie May’s Victorian terrace with its bilious staircarpet and apple-and-pear motif on the wall-tiles in the kitchen. The women passed around anaemic sausage rolls that flaked like a skin condition, while the men opened cans of lager which – in deference to the solemnity of the occasion – they attempted to decant into petrol-station glasses, before discovering that they were too small and swigging the rest from the can.

“Waste not want not, eh, Tom?” my Uncle Bob said, tossing an empty into the swing-top. “Here’s to Alan, the old bastard. Two down, two to go.” He took a long slug and smacked his lips. “Just me and Trevor left now. And Trev’s not been well.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, glancing at Uncle Trevor who was standing in the hall trying to balance a plate on his arm whilst holding a beer and lighting a cigarette. “He looks all right.”

Bob leaned forward. “Cancer,” he said, in a carrying whisper. “It's his bowel. Nothing they can do for him. The ciggies can't hurt him now.” There was a yolky stain on Bob's black tie. I imagine he had taken it off and tossed it drunkenly into the wardrobe after the last family funeral.

“Still in the will-writing business?” he asked. “Must get that sorted. Can't take it with you, can you?”

“We’re working on it."

An hour or so later – and five crates of beer more relaxed – the inconsolable mourners put some music on and had a party. They would have referred to it, I suspect, as a knees-up. I exchanged glances with my mother, who was rigid with smiling embarrassment on the sofa. I tipped my head towards the door.

“Did you see them, Tomàs?” she hissed in the car. “Mother of God – they have no class! No class at all!”

“So where did Dad come by any class?” I asked her.

“In some people it is natural. Like painting.” She opened her handbag and extracted a compact. “I can see it the first time I meet him. Peasant bones, but good class.”

“Which makes me a peasant too.”

“No! You have your father’s good class, and noble Catalan blood. Anyone can see that. An idiot can see it.”

This, incidentally, is another of my mother’s recurring themes. She’s not Spanish – she’s Catalonian. It explains the blonde hair and her sense of beleaguered superiority. I’m sure there are Catalans who till the soil and herd pigs, but in the view of Isabel Maria Vivas Lyne every one of them, however humble, is part of a natural aristocracy.

“All of you – Pablo, Jacinta – all of you have good blood.”

“Speaking of whom, was Pablo invited today?”

My mother put her make-up back in her bag and tutted.

“I don’t know where he is. He’s not call since my birthday. Where is he?”

“I have no idea. I’m surprised he remembered your birthday.”

“Remember my birthday? No – it was coincidence. ‘Pablo – how nice you call me on my birthday,’ I tell him. He says, ‘Oh – it’s your birthday?’ He is not right in his head.”

“He’ll turn up when he needs some money,” I told her.

“You find him and make sure he’s okay, Tomàs.”

As it happened, it wouldn’t be necessary to find him because a few days later he’d be all over the ten o’clock news. But, as ever, my mother expected me to be the responsible one, the protective one, the dutiful one. Pablo was considered too delicate and unworldly to take care of himself. He was always the favourite. As a kid, I couldn’t understand it – how can you choose a favourite from twins, for God’s sake? But the Condesa coddled Pablo and babied him from the moment she laid eyes on him – and I was nine or ten years old before I found out why.

When Pablo was born, in an American military hospital in Samoa, he was hustled away from my mother before she could see him. My father, remember, was still stranded on the typhoon-tossed Solomon Islands, clinging to a palm tree with Jacinta strapped to his chest. Mother was alone, disorientated and hardly compos mentis. In the previous twenty-four hours, she’d undergone a lengthy labour delivering me, she’d been flown through a tropical storm in a USAF aircraft and she’d suffered a second labour to give birth to Pablo.

This was in the days before ultrasound, of course – she hadn’t even been aware that she was carrying more than one baby. What’s more, she barely spoke English at all – she and my father always conversed in Spanish, right up until they moved to Surrey. So when a midwife whisked the newborn away the Condesa became forgivably agitated. They knocked her out with a syringeful of something, if only to give her the chance to sleep.

When she awoke I was in a crib beside her. She assumed, understandably, that I was the infant she had most recently given birth to, and that somehow she had mislaid the one she had brought with her from the Solomon Islands. She tried to explain this to a nurse using a combination of mime and fractured English. She was holding me in the crook of one elbow, but she stretched out the other arm like an aeroplane wing, and then made baby-rocking motions. “Where baby? Two baby! Where baby?”

The gesture with the stiff, extended arm was unfortunate, because it led the nurse to believe that my mother had been told about Pablo. She brought him from the nursery and handed him over. Unlike me, he was not snugly dressed in a hospital all-in-one sleepsuit. He was loosely wrapped in a woollen blanket. My mother put me in the crib so that she could swaddle Pablo more cosily. She pulled the blanket off him – and screamed. She screamed as only an emotionally-exhausted Iberian mother can scream.

Protruding from the baby’s back, slightly to the left of the spine, was an underdeveloped but perfectly recognisable arm complete with tiny hand and tinier fingers. The rest of the foetus, it turned out, was enclosed within the newborn’s body – a separate being, but undeniably part of Pablo. One child consumed by the other within the womb.

So, strictly speaking, Pablo and I are not twins. We are surviving triplets.

[prendrelemick]

Good stuff. These will be the twins who are triplets who were born in different years.

[billl]

The thread has become pretty discombobulating, which is the point after all. Mark certainly got the latest puzzle right, and then the extract leaves some mystery about the larger story (advertising it well). And then I read Mick's comment.

[MarkBastable]

The thread has become pretty discombobulating, which is the point after all. Mark certainly got the latest puzzle right, and then the extract leaves some mystery about the larger story (advertising it well). And then I read Mick's comment.

Thank you.

Mick was referring to this.... (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1035797)

[billl]

Oh, that's right, I remember giving up right away on that one.

[MarkBastable]

Details from the covers of eight albums. The initial letters of the (first word of the) album titles can be arranged to form a word or words or phrase.

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq193/markbastable/Guitars/Rickenbacker33012-1-1.jpg

The name of the file, incidentally, is nothing to do with anything. It's a screw-up in Photobucket.

[billl]

Don't recognize images 3 and 8 (l to r, top to bottom).

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Don't recognize images 3 and 8 (l to r, top to bottom).

billl,,
I can identify the third one using your orientation, but that's all at the moment.
There is something vaguely familiar with the gal in the number two box.
Based on your comment, it sounds like you have the others pegged.

[billl]

For number 3, I know it can't be this, but I've been straining to get a better look at this dude's shoulder, with the blonde locks spilling down:

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/300x300/51387903.png

After David Gilmour's leather jacketed solo album cover, that's all I've come up with.

Number 8 also reminds me of an album that is probably not the right one, but I can't even place which wrong one I'm thinking of in that case.




There is something vaguely familiar with the gal in the number two box.

Interesting you say that, because I was surprised to learn recently that she's much better known for something else. (Well, that's what "the experts" say. The "something else" woman herself claims to be unsure if that's her in the pic, since it was the 70's then, anything's possible, etc.)

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

For number 3, I know it can't be this, but I've been straining to get a better look at this dude's shoulder, with the blonde locks spilling down:



I'm willing to sell you the answer to number three, but you better not send me a rubber check.

[billl]

I'm willing to sell you the answer to number three, but you better not send me a rubber check.

Hmm.... OK, So I got number 3, now!! (Thanks, but maybe I should call the cops on you for interfering...)

Anyhow...

Let's see if we can find someone with 8, and then we can work on a Grand Bargain.

The six letters I have aren't enough to work with, so I'm just working on the pic for 8. It looks like something from a 90's album, I've been thinking Neil Young and Tome Petty, but those aren't it. Also was thinking Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins, but no. Knowing Mark, and looking at the other ones, it's probably 70's - 80's though...

I might be happiest, in the end, if it's simply one I haven't seen before, because I really feel like I should be able to get it.

(also, i did an edit to the post you replied to that you might've missed)

[prendrelemick]

I hate this puzzle! It,s like when there is something in the back of your mind, and you can't quite remember what it is - nine times over.

[MarkBastable]

I hate this puzzle! It,s like when there is something in the back of your mind, and you can't quite remember what it is - nine times over.

Oh, good. That's the effect I'm after.

Bill - can you IM me the gossip on the chick in number 2?

[billl]

Should I soon list the album covers that I've recognized (7 out of the 8)?

Maybe, given those "letters", someone might find it easier to guess number 8?

And if someone knows 8 already, let's make a deal?

[MarkBastable]

Should I soon list the album covers that I've recognized (7 out of the 8)?

Maybe, given those "letters", someone might find it easier to guess number 8?

And if someone knows 8 already, let's make a deal?

Sure. I think it's gone on long enough.

Though if I were in your position, I'd be trading them one-for-one.

[billl]

Details from the covers of eight albums. The initial letters of the (first word of the) album titles can be arranged to form a word or words or phrase.

http://i447.photobucket.com/albums/qq193/markbastable/Guitars/Rickenbacker33012-1-1.jpg

The name of the file, incidentally, is nothing to do with anything. It's a screw-up in Photobucket.

123
456
78

1. Bruce Springsteen, Darkness On The Edge Of Town
2. Tom Waits, Small Change
3. The Beatles, Rubber Soul*
4. Joni Mitchell, Blue
5. Steely Dan, Aja
6. Pink Floyd, Meddle
7. The Police, Synchronicity
8. ?, ?

The letters so far: A, B, D, M, R, S, S

*(Number 3 via Gilliat Gurgle)

[jajdude]

Bass drum?

[billl]

Whoa, quick work. Wikipedia actually has a "category" page/index called "English-language albums", and luckily the U's are a manageable collection to look over. But I saw nothing promising (checked Ummagumma, just in case, though).

[prendrelemick]

And I thought Nine was the white album.

[MarkBastable]

Yep.

So did someone identify the U?

[jajdude]

Doesn't look promising for anyone getting the U. I didn't know any of them actually, but now that it was pointed out I can see the Springsteen one.

[MarkBastable]

Unplugged in New York - Nirvana

http://defynewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/nirvana-unplugged_in_new_york-frontal.jpg

[billl]

An unexpected choice! That probably was in that list of English-language albums...

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Nice job billl and jajdude.
I wasn't able to spend much time on this one. Having seen the answers, I doubt that additional time would have helped.
The "U" intrigued me as does the ukulele, but no luck going down that road.

Is my check in the mail billl?

.

[billl]

Is my check in the mail billl?


I guess it's still bouncing around in the email system somewhere.

[Basil]

The following quotes or expressions all refer to a particular literary figure--name the person being discussed. Bonus points if you can also identify the speaker for the quotes marked with an *. As always, no googling.

*1. "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."

*2. "He was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it."

*3. "About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."

*4. "What unfolds in his works is not a multitude of characters and fates in a single objective world, illuminated by a single authorial consciousness; rather a plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world, combine but are not merged in the unity of the event."

*5. "Explaining metaphysics to the nation –
I wish he would explain his Explanation."

6. "Count No 'Count"

7. "Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person."

8. "It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop [sir], back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes."

*9. "Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks."

*10. "A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain."

*11. "[He] was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry."

*12. "[He] did a great many notable things for his country…it is not the idea of this memoir to ignore that or cover it up. No; the simple idea of it is to snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality out of truisms that had become wearisome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel."

[Basil]

I should probably add that one or two of the names might not necessarily rank as "literary." Or maybe they do; I suppose it depends on how stuffy you are on the subject.

[prendrelemick]

8. Keats?

[Basil]

8. Keats?

Correct, sir.

[prendrelemick]

11. Edgar Allan Poe.? There are many famous drunken American writers but Poe was definitely 19th century.

[jajdude]

Wonder if the first one refers to Hemingway. He seemed to keep the vocab simple.

[Basil]

Poe and Hemingway are both correct. Doing good, folks.

I might add that the third quote came from an interview, which explains why that 'you' is in there.

[prendrelemick]

9. Is intriguing "Local blacks" suggest an American like Mark Twain, but "Georgian" suggests pre revolution or British.

12. Wild guess time. Is it an ungenerous discription of Winston Churchill.

[Basil]

9. Is intriguing "Local blacks" suggest an American like Mark Twain, but "Georgian" suggests pre revolution or British.

I am outraged by your suggestion that Georgians are considered something other than American. I demand satisfaction, sir. Pistols, 6 o'clock. Gilliatt shall serve as my second.

Winston Churchill is incorrect. Funny, you just took a stab at the two individuals whose inclusion under the 'literary' title seemed most dubious--one because he's better known as a statesman, the other for the type of stories that he wrote.

[MarkBastable]

6. Tolstoy?

[prendrelemick]

I am outraged by your suggestion that Georgians are considered something other than American. I demand satisfaction, sir. Pistols, 6 o'clock. Gilliatt shall serve as my second.

Winston Churchill is incorrect. Funny, you just took a stab at the two individuals whose inclusion under the 'literary' title seemed most dubious--one because he's better known as a statesman, the other for the type of stories that he wrote.

Not a subject of the Hanovarian Kings then.:biggrin5: Tell Gilliatt to keep his head down - I'm a lousy shot.



9. Joel Chandler Harris. (Ok I admit to Googling, but only after I thought of Uncle Remus.)

[Basil]

Joel Chandler Harris is correct, Tolstoy is not. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm going to have to give a clue for 6, since there really isn't anything there to enable one to "figure it out."

Sorry I blew up like that, Mick; I'm very sensitive about my Georgian heritage, particularly our origins as a debtor's colony. Idril brings it up all the time, and it's a source of great friction between us.

[Basil]

So to recap:


"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Ernest Hemingway
"He was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it."
"About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."
"What unfolds in his works is not a multitude of characters and fates in a single objective world, illuminated by a single authorial consciousness; rather a plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world, combine but are not merged in the unity of the event."
"Explaining metaphysics to the nation –
I wish he would explain his Explanation."
"Count No 'Count"
"Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person."
"It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop [sir], back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes." John Keats
"Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks." Joel Chandler Harris
"A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain."
"[He] was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry." Edgar Allan Poe
"[He] did a great many notable things for his country…it is not the idea of this memoir to ignore that or cover it up. No; the simple idea of it is to snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality out of truisms that had become wearisome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel."

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

...I demand satisfaction, sir. Pistols, 6 o'clock. Gilliatt shall serve as my second.



..Tell Gilliatt to keep his head down - I'm a lousy shot.
...

I'll bring the M1 Carbine for this one.


So to recap:

"Count No 'Count"
"Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person."


6. Is it Mina Murray resisting the advances of the Count (Dracula)?

7. Perhaps Prince Myshkin from Dostevsky's The Idiot? or Alyosha Karamozov?

.

[Basil]

Sorry, Gilliatt, I should have been more precise when laying out the quiz: these quotes refer to actual writers, not literary characters. The word author would have been a much better choice than the slightly murky term literary figure.

I don't actually own any firearms, but I am the assigned armorer for my unit--I could possibly get my hands on the Ma Deuce.

[Basil]

I'll repost the list, since we've carried over a page:




"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Ernest Hemingway
"He was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it." Milton
"About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."
"What unfolds in his works is not a multitude of characters and fates in a single objective world, illuminated by a single authorial consciousness; rather a plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world, combine but are not merged in the unity of the event."
"Explaining metaphysics to the nation –
I wish he would explain his Explanation."
"Count No 'Count"
"Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person."
"It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop [sir], back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes." John Keats
"Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks." Joel Chandler Harris
"A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain." Percy Shelley
"[He] was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry." Edgar Allan Poe
"[He] did a great many notable things for his country…it is not the idea of this memoir to ignore that or cover it up. No; the simple idea of it is to snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality out of truisms that had become wearisome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel."

[MarkBastable]

2. Byron

[prendrelemick]

I was thinking Byron for number 10. "Ineffectual Angel" is ringing bells somewhere in my head and putting me in mind of those Romantic poets Coleridge-Keats-Shelly-Blake-Byron.

IF Byron is number 2, and as he was mad bad and dangerous to know it is likely, and Keats has already gone, and Blake was no Angel of any kind, then Shelly for number 10.

[prendrelemick]

Sorry I blew up like that, Mick; I'm very sensitive about my Georgian heritage, particularly our origins as a debtor's colony.


Phew, (Takes off Kevlar boiler suit.) I'm a Yorkshireman - I understand. Here in Merry Old England, Georgian refers to a period, rather than a place.

[Basil]

Number 2 isn't Byron, but Shelley is correct for 10.

[prendrelemick]

7. Could be refering to Gatsby, so Scott Fitzgerald ?

[Basil]

Not Fitzgerald. The first few words of that clue are key.

[prendrelemick]

2. Milton.

[MarkBastable]

Not Fitzgerald. The first few words of that clue are key.

Dostoevsky?

[MarkBastable]

Incidentally, I'm very interested in the answer to number 4, as that's a pretty accurate summary of what my writing increasingly attempts to achieve.

[Basil]

2. Milton.
Correct.

Dostoevsky?
Incorrect. I've changed my mind--it's the last phrase of that quote that is key, not the beginning.

[Basil]

I'm really hoping someone will figure out #3. It helps if you realize the speaker is using the terms "bad review" and "advance" rather ironically.

[hawthorns]

4. Faulkner?

[prendrelemick]

I'm now resorting to listing the usual suspects, and see if any quote fits.

Herman Melville, possible no. 5
Henry James,
Joseph Heller
james joyce
J D Salinger
John Stienbeck
Stephen King, possible no. 3

7. Ahh, is that Don Quixote? - Cervantes

[Basil]

4. Faulkner?
Nope.



7. Ahh, is that Don Quixote? - Cervantes

It is indeed Cervantes. Just like I said--the very beginning and the very end of that quote are key. :p

Unfortunately, none of the other names you produced are present on the list. Here's a hint: a few of the names that match up with some of these last unanswered clues have been said already, but they were offered for the wrong quote.

[Basil]

*1. "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Ernest Hemingway

*2. "He was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it." Milton

*3. "About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."

*4. "What unfolds in his works is not a multitude of characters and fates in a single objective world, illuminated by a single authorial consciousness; rather a plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world, combine but are not merged in the unity of the event."

*5. "Explaining metaphysics to the nation –
I wish he would explain his Explanation."

6. "Count No 'Count" William Faulkner

7. "Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person." Cervantes

8. "It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop [sir], back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes." John Keats

*9. "Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks." Joel Chandler Harris

*10. "A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain." Percy Shelley

*11. "[He] was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry." Edgar Allan Poe

*12. "[He] did a great many notable things for his country…it is not the idea of this memoir to ignore that or cover it up. No; the simple idea of it is to snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality out of truisms that had become wearisome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel." Benjamin Franklin

*****

[prendrelemick]

Thanks for the clue, so a bit of reshuffling is in order.

4. Tolstoy.
12 Mark Twain.

[Basil]

Thanks for the clue, so a bit of reshuffling is in order.

4. Tolstoy.
12 Mark Twain.

No and no...although Mark Twain is the one who said #12--who's he talking about? A statesman once involved in a literary endeavor known for publishing maxims and witty proverbs.

[MarkBastable]

No and no...although Mark Twain is the one who said #12--who's he talking about? A statesman once involved in a literary endeavor known for publishing maxims and witty proverbs.

Franklin?

(It was 'witty' that threw me for a while there...)

[Basil]

Franklin?

(It was 'witty' that threw me for a while there...)

Yeah, I'm not sure why I was feeling so charitable towards the long deceased. I'm glad you were finally able to see through the mischaracterization, as Benjamin Franklin is the correct answer.

[prendrelemick]

My mother (who just knows these things) says Faulkner is number 6.

[jajdude]

Seems like #3 could be about Mark Twain. Doubt that is correct though.

[Basil]

My mother (who just knows these things) says Faulkner is number 6.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YoOFIPvj40

That's why in retrospect this was a lousy clue to use--it could only be solved by someone "who just knows these things"; it wasn't figure outable.

Number 3 is not Mark Twain.

I'll post hints for the remaining three quotes later tonight if they remain unsolved. I am mildly surprised that our British members are unfamiliar with #5.

[MarkBastable]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YoOFIPvj40

That's why in retrospect this was a lousy clue to use--it could only be solved by someone "who just knows these things"; it wasn't figure outable.

Number 3 is not Mark Twain.

I'll post hints for the remaining three quotes later tonight if they remain unsolved. I am mildly surprised that our British members are unfamiliar with #5.

Milton.

[Basil]

Milton.
Um, no.

The quote comes from a poem written by a Romantic with a fondness for sprinkling references to other poets of his day throughout his poetry. The poet being referenced had largely stopped writing poems at that time and had instead turned to expounding on literary criticism and metaphysical principles, including one particularly dense and lengthy volume that many readers of the time found impenetrable.

[Basil]

3. "About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."
Most 'reviews' don't come with advances, do they? So what you have to ask yourself is...who gets the 'advance'? And what is it for (especially in the context of the 'bad review')?

[MarkBastable]

Most 'reviews' don't come with advances, do they? So what you have to ask yourself is...who gets the 'advance'? And what is it for (especially in the context of the 'bad review')?

Well, yeah. Restating the question isn't much of a clue though. I was hoping for something more along the lines of 'Find the Tyrant King' or "Consider Cambridge but bugger Birmingham'...

[Basil]

Well, yeah. Restating the question isn't much of a clue though.
I thought raising the possibility that someone other than the author would be receiving the 'advance' expanded on the original clue rather significantly.

There is a series of children's books featuring a kid detective named Encyclopedia Brown and his antagonist, the villainous Bugs Meany. The stories are solvable, with the solution usually hinging on the reader's knowledge of facts such as dolphins are mammals, not fish; or that hard-boiled eggs spin faster than uncooked eggs. I wish I could provide you with a key that would unlock this clue in a similar fashion, but sadly I can't think of one.

[MarkBastable]

I thought raising the possibility that someone other than the author would be receiving the 'advance' expanded on the original clue rather significantly.

There is a series of children's books featuring kid detective Encyclopedia Brown and his antagonist, the villainous Bugs Meany. The stories are solvable, with the solution usually relying on the reader's knowledge of facts such as dolphins are mammals, not fish; or that hard-boiled eggs spin faster than uncooked eggs. I wish I could provide you with a key that would unlock this clue in a similar fashion, but sadly I can't think of one.

'Find the Tyrant King' is the central clue in a book I read as a kid, in which the young sleuths had to go to all sorts of London landmarks to solve the mystery. The Tyrant King turned out to be the fossil Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Natural History Museum.

I loved that book, and I seem to remember buying a Red Rover one-day pass to go by bus to a lot of the places they'd gone to. I don't know what prompted me to do that. I remember that London Transport had some sponsorship thing going on with the book, and it was suggested in the story that the young sleuths managed to visit all these places around London because they had a Red Rover one-day pass to go by...

...HANG ON A MINUTE!

[hawthorns]

4. Dostoevsky??

[prendrelemick]

Um, no.

The quote comes from a poem written by a Romantic with a fondness for sprinkling references to other poets of his day throughout his poetry. The poet being referenced had largely stopped writing poems at that time and had instead turned to expounding on literary criticism and metaphysical principles, including one particularly dense and lengthy volume that many readers of the time found impenetrable.


Now, Lets say you're giving out hidden clues.:smilewinkgrin:

3. Ezra Pound

[Basil]

4. Dostoevsky??
Correct! Only two left now...

Now, Lets say you're giving out hidden clues.:smilewinkgrin:

3. Ezra Pound
You're giving me waaay too much credit, Mick.

[Basil]

*1. "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." Ernest Hemingway

*2. "He was a true Poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it." Milton

*3. "About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."

*4. "What unfolds in his works is not a multitude of characters and fates in a single objective world, illuminated by a single authorial consciousness; rather a plurality of consciousnesses, with equal rights and each with its own world, combine but are not merged in the unity of the event." Dostoevsky

*5. "Explaining metaphysics to the nation – Coleridge
I wish he would explain his Explanation."

6. "Count No 'Count" William Faulkner

7. "Before [him] there had only been good and bad characters, deliverers and traitors, saints and blasphemers, in literature; here the hero is saint and fool in one and the same person." Cervantes

8. "It is a better and a wiser thing to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to the shop [sir], back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes." John Keats

*9. "Once upon a time a Georgian printed a couple of books that attracted notice, but immediately it turned out that he was little more than an amanuensis for the local blacks." Joel Chandler Harris

*10. "A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain." Percy Shelley

*11. "[He] was perhaps the first great nonstop literary drinker of the American nineteenth century. He made the indulgences of Coleridge and De Quincey seem like a bit of mischief in the kitchen with the cooking sherry." Edgar Allan Poe

*12. "[He] did a great many notable things for his country…it is not the idea of this memoir to ignore that or cover it up. No; the simple idea of it is to snub those pretentious maxims of his, which he worked up with a great show of originality out of truisms that had become wearisome platitudes as early as the dispersion from Babel." Benjamin Franklin
*****

[jajdude]

Wild guess on #5 John Donne.

[prendrelemick]

By clutching-at-straws-process-of-elimination methodology (ie. we've got Shelly and Keats,) and Byron was a sardonic sod, so Byron for number 5

I mean the Quote was Byronic, about Wordsworth?

[billl]

#3 has a whiff of Dorothy Parker talking to some dude, maybe.

[JuniperWoolf]

The quote comes from a poem written by a Romantic with a fondness for sprinkling references to other poets of his day throughout his poetry. The poet being referenced had largely stopped writing poems at that time and had instead turned to expounding on literary criticism and metaphysical principles, including one particularly dense and lengthy volume that many readers of the time found impenetrable.

Biographia Literaria? Coleridge?

[Basil]

Just when I was about to hammer the final nail in this coffin, the corpse has suddenly shifted to the right. What else to do but continue beating him until we know for sure that he's dead?


Biographia Literaria? Coleridge?

That is correct; Mick also correctly judged the quote to be Byronic.

So that just leaves us this quote, from a 1997 interview, between two Brits:


"About eight years or so ago, Valentine's Day, I seem to remember, you received an extremely bad review…and this review, unlike most bad reviews, came accompanied with a very large advance."

[prendrelemick]

As the renowned carpet bomber of this thead, (as opposed to jajdude the sniper) I shall have yet another wild guess

JK Rowling.