Off-Day Puzzle Grand Finale (#13): Solution

Well folks, thanks for sticking through the Grand Finale Puzzle. Based on both your comments and emails, I understand solving it was quite an exhausting endeavor, not only to decipher the Riddle, but perhaps even more so in executing what it instructed. I admit that to some degree this was intended, as I wanted to put together a puzzle that was both worthy of the grand finale and that, unlike the past few puzzles, would result in only a handful of correct solutions.

In anycase, on to the solution. In the hints I alluded to three stages of solving the Riddle. This is what I meant:

• Stage I - Figuring out what the Infant Boys lost in the crowd of 3,000 are (Riddle lines 1-4)
• Stage II - Finding the Infant Boys out of the crowd of 3,000 (lines 5-17), and
• Stage III - Figuring out what to do with the Infant Boys once you found them (lines 18-20).

With that in mind, here is a line-by-line analysis and explanation of the Riddle:

Ten little infant boys scattered in a crowd; the faces of the chosen ten 3,000 others cloud.
    ->The crowd of 3,000 refers to the approximately 3,000 posts on SoSG since its inception (actual number is 2,931 at the time of this writing, including unpublished drafts). The infant boys are ten 'chosen' posts that must somehow be picked out of the 3,000.

Not from seven brides were the infant boys begotten; but rather from their seven grooms (two all but forgotten).
    ->The seven brides and their grooms represent, via the "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" reference, the seven brothers (i.e., Sons of Steve Garvey) who author this site and thus beget the posts ('infant boys').

All within the past two years the infant boys were born; but from minds and not from wombs the chosen ten were torn.
    ->SoSG (and its posts) is two years old. And the posts were created from the collective minds of SoSG's seven authors.

Your first task is to find each one but understand what’s sought (a literal interpretation serve you well will not).
    ->I didn't want anyone running around their neighborhood literally looking around for little infants.

Read the following ten lines from a famous book; and if they’re kept close to your heart you’ll know for what to look:
    ->To save you the trouble of scanning through all 3,000 posts to find the chosen ten, I included the excerpt from a favorite childhood book, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. By sheer luck, almost every line in the novel's central poem corresponded very well with one of SoSG's past posts (or more accurately, with a photo from one of SoSG's past posts). It was almost as if Agatha Christie had SoSG in mind when she wrote it (although I cannot yet prove this). In anycase, her poem thus serves as a roadmap to help you find the ten chosen posts, as follows:

“Ten little infant boys went out to dine, one choked his little self and then there were nine;
    ->Refers to this post.

Nine little infant boys sat up very late, one overslept himself and then there were eight.
    ->Refers to this post.

Eight little infant boys traveling in Heaven, one said he'd stay there and then there were seven;
    ->This is one of the few lines from Christie's poem I had to slightly alter. She wrote it as "Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon" largely because the novel took place in the UK. Thankfully, by substituting "Heaven" for "Devon" I was able to maintain the rhyme, allude to death, and match it up with this post.

Seven little infant boys chopping up sticks, one chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
    ->Refers to this post.

Six little infant boys playing with a hive, a bumblebee stung one and then there were five;
    ->I was almost at a loss for a matching post here (as a search for "bee", "bumblebee", and "hive" turned up nothing), until I faintly remembered this post involving the Blind Melon bee girl.

Five little infant boys going in for law, one was not allowed back out and then there were four.
    ->I also changed the original wording here. It was originally "Five little Indian boys going in for law, One got in Chancery, and then there were four," another UK reference. I re-worded it so it could allude to this post.

Four little infant boys going out to sea, a red herring swallowed one and then there were three;
    ->Refers to this post.

Three little infant boys walking in the zoo, a big bear hugged one and then there were two.
    ->Refers to this post.

Two little infant boys sitting in the sun, one got frizzled up and then there was one;
    ->Refers to this post.

One little infant boys left all alone, he went out and hung himself and then there were none.”
    ->Refers to this post. Yes, that is possibly the worst play-on-words involving William Hung ever.

Gemini, Pisces, Aries, and Virgo the first four; Leo and Aquarius, then Virgo comes once more.

Cancer and another Cancer bring us up to nine; the last one who hangs from a noose, Pisces was his sign.
    ->To further help you weed through all 3,000 posts, the astrological signs narrow down when each post was made. The first chosen post, for example, is a Gemini and was thus posted (or 'born') between May 21 and June 20. These astrological signs coupled with the Agatha Christie poem hopefully made the hunting process manageable.

But once you find the chosen ten you’re only halfway done; next you must extract the truth harbored by each one.
    ->There is more to each of the chosen 10 posts than meet the eye. Even after you identify and find each of them, you have to figure out what to do with them.

For while the boys’ cherubic faces cast a mirthful spell, peer behind each one’s façade and secrets he will tell.
    ->If you click on the relevant image in each chosen post (again as clued by Agatha Christie's poem), the hidden binary clue will be revealed.

Ten secrets from ten infant boys your task it is to purge; and if you do as they instruct the answer will emerge!
    ->In the 10th clue, it will give you specific instructions as to what to do with the 9 previous clues. Follow the instructions (convert binary sequence to text, than create a tinyurl from the result) and the answer will emerge...Cory Wade!

Congratulations to Jose, Fanerman, Steve, and Mr. Customer for solving the puzzle (in that order). As always I'd be interested in hearing anybody's thoughts on the puzzle, whether or not you solved it. Thanks again for your participation, I will post the final Puzzle Season I Rankings soon (although I guess the season champ is a foregone conclusion). And Sax and I will soon be sharing our future puzzle plans with you!

Off-Day Puzzle #12: Solution

Okay, first things first. The completed grid is as follows:

As signified by the yellow boxes, the four Dodgers are Broxton, Eischen, Ardoin, and Sutton. Many people submitted the fact that they all end in the letter "n", but that wasn't relevant. Rather, their bond is signalled by the five blue squares, which acronym (reading left-to-right) as NKOTB, also known as New Kids On The Block.

Looking further, our four Dodgers have first names that match four of the five members of the 90's boy band: Jonathan (Broxton) Knight, Joey (Eischen) McIntyre, Danny (Ardoin) Wood, and Donnie (Sutton) Wahlberg. This would only leave out Jordan Knight. There are no Dodgers on the all-time roster with a first name of "Jordan," but as clued by "albeit differently from the other four," there are four former Dodgers with "Jordan" for a last name. Only one of these was an outfielder, the answer to the puzzle, Brian Jordan.

There were a number of clues in the flavortext which signaled NKOTB, including "step by step" and "hang in there" (the latter of which is a bit of a stretch but refers to their album, "Hangin' Tough"). Also, the five Dodgers were supposed to perform in front of a crowd of high-school girls, a typical crowd for NKOTB.

And finally, in hint #2, it was mentioned that "It is also not relevant to examine the last letters of their first names; you're getting confused with something else." That was a veiled reference to N*SYNC, another boy band, which allegedly determined the band's name by taking the last letters of the quintet's first names (or initials, in JC's case).

As I mentioned in the original post, I'm not very experienced in creating crosswords. So I apologize for mistakenly placing Kiev in Russia rather than the Ukraine--call me a chicken, I suppose. However, to the one person who objected to defining "ply" as "to carry on," I blame dictionary.com, or more specifically, Random House.

Congratulations to the winners with the correct answer, all of whom will be entered into this puzzle's Participation Prize Lottery; as of 7p PT on 9/22, they include (in order of finish) quadsevens, MSTI, fanerman, daniel, jose, gil gamesh, neeebs, steve, mr. customer, berkowit28, and erin (just back in town; as berk correctly mentioned, "first time we've had a submission *from* a clue"!). Quadsevens gets additional golf clap credit for such an early, succinct, complete, and correct answer, which was truly astonishing. Karina and cigarcow also are entered in the lottery but as of this writing, their answers were not correct.

Thanks to all for participating, stay tuned for a post on the lottery methodology, and look for the final off-day puzzle of the season, Sept 29 at 7am sharp!

Off-Day Puzzle #11: Solution

Well congratulations puzzlers, you all did quite well with the Venn Diagram puzzle, matching last puzzle's 12 correct solutions submitted. Here's the solution:

As noted, there are actually two correct solutions, each a mirror image of the other. Here are the two correct Answer Panels:

And before anybody brings it up: while the hotness of Alisha Cuthbert, Tabitha Vixx, Princess Amidala, Marge Simpson, and the Deal/No Deal caseholders is beyond question, in my book any woman who steps onto the pitching mound at Fenway dressed as Princess Leia gets major hot points as well. Plus, I challenge any of you to find a photo that better integrates the theme of Hot Chicks, Baseball, and Star Wars.

Anyhow, congratulations to Quad for solving this baby in a record 34 minutes. The other 11 correct solvers were: Steve, Neeebs, Erin, Fanerman, Sax/Karros, JBowes, Gil Gamesh, Karina, Jose, MSTI, and Daniel. Congrats to all!

Updated PCS Rankings to be posted soon. And check out the puzzle addition to the sidebar, which shows the running top 5 and the date of the next puzzle so you never have an excuse to miss one...the next one incidentally being Sept 22. Until then, keep on puzzlin'! (actually it doesn't make sense to keep puzzlin' up until the next puzzle and then stop. If anything you should do the opposite. So scratch that last sentence).

_______________________________________________

Participation Lottery Prize Update: Here's the running order for this week's puzzle lottery among all participants of the Diagram of Love puzzle:

   0. QuadSevens
   1. Steve
   2. Neeebs
   3. Erin
   4. Fanerman
   5. JBowes
   6. Gil Gamesh
   7. Karina
   8. Jose
   9. M.S.T.I.
   10. Daniel
   11. Loney Fan
   12. Berkowit28

As with the previous lottery, the winner will be determined by taking the reported attendance at tonight's game, as will be listed on dodgers.com, and dividing by 13. Whoever's number above corresponds with the remainder will be declared the winner. That person just needs to email us their mailing address and wait by their mailbox, and they'll soon be rewarded with the arrival of a Dodger-related prize item!

Off-Day Puzzle #10: Solution

Puzzle #10 had two levels, both appropriately theme-related because I'm so damn creative, and allusions to both answers hidden in the puzzle's text.

The first level was the more obvious one, whch required locating all the names on the list to help fill in the hole in the grid. Some of the players' names extended into the yellow (blank) area, allowing one to fill in all 16 of the missing letters. The completed grid looks like this:

(click on image to enlarge)

The sixteen squares in the yellow "hole" read "LEAD SINGER OF HOLE," which of course is Courtney Love. (Hole had an album called "Live Through This," which is clued in the text of the message (called the "flavortext", among puzzle afficionados).)

The second level was a bit more hidden, requiring one to read all the unused squares in the grid (which are highlighted here):

(click on image to enlarge)

Reading left to right, top to bottom, one gets the following message: "YOU HAVE FOUND AN EXTRA HIDDEN CONTEST. EMAIL US THE AUTHOR OF HOLES." Holes, a Newbery Medal winning children's book that was turned into a movie starring Shia LaBeouf, was written by Louis Sachar. (One of the later stories in the Holes series was titled "Small Steps" (clued in the flavortext with "not giant leaps").)

Congratulations to the puzzle solvers (in order of completion): MSTI, daniel, quadsevens, neeebs, Gil Gamesh, SoSG Karros, LoneyFan, Berkowit28, steve, erin, fanerman, and jose. As for the four bonus puzzle solvers (quadsevens, steve, fanerman, jose), extra congratulations, and instructions will be posted shortly on how the bonus prize lottery will be determined...stay tuned!

New PCS Rankings out shortly! Thanks for another fun round, everybody!

Off-Day Puzzle #9: Solution

Before you watch the solution, I'd like to pass along some words from Nostradamus himself, who texted me this morning with some thoughts he wanted to share:

"Hello SoSG Puzzlers. By the time you read this I'm probably dead. But I hope you enjoyed my fourth prophecy, congrats to Berkowit28, Jose, Stolenmonkey86, Daniel, and Fanerman, who solved the puzzle in that order! I just want to say that it was an especially fun but challenging prophecy to construct because I had to 1) make sure each magic letter was in the correct position, 2) provide enough clues so you'd know how to solve it, and 3) keep it sufficiently smooth and poetic-sounding cuz I have a rep to uphold. Also, I'd really like to hear directly from you readers regarding which clues were most helpful or misleading, as this SoSG Karros guy seems sort of dim (j/k, bro!). Anyhow, good luck to your Dodgers tonight. Quite honestly I'm not a big baseball fan, as it wasn't very big in 16th century France. But a high school classmate of mine used to play (Saint-Rémy High, class of 1521, go Tigres Luttants!), a guy named Jeff Kent. He didn't talk to me much as he was a bit older (he was a senior when I was a sophomore). I wonder what ever happened to him. Anyways, again, I hope you enjoyed! And if you did, check out my other three volumes of Prophecies, available on amazon.com or go to my myspace page. Peace Out!"
                                                    - Nostradamus
                                                          XOXO

So there you have it, words from Nostry himself. Anyhow, on to the solution. Or at least the most widely accepted interpretation of Nostradamus' Lost Prophecy:

But wait, there's more! That video only had the main clues. Here's a line-by-line analysis of the Prophecy:

Hope lies in the Eye, freedom it can bring
       -->Sets up the premise of having to find the Being by knowing where to look

High north and due west, its journey begins;
       -->Start in the upper left of the prophecy

A promising Being, meanwhile cries aloud

A promising Being, buried north to the south;
       -->The Being is hidden vertically, from the top to the bottom

His skin and bones trapped, but free he will fly
       -->More set-up of premise

Once his soul is unearthed from the haze by the Eye;
       -->Nostradamus originally penned this line as “Once his name is unearthed from the page by the Eye.”

Plate skills he may bring, from mounds he may hurl
       -->This line has proven to be the most controversial, and in fact was the one Berkowit28 and I discussed in the comments. One camp of scholars, including myself, feel this was intended it to convey that The Being could be either a hitter or a pitcher (with plate skills referring to hitters and hurling from mounds referring to pitchers), and thus you shouldn’t focus on only one or the other. The other camp, which includes Berkowit28, interpret it as suggesting The Being is a pitcher, since NL pitchers have to bat and thus must bring some semblance of "plate skills". You decide.

But throughout measured lines, he mustn’t more toil;
       -->"measured lines" refers to the cadenced and highly calibrated lines of this prophecy. Nostradamus initially wrote it as “But throughout senseless words, he mustn’t more toil” but in the end wanted it to be more cryptic. In retrospect maybe he should have left it like that.

Thus embark does the Eye, at the Being’s behest
       -->So now the prophecy is about to tell you how exactly what path your eyes must take to find the Being

Descends courier rows, leaping space in its quest;
       -->“leaping space in its quest” means you ignore spaces entirely. “Descends courier rows” means that courier type (or another monospace font) is the only way technically each “step to the east” is of equal distance, assuming you skip spaces as previously instructed.

If each stride to the south, brings a step to the east
       -->This to me was among the most important lines. With each row down, you move one letter to the right (again, ignoring spaces).

Liberation has come, the Being released!
       -->If you do the above properly , you will find Hiroki Kuroda’s name and free him!

Anyhow, thanks again for playing. Both the PCS Rankings and the Participation Lottery will be posted soon. And if you get a chance to honor Nostradamus request about sharing your experiences trying to solve the puzzle (successful or not), please do so. Next off-day puzzle, September 4!

Solution to Off-Day Puzzle #8 (Ned Colletti Plays Matchmaker)

Ned Colletti, the Tinted Cello, was indeed finding pairs of words that anagram to players' names (as many of you figured out).

First, the words.

Page 1, clockwse from upper left: REINDEER, CHECKS, APRON, MOTORCARS, CURL.
Page 2, clockwise from top center: NOON, HAT, TESTIS, ANATOMY, JOKES.

Then, the pairings:

• REINDEER + HAT = ANDRE ETHIER
• APRON + JOKES = JASON REPKO
• CURL + TESTIS = ERIC STULTS
• MOTORCARS + NOON = RAMON TRONCOSO
• CHECKS + ANATOMY = CASEY KOTCHMAN

Ned finds four pairs of words which form Dodgers, so he doesn't want Kotchman (and apparently, neither did the Angels).

Some other notes:

• Testis was a tough one given the alternate (non-plural) spelling, but that picture was just too much fun to exclude;
• Casey Kotchman also anagrams to YACHTSMAN COKE;
• Neither Frank McCourt nor Jamie McCourt anagram cleanly to two words. However, Drew McCourt anagrams to RECTUM CROWD. Imagine that! (Boy, that would have been a fun image to find.)

Congrats to jose for his first-place finish, and to quadsevens, erin, and steve for their solves as well (or should I say, congrats to joe s., even squad, rein, and see tv). Fanerman (aka nan-frame) also snuck in right under the wire at 11:50 pm PT, as the fifth and final to solve. Thanks also to the internet anagram server for its help with this puzzle's construction.

PCS rankings due shortly...next off-day is in two weeks (August 18), so sharpen your pencils!

Off-Day Puzzle #7: Solution

I hope you all got the most out of your scissors. Here's the solution to yesterday's puzzle (my apologies to cigarcow and others who work in totalitarian environments where YouTube is blocked):

The winners are, in order, Jose, Quadsevens, Steve, and Fanerman. Of the winners, I wonder: how many of you solved the puzzle outright, and how many found the message first through trial & error, then deduced the methodology based on the final placement of the cells?

Anyhow, thanks again for playing. Next puzzle August 4, and updated PCS rankings to be posted soon!

*In my ongoing quest to include different musical genres, I stole from DJohRicky. Thanks dude!

Off-Day Puzzle #6: Solution

Congratulations to steve, Eric Karros, and fanerman for taking win, place, and show positions respectively; loney fan and jose also stuck the landing.

Torre is using the common mnemonic used to order the nine planets in the Solar System (revised in August 2006 to exclude Pluto, but I didn't want to get into a long discussion about dwarf planets, especially with the non-dwarf-in-both-dimensions Andruw Jones in the lineup). The initials of the players' last names match the order of the names of the nine planets, ranked by distance from the sun.

As such, since we know the slots for Maza (1), Van Slyke (2) [given in the final hint], Ethier (3), Martin (4), and Jones (5), the total lineup would slot as follows:

Maza (Mercury)
Van Slyke (Venus)
Ethier (Earth)
Martin (Mars)
Jones (Jupiter)
Stults (Saturn)
???
New (Neptune)
Park (Pluto)

There is no one in the Dodgers' organization with a last name starting with "U" to correspond with Uranus, so Kemp must be traded to the Marlins for Dan Uggla, who bats seventh. And believe me, though we could Uggla's home runs (though not his ASG errors!), it would be just like Torre to slot Uggla seventh anyway despite his proficiency at the plate.

Off-Day Puzzle #5: Solution

The solution to yesterday's puzzle is E) R2D2. Why? Because each of the eight ballplayers have names that, like R2's, can be typed using only your left hand (when using proper typing technique).

That's all for now - I'll report on results and post updated standings tonight. Thanks again for playing, and stay tuned!

Off-Day Puzzle #4: Solution

Here, dear readers, is the solution to yesterday's puzzle:

Off-Day Puzzle #4: Solution @ Yahoo! Video

Gold star goes to Loney Fan who was the first to solve it. Following Loney Fan with the correct solution were SoSG Orel, Benjamin Pratt, and stolenmonkey86. Congrats guys and many thanks to all who participated.

General puzzle note: I really appreciate everyone's participation in these puzzles. I truly hope you enjoy them. You may have noticed in my puzzles I often state 'if you think you have the answer but aren't sure, you don't have the answer'. I say this because I think this characteristic is critical for a proper puzzle, that the solution can't be open to various interpretations. Which brings me to this note - via email we received a number of solution attempts, almost all of which can be divided into two categories (the actual solution turned out to be a combination of the two):

• Wordplay-driven - These solution attempts tried to determined the Giants player to attack based on various 'wordplay devices' - the alphabetic sequence of the names, length of the names, starting letter, etc. While some of our past puzzles (and to some degree this one) are indeed based on wordplay devices, a general rule of thumb is this: if the wordplay device has greater than approximately 1 in 1,000,000 chance of happening by coincidence, it won't be the basis of a strictly word-play puzzle solution. For example, there are only 120 sequences in which 5 names can be ordered, so a puzzle will never be based solely on the alphabetic order of 5 names (if it were, say, 20 names, well that might be a different story).
• Metaphor-driven - These solution attempts tried to draw a metaphor between Loney's predicament and another situation. The rule of thumb here is if your solution requires broad stretches of subjective interpretation to complete the metaphor, or if your metaphor is based on a single metaphorical comparison concept, you are not on the right track. Any metaphor-driven puzzle will contain several metaphorical concepts tying back to the same greater metaphor so you can cross-verify your interpretation. In this case, there are several: the white and black jerseys, the premise of Loney heading from his safe haven to the opposite dangerous side of town, the names of the Giants invoking the chess pieces (which almost certainly won't occur by chance), their movements in 'distinct and indirect paths,' the use of the 'King' nickname, the fact that Quiñones and Patterson were in position to strike and not the other two, etc. None of these concepts alone would be compelling enough to drive the metaphor, but taken together I feel they most definitely are.

Anyhow, these are general rules I try to abide by, though of course the rules themselves are subject to some degree of interpretation. As with everyone, I do the best I can. Anyhow, thanks again and see you next off-day!

Off-Day Puzzle #3: Solution

Question: Where should Clayton Kershaw live? Answer: In Apartment Complex "B", with the Dodgers! Each complex and its tenants is a veiled representation of an NL West team and its starting rotation, as per the initials of the tenants:

Complex A ≡ Diamondbacks
  Barry Williams ≡ Brandon Webb
  Dustin Hoffman ≡ Dan Haren
  Michael O'Keefe ≡ Micah Owings
  Raul Julia ≡ Randy Johnson

Complex B ≡ Dodgers
  Harvey Keitel ≡ Hiroki Kuroda
  Bill Paxton ≡ Brad Penny
  Denis Leary ≡ Derek Lowe
  Christian Bale ≡ Chad Billingsley

Complex C ≡ Giants
  Ted Levine ≡ Tim Lincecum
  Macaulay Culkin ≡ Matt Cain
  James Spader ≡ Jonathan Sanchez
  Billy Zane ≡ Barry Zito

Complex D ≡ Padres
  Robert Wagner ≡ Randy Wolf
  Gabriel Macht ≡ Greg Maddux
  Chow Yun-Fat ≡ Chris Young
  Jason Patric ≡ Jake Peavy

As per my 3rd hint, I wanted to be complete and include all 5 NL West teams, but alas I could not find a Hollywood equivalent for Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez.

Quad "The Puzzle Yoda" Sevens (I'm willing to bet that five-word sequence has never before been uttered in the 14 billion years of the universe's history) once again solves this one - this time after the 2nd hint - and SoSG's own Orel after the 3rd hint. Congrats guys.

Next puzzle June 23!

Off-Day Puzzle #2: Solution

I've tried to make up for any angst that yesterday's puzzle may have caused by adding some bling to the solution explanation. So here it is- the solution methodology divulged and the magical, hopeful message revealed (sorry if YouTube resolution is a little fuzzy):

Platinum star goes to puzzle-master Quadsevens, who, to my knowledge, is the only one to figure it out - though getting there seemed to be something of a group effort. He nailed it after the 4th (and somewhat redundant) hint.

Hope you enjoyed. Until the Dodgers' next off-day June 16, keep those pencils - and neurons - sharpened!

Off-Day Puzzle Solution: Watch Your Vowel Movements

The correct answer to yesterday's puzzle is c. No, Chewbacca isn't from Switzerland (nor is Yoda from Dagobah or Geronimo Gil technically from Mexico City). The answer is c because both parts of each analogy stem have the same pattern of vowels (V) and consonants (C) throughout the length of the word(s):

• Hiroki Kuroda (C-V-C-V-C-V C-V-C-V-C-V) and Japan (C-V-C-V-C)
• Geronimo Gil (C-V-C-V-C-V-C-V C-V-C) and Mexico City (C-V-C-V-C-V C-V-C-V)
• Yoda (C-V-C-V) and Dagobah (C-V-C-V-C-V-C)
• We mix up the pattern itself with Chewbacca (C-C-V-C-C-V-C-C-V) and Switzerland (C-C-V-C-C-V-C-C-V-C-C), but nonetheless they still match each other.

Gold star goes to Quadsevens who, in his efforts to solve the puzzle, was responsible for almost 70% of wookieepedia's traffic yesterday.

Hope you enjoyed. Next Off-Day Puzzle: June 9.