Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[gftt*]

pigs crows bears - omnivorous

[novice]

Marginal comment in a copy of Hamlet, maybe (10) - ANNOTATION

[novice]

ALMOST
ANNIE PROULX
ANNOTATION
ARTIFICIAL
BALKED
BAR SPOON
BIOPSY? - It’s taken before an important test (6)
CHIMP
COMMUTATIVE
ENGINE ROOM
FILMS
GHOST
HIGH NOON
HUGO WEAVING
INDIVIDUAL
KLUTZY
MOUNTAIN DEW
MOZAMBIQUE
OMNIVOROUS
ON LOCATION
RUBY
Displayed, like a cast list (6)
SEQUOIA
TUX

[novice]

As for grouping into four groups of six words... Hm.
I see 6 adjectives and 5 proper nouns (counting Tux).

[Scurra]

ANNIE PROULX
COMMUTATIVE
HUGO WEAVING
MOUNTAIN DEW
MOZAMBIQUE
SEQUOIA

...all have all five vowels in them only once. (Sequoia is one of those words that most cruciverbalists know for this feature.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

ALMOST
BIOPSY
CHIMP
FILMS
GHOST
TUX

All have their letters in alphabetical order. (Almost is most famous for this feature.)

[gftt*]

Nice catches. Here's one:

BALKED
BAR SPOON
HIGH NOON
KLUTZY

are all composed of bigrams that are consecutive letters (BA-LK-ED).

[gftt*]

[gftt*]

[Scurra]

And the words that are left...

ANNOTATION
ARTIFICIAL
ENGINE ROOM
INDIVIDUAL
OMNIVOROUS
ON LOCATION

...are obviously all the same length, but I can't see the trick right now.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

Maybe the key is a string that has all of those properties:

All vowels once
Consecutive bigrams
Letters in alphabetical order
10 letters long

ABEFIJOPUV
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

[gftt*]

Aha. The 10-letter answers all have their vowels in the same spots:
ANNOTATION
ARTIFICIAL
ENGINE ROOM
INDIVIDUAL
OMNIVOROUS
ON LOCATION

so

key = ABDEHINOUV

which gives a decrypt of (call in) COSMO SEX QUIZ

[gftt*]

I miss the simple one-word meta answers. So far for William Bergman we have

KINGS HIGHWAY BRIDGE
PINHEAD
JACK CARDIFF
CHRIST CHURCH REGATTA
JOSH SCHWARTZ
ARIGATO GOZAIMASU
CARDINAL JULES MAZARIN
(Answer to "Zugzwaang")
ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX
COSMO SEX QUIZ

And they don't have Woodstock bands as the excuse any more.

[Suspence]

Very straightforward, but very cool.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

We'll also need this:

William S. Bergman is the hippest reviewer out there. If a show is experimental and incomprehensible, he’s sure to like it so much he’ll go see it twice, just so he can save both halves of the ticket. But if he doesn’t feel it’s an important work, he’ll only see it once. (We couldn’t say how he feels about shows he doesn’t see.)

Here is Bergman’s collection of ticket stubs.

LEFT SIDE OF STUBS:

Row O Seat 9 Clay Cup / Row K Seat 3 Mud Cracks

Row R Seat 6 Groom Me

Row S Seat 2 Gumbo / Row Q Seat 7 Up Quick, / Row B Seat 4 V-Chips

Row T Seat 5 Hug Joe / Row R Seat 7 It’s Lit / Row Y Seat 8 Byron, No

Row K Seat 3 I’m So / Row H Seat 2 Why Fall

Row K Seat 1 King Quit / Row L Seat 1 Ah, Now / Row I Seat 6 He Fears

Row T Seat 5 What Fez

Row H Seat 8 YMCA

Row I Seat 4 Gawky Jim

RIGHT SIDE OF STUBS:

as Gaps Mark a Major Quaggy Hazard Row V Seat 5

by a Gangplank, Jan Brady? Row V Seat 1

Klutz, It’s Just Twilight Row Y Seat 3

Making a Banana-Fig Pizza Row Q Seat 6

May Become Tax-Exempt? Row J Seat 7

Mummifying Civic Junk Row W Seat 8

Now for Exxon/GQ Offer, John Row Z Seat 2

Wimpy O.J. in My Fizzy Gin Drink Row Q Seat 4
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

[Scurra]

Those "stubs" in the meta puzzle look very pangram like to me. Not that that gets me anywhere...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[gftt*]

[gftt*]

Re: the next one... 30 letters up top, but 31 pictures down below...?

7. Altoids with an alien?
10. Prickly pringles?
22. Snapple..?
25. Miracle Whip + man weeping?
29. lightning log cabin (syrup)?

I'm just guessing with the alliteration...

[Suspence]

Based on "net rack 16 points" from this image


I found this site:
http://www.wackypackages2007.com/ans3/allnewseries3/Deer-Parts.htm

And then this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Packages
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

1)2)

3)4)

5)6)

7)8)

9)10)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

11)12)

13)14)

15)16)
17)18)

19)20)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

21)22)

23)24)

25)26)

27)28)

29)30)

31)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

I believe 16 is the only one I can't find:

_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

http://www.wackypackages2007.com/ans6/stickers/ajinx.html

[Suspence]

Cool, I've added that back into the images above. Sorry if the images are annoying, I wasn't sure which part of them we'd end up using, so I figured it would be better to have them displayed, rather than posting 31 links.

So, what next?
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Find the changes that turn the wacky item back into the original, and make the corresponding change to the string up top. eg, Bald-Aids become Band-Aids by changing L to N, so we do that.

ZJFVIWKELOOKSBTSMDSPOEPERMIEUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBTSMDSPOEPERMIEUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBTSMDSPOEPERETUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBKMDSPOEPERETUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBKMDSPOEPERENUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBKMDSPOSTERENUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBKMDSFOSTERENUN
ZJFVIWKENOOKSBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVIWKENOOCHBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVICKENOOCHBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVINGENOOCHBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVAGENOOCHBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNOOCHBKMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNOOCHBPMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCKBPMDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCKBPHDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCSBPHDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCSBRDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCSLDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCCRDSFOLTENUN
ZJFVESSNUCCRDSFOLWENUN
ZJFVESTUCCRDSFOLWENUN
ZJFVESTUCNDSFOLWENUN
ZJFVESTUCNDSFOLWEMON
ZJFVESTUCNDSFOLWEET
ZJFVESTUCNDSFOLWHIT
ZJFVESTUCNDSFORWHIT
ZJFVESTUCNDSFORWHAT
ZJFVESTANDSFORWHAT
ZJFBSTANDSFORWHAT
ZRFBSTANDSFORWHAT
NRFBSTANDSFORWHAT

call in NEVER REMOVED FROM BOX?

[LordKinbote]

That's correct.

I'm going to skip the next one for now, because it was a "Take a picture meeting certain requirements" challenge...you guys can decide to do it, or (more likely) I can just give you the answer.

Next puzzle: Good Neighbors by Patrick Blindauer and Francis Heaney

[Suspence]

Piano - ? - Steffi Graf - ? - Soup Nazi - ? - ? - Maximum Overdrive - Sam Kinison - Hitler - Drum set - Electric eel - ? - ? - ? - Stud finder - ? - Mother Teresa - Subzero - Water tower - Jimmy Connors - Old Faithful - McDonalds fries - ? - Dennis Quaid - ? - P Diddy - ? - ?

Not sure on all of these, as they are tough to see. Reminds me of Home Improvement.

_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Kurt Vonnegut after Dennis Quaid and "barbecue sauce" after Steffi Graf? Also since all answers seem to be 2 words, player piano for the first one?

[Suspence]

[gftt*]

[Scurra]

[Scurra]

That's a Deku (from the Zelda series) just before Maximum Overdrive.
Upon further googling, I see that it is formally called a Deku Scrub.

Benito Mussolini is just before Mother Teresa.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

I can't find that picture of Dennis Quaid...it was the first thing I thought of when I saw it, but I could be wrong...
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Hemp necklace after the electric eel.

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs39/f/2008/353/2/5/Hemp_Necklace_Tribal_I_by_Berakou.jpg

[Suspence]

Maybe we need to reorder?

Mussolini > Hitler > Soup Nazi would be a good combo

Jimmy Connors may be wrong as well...I think it's Ivan Lendl
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/tennis/czechoslovakia/ivan-lendl-4327/1978-82-runner-up-at-1981-french-82-u-s-open_a05378/
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Scurra]

OK, I think I've spotted something.
Each of the two-word pairs has a triplet in the middle with a missing letter, and they appear to alternate backwards and forwards.

Player [RQP] piano
Tesla [ABC] coil
Steffi [IHG] Graf
?
Soup [PON] Nazi
?
Deko [UTS] Scrub
Maximum [MNO] Overdrive
?
Adolf [FGH] Hitler
Drum [MLK] kit
Electric [CDE] Eel
Hemp [PON] Necklace
?
?
Stud [DEF] finder
Benito [ONM] Mussolini
Mother [RST] Teresa
Sub [BAZ] zero
Water [RST] tower
Ivan [NML] Lendl
Old [DEF] Faithful
French [HGF] Fries
Graphic [CDE] Equaliser
Dennis [SRQ] Quaid
Kurt [TUV] Vonnegut
?
?
?


(note: this came about as a result of my rewriting a clue for my GL meta puzzle submission this evening!)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

Great catch. The picture after Steffi Graf is definitely Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce. I wonder what words we're supposed to derive.
http://c2.soap.com/images/products/p/dcs/dcs-169b_1z.jpg

SAM (MLK) KINISON (right of Maximum Overdrive) should work.

ICE (EDC) CREAM would work as well.

And I guess P Diddy is going by his old name, PUFF (FED) DADDY
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.