Mystery Hunt 2012 Recast: COMPLETE!!!

[LordKinbote]

[gftt]

OK... pic 2 is Cambridge City Hall (795 Massachusetts Ave.). The rest seem to be a stroll down Mass Ave towards Harvard, turning off Mass Ave at some point to find whatever that yellow house is.

Pic 1 is looking north onto Mass Ave from Pleasant Street. Green awning is a 7-11.

[gftt*]

The building with the chimneys in pic 4 and the brick building in the back of pic 9 are definitely reminiscent of Harvard architecture, but I'm having trouble locating them with Google Streetview. Anyone else want to try?

[novice]

I haven't looked at this, but I thought I'd just point out the obvious - the title might refer to intersections, as in "St. and Av."

[SuperSlug]

I started with that visible 7-11.

I made a map

This document is helpful. There is one of those blue ovals at each photo location. (Oooo, where the person that took the pic was standing.)
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[Suspence]

Since no one has mentioned it, the lyrics are from Stand by REM. The song includes directions (now face North; now face West; etc). Not sure if that comes into play, but it might be worth mentioning.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[SuperSlug]

My notes; I haven't counted anything out. Found #10 on Ash Street but can't find the text of the oval. Need to step away from computer for awhile.

Stand

1. 86
Cambridge Athenaeum
750 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts

CAMBRIDGE ATHENAEUM

SITE OF A PRIVATE LIBRARY THAT BECAME
CAMBRIDGE'S FIRST CITY HALL 1854-1890
LATER HOME OF THE PROSPECT UNION

1851-1922

2. 8
Cambridge City Hall
795 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts

CAMBRIDGE CITY HALL

GIFT OF FREDERICK HASTINGS RINDGE
CALIFORNIA PHILANTHROPIST BORN IN CAMBRIDGE
DESIGNED BY LONGFELLOW, ALDEN & HARLOW

1889

3. 44
Melusina Fay Peirce
10 Arrow Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

MELUSINA FAY PEIRCE

EARLY FEMINIST AND FOUNDER OF THE
COOPERATIVE HOUSEKEEPING ASSOCIATION
AN 1870 EXPERIMENT IN COOPERATIVE LIVING

1836-1923


4. 16
Blue Anchor Tavern
9-15 J.F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

BLUE ANCHOR TAVERN

SITE OF THE FAMOUS TAVERN
WHERE CAMBRIDGE SELECTMEN MET AND
THE BRITISH GENERAL BURGOYNE
WAS BRIEFLY IMPRISONED IN 1777

1737-1837

5. 12 (7-11 across the street)
Prof. John Winthrop
93 Mount Auburn Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

PROF. JOHN WINTHROP

THE GREATEST AMERICAN MATHEMATICIAN
AND PHILOSOPHER OF HIS TIME
A FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY
LIVED HERE FROM 1746 TO 1779

1714-1779

6. 14 (park)
Marketplace
Mount Auburn Street at Winthrop Square Park
Cambridge, Massachusetts

MARKETPLACE

SITE OF THE MARKETPLACE OF NEWTOWNE
ONE OF FOUR COLONIAL MARKET TOWNS
DEDICATED A PARK IN 1834

1635

7. 19
Brattle House
42 Brattle Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

BRATTLE HOUSE

HOME OF TORY GENERAL BRATTLE UNTIL 1774
QUARTERS OF GENERAL THOMAS MIFFLIN
COMMISSARY OF THE AMERICAN ARMY
1775-1776

1727

8. 1
Dexter Pratt House
52 Brattle Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

DEXTER PRATT HOUSE

HOME OF DEXTER PRATT
THE "VILLAGE BLACKSMITH"
IMMORTALIZED BY LONGFELLOW

1808

9. 77
Stoughton House
90 Brattle Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

STOUGHTON HOUSE

DESIGNED BY ARCHITECT H.H. RICHARDSON
FOREMOST EXAMPLE OF THE SHINGLE STYLE
BUILT FOR MRS. EDWIN STOUGHTON
HOME OF HISTORIAN JOHN FISKE

1883

10. 21
Longfellow's Reach
5 Ash Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

haven't found the text of this blue oval

Designed by Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., nephew of the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Longfellow's earliest Cambridge house was a Colonial hip roof design at 5 Ash Street built in 1886 for John Brooks.

11. 15
Philip Johnson
9 Ash Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

PHILIP JOHNSON
1906-2005

THE CENTURY'S TOWERING ARCHITECT
DESIGNED AND LIVED IN THIS HOUSE
WHILE AT HARVARD ON LEAVE
AS MoMA'S FOUNDING DIRECTOR

1942
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[SuperSlug]

If I throw the letters NRETAERHWE into More Words, the only return formed by adding a letter to the sequence in any order is EARTHENWARE (added A).

Edit:
Order by date on oval:
E 1635
A 1714
R 1727
T 1737
H 1808
E 1836
N 1851
W 1883
- 1886?
R 1889
E 1942
end Edit

Call in EARTHENWARE
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[LordKinbote]

Yup.

Next: The Signs They Are A Changin' by Alan Fetters

[gftt*]

EARTHENWARE can go in slots 2 or 3, it seems; same as SCHRODINGER. So we won't be able to determine exactly which is which without contemplating what's going in the middle.

This next puzzle will be slow going, I suspect...

[L'lanmal]

I've started to look at this and can fill in a few squares for starters if it's ok.

I was not involved in this puzzle, but I do know the answers feeding this meta pretty well so I'd have to bow out when we get close to the answer.

[gftt*]

[SuperSlug]

[L'lanmal]

It looks like a good spot to break in to this cross difference puzzle is the fifth row. Because the 15 down in the sixth column is either 829 or 928*, this makes the 5th row: (-9):???? (13): 2x9y8z75 (9): 8791, where x, y, and z are 4, 3, and 1 in some order.

The sixth row is (10): ??? (-6): a9b (12): 419, where a and b are 1 and 2 in some order.

Slightly further down the puzzle there is an 8 down which has to be 91, but this doesn't seem to lead to anything else immediately.

The 14 clue in row 10 is ?9?2?1? with the missing numbers all being 5-8. The 0 clue in row 12 is 891.

* If the middle number were 1 (917 or 719), the negative positions of the across entry would have to be at least 2345, and the 13 total would be impossible to satisfy.

[gftt*]

The 20 in the 4th column must be +6789 and -1234. The 17 that it crosses can't take anything higher than a 6 in the crossing spot, so that's got to be it, and a 1 in the 2nd spot. 789 must fill the 17's odd places. The -7 above that can't take anything lower than a 4 in the crossing spot, so that's there; it must then have a 9 in the 2nd spot, with 123 filling the odd spots in some order. The 15 across in row 7 must then have a 7 in the 4th spot; any higher and it's not completable.

[L'lanmal]

Filled in the top quarter and a bit more.

[L'lanmal]

I'm wondering if we constructed this particularly towards the answer word, or if we created one that was solvable, removed the appropriate clues, and checked that it was still solvable.

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

Looking again at the meta... it might be WRECK A VW BUG.

If that's the case I have a reasonable guess at the missing answer, too.

[LordKinbote]

[LordKinbote]

Since you got the meta, let's move on to the last show round: "Ogre of La Mancha!"

This round's meta is by me (general concept) and by Patrick Blindauer (final execution) with some additional assistance by Andrew Lin.

The round's puzzles are unordered. There are eight of them.

First: Argh! by Andrew Lin and Emily Morgan

[gftt*]

Can I try my stab at the other answer anyway? I figured that it would probably be arranged so that the meta answer is uniquely determined, so that meant that certain beams had to be routed into the middle at certain places, so that gave some additional letters. Combined with the letters we have gotten already, I think this word works well:


PREARRANGED?

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

[Scurra]

For AARGH, I think this relates to that eternal SF classic The Eye of Argon, As noted on the linked page, the idea was that you had to read the text out loud with a straight face. As it was so bad, this was very difficult.
I haven't been going through the clips methodically yet - I picked a couple at random and hit on a reference to "Grignr" which rang some bells.

(p.s. been away, and missed all the excitement with the last few. Good work on the Dominion puzzle.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[SuperSlug]

So, the first sound bite might go with: "You make love well wench,"
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[Scurra]

#6 is "...the heat of battle. 'You' ejaculated..." (chapter 6, in case that's an indexing method)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[gftt*]

This is certainly an... interesting text.

#4 would seem to be "Cutting his screech short with a bubbling, red mouthed gurgle, the lacerated acolyte...", then? I suspect that the last word (the one that causes the laughter) is the one we're after. Acolyte here, Wench for #1 and Ejaculated for #6.

[SuperSlug]

[LordKinbote]

Yup.

Next: Cookin' by Alex Calhoun and Michael Colao

[SuperSlug]

Observations:
Collection of recipe clips strung together with a voice over.
Each food name includes a place.
They are presented in alphabetical order.
Each voice over contains only 1 number.

Adana kebab 2
Arbroath Smokie 8
Beef Wellington 5
Bombay Potatoes 5
Boston Cream Pie 6
?Buffalo Chicken Wings 5
Chicken Kiev 4
?Chicken ? 4
Chicken Marengo 4
Chicken Parmesan 1
Eggs Florentine 5
Insalata Caprese 2
Irish Stew 1
Lady Baltimore Cake 3
?London Broil 3
Mississippi Mud Pie 1
Peking Duck 1
Philly Cheesesteak 1
Salade Nicoise 2
Spaghetti Bolognese 5
Swedish Meatballs 5
Turkish Delight 3
Welsh Rarebit 2
Wiener Schnitzel 4
Yorkshire Puddings 7

I think there is more going on with the voice over, but I need to start prepping for Brownies. ~sluggy

Edit: 6th one might be Buffalo Chicken Wings (meat shape is right) but I haven't tracked down that clip to verify.
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[SuperSlug]

Peking Duck 1..................absolutely super
Arbroath Smokie 8............be sure to tie
Beef Wellington 5.............carefully brush
Lady Baltimore Cake 3.....dissolve the sugar
Irish Stew 1.......................exactly like that
Philly Cheesesteak 1........finally bring the
Chicken Parmesan 1........great, now we are ready
Salade Nicoise 2..............how about that
Boston Cream Pie 6.........it's now time
Eggs Florentine 5............just gently place
Chicken Kiev 4................keep ahold of the
Yorkshire Puddings 7......let the fat
Wiener Schnitzel 4..........move the veal
Chicken Marengo 4.........now we carefully slice
Spaghetti Bolognese 5....okay, by this point
Buffalo Chicken Wings 5..please let them stand
Turkish Delight 3..............quite carefully wait
Mississippi Mud Pie 1.......right, mix in the nuts
Bombay Potatoes 5..........smoothly pull
?Chicken ? 4....................the mixture is now
Swedish Meatballs 5........up to about an inch
London Broil 3.................very thinnly slice
Insalata Caprese 2...........we then slice the
Adana kebab 2.................x-raying this mass
Welsh Rarebit 2................you want to grasp

philippinevinegarma-inade
philippine vinegar marinade

Call in ADOBO
_________________
Some people are lost in the shuffle. I'm shuffling along with the lost.

[LordKinbote]

Correct.

Next: Eight Digits by Kai Huang

[gftt*]

VG = CV - QP
JY = GP - ZY
QG = VJ - MV
XC = BC - XP
XK = KX - QB
ZP = CY - GM
FINAL + ANSWER - DTIFW - EDUHO

12 letters VGCQPJYZMXBK are used in the 6 equations.

The other 14 FINALSWERDTUHO are in the last expression, with none of the 12 from above. So it's not simply a matter of solving the crypta-math. (Not that I would expect something that simple, in any event.)

I wonder if 8 digits means this is in base 8.

[Scurra]

Gah. I can barely do arithmetic in base 10, so base 8 is right out...
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[novice]

VG = CV - QP
JY = GP - ZY
QG = VJ - MV
XC = BC - XP
XK = KX - QB
ZP = CY - GM

(I) XC = BC - XP => P = 0
(II) VG = CV - QP => G = V
(III) ZP = CY - GM => Y = M

Substituting:
GG = CG - Q0 => G = C - Q
JM = G0 - ZM => M = 0 or M = 4 (if base 8)
QG = GJ - MG => J = 2G mod 8
XC = BC - X0 => X = B - X => B = 2X
XK = KX - QB
Z0 = CM - GM => Z = C - G

FINAL + ANSWER - DTIFW - EDUHO

[gftt*]

[gftt]

Yup. Base 8.

Left pinky (Z/Q) = 1
Left ring (X) = 3
Left middle (C) = 7
Left index (B/V/G) = 6

Right index (J/Y/M) = 4
Right middle (K) = 5
Right pinky (P) = 0

which leaves Right ring = 2.

FINAL + ANSWER - DTIFW - EDUHO
65412 + 143376 - 76563 - 77442

143376 + 65412 = 231010
231010 - 76563 = 132225
132225-77442 = 32563

32563:
X/S/W
L/O
K/I
T/R/F/G/B/V
X/S/W

Bolded are the letters used in the last line. Only word I can see is SLITS, so call that in?

[LordKinbote]

[gftt*]

Are these rules right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichu

If so then all scoring is in multiples of 5, so how does a team get -14? Are we in hexadecimal? There are 7 of those weird characters, though, not 6.