Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[Suspence]

[Scurra]

Finally ready to swoop (at a rather slow speed) on crossbreeds.

Call in CLINTON (although that doesn't seem to be a crossbreed - or is there some satirical political point being made here? )

This wasn't my insight - it was a friend who saw it when I showed them the grid and the words. Absurdly obvious when you do see it, as usual...


_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

Next puzzle: Set Theory by Michael Colao

[gftt*]

Seems like each small triangle is a set of related objects.

A-Top: Drugstore Cowboy, Urban Cowboy... to complete the set, Midnight, I guess?

B-Top: Maggie (or possibly Homer/Marge)
B-Left: types of knots...

C-Top: Ford
C-Left: Garfield
C-Right: these are Dudley Moore movies, so Arthur fits
C Middle: PRESIDENTS

D-Right: these are cities in Nebraska... so, Lincoln?

E-Top: Black fits well
E-Right: types of pitches... so Curve, Sinker, Fastball, Changeup, Splitter, Cutter, Screwball...
E-Left: types of love

Black, Screwball, Romantic for the E-category of COMEDY?

F-top: types of engineering?
F-right: ______ feet?
F-left: Yom Kippur? Passover? Purim?

[Suspence]

F should be WAR
JEWISH HOLIDAYS - Yom Kippur
ENGINEERING - Civil
FEET - Cold

D left seems to be Discworld characters
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Looks good to me.

For B, maybe Smith? Maggie Smith on top, Granny Smith on the left... no idea on the right, though.

[Suspence]

Reflex, Fortitude, WILL so SMITH
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

A-right are in-flight magazines.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

Recap:

A-top - Drugstore, Urban - COWBOYS - Dallas? Midnight? Rhinestone?
A-right - Hemispheres, Holland Herald - IN-FLIGHT MAGS - Sky? Blue? Latitude?
A-left - Relax, Loosen Up - ?

B-top - Bart, Lisa - SIMPSON KIDS - MAGGIE
B-right - Reflex, Fortitude - DND SAVING THROWS - WILL
B-left - Square, Slip - TYPES OF KNOTS - GRANNY
SMITH - Maggie, Will, Granny

C-top - Chrysler, GM - AMERICAN CAR MAKERS - FORD
C-right - 10, The Hound of the Baskervilles - DUDLEY MOORE FILMS - ARTHUR
C-left - Catbert, Heathcliff - CARTOON STRIP CATS - GARFIELD
PRESIDENTS - Ford, Arthur, Garfield

D-top - Okinawa, Tinian - WWII PACIFIC BATTLES - IWO JIMA
D-right - Omaha, North Platte - NEBRASKA CITIES - LINCOLN
D-left - Binky, Lady Ysabell - DISCWORLD CHARACTERS - ALBERT
MEMORIAL - Iwo Jima, Lincoln, Albert

E-top - Grey, White - GREYSCALE COLORS - BLACK
E-right - Slider, Knuckle Curve - BASEBALL PITCHES - SCREWBALL
E-left - Familial, Platonic - TYPES OF LOVE - ROMANTIC
COMEDY - Black, Screwball, Romantic

F-top - Electrical, Chemical - TYPES OF ENGINEERING - CIVIL
F-right - Flat, Crow's - FEET - COLD
F-left - Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah - JEWISH HOLIDAYS - YOM KIPPUR
WAR - Civil, Cold, Yom Kippur

G-top - Smith, ? - ?
G-right - Presidents, Memorial - US HOLIDAYS ENDING WITH "DAY" - Labor? Independence?
G-left - Comedy, War - MOVIE GENRES?
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

should be PRESIDENTS with an S to satisfy the 10-letter requirement. Might refer to holidays if they want us to think PRESIDENTS rather than PRESIDENT?

Okinawa, Tinian... battles in the Pacific campaign of WW2? Midway would be another that might hook up to other things.

[Suspence]

How about IWO JIMA? Works with LINCOLN and ALBERT to combine with MEMORIAL.

And MEMORIAL works with PRESIDENTS to give US HOLIDAYS.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Nice.

I'm not keen on viewing Comedy + War as movie genres, seeing how Comedy was already broken up into comedy genres. But I don't know what else to do with them...

[Suspence]

A guess here...call in UNION.

Labor UNION, Western UNION
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

Promising.

Although I wonder what could be linked to SMITH that would form a third clue for UNION. COOPER?

For the Dodgson, searching "Lewis Carroll chess variations" came up with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._R._Parton#Looking-Glass_Chess

Maybe this allows the series of moves that we need...? I'll check it out at some point.

[LordKinbote]

UNION is correct.

Next: Headstones by Sarah Anderson and Greg Clark

[Suspence]

[Suspence]

b. 19
I brought my lover to be the royal next bride;
Then I ran away, and somehow I died.
1 cross

b. 19
My wild husband left me here;
Now he’s the name that thousands cheer!
2 crosses

b. 19
Went on a honeymoon with my new wife;
Fell off a mountain and lost my life.
2 crosses
Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Mame)

b. 19
Held the boy hostage, over the river;
I was so bad I made most cops quiver!
3 crosses

b. 19
I was his only son; it was the greatest loss
That they tried and found me guilty, and put me on the cross.
3 crosses
JESUS CHRIST (Jesus Christ Superstar)

b. 19
My fiancee’s mother had a grand plan
That fell through when I went to spy on Japan.
4 crosses

b. 19
Style and rhythm, I had it in spades;
Then I died, a victim of AIDS.
4 crosses
ANGEL (Rent)

b. 19
You’ve heard about my memories; don’t mourn.
I’ve been chosen to go to the next layer, and be reborn.
7 crosses
GRIZABELLA (Cats)

b. 19
My poor, tormented daughter caused a scene at the prom;
I stabbed her to save her soul, in a fleeting moment of calm.
8 crosses
MARGARET WHITE (Carrie)

b. 19
In the end, Aurora gave me a kiss,
But it’s my cellmate whom I will most miss.
9 crosses
LUIS ALBERTO MOLINA (Kiss of the Spider Woman)

b. 19
Came back and gave a star as a gift;
The good deed got me to heaven, nice and swift!
12 crosses
LILIOM (Carousel)

b. 19
I was a young artist, painting was fun;
But I lost my lover, and died at 31.
12 crosses
GEORGE SEURAT (Sunday in the Park with George)

b. 19
The summer night gives three smiles, my friend;
As the third one happened, I went to my end.
14 crosses
MADAME ARMFELDT (A Little Night Music)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

gftt, not sure if you check the other threads, but there's another hunt starting. Interested? http://www.greylabyrinth.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=14646
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

I might be but the next couple weeks starting tomorrow I will be super busy.

I can't help with musical characters much even if I did have time. I will note that the "Born 19__" would seem to indicate that the puzzle wants the actors' birthdates (or maybe the dates that the shows premiered) rather than the characters', maybe for a sort order?

[DejMar]

As I have not been part of this "Hunt", I shall offer the following with spoilers:

Two corrections and a possible answer:

First, my research into broadway musicals show that, in Carousel. Billy Bigelow was the name of the one who "Came back and gave a star as a gift; The good deed got me to heaven, nice and swift!"
Liliom is the name of the corresponding character and the name of the play upon which Carousel is based.

Second, the spelling of the name of the French Post-Impressionist painter in Sunday in the Park with George is Georges (with an 's') Seurat.

Ordering the known musicals by production date and using the number of †'s on each headstone to indicate a letter position in the corresponding character's name, gives - WEESTEATRE???.
Subsituting and inserting the three missing letters for the three 'buried' characters of the as-yet-unidentified musicals may give WELLES THEATRE, which may itself give MERCURY (Theatre), the name of (George) Orson Welles theatre.

Ahh, I mentioned that there are three, not four. unsolved clues. Here is one that I discovered the likely answer to:
My fiancee's mother had a grand plan
That fell through when I went to spy on Japan.
JOSEPH CABLE in 1949's South Pacific

[Suspence]

Based on DejMar's great work, call in MERCURY
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

MERCURY is correct.

And the next one is by me. Yayyyyy!

General Knowledge by Scott Handelman

[Suspence]

ANTHRAX - What sickness from bacilli is a band that covered “Bring the Noise”? (7)
ANTIDERIVATIVE - For areas beneath a curve, what helps you calculate with poise? (14)
BUNKER - What’s underground and fortified, and helps you hide in time of war? (6)
CATUVELLAUNI - Cunobelinus led what tribe in Ancient Britain’s days of yore? (12)

GALAHAD - What son of good Sir Lancelot was on a most Grail-centric quest? (7)
HILBERT - Which man’s hotel is always full but has a space for each new guest? (7)
IONIAN REVOLT - What lasted from four-ninety-nine until four-ninety-three BC? (6 6)
IRYDION - Krasinski wrote which play about the rise of Christianity? (7)

JAMES - What Scottish king united Britain after taking Liz’s seat? (5)
LA HAYE SAINTE - What farmhouse proved strategic for Napoleon’s supreme defeat? (2 4 6)
MUSKET - What muzzle-loaded gun may have a bayonet in its design? (6)
What’s like a play but light in tone and actors sing each single line? (8) - I was thinking OPERETTA, but the definition includes non-singing parts.

POE - The man who wrote ELIZABETH acrostically, what was his name? (3)
RAWLINSON - What man’s Behistun text decryption caused his humble rise to fame? (9)
RIGHT TRIANGLE - Pythagoras’s theorem—to just what shape is it applied? (5 8)
SEMI-MAJOR AXIS - What is the longest length from an ellipse’s center to its side? (9 4)

STILL LIFE - What art shows the inanimate (some food, a rock, a flowerpot…)? (5 4)
TOAD - Which animal, when found in groups, is oft referred to as a knot? (4)
TRANSFORMATION - What is it when a parent graph should move, flip, rotate, grow, or shrink? (14)
WOLFRAM ALPHA? - For help expanding squares and cubes of x plus y, click what site’s link? (7 5)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Scurra]

This was definitely one of my favourite puzzles in the whole hunt. The "a-ha" moment was glorious. So, no help from me on this one...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

What is it when a parent graph should move, flip, rotate, grow, or shrink? (14)
TRANSFORMATION

[novice]

For areas beneath a curve, what helps you calculate with poise? (14)
Antiderivative

[L'lanmal]

[gftt*]

Some probably useless observations on the General Knowledge puzzle:

Answers are 20 nouns. Doubtful that it's a pure wordplay thing. Not enough leading vowels to just be a "rearrange and take the first letters" extraction.

Clues can be grouped by category, somewhat. A few British history clues, several math ones. Just random?

All clues are 16 syllables with the same syncopated rhythm. Is that just for fun, or a clue that we should think about syllables of the answers? (I thought of Morse code with accented syllables as dashes, but some answers are 6 syllables and can't represent a Morse letter.) Answers are in alpha order which seemingly indicates we need to rearrange, but the clues are rhyming in the order given. Again, just for fun?

[Suspence]

Good catch. The "poem" made by the questions is in dactylic octameter, like this one referenced in Wikipedia.

Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger than dreams that fulfil us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossomlike snow or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
(A. C. Swinburne, "March: An Ode")
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

BTW that is one reason I would be confident in OPERETTA as an answer - the "each single line" bit isn't 100% accurate but it was needed to complete the meter.

[Suspence]

Don't know exactly what to do next. I thought about seeing if there was some rhyming connection to US four-star generals (as in General Knowledge), but that didn't yield anything promising.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

[novice]

Finding the line from the lyrics that each question/answer refers to:

10: beings animalculous - ANTHRAX - What sickness from bacilli is a band that covered “Bring the Noise”? (7)
9: - I'm very good at integral and differential calculus - ANTIDERIVATIVE - For areas beneath a curve, what helps you calculate with poise? (14)
25: ravelin - BUNKER - What’s underground and fortified, and helps you hide in time of war? (6)
22: Caractacus -CATUVELLAUNI - Cunobelinus led what tribe in Ancient Britain’s days of yore? (12)

13: King Arthur - GALAHAD - What son of good Sir Lancelot was on a most Grail-centric quest? (7)
14: paradox - HILBERT - Which man’s hotel is always full but has a space for each new guest? (7)
4: Marathon - IONIAN REVOLT - What lasted from four-ninety-nine until four-ninety-three BC? (6 6)
15: Heliogabalus - IRYDION - Krasinski wrote which play about the rise of Christianity? (7)

3: I know the kings of England - JAMES - What Scottish king united Britain after taking Liz’s seat? (5)
4: Waterloo - LA HAYE SAINTE - What farmhouse proved strategic for Napoleon’s supreme defeat? (2 4 6)
26: I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a Javelin - MUSKET - What muzzle-loaded gun may have a bayonet in its design? (6)
20: Pinafore - OPERETTA - What’s like a play but light in tone and actors sing each single line? (8)

14: acrostics - POE - The man who wrote ELIZABETH acrostically, what was his name? (3)
21 - Babylonic cuneiform - RAWLINSON - What man’s Behistun text decryption caused his humble rise to fame? (9)
8: Square of the hypothenuse - RIGHT TRIANGLE - Pythagoras’s theorem—to just what shape is it applied? (5 8)
16: In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous - SEMI-MAJOR AXIS - What is the longest length from an ellipse’s center to its side? (9 4)

17: I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies - STILL LIFE - What art shows the inanimate (some food, a rock, a flowerpot…)? (5 4)
18: The Frogs of Aristophanes - TOAD - Which animal, when found in groups, is oft referred to as a knot? (4)
19?: Fugue? - TRANSFORMATION - What is it when a parent graph should move, flip, rotate, grow, or shrink? (14)
7: binomial theorem - WOLFRAM ALPHA? - For help expanding squares and cubes of x plus y, click what site’s link? (7 5)

Maybe use the line number as a sort order or as an index into the answer to the question. Full lyrics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major-General's_Song#Lyrics

Sorting by line number:

3: JAMES
4: IONIAN REVOLT
4: LA HAYE SAINTE
7: WOLFRAM ALPHA?
8: RIGHT TRIANGLE
9: ANTIDERIVATIVE
10: ANTHRAX
13: GALAHAD
14: POE
14: HILBERT
15: IRYDION
16: SEMI-MAJOR AXIS
17: STILL LIFE
18: TOAD
19: TRANSFORMATION
20: OPERETTA
21: RAWLINSON
22: CATUVELLAUNI
25: BUNKER
26: MUSKET

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

Not sure if this is in any way related to solving the puzzle, but it was very cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpo

I'd be totally impressed if somehow thesyllables in the referenced word in the MMG song tied out directly to an element. Seems like that would be impossible though.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

TRAMSFORMATION can be "matter mathematical" from line 5, which gives

3: JAMES
4: IONIAN REVOLT
4: LA HAYE SAINTE
5: TRANSFORMATION
7: WOLFRAM ALPHA?
8: RIGHT TRIANGLE
9: ANTIDERIVATIVE
10: ANTHRAX
13: GALAHAD
14: POE
14: HILBERT
15: IRYDION
16: SEMI-MAJOR AXIS
17: STILL LIFE
18: TOAD
20: OPERETTA
21: RAWLINSON
22: CATUVELLAUNI
25: BUNKER
26: MUSKET

[novice]

Splitting the words into groups of four again, and reading the diagonals, yields

JOHN WITH GOLD STAR RANK

Call in John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing and all its permutations.