| Author |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:13 pm Post subject: 1 |
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OK, fair enough. I shall bear that in mind.
I will note that I often get far too far into a solution before noticing blindingly obvious things that the setter has included (like alpha order), even though I do include the same things myself when possible! |
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| esme |
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 2:58 pm Post subject: 0 |
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| Scurra wrote: |
| and there is nothing within the puzzle itself to help (for instance, because the clues are in alpha order, the answers cannot be and that's often a useful assist.) |
This is not really true. But I hesitate to be more specific, especially without knowing what answers you have found. |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:22 pm Post subject: -1 |
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Well that's the hazard of writing a puzzle where the key aspect is supposed to be the three answers that come from previous puzzles - if you didn't solve them, then you won't have the key words...
The three answers to my earlier puzzle entries were:
VIENNA, MYSTERY and WHO
Knowing that, can you now make the three groups work? (You have got one of the connections correctly.)
But yes, ENDGAME was the intended final answer for this.
I have started to make some sense out of Esme's puzzle: I have the makings of an "alphabet" (or possibly 2?) with letters being added to half of the answers to make the other half of the answers. It's quite hard to do when you have no other assistance though - one reason crosswords work is that the checking letters often provide the prod you need to figure a word out. A plain list of clues, even with a linking trick, are harder to do, and there is nothing within the puzzle itself to help (for instance, because the clues are in alpha order, the answers cannot be and that's often a useful assist.) |
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| Oscar |
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 12:35 pm Post subject: -2 |
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For Scurra's crossword I believe these are the answers:
4a DENEBOLA
8a ARCANA
10a BRIGHT
11a MAD
12a NEWS
13a NANOGRAM
16a ALLY
19a WHAT
20a CANOE
21a MOON
22a STAR
23a RHAPSODY
26a DOGS
28a WAR
30a ETHNIC
32a WIENER
33a UNCLOTHE
34a NOT
1d HEARTACHE
2d TENG
3d DOCTOR
4d MAIM
5d NANDGATE
6d ICON
7d SNOWY
14d OCTET
15d MINOR
17d LAMPS
18d GOODNIGHT
20d CAREWORN
24d AGENCY
25d MOVIE
27d SAND
29d ROUT
31d HOOK
The colored squares then anagram to ENDGAME
The unclued parts give:
AGENCY
ARCANA
DOCTOR
GOODNIGHT
MEN
MOVIE
TENG
WIENER
WHAT (or possibly, NOT)
These are supposed to make 3 sets of connected words - Goodnight Vienna (Wiener) is a Movie, but that's the only set that makes any kind of sense to me. If they are all board or video games related then I have little chance of making sense of them... |
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| esme |
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 6:50 pm Post subject: -3 |
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As for Scurras puzzle, I found
Across 16: ALLY (ALLOY-O)
Across 30: ETHNIC (ET plus CHIN (anag))
Across 33: UNCLOTHE (HOT UNCLE (anag)) |
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| esme |
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:12 pm Post subject: -4 |
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It is also possible to append some of the key names to the answer words:
ESCAPE HATCH
RADIO CONTROL
maybe
NUMBER TRIANGLES
This leaves:
CAPS, TAB, STOP, SINGLE QUOTE
and
ASKER, CLASHED, LIEN, REDLINE, WELT |
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| esme |
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 3:00 pm Post subject: -5 |
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The flavor text of Professor Xrozas puzzle contains many words pertaining to keyboard keys (escape, control, tab, ...), the given solution words are:
Psychology/Chemistry: ASKER
Biology/Creative Writing: CLASHED
Literature/Civics: HATCH
Algebra/Home Economics: LIEN
Music/Physics: RADIO
Driver's Ed/Trigonometry: REDLINE
Geometry/Geography: TRIANGLES
Physical Education/Art: WELT
Now, words like ASKER and LIEN could easily be interpreted as question mark and hyphen respectively, but this does not work well for the other words.
Some word could also be interpreted as subwords or containing words of key names: ASKER is a subset of ASTERISK and CLASHED contains DASH.
The clue "Solve by the Numbers" might refer specifically to the symbols set above the numbers. |
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| MNOWAX |
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| esme |
Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2013 9:31 pm Post subject: -7 |
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| Could we get the recent batch of puzzles? |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:45 am Post subject: -8 |
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| Well it's not entirely clear whether or not you've spotted what the final answer is. Either way, well solved (so far). |
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| novice |
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 9:54 pm Post subject: -9 |
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So I had forgotten about these... Elethiomel's puzzle is about product placements in well known movies, apparently.
From top left to bottom right we have:
?/? - ?
L/W - The Thin Red Wine ( )
B/P - The Peach
E/K - The green milk
E/P - Dip Hard
D/K - A beautiful mink(?)
W/L - Nine and a half Leeks
B/F - Fridge over the river Kwai
U/I - Top Gin
The black circles with numbers on them should be solved as a game of Bridges. Preplacing bridges between the pairs indicated by the product placements, and then solving, yields:
I'm not sure if this is the final solution, or if there's more? Very nice puzzle either way. |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:56 pm Post subject: -10 |
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Nice!
(edited for spoiler tags) -grz |
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| novice |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 1:55 pm Post subject: -11 |
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I think Esme's latest vacation was in Nice, France.
Explanation |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:47 pm Post subject: -12 |
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D'oh for the one I missed - it's obvious when I look at it again. (I hadn't stated what the link was in my post because I was hoping someone else would say that they thought the same without saying exactly what it was!)
But I disagree over one of your answers, because they all appear to be in Europe. (Not that my alternative is much better but it is at least in Europe.) |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:03 pm Post subject: -13 |
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Esme's puzzle - they are holiday photos, indeed. Specifically, from:
Condom, France / Ski, Norway / Split, Croatia / Ape, Latvia
Heel, Netherlands / Side, Turkey
Ogre, Latvia / Kissing, Germany / Split, Croatia / Signal, Wyoming, US
Puck, Poland / Worms, Germany / Worms, Germany / Split, Croatia / Jade, Germany / Pecs, Hungary / Rho, Italy |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:27 am Post subject: -14 |
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Here's my stab at Esme's list:
Condom / Ski / Split / Ape
Heel / Side
Ogre / Kissing / Split / Batman
Puck / Worms / Worms / Split / ? / Pecs / Rho
...because they all seem to fit a pattern, although I'm blowed if I can see what the answer extraction is! |
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| groza528 |
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 5:56 am Post subject: -15 |
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Well gee, I didn't mean to kill discussion about it.
Tip for esme's: It is very important that the picture is "Worms" and not "Worm." Some of the other suggestions Suspence put in are not correct. |
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| groza528 |
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:51 pm Post subject: -16 |
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| Esme's puzzle makes me think strongly of the Celt metapuzzle in sekkrets... we even used two of the same words! |
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| Suspence |
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:03 pm Post subject: -17 |
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Esme's:
NIPPLE / _ _ _ / SPLIT / APE
HEEL / SIDE?
OGRE / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / SPLIT / SIGNAL
PUCK / _ _ _ _ / WORMS / PECS / WORMS / SPLIT |
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| MNOWAX |
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| Suspence |
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:54 am Post subject: -19 |
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I haven't worked on finding it yet, but the character behind each quote as a number in his/her name:
Secondo (Spanish for "second")
Johnny 5
The Mole/Number 3
C-3PO
Neo (The "One", I assume)
Six Lemure
Bond/007
Tertius (Latin for "third")
Number Two
I assume this is an index or order of some kind. |
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| referee |
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 5:35 am Post subject: -20 |
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| But what is the answer? Everyone is talking as if it's so obvious, so I must be blind or something. |
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| groza528 |
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:32 am Post subject: -21 |
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| I'm glad you explained that because it ties together much better now. I wasn't making the connection between numbered characters and the Doctor. That's mostly what I meant by disjoint; I didn't see that the Doctor Who and the numbered characters were at all related. Now that I do, I rescind that criticism-- I see the elegance I was overlooking. |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 1:32 am Post subject: -22 |
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I actually thought the steps flowed relatively well (reconstruct sudoku, extract phrases from sudoku, deduce final message from quote sources), without many opportunities for blind alleys, so I'm not quite sure what you mean by "disjointed"? In one sense any puzzle with multiple stages is disjointed; for me the big issue on elegance is whether the stages have a reasonably clear logical sequence during solving. In my first round entry, the a-ha part of the puzzle came a lot earlier in the process and probably wasn't sufficiently clued by the puzzle; this time around I was a lot happier that I achieved my intent.
As for the trope, well, I accept that it isn't instantly apparent, although the title was a deliberate reference (and resulted in the first stage of the puzzle, even though that was an entirely different "Who"!) I admit that I didn't do my research properly and so failed to note that "Who are you?" is a trope heading as well!
Title and trope explanation: In the opening exchange of The Prisoner, one of the key questions is "Who are you?"; a later answer is, of course, "You are Number Six", which leads to the trope named as such, which discusses characters who are generally known by numbers rather than names - hence my using a number puzzle as the basis. Strictly, the Doctor isn't known by a number, but he is pretty universally referenced in that way. (Incidentally, I thought the final answer to my puzzle worked out nicely as a reference to both The Prisoner and The Doctor...!)
p.s. have to admit that I haven't looked at any GLer puzzles this week owing to it being the SUMS puzzlehunt (on which my team did about as well as we did a couple of week ago on CiSRA; only about half of them solved by the end.) |
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| groza528 |
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2012 10:51 pm Post subject: -23 |
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Personally, I found Scurra's puzzle to be quite approachable, but it seemed to have too many disjointed steps. I did absolutely love the extraction method though.
Also, it still isn't obvious to me what trope(s) he's using (which isn't a bash-- my testsolvers said the same thing about my puzzle.) Can Scurra or someone else point that out for me? |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 1:02 pm Post subject: -24 |
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Nice work solving Scurra's puzzle, and what a great puzzle!
I do see the answer, now that all the legwork is done. |
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| DejMar |
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:46 pm Post subject: -25 |
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I corrected the one incorrectly attributed attribution. I also tried to explain the intended sequence of the Doctor Who companion Sudoku subgrids and the word sequence of the quotes.
I had initially solved the Sudoku by placing the Doctor Who companions in the sequence one finds them on a keypad:
789
456
123
and not in the intended sequence:
123
456
789 |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:39 am Post subject: -26 |
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Clearly the sudoku does work in the order you have put it, but I am unsure as to why you have not put the squares in the order that the puzzle suggests. (Not that it matters, since you've got to the next stage but the words in the sudoku weren't arranged entirely randomly. )
You have some incorrect attributions in that list, but the references all look fine. |
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| DejMar |
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:17 am Post subject: -27 |
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Scurra's:
1) LOUIS PRIMA IS COMING! HE'S NOT JUST SOME GUY, (he's famous!) - Secondo in Big Night
2) HEY LASER LIPS! YOUR MAMA WAS A SNOW BLOWER! - Johnny 5 in Short Circuit
3) (By the way,) I REALIZE I HAVE A LARGE MOLE ON MY FACE - Austin Powers in Goldmember
4) HELP! I THINK I'M MELTING! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! - C-3PO in Star Wars
5) I'M GOING TO SHOW THEM (a) WORLD WITHOUT YOU. - Neo in The Matrix
6) OH YEAH, HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO WIZZ STANDING UP? - Six LeMeure in Blossom: Driver's Education
7) JAPANESE PROVERB SAY, "BIRD NEVER MAKE NEST IN BARE TREE." - James Bond in You Only Live Twice
8) THEY SAY IT'S THE BIGGEST IN ALL THE KINGDOM - Tertius in Stardust
9) THAT WOULD BE TELLING. WE WANT INFORMATION... INFORMATION... INFORMATION. - Number Two in The Prisoner
---92-3-- 1st Doctor companion - Barbara White [Jacqueline Hill]
219------ 2nd Doctor companion - Victoria Waterfield [Deborah Watling]
----67--9 3rd Doctor companion - Jo Grant [Katy Manning]
-43-8---2 4th Doctor companion - Leela [Louise Jameson]
---1-6--- 5th Doctor companion - Nyssa [Sarah Sutton] (also companion to the 4th Doctor)
68--2-3-- 6th Doctor companion - Melanie "Mel" Bush [Bonnie Langford] (also companion to the 7th Doctor)
--5------ 7th Doctor companion - Dorothy "Ace" [Sophie Aldred]
---6-34-1 8th Doctor companion - Grace Holloway [Daphne Ashbrook]
8-------- 9th Doctor companion - Rose Tyler [Billie Piper] (also companion to the 10th Doctor)
| Code: |
(1) 6-5-7-2-1-9-4-3-8
(2) 9-2-8-3-4-5-1-6-7
(3) 3-1-4-7-6-8-2-5-9
(4) 7-4-3-5-9-2-6-8-1
(5) 5-8-9-1-3-6-7-2-4
(6) 1-6-2-8-7-4-3-9-5
(7) 4-3-5-9-2-7-8-1-6
(8) 8-7-1-6-5-3-9-4-2
(9) 2-9-6-4-8-1-5-7-3 |
The intended order of the Sudoku is in Doctor Who companion sequence
123
456
789
The quotes are a string of all the enumerated words of the same number n in the sequence corresponding to the companion number as identified by row n of the Sudoku.
The first row is given as 6-5-7-2-1-9-4-3-8. The square filled in with a 1 in the grid of the 6th Doctor Who companion contains the word LOUIS; the square filled in with a 1 in the grid of the 5th Doctor Who companion contains the word PRIMA; the square filled in with a 1 in the grid of the 7th Doctor Who companion contains the word IS; etc..forming the first quote: LOUIS PRIMA IS COMING! HE'S NOT JUST SOME GUY,.... |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:58 am Post subject: -28 |
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Thanks for correcting me. So that makes the tropes, in order:
1, GILLIGAN CUT from The Lion King.
2. ARMOR-PIERCING QUESTION: From A Few Good Men.
3. BROWN NOTE from Monty Python And The Holy Grail.
4. MINIATURE SENIOR CITIZENS from The Incredibles.
5. PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER from Armageddon.
6. RED PILL, BLUE PILL from The Matrix.
7. FUNNY ANSWERING MACHINE, or maybe WEIRD AL EFFECT from Seinfeld - The Susie.
I thought the next step might be to find matching movies for each adjacent pair of tropes. But I'm struggling with that approach, even if I did find a couple:
Mystery Men = Gilligan Cut + Armor-Piercing Question
??? = Armor-Piercing Question + Brown Note
Mulholland Drive = Brown Note + Miniature Senior Citizens
??? = Miniature Senior Citizens + Putting The Band Back Together
??? = Putting The Band Back Together + Red Pill, Blue Pill
??? = Red Pill, Blue Pill + Funny Answering Machine / Weird Al Effect |
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| Scurra |
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 1:00 am Post subject: -29 |
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I have them as:
The Lion King
A Few Good Men
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Incredibles
Armageddon
The Matrix
Seinfeld – The Susie
So I think elethiomel made a mistake. |
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| novice |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:50 pm Post subject: -30 |
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| Elethiomel wrote: |
I had a look at Novice's puzzle. I think the first step is to identify a trope that each scene corresponds to. I think I found all of them, except one:
1, GILLIGAN CUT: From The Lion King. "Timon: A diversion? What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?" followed by him doing just that.
2. BROWN NOTE: From Monty Python And The Holy Grail. The forbidden word is a "brown note" for the Knights Who Say "Ni".
3. ???: From The Incredibles? "15 years later."
4. ARMOR-PIERCING QUESTION: From A Few Good Men. "DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!"
5. PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER: From Armageddon. The team of oil drillers is reassembled, having split up across the country.
6. RED PILL, BLUE PILL: From The Matrix. Trope-naming scene.
7. FUNNY ANSWERING MACHINE, or maybe WEIRD AL EFFECT: From Seinfeld. George's answering machine message, which has become more known than what it's parodying. |
Either I messed up or you changed the order of the clips. |
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| Suspence |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:02 pm Post subject: -31 |
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Scurra's:
6-7-9 is Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant:
9-2-3 is Jacqueline Hill playing Barbara Wright
5 is Ace (Sophie Aldred)
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| Jack_Ian |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:39 pm Post subject: -32 |
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| Elethiomel wrote: |
I had a look at Novice's puzzle. I think the first step is to identify a trope that each scene corresponds to. I think I found all of them, except one:
3. ???: From The Incredibles? "15 years later." |
Perhaps Miniature Senior Citizens. |
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| Elethiomel |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:45 am Post subject: -33 |
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I had a look at Novice's puzzle. I think the first step is to identify a trope that each scene corresponds to. I think I found all of them, except one:
1, GILLIGAN CUT: From The Lion King. "Timon: A diversion? What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?" followed by him doing just that.
2. BROWN NOTE: From Monty Python And The Holy Grail. The forbidden word is a "brown note" for the Knights Who Say "Ni".
3. ???: From The Incredibles? "15 years later."
4. ARMOR-PIERCING QUESTION: From A Few Good Men. "DID YOU ORDER THE CODE RED?!"
5. PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER: From Armageddon. The team of oil drillers is reassembled, having split up across the country.
6. RED PILL, BLUE PILL: From The Matrix. Trope-naming scene.
7. FUNNY ANSWERING MACHINE, or maybe WEIRD AL EFFECT: From Seinfeld. George's answering machine message, which has become more known than what it's parodying. |
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| Jack_Ian |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:20 am Post subject: -34 |
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For Scurra's puzzle:
This should help identify a lot of them and point the way for the rest. I'd do it myself but a little too busy at the moment. |
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| MNOWAX |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:18 am Post subject: -35 |
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| Jack_Ian wrote: |
| Scurra wrote: |
jack_ian, can I ask if the names are all correct in your puzzle?
Because "Vicky" and "Elsa" both seem wrong to me - should they be "Vicki" and "Marion"?. (Without commenting on the other mistakes which I presume are part of the puzzle. ) |
"Vicky" is a mistake on my part, sorry. It should be "Vicki". I will ask that the original text be amended to avoid confusion. Elsa is however correct. |
fixed via ninja edit. |
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| Jack_Ian |
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 2:03 am Post subject: -36 |
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| Scurra wrote: |
jack_ian, can I ask if the names are all correct in your puzzle?
Because "Vicky" and "Elsa" both seem wrong to me - should they be "Vicki" and "Marion"?. (Without commenting on the other mistakes which I presume are part of the puzzle. ) |
"Vicky" is a mistake on my part, sorry. It should be "Vicki". I will ask that the original text be amended to avoid confusion. Elsa is however correct. |
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| esme |
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 10:05 am Post subject: -37 |
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| groza528 wrote: |
| esme wrote: |
| I think that I have the right troll distribution, but what now? |
Now you've done the difficult part. The easy part remains  |
I am quite sure that I should use the physical traits of the trolls, but I am not yet sure of all of them. |
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| groza528 |
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 5:36 am Post subject: -38 |
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| esme wrote: |
| I think that I have the right troll distribution, but what now? |
Now you've done the difficult part. The easy part remains  |
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