Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Off-Day Puzzle #2: Solution

The answer to Off-Day Puzzle #2: The Continuing Adventures of Dodger Duck / The Duck Stops Where? is LASORDA. Dodger Duck's itinerary was set based on visiting seven cities, and then indexing into the city name based on the number of days that he spends in each city.

The seven cities are, in order (with the key letter which corresponds to the number of days being capitalized):

miLan
stAnford
waShington, dc
bangkOk
new yoRk city
lonDon
Amsterdam

The two pictures that gave the most people trouble were #2, Stanford (fanerman's favorite!) amd #4, Bangkok. Stanford is identifiable not only by the distinctive shape of the lake, but also the interstate symbol in the bottom left map (which is I-280). #4 was a little bit more challenging, as it's an interior shot at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport, but one can make out the Thai Airlines sign in the background, as well as the distinctive Thai Airlines symbol located at the center of the mural design.

Many people identified four to five of the cities, and then figured out the indexing mechanism in order to derive the answer. So long as the methodology was explained and some of the letters were identified, we gave credit. Apologies for the confusion on Milan signalling Alyssa Milano, as berkowit28 and ubragg pointed out (nice work googling, however!); the association was unintentional and irrelevant to the puzzle, though admittedly relevant to my subconscious.

Congratulations to the ten SoSG readers who correctly solved the puzzle (in order of finish by time of email receipt): Mr. Customer (7.17a), MattyA (7.20a), Wicks (9.22a), QuadSevens (9.26a), berkowit28 (10.44a), Ubragg (11.22a), fanerman (12:18p), Neeebs (1:20p), J Steve (5.08p), and Jose (7.02p).

Participation credit goes to karina and stolenmonkey86, both of whom correctly guessed Lasorda for his globe-trotting skills, but did not figure out the methodology to receive full credit, as well as to MSTI and Dusto Magnifico. Full PCS rankings through two puzzles will be available shortly (we have an Apple IIe computer to run SoSG's data analyses, and we're out of 5 1/4" floppies).

Thanks everyone for puzzling, and see you all next on May 11 at 7am PT!

11 comments:

Eric Karros said...

FYI Sax, the Apple IIe's aren't in yet - until that happens we're still on the TRS-80's.

Brandon said...

I had trouble with the university pic, until I remembered reading that you guys went to Ivy League and Pac 10 schools. From there I just went down the list.

I solved 6 of the 7 (missed Thailand Airport) but couldn't put it together.

Oh well.

Steve Sax said...

EK, I filled out that capital request form weeks ago! I've already unplugged my Commodore 64, as well as ordered Aztec, Dung Beetles, and Sherwood Forest for the IIe's. Who's running our IT department?

Steve K said...

Wow... the Dodgers don't have another off day until May 11?!? At least they get one of these long stretches out of the way at the beginning of the year.

Steve Sax said...

J Steve--you're right, 20 straight games is our longest stretch this year; the first nine of which are on the road, then 11 at home with the Pads, Snakes, Nats, and Giants.

We have another stretch of 20 games from July 24 to August 12 which is a little bit worse: three at home, then seven on the road, then seven at home, then three at The Big Phone (up north).

Eric Karros said...

Brandon - you should at least comment so we know you're out there trying - it's worth 10 participation credits!

Sax, the request was delayed because I didn't enter the data into our Lotus 1-2-3 budget spreadsheet until yesterday. My bad.

Alex Cora said...

Actually, they mailed the Apple IIe and they are downstairs in the corner. But I have been playing Aztec and have almost finished it - THE PROFESSOR!!! Sorry guys, I have to finish the game first and then will release for office use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZC02wWzIdA

MR.F said...

You spelled stanfurd wrong. =)

Brandon said...

EK, you think I got time to read the rules! Had no idea.

Next week sir.

Steve Sax said...

fanerman, I can't tell if it's you, or the white bear, who is mocking me.

Maybe it's both.

MR.F said...

Fear the Bear!