Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[novice]

[Suspence]

That should be somewhere around this page, no?
http://www.johnhodgman.com/page/37

I assume we're looking for a post on 1/13/12?
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

Yeah... Is it just me or are there no date stamps on those posts? Incredibly annoying.

[Suspence]

Yeah, that's not that smart.

There is a post that he dates as 1/13 however:

Your TODAY IN RAGNAROK UPDATE for 1/13/12, including bonus YESTERDAY in Ragnarok update for 1/12/12, because I forgot all about it.
PLEASE NOTE that tomorrow night, @jonathancoulton and I will be driving up to Beacon, NY to perform at David Rees’s COMEDY NIGHT.
It is only FIVE DOLLARS and it is happening at 8PM at Hudson Valley Auctioneers, 432 Main Street.
Won’t you please join us in the country?
That is all.

There's a video...watching it now. Is this supposed to be humor? Ugh...

EDIT: Nothing stood out in the video either.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

[Suspence]

Could be this:
http://www.johnhodgman.com/post/15781953410/the-above-video-of-a-cat-confused-by-life-is-not
Video is called "Mabel loves gnip gnop" and the blog text says "The above video of a cat confused by life is not merely pure internet bait." and features two people playing ping pong.

Call in PING PONG
Call in GNIP GNOP
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt*]

[code]
ba: /δ/ /ǝ/ /j/ /ø/ /ng/ /ǝ/ /ø/ /r/ /ch/ /i/ /l/
bb: /δ/ /ǝ/ /j/ /ø/ /ng/ /ǝ/ /ø/ /r/ /ch/ /i/ /l/ /z/ /h/ /ey/ /t/ /ǝ/ /d/ /b/ /r/ /a/ /i:/ /d/ [/quote]

So these do turn out to be The Young Churchill + his Hated Bride? I guess there is a mistake in the puzzle since there should be another /ch/ phoneme in there.

[Zag]

I have to say that I admire the tenacity you guys have shown. Of course, the extent of my following along with your solutions have been to glance at them, nod, and say to myself, "Yep, it WAS too hard for me."

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

[LordKinbote]

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

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

[LordKinbote]

[LordKinbote]

Next: Eek! by Joradn Bennett Louis Smith

[novice]

[Scurra]

I got a long way with the previous one, but not quite far enough to get to the right final message. I thought the idea was very clever though.

And you can count me out for this next one. I have enough trouble with two dimensional mazes...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

[novice]

Here's my colored-in maze:

Level 4:


Level 3:


Level 2:


Level 1:


Level 0:


And here's the path to take:

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

Impressive work, novice. If you constructed it in 3D, there could be a message on the side elevations? Looks like it would be the top of the 2D format, as the rest of the sides are full.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[novice]

The side with the most holes in (top row is noise from the top level):

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

Is the purple colored-in stuff the path, or is it the parts of the maze that lead to dead ends?

There are a lot of patterns both vertically and horizontally. Maybe we need to look at both directions?

[gftt*]

If you just look at rows/columns that are entirely colored in, you get

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

I'm clueless here. It looks like it might be a cryptogram by color but there are only six colors (ROYGBV). And there are numbers at the end of each line, but the number of numbers doesn't seem to match anything in the line (sometimes there are more "words" in the line than numbers, sometimes fewer).

[novice]

There's indigo, too. Also, I don't know if it's relevant, but there's a song called Rainbow Connection:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Connection

Another association is colored (connecting) subway lines, but Boston seems to have RGOB and Silver.

[Scurra]

It is a cryptogram. I spent a happy evening watching Team GB go ballistic in the athletics (we'd only ever won 1 gold before tonight, and that was over a century ago!) and solving the first part of this.

The colours correspond to multiple letters, but they were at least in groups which made it feasible.
So Red was ABCD, Orange EFGH and so on, down to Violet YZ. The helpful bit were the single Reds which suggested that might be A, and then the three reds in the last one, which suggested that it might be more than one letter.
Note that the (XX) in my solution below are for letters that don't seem to belong in the quote, but for which I haven't exhaustively checked back with the original to see if it's my copying mistake.

They turned out to be quotes from Muppet characters (which I had wondered about, given the title), with the character name matching the given numbers. And it was this that made it a lot easier...
However, I haven't quite figured out the last bit yet.

-----

look mother its my life ok (XX) so if I want to live on a beach and walk around naked oh – Janice

terrific captured by crazed wild pigs and sacrificed hideously before a pagan altar – Rizzo

eat drums eat cymbals – Animal

yes I flew through the air with the greatest of ease (XX) the audience loved it they wanted an encore – Link

photographys an art you gotta have the right film you gotta have the right exposure and you gotta scream just before they get the food to their mouth – Gonzo

a credit card b cash c sneak out in the middle of the night – Pops

you think thats bad the first three months of my life there was a newspaper strike - Rowlf

(−2+3+1+3+1+3) JANICE
(−3+2−5−2−2) RIZZO
(+1−1+4−1+3−1) ANIMAL
(−1−1−3−2) LINK
(+3−1−2−5 0) GONZO
(−3−1 0+1) POPS
(−3−1−5+4 0) ROWLF
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

OK, the last part involves the letter groups as well. It's one of those things that's hard to explain in words! Take the group the letter is in, and move it forward or back that many groups to find the new group. e.g. the J from Janice was -2, so move two groups back from IJKL to ABCD, and so on.

(−2+3+1+3+1+3) JANICE ANSWER

(−3+2−5−2−2) RIZZO FRESH

(+1−1+4−1+3−1) ANIMAL FLYING

(−1−1−3−2) LINK HEAD

(+3−1−2−5 0) GONZO SLEEP

(−3−1 0+1) POPS BLOW

(−3−1−5+4 0) ROWLF GLAZE

The first three words can be followed by START and the second three by OVER, so I would like to submit

START OVER

This was a much more enjoyable decode than the hobos one.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

Nice work, Scurra.

[Scurra]

Well if we all liked the same things, it would be a dull world.
I think my problem with the IPA one was that I just couldn't find a way into it, whereas this one seemed to be slightly more accessible. (Also, I'm already on record as disliking puzzles that require vocalisation, even though that one was less egregious than most in the end.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[gftt*]

[LordKinbote]

START OVER is correct. We were so worried that people would take that as an instruction, not an answer.

Initial Public Offering by Patrick Blindauer

Man, Patrick and Kai wrote a lot of puzzles.

[LordKinbote]

[Suspence]

Just an observation...so far all the solutions have been two words, where one of the words is one letter longer than the other

DRUNK TANK
BATED BREATH
BUSINESS TRAVELERS
LOVE ETC
START OVER

That might stimulate some ideas on the meta, or help in solving future puzzles in this round.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[gftt]

B

ILTSONITM. (2/13) = "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" from Apocalypse Now (2nd letter of 13 in movie title = P)
GA, MMD. (9/12) = "Go ahead, make my day" from Sudden Impact (9/12 = P)
IGMHAOHCR. (7/12) = I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." from The Godfather (7/12 = F)
YCHTT! (2/11) = "You can't handle the truth" from A Few Good Men (2/11 = F)
WWGHIFTC. (3/12) = "What we've got here is Failure To Communicate" from Cool Hand Luke (3/12 = O)
MTFBWY. (5/8) = May the Force be with you, from Star Wars (5/8 = W)
T, IAFWNIKA. (7/13) = Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore, from The Wizard of Oz (7/13 = A)
YTTM? (6/10) = You talkin to me? from Taxi Driver (6/10 = R)
R. (4/11) = Rosebud from Citizen Kane (4/11 = I)
F, MD, IDGAD. (13/15) = Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn from Gone with the Wind (13/15 = I)

So we get PPFFOWARII, but unfortunately I can't find a movie quote that has those initials.

[gftt]

E = Shakespeare

O, W! HMGCATH! HBMI! OBNW, THSPI! (7/10)
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
from The Tempest: 7/10 = P

F, R, C, LMYE. (8/12)
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.
from Julius Caesar: 8/12 = A

TBONTB, TITQ (6/6)
To Be or Not to Be, that is the question
from Hamlet: 6/6 = T

O, R, R! WATR? (12/14)
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
from Romeo & Juliet: 12/14 = I

ACWH, NCSHIV. (6/18)
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
from Antony & Cleopatra: 6/18 = Y

IMBTFOL, PO. (6/12)
If music be the food of love, play on
from Twelfth Night: 6/12 = T

PATIYT = ????

[gftt]

D = songs from Musicals

D, J! (18/18)

IGWTMROMH (7/12)
I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair
from South Pacific: 7/12 = A

YCBALATHYW (WYML) (4/7)
You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)
from Avenue Q: 4/7 = N

FM (GI) (1/19)

DYHTPS? (3/13)
Do you hear the people sing?
from Les Miserables: 3/13 = S

M, IABGN (3/9)
Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now
from Hairspray: 3/9 = I

IDKHTLH (7/20)
I Don't Know How to Love Him
from Jesus Christ Superstar: 7/20 = H

TRTT (3/4)
The Rum Tum Tugger
from Cats: 3/4 = T

WSIWU? (3/7)
Why Should I Wake Up?
from Cabaret: 3/7 = B

GTKY (7/11)
Getting to Know You
from The King & I: 7/11 = G

*AN*SIHTBG

[LordKinbote]