IT endures

[Fuldu]

I think you're on the right track, Celt.

They are "slightly irregular cryptic clues".

Educated Turk sniffed, bewildered at lack of sulfur (e)ffendi
In the middle of Cypriot U., I anagram “of a South American language family” otu(k)ian
Hooligan? Unfair, unfair! ruf(f)ian.

[Celt]

Ah!
"Deny stock market indicator has a small volume" might be [renOUNCE - but I'm not aufait enough with the Stock Market to know for sure]

[The Cruciverbalist]

Arctic shade that is holding clue, loosely = ice-(b)lue
One neverending woman has one place to plant a flag = Iwo (J)ima
Seduce drunk to make it = suc(c)eed
To IBM, say, a large current = top(i)cal

Perhaps "my heart's been elsewhere" means that the missing letter is always the middle one?

[The Cruciverbalist]

Perhaps this is the way to "order them appropriately"...

???(A)???
ICE(B)LUE
SUC(C)EED
???(D)???
EFF(E)NDI
RUF(F)IAN
???(G)???
???(H)???
TOP(I)CAL
IWO(J)IMA
OTU(K)IAN
NUC(L)EUS

Both the first and last letters look like they might spell out something.
_________________
"Who slipped th'surly bonds an' kinged you the linguary?"

[IT 4]

Aaand, I got it.

New one soon.

-CV

[IT 4]

Quit Snickering!

As I recently pointed out in another thread, my username's somewhat misleading. I'm not all about crosswords. Sometimes I do a bit of experimental poetry. Below is one of my favorite efforts, although I kinda blanked out at one point near the end. I have to warn you, though, a sizable part of this isn't exactly going to be English...

LRH OIA WPCCHTDIEY DULR UL
PAG CHDPTH EPSH PAG MBTH
LRH JKKUOR PO CJTCXHG LRH WIB WJCWJC
PAG LRPL ORJA LRH LJSLJS DIIG

EPXXIIR XHKL DULR LRPL KTJSUIJO OAUEYHT
PO LRH CPAGHTOAPLER LRTIJMR RH IJLMTPCH
LUSH LDPO SB SISH
PAG MBTH LRH CXPGH UA CTUXXUM

LRIJ LRH SUSOB WPCCHTDIEY
EPXXPB PAG UA IAH ERITLXHG LRIJMRL
RH RPOL DHAL PAG SB GPB
LRH XIAM PTSO UA FITVPX TPLRO

OAPEY DHTH LRH SUSOB
CULH EXPDO LRH EPLER
UA LTHH UA LRH CHPSUOR KIH
PAG LRH IJLMTPCH OIJMRL

EPSH LDI PAG OXPUA OXULRB SISH
LRH GHPG KXPSH LRTIJMR LIFHO
OXULRB LRIJMRL LRH FITVPX LIFHO
PAG CTUXXUM CIB DHAL DRUKKXUAM

RH PAG DPCH PAG LRH CITIMIFHO
DHTH PDRUXH UA EISH
PAG RHPG WPDO RH KTPCWIJO TPLRO
OI RH OLIIG PXX LRTIJMR LRH RPAG

LRH GUG RH LI RUO DPCH HBHO
IK MUSCXH CITIMIFHO
RH OLIIG RUO LIIY
LDI CB GUG ODITG LRH LJXMHB

CHDPTH UL PAG PXX
CUTG I IAH LDPO LRH MPXJSVRUAM
MUSCXH PAG THOLHG ULO CPEY
SB ??????? WPCCHTDIEY...

The password is the missing word, all caps.

[The Cruciverbalist]

Solution for the last one:

For all of the cryptic clues, the wordplay portion of the clue omitted the central letter.

Arctic shade that is holding clue, loosely: ice-(b)lue (i.e. + clue (anag.))
Bug house before a news service?: ant(h)eap (ante + AP)
Burdened and upset, came first: sad(d)led (sad + led)
Deny stock market indicator has a small volume: dis(a)vow (Dow + I + S + V)
Educated Turk sniffed, bewildered at lack of sulfur: eff(e)ndi (sniffed - S (anag.))
Hooligan? Unfair, unfair!: ruf(f)ian (unfair (anag.))
In the middle of Cypriot U., I anagram “of a South American language family”: Otu(k)ian (CyprOT U., I ANagram)
Marking time, getting older: tag(g)ing (T + aging)
Oddly, no U.S. cherubs in the center: nuc(l)eus (No U.s. ChErUbS)
One neverending woman has one place to plant a flag: Iwo (J)ima (I + woma(n) + I)
Seduce drunk to make it: suc(c)eed (seduce (anag.))
To IBM, say, a large current: top(i)cal (to + PC + a + L)

Arranging alphabetically by the omitted central letters...

DIS(A)VOW
ICE(B)LUE
SUC(C)EED
SAD(D)LED
EFF(E)NDI
RUF(F)IAN
TAG(G)ING
ANT(H)EAP
TOP(I)CAL
IWO(J)IMA
OTU(K)IAN
NUC(L)EUS

...yields DISSERTATION and WEDDING PLANS. Taking the indicated letters, where DISSERTATION is "A" and WEDDING PLANS is "B", gives the password, "paradiselost".

We missed you too, Tahnan.
_________________
"Who slipped th'surly bonds an' kinged you the linguary?"

[jadesmar]

Hmm.. why doesn't [MANXOME] work?

[The Cruciverbalist]

You're very, VERY close.
_________________
"Who slipped th'surly bonds an' kinged you the linguary?"

[IT 4]

Gotit, not locking unless I have a puzzle ready to go, so please feel free to keep working.

-Persona

ETA: Locked, and posting...

[IT 4]

@ Persona

-jadesmar

[IT 4]

Happy American Holiday!
I'm thankful that I'm not the one solving this...
Password = year

W F,W F,A W,A W,W A F F F,A A F F,A F F F W,O F W W,O F A F F,A F A F,F F F A W,F F F F F F,F F F F,FQ F,FA F,FR F,M F,F Q A,A A,Q Q;A,W,F W,W W F,Q O F,Q O F,FO,L,L L,Q L,FE,L,O O,O A,FF F,W F,F F,F F F F,A,W W F A,WR

[Persona]

Answer to Quit Snickering:

The ciphertext is The Jabberwocky with words scrambled. The only word not accounted for was MANXOME, which encrypts to SPANISH

[Tahnan]

Ceci n'est pas un bump.

[IT 4]

OK, so we all learned during the hunt that people hate cryptics where you have to replace letters with numbers. Plus, the resulting PBN didn't have too much of a hint to it, and it's no longer Thanksgiving so there's not as much of a hint there either, so all in all I'm calling the puzzle bust. I'm just going to throw up a quickie and let someone else have a shot at reviving interest in IT. I'm sorry.

Sorry in So Many Ways

[ralphmerridew]

sisterhood: sorority 6=O
said wail: sorrowful cry 5=W
athletic store: The Sports Authority 3=S, 13=O
Pele, eg: soccer (something)

[ralphmerridew]

panel purpose = solar energy 12=L 14=G
watery vindaloo = soupy curry 1=U
ask mary for help = intercessory prayer 4=R 15=Y

Numbered letters spell U_SRWO_____LOGY

[Lucky Wizard]

What was the answer to "Happy American Holiday"?

Oh, and the Pele clue is likely "Soccer Royalty".

[Tahnan]

Even knowing that it was an encrypted PBN, it wasn't trivial. Using:

[mikeamok]

i think you've got rows and columns switched. looks like it should be a ship, presumably the Mayflower. then the password was probably 1620.

[Persona]

And then, just to break the puzzle a little more, you had to take it back through the encryption to give FQWR. Sorry.

[IT 4]

Aw, that's sweet. I've got nothing right now, so if anyone else has a puzzle, feel free. If not, I'll try cobbling one together.

-ZA!

[Tahnan]

Nah--taking it back through the encryption was perfectly sensible. It was definitely not too bad a puzzle; like the one in the Hunt, it was just hard to realize that one had to substitute numbers for letters.

[IT 4]

The answer to the last puzzle was: APOLOGY. If you note that some of the letters in ralphmerridew's post are incorrect, and that an all-nighter is a sleepover party, then the "answer" pops out.

OK, the next post has a new puzzle. I just want to say that I'm a little hesitant to post this, because I think it's either going to be pretty cool (yay!), or it's going to crash and burn (boo!).

The idea for this puzzle came to me nearly fully formed (much as Athena sprang from Zeus's brow) during the Mystery Hunt, as I was musing that there seemed to be few *picture* puzzles; mostly *word* puzzles. There being nothing new under the sun, I suppose someone else has done something similar, but I don't think I've ever seen such a thing. I also note that I could have made this puzzle somewhat more difficult, which might have been more fun, but hesitated to do so.

-ZA!

Anyway, I present, for your puzzling pleasure...

[IT 4]

Who Stole My Teddy Bear?

Egads! Some dastardly criminal has stolen my favorite Bear! Luckily, I have a picture of the scene of the crime before my Bear was stolen:

And I also have a picture of the scene after my Bear was stolen:

The history of detection has shown that criminals cannot help but leave clues at the scene, clues which point directly to their identity. However, I'm so emotional over my loss that I can't think! I need your help. Who stole my teddy bear?

Password will be a proper name, with capitalization and spaces (if applicable) but without punctuation (if applicable). The name could possibly be in multiple forms, but use the form which criminal used.

[Tahnan]

What is that between the penguin and the frog? That's the only one I can't identify. Not that I have a solution yet, mind you.

[Zag]

It looks like a fish to me.

I assume you've noticed, and I assume it is significant, that all the other animals are moved slightly. Going clockwise:

Octopus is moved slightly to our right.
Elephant(?) is moved right
Ladybug is moved up
Camel (?) is moved right
Squid (?) is moved down
Penguin is moved right
Fish is moved up
Frog is moved down and right
Pony is moved right
Spider (?) is moved left
Tiger is moved left
Grey and black thing (??) is moved right
Giraffe is moved up.

[Tahnan]

Ah, heck, I'll just give y'all what I have.

Inky the Octopus 11/29/94
Pounds the Elephant 03/30/02
Lucky the Ladybug (7) 05/01/95
Humphrey the Camel 05/19/94
Goochy the Jellyfish 11/18/98
Waddle the Penguin 12/19/95

Croaks the Frog 12/08/04
Charmer the Unicorn 09/10/02
Hairy the Spider 10/06/00
India the Tiger 5/26/00
Bandito the Raccoon 11/02/01
Jumpshot the Giraffe 08/14/03

The date is the birthday. But I wasn't able to get an answer out of it; nor was I sure what that red fishlike thing is. Certainly not based on the website I was using, which I'll happily tell people if they want to check my work or otherwise look for facts.

[Persona]

I take the "clues which point directly to their identity" line to mean that we need to somehow be looking at the direction of the string knot ends that are pointing directly at the beanies. Not sure how, that's for you all to determine.[/spoiler]

[IT 4]

Humph. Ah well. As a little hint to move things along: Zag has got the right idea, although he isn't perhaps, as observant as he could be.

And, since I'm rather ashamed of myself for including this, let me repeat something Tahnan said, without comment:

[Celt]

Revised Movements :
(Right)
Bandito the Raccoon 11/02/01
Inky the Octopus 11/29/94
Pounds the Elephant 03/30/02
Charmer the Unicorn 09/10/02


(Left)
Waddle the Penguin 12/19/95
Hairy the Spider 10/06/00
India the Tiger 5/26/00


(Up-Left)
Croaks the Frog 12/08/04
Lucky the Ladybug (7) 05/01/95


(Up-Right)
Jumpshot the Giraffe 08/14/03
Humphrey the Camel 05/19/94
Red Herring?

(Down-Right)
Goochy the Jellyfish 11/18/98

[ralphmerridew]

Anybody tried measuring the exact displacements in pixels? Then either use those numbers to pick letters out of the names, or use them to order the names. Unfortunately, I lack a good image editor.

[Celt]

[mikeamok]

another idea: i noted that, not counting the "red herring" (actually Goldie the Fish, reddened), there are 12 arranged in a circle, approximately like a clock. i thought to take the direction of movement as a direction on the face of a clock, so that an animal moving directly right would indicate 3, then taking the nth letter from each name. but it didn't seem to yield anything meaningful. furthermore, some would be ambiguous, halfway between 1 and 2, for instance.

[IT 4]

[Celt]

Hmmm...
The password isn't "profmoriarty" or any configuration thereof that I can come up with.

[The Cheshire Man]

Couldn't help but notice the references to greek mythology in the flavor text. Then I looked over the names given for the beanie babies.

Bandito = Hermes
Pounds = Hephaestus
Charmer = Aphrodite
Croaks = Hades

Probably not the direction IT 4 intended, but still...interesting, no?
_________________
smile

[IT 4]

Psssssst, Celt:

"Password will be a proper name, with capitalization and spaces (if applicable) but without punctuation (if applicable). The name could possibly be in multiple forms, but use the form which criminal used."

[IT 4]

OK - Got it! - Celt.
Password changed. If I can't come up with a good puzzle soon I'll reset it.

[IT 4]

Previous answer was ["Prof Moriarty" To get this answer you needed to take the first letter from the animal type for each toy. The movement each toy makes describes how you transpose each of these letters. e.g. "Jumpshot the Giraffe", take the "G" select the letter to the upper-left of "G" on you keyboard, giving "T". When you do this with all of the animals, the transposed letters spell "profmoriarty"]

New puzzle imminent - Celt

_{(Edit: Made a mistake in explaining the solution. Thanks GH)}