PCS Season III Prizes

So Season III comes down to #1 UBragg and #2 Mr C once again. As in previous seasons, there are two prizes:

OPTION 1: A Dodgers Rubik's Cube!

While solving it, you can pretend there's a little Cub running around inside lighting tiny fires.

OPTION 2: Create-a-Puzzle

As with previous seasons, this prize is the opportunity to author one of the puzzles to be used in PCS Season IV. Previous reader-created puzzles include offerings from original champ Jose (where've you been, Jose?), Mr Customer, UBragg, Josh S, and Mr C again. Who will it be this time?

UBragg as champ can choose to either make a puzzle, or receive the Rubik's Cube, and Mr C gets that which remains. So let us know UBragg via email or in the comments!

PCS Season III Final Puzzle Rankings

As promised, here's a look into a few of our puzzlers' minds from the Puzzle Finale. First up Quad, employing a sensible excel method in trying to represent 3 dimension and the associated data on a flat surface:

Here's Jason's direct, bricks-and-mortar approach:

And here's Mr C, who apparently hired the folks at Pixar:

And finally, going old-school with an actual pencil and paper is UBragg:

What I find most interesting about UBragg's photo is his stationary. Is that a Braille legend at the top and Morse code to the left? The man was born to puzzle.

As such, he finishes on top in both the puzzle itself and the overall rankings. Mr C and Jason remained entrenched in the 2nd and 3rd spots, and Quad leapt six spots to #4 with his impressive showing. Here's how the full rankings landed:

(770 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	704
2	2	Mr Customer	532
3	3	Jason	435
4	10	QuadSevens	255
5	5	Josh S	248
6	7	J Steve	237
7	4	golem	214
8	8	Dusty Baker	185
9	7	Drewdez	185
10	T-11	rbnlaw	117

Others receiving votes: mr f 107, mlasf 77, matt 75, danielle 75, curious gene 69, keven c 62, dunkhawk 56, llcooll 50, greg finley 50, mishap 50, spanky 25, dusto magnifico 22, fred's brim 22, steve dittmore 20, loney fan 12, erin 10, karina 10, matthew johnson 10.

And here's your graph:

(click image to enlarge)

Thanks again for a great puzzle season, it has been an honor to help entertain on the off-days. Time to recharge for next year (both puzzlers and puzzle-makers). Prizes to be announced shortly!

Off-Day Grand Slam Finale Puzzle #13: Solution

Of the last 13 puzzles, ubragg has taken 8 and Mr C the other 5.

The solution to yesterday's puzzle reads "MEET ME OCTOBER 27 AT 10PM AT THE BAR IN THE SCANDIC SOLSIDEN HOTEL".

"Hey, you in the back! Listen, you don't wanna go in that bathroom quite yet. Just trust me. My name is Stoover."

The maze is a huge Rubik's Cube. Each room is one of the 27 cells of the cube, and each has at least one and up to three of its walls colored (except the "Dark Room") representing the colored sides on the exterior of the cube. Note that a Rubik's Cube has 6 sides, 27 smaller cubes (rooms), 54 smaller square-shaped exterior surfaces, and 162 total cell surfaces (interior and exterior). Each of these different types of entities will come into play. Also note this puzzle was a major pain in the butt to make.

The first step is to wander through the rooms and record your observations. Namely, the locations of the colored walls, any letters etched in the walls, the words that burn in the fires, and any doors.

If done correctly one can determine the initial state of the cube:

Here's another representation of the cube's initial state, unfolded into 2-D form to show all 6 sides/54 exterior cell surfaces:

And here's a mapping of each room's doors and locator ID's (which are the post titles, which though irrelevant to the puzzle solution can help track the rooms):

The center cell is the "Dark Room," which is dark because there is no exterior surface. It's also the only one of the 27 cells that does not move when the cube is twisted. The poem in the Dark Room tells you you must solve the Cube in 3 twists. Using the I,II,III; 1,2,3; and a,b,c conventions above, those 3 moves are:

1. Twist top layer I to the right
2. Twist East layer c downward
3. Twist bottom layer III to the left

The Dark Room poem further hints that you must read three exterior surfaces before each of your three moves:

1. Before the 1st twist, read the floor
2. Before the 2nd twist, read the South wall
3. Before the 3rd and final twist, read the East wall
4. And after the 3rd twist, when the cube is solved, read the words in the fire.

Focusing first on the 1st three twists, the relevant surfaces read as follows:

(click image to enlarge)

A clear message is emerging: "MEET ME OCTOBER 27 AT 10PM AT THE B..."

Finally, to complete the message as per step 4, you must take the final state of the puzzle and read first letter of each of the words in the firewood and read them as indicated in the poem:

Put it all together to get the full message:

"MEET ME OCTOBER 27 AT 10PM AT THE BAR IN THE SCANDIC SOLSIDEN HOTEL".

The Scandic Solsiden Hotel! - 30 minutes from Trondheim airport, and a short walk from Pirbadet, Nidaros Cathedral, and Stiftsgaarden wooden palace. Make your reservation here!

And finally, on the off-chance anyone is interested, here's the overall key I used to track each rooms' fire-words, doors, and surfaces:

Congratulations to UBragg, QuadSevens, Mr C, and Jason. Well done to all!

Coming tomorrow: Look inside the mind of Quad, Mr C, and Jason (they have one each), as they have each submitted their puzzle-mapping worksheets. Anyone else who has one, successful or not, please submit and I'll publish (Mr F - I know you have one, let's see it! UBragg - I'm not sure if you have one, as you may have done it in your head, but if you do, please submit as well)

Thanks everyone for another fun puzzle season, hope you enjoyed. Final Rankings to post soon!

Off-Day Grand Slam Finale Puzzle #13: The Trondheim Maze

Although you don't know where or when in Trondheim to go, you book the next flight out. Upon landing at the airport, you and Jasmine retrieve your luggage, then wonder what to do next.

"Did you book a hotel?" asks Jasmine.

"No. I didn't want us to lose focus on our mission," you reply nonsensically. You prefer to not reveal your real reason for not finding accommodations in advance: a hope for more camping action.

"So then what do we do? Where in Trondheim are we supposed to go?"

Just then, a woodchuck in a bright orange sweater-vest approaches you. "Come with me," he says.

Jasmine looks at you nervously, not knowing how to react. Sensing her hesitation, the woodchuck adds: "Don't worry - my name is Stoover."

Apparently that does the trick, as Jasmine follows him as he heads for the terminal exit. You follow. The Norwegian air is frigid. Soon you're both climbing into the backseat of Stoover's Scandinavian-made automobile.

Thankfully, Stoover cranks up the heat before firing up the engine. Once you've left the airport grounds and are headed to town, Stoover breaks the silence. "I know why you're here," he says. "If you just do as I say, you'll be okay."

Continues Stoover: "Now, I'm going to have to ask you to put on these blindfolds." He turns around and hands you and Jasmine each a piece of black cloth. "Please. Now."

Jasmine is clearly frightened, and you are too. Neither of you move.

"Please," the woodchuck repeats. "Trust me. My name is Stoover."

Jasmine takes one of the blindfolds and fits it over her eyes. You do the same. Satisfied, Stoover continues driving for about twenty minutes without speaking.

The car then stops. You hear Stoover get out of the car and open the passenger side door on your side. "Get out and follow me."

Still blindfolded, you do as he says. Once out of the car, you shiver in the cold Trondheim breeze. Walking slowly so that you can keep up, Stoover leads you for about 50 feet, then you clearly hear him open a door. He walks in, you and Jasmine follow, and the door shuts behind you. Although apparently indoors, you're still extremely cold. If you weren't blindfolded, you're sure you could see your breath.

"Now," says Stoover, "count to 50 then you can remove your blindfold. And good luck."

Although you don't hear the door open again, you no longer hear Stoover. He seems to have disappeared. You do, however, hear Jasmine counting under her breath. 14, 15, 16...

"I think he's gone," you whisper. "I'm taking off my blindfold."

"No" replies Jasmine. "He said to count to 50 first. We should do as he says." You find yourself surprised by the conviction in her voice. "His name is Stoover."

"Very well," you reply, and patiently wait for her to get to 50, at which time you both remove your blindfolds.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Note: nothing above this line is relevant to the solving of the puzzle. It's merely a narrative about an orange sweater-vested, Volvo-driving woodchuck used to segue into the puzzle.)

You find yourselves in an approximately 7' x 7' x 7' room. It's lit by an eerie pink light. The walls seem to be made of ice. It's like a cubic igloo. Glancing around, you notice the color is caused by the fact that two of the four walls are translucent: the West wall, which is colored white, and the South wall, that is colored red. The mix of the red and white light passing through the walls results in the pink hue. Strangely, the south wall also has a large letter "R" etched into the center of it. There is no sign of Stoover.

You also see a door in the East wall. And perhaps most peculiarly, you see a few pieces of firewood arranged in the center of the floor in front of you.

After you've gathered your bearings for a few minutes, Jasmine asks: "What do you make of all this?" She frowns and adds, "I'm cold."

You try the door, but it's frozen shut. As you sift through the firewood looking for an idea, you suddenly remember: "the matches!"

Reaching into your pocket, you pull out the matches and light the firewood. You and Jasmine take a few moments to bask in the comforting warmth. Then, as you observe the flickering flames dancing before you, you do a quick double-take. Sure enough, this is what you see:

"Jasmine! Do you see that? It must be important! Let's write it down so we don't forget." As soon as you jot it down, the word disappears, though the fire continues to burn.

As the heat from the fire further overtakes the room, you decide to try the door in the east wall again. Eureka! The heat apparently helped loosen the icy door seal, and it pops open. "C'mon Jasmine, let's go!"

• Go through the east door.

Hint #1 (8:01am): Think of a classic puzzle/toy popular in the 80's

Hint #2 (11:25am): Think of a classic puzzle/toy popular in the 80's involving a cube

Hint #3 (11:25am): This hint is embedded in the appropriate room (the "dark room")

Note (9:24am): Correction made to part of text in the "dark room" (thanks UBragg). I don't think the original error should have substantial impact on anyone, but it should be mentioned.

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a time and place in Trondheim.Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

Additional Notes:

• This puzzle, the Finale, is worth 150 points!
• Any comments regarding this puzzle please make only in this post thread, not in the other ones that are a part of this puzzle, as I likely will never notice the other ones. I have tried to disable comments in the other posts to enforce this but may have missed a few.

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

Updated Puzzle Rankings!

Is your PCS score better than your credit score? If so, is that a good or a bad thing? If you had to think about that 2nd question more than a second, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Despite being the Succubus' hardest-hit victim almost every week, UBragg has managed to tread water with a lofty 654 score since mid-July (4 puzzles), as close to the holy-grail perfect 720 score as anyone has ever gotten. Meanwhile, dominant-in-any-other-era puzzlers Mr C and Jason continue to jockey for 2nd place, as they have since May.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the top 10, QuadSevens reappears. And don't look now, but a bit further down Spanky makes his move.

Here are the full rankings:

(720 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	654
2	2	Mr Customer	507
3	3	Jason	440
4	4	golem	304
5	5	Josh S	283
6	7	J Steve	272
7	6	Drewdez	207
8	8	Dusty Baker	180
9	10	Mr F	162
10	11	QuadSevens	152

Others receiving votes: keven c 112, mlasf 112, rbnlaw 112, greg finley 110, matt 85, curious gene 79, danielle 75, dunkhawk 56, llcooll 50, mishap 50, dusto magnifico 32, fred's brim 32, steve dittmore 20, loney fan 12, berkowitz28 10, erin 10, karina 10, matthew johnson 10, spanky 10.

Last puzzle of the season 7am, Monday, Sept 20. Worth 150 points!

Off-Day Puzzle #12: Solution

Inclusive of this puzzle, that makes four in a row for UBragg.

The answer to yesterday's puzzle is none other than SoSG's Alex Cora.

Here's the poem, without the distracting background brewski:

You might notice that some of the letters have a shadow. This is meant to indicate that some are raised slightly above the surface of the page. Now, working off the many references to blindness, as well as the poem's 3rd line, you must group these raised (and unraised) letters into the 2 x 3 dot patters used in braille, as follows:

Finally, a real-world use for your high school braille! (Puzzle trivia: the poem was originally only the first 8 lines, with no alcohol reference, but it was difficult to elegantly group into 2 x 3 letters. So I added the last 4 lines - including the bonus "I, the answer, am braille" hint.

Anyhow, translated into English, the braille message reads:

Or, more legibly:

"The Dodger with the most Hit by Pitches while Jim Tracy was manager as per baseball reference"

...and the answer is:

Alex Cora! Congratulations to UBragg, Jason, Mr C, J Steve, and Quad.

Next Puzzle - the Finale - Monday, September 20, 7am!

Off-Day Puzzle #12: Blind Drunk

Don't look now, but here's today's puzzle:

(click image to enlarge)

And here's a version without the distracting background:

Hint #1 (10:16am): Pretend you're blind and feel your way through it.

Hint #2 (1:47pm): It may help to read the 3rd stanza (lines 9-12) aloud.

Hint #3 (2:40pm): Clearer version of poem posted.

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a current or former Dodger. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with the first and last name of the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

Updated PCS Rankings!

Here are the new rankings (as puzzle creator, Mr C has been awarded the average of his last 6 puzzles (with the grand slam pro-rated down to 100 points), which is 70). No movement in the top 6. As always, please double-check:

(720 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	654
2	2	Mr Customer	507
3	3	Jason	448
4	4	golem	304
5	5	Josh S	283
6	6	Drewdez	257
7	8	J Steve	232
8	10	Dusty Baker	220
9	9	Keven C	179
10	10	Mr F	162

Others receiving votes: Quadsevens 152, MLASF 112, rbnlaw 112, Greg Finley 110, Matt 95, Curious Gene 89, Danielle 75, LLCoolL 60, DunkHawk 56, Mishap 50, Dusto Magnifico 42, Fred's Brim 22, Berkowit28 20, Steve Dittmore 20, Erin 20, Karina 20, Loney Fan 12, Nicholas 10, Matthew Johnson 10.

Next puzzle 7am, Monday, Sept 13!

Off-Day Puzzle #11: Solution

Seasons come and seasons go, but Ronald Perranoski remains in our consciousness. He is the answer to yesterday's puzzle.

Here are the clue answers:

Reading down the diagonal from top left to bottom right will reveal the puzzle solution.

Congratulations to UBragg, Dusty Baker, Jason, Josh S, Keven C, Quad, Rbnlaw, and J Steve. And a big thank you to Mr C for, quite frankly, a pretty incredible crossword puzzle. I don't know how one goes about making something like that. But then again, thanks to Mr C, I didn't need to know how.

Updated rankings to post soon. Next Puzzle Monday, Sept 13, 7am. See you there!

Off-Day Puzzle #11: Mr C's Puzzle

Welcome puzzlers, to cave emptorem proprietor Mr C's 2nd guest Puzzle - earned via his top-2 finish in the PCS mid-season standings. With no further ado, here's the puzzle:

(click images to enlarge)

Watch the comments for any hints from Mr C. Good Luck!

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a current or former Dodger. Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with the first and last name of the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

New PCS Rankings!

Here they are. As always, please double-check:

(720 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	654
2	2	Mr Customer	487
3	3	Jason	423
4	4	golem	367
5	8	Josh S	261
6	5	Drewdez	257
7	6	Mr F	240
8	9	J Steve	232
9	7	Keven C	204
10	10	Dusty Baker	182

Others receiving votes: greg finley 120, quadsevens 112, mlasf 112, matt 105, curious gene 89, danielle 75 rbnlaw 72, llcooll 70, dunkhawk 66, nicholas 60, dusto magnifico 52, mishap 50, karina 30, fred's brim 22, berkowit28 20, steve dittmore 20, erin 20, loney fan 12, midnight drive 10, lauro 10.

Next puzzle from Mr C, 7am, Monday, Aug 23!

Off-Day Puzzle #10: Solution

Two and a half seasons of PCS before Jeff Kent is the solution to a puzzle. Who, incidentally, would not displace anyone on the adventure, as he would take an unoccupied seat.

The first thing step is to grab your graph paper and follow the instructions on the grid with the different colors. The first two paragraphs of the puzzle should give you an enclosed loop like so:

Continuing to all the steps of the puzzle, including the stops to pick up people (which are numbered with circles starting with James Loney himself at #1, one gets a final design that looks like this (click on image for greater detail):

The colors and the direction of the paths overlap with segments from the central map of the London Underground subway system, affectionately referred to as "the Tube" (with the yellow being the Circle Line; that yellow bottle should have been the givewaway, before the grid got more cluttered with the other lines):

As an aside, I apologize that my memory failed me here; I really thought that there was an actual Absolut Vodka advertisement called "Absolut London" which had the Circle Line as an Absolut bottle. It appears I was misled. The concept was actually bootleg (though the vodka is not bootlegged moonshine):

Once the London Underground system is recognized, one can map all of James' stops to specific Underground stations ("tube stops"), each of which has a stop name which corresponds to the name of a person who has played for the Dodgers (position they played most frequently during their Dodgers tenure, as per baseball-reference.com, is also relevant):

Stop #	Tube stop	Dodger player	Position
1	St. JAMES Park	James Loney	1B
2	GREEN Park	Shawn Green	RF
3	WARREN Street	Tommy Warren	P
4	KING's Cross St. Pancras	Clyde King	P
5	ANGEL	Angel Pena	C
6	St. PAUL's	Paul LoDuca	C
7	RUSSELL Square	Bill Russell	SS
8	CROUCH Hill	Bill Crouch	P
9	BAKER Street	Dusty Baker	LF
10	EARL's Court	Earl Robinson	3B
11	KENTish Town	Jeff Kent	2B

The position they played most frequently as a Dodger is relevant, because James only has eight other seats, one for every other position in the field (James of course is on the 1B seat). Clyde King (Stop #4) is the second pitcher to join the adventure, so he displaces Tommy Warren (Stop #3) to occupy the pitcher's seat; King is later displaced by Bill Crouch at Stop #8. Similarly, Paul LoDuca displaces Angel Pena at Stop #6, as LoDuca takes the catcher's seat.

The 11 Dodger-relevant stops on the Tube.

Jeff Kent is the player at Stop #11, and it's natural for Loney to be frightened given Kent is kind of a surly lot (Kentish Town must be a place where old guys with pornstaches yell at the young kids in the neighborhood while washing their trucks in their driveways). What's worse, as Kent would be the first 2B to join the adventure, he would indeed take an unoccupied seat.

(Many of the correct solvers--and EK, too, prior to publishing--noted that it should have been more clear that it was the London Underground. I thought that the different-colored lines would have signified a subway line pretty obviously, however I did end up shoving in three oblique references to London or the Underground at the last second: (1) "minding" the "gaps of chairs" --> "mind the gap"; (2) Mr. Pena shouting the name of his cereal --> "Cheerio!" (okay, I admit that was a stretch); (3) the Sneaker Pimps' song --> 6 Underground.)

Congratulations to ubragg, Golem, Mr. Customer, Jason, J Steve, and Josh S.

News to follow shortly about how the tickets will find their eventual home (correct solvers, if you know you are unable to use a pair of reserved level tickets for the August 18 7p game vs. the Rockies, please let me know in an email as soon as you can). Thanks!

Updated rankings to be posted soon. Next puzzle Monday, August 23, 7am!

Off-Day Puzzle #10: James And The Yellow Crayon

(With apologies to Crockett Johnson.)

EK is letting Sax take the reins here, on a puzzle that he promised to EK about a year ago but failed to deliver. (Sorry about that, EK!) So cross your fingers that this works out with a minimum of bloodshed...

James Loney has always been a quiet, thoughtful, reflective chap. But that’s not to say that he doesn’t have a lot of friends. When he was a young child, he used to play with his friends a lot outside on the baseball diamond; and even on those inclement days when it was cold and rainy in frigid Houston, he was able to take out his set of crayons and use his imagination to "play" with his friends.

One day, James decided he would draw a picture. He took his yellow crayon and marked a central point on his graph paper, which was the only paper he had lying around on which to draw. And then he moved five steps to the west, and stopped. Then he moved seven steps to the north, and stopped again. Then he moved eleven steps to the east, and stopped. Then he moved southeast two steps, and stopped. Then he moved east four steps, then south three steps, then west four steps again. Then south west two steps. And finally, six steps west.

James looked down at his picture, which was now an enclosed loop. It was a neat shape—frankly, it reminded him of a shape that would be familiar to readers of a certain blog—but it wasn’t as much fun to draw on this graph paper if he didn’t have his friends with him. So he pretended that he’d draw a bit more and “pick up” his friends along the way. But James pretended he only had eight seats available for his friends on his adventure, so sometimes, his friends would have to displace others.

He kept drawing with his yellow crayon, going one step west. And then he changed crayons, switching from the yellow crayon to a light blue crayon, and moved three steps north, and stopped. “Hello, Shawn!” he said, to no one in particular since (he was pretending). “Want to come with me and find some more friends?” Shawn of course agreed, so they kept going with the light blue crayon and moved four steps to the northeast, where they stopped again.

“Time to pick up Tommy!” James pretended Tommy joined them, and continued on with the light blue crayon: one step to the northeast, then two steps to the east, where he stopped again. “And now we pick up Clyde!” said James. But James made Clyde take Tommy’s seat, so Tommy had to leave the adventure. It was difficult to break this news to Tommy, who noted that there were gaps of open seats, but it was hard enough drawing with the crayons than to have James mind those as well. So Tommy left the group.

By this time James was tired of his light blue crayon, so he changed to a black crayon. He moved one step south and one step east and then stopped to pick up Mr. Pena. (Mr Pena must have had a lot of cereal with him on which to snack, as he shouted the cereal's name upon joining the group.) Then he continued with his black crayon, one more step east and four steps south, crossing his yellow path (from earlier) along the way.

James stopped again, switched to a red crayon, and moved one step west and one step northwest, and stopped to pick up Mr. LoDuca. Mr. LoDuca had to take Mr. Pena’s seat, so Mr. Pena left the adventure. Then he continued on, two steps west, and stopped again to switch to a dark blue crayon.

James liked this dark blue color a lot so he wanted to draw with it for quite some time. He mobbed one step northeast, then one step north, then stopped to pick up his friend Bill. Then he moved one step north (he was now back at his yellow path) and moved six steps to the northeast and stopped. He then switched back to the light blue crayon, and moved one more step to the northeast, then four steps to the east, and stopped again.

Orange! James needed an orange crayon, but all he could find was an orange pencil, whose nub of a tip didn’t leave a solid line like his crayons; in fact, the broken tip seemed to leave two thin lines instead. No matter, he would make do. James moved one step to the northwest and then six steps to the west, where he picked up his other friend named Bill. This Bill, however, had to take Clyde’s seat, forcing Clyde out of the adventure. Then he moved quite a ways with the orange pencil: two steps to the southwest, six steps to the west, two more steps to the southwest, and three steps to the west.

By this time, the orange pencil was spent, so he switched to a light gray crayon and moved three steps to the southeast, then one step to the south. Even though James had been at this point before with his yellow crayon, he realized he could pick up his friend Dusty here (he was so sorry he had missed him the first time through!), before moving three more steps to the south. Dusty's pick up allowed them all to start singing that Sneaker Pimps song together, which was fun.

James stopped, changed back to his red crayon, and moved four steps to the west. He stopped here and changed to a dark, sea-green crayon and moved four steps to the south—all four of which matched steps he had already marked with his yellow crayon. Then James moved one step to the west and picked up his friend Mr. Robinson. He moved three more spaces to the west, and stopped.

James was pretty tired by this point, having “picked up” nine of his friends with his scribbles (though only seven friends were on the bus along with James), so now he wanted to see where his path would lead him, if he just started wandering around a bit. He changed to a pink crayon and moved five steps north, two steps northeast, and five steps east. Then he changed to a light brown crayon and moved two steps southeast, one step south, and three steps southeast. Finally, in his last color switch, he changed to a black crayon and moved six steps north, one step northeast, three steps north, and one step northeast. But before he could move that last step to the northeast, he stopped, frozen in place. A chill went down James’ spine, when James saw whom he’d have to pick up.

“No way,” said James. “No way am I going there.”

Who was it that scared James from going that last step? And would this new person take an unoccupied seat, or displace someone already on the adventure—and if so, whom would he displace?

Hint #1 (10:21a): If you've drawn the first step (the yellow enclosed loop) correctly, you should absolutly (sic) recognize the basic shape. **note 4:59p: I thought this was an actual absolut vodka ad but in fact it appears I'm mistaken. Suffice it to say the yellow loop should trace the outline of a bottle.**

Hint #2 (1:47p): If you've drawn the whole thing and you don't know what you've got, you may want to reference other previous PCS puzzles (prior to this season). I confess this puzzle is a little derivative...take a look back for context.

Hint #3 (3:10p): Apparently many of you have an eye for color. But you're not an artist. You're a cartographer.

Hint #4 (4:32p): Particularly for those of you who have sent in drawings for me to verify: if you're getting an image that looks gnarly, look again; it's probably better described as "totally Tubular."

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a current or former Dodger, and one has to explain (a) who it is as well as (b) whether the person would take an unoccupied seat or displace someone else already on the adventure (and if he would displace someone, whom he would displace). Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with the first and last name of the Dodger player who is the answer, as well as whether he would displace someone and who that displaced person would then be. Please also include your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. ALSO, as a special bonus, all correct solvers for this puzzle will be entered into a random contest for two reserved-level tickets to the August 18 game vs. the Rockies (7:10p). Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

PCS Puzzle Warning! Tomorrow at 7am...

The Dodgers may need an off-day to lament the rapid erosion of their season post-All-Star Break...but that doesn't mean you SoSG Readers have to be idle! Eric Karros was insane enough to hand the reins to me for my first PCS Puzzle this season. See you at 7am tomorrow!

New PCS Rankings!

UBragg widens his lead thanks to both his win in yesterday's puzzle and the succubus. There's also some counterintuitive upward movement from non-solvers (and even some non-participators), again thanks to the succubus. She really mixes things up.

As always, please double-check:

(720 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	654
2	2	Mr Customer	516
3	3	Jason	423
4	4	golem	334
5	7	drewdez	297
6	5	Mr F	290
7	9	Keven C	275
8	8	Josh S	269
9	6	J Steve	265
10	11	Dusty Baker	232

Others receiving votes: greg finley 195, quadsevens 190, matt 172, llcooll 162, mlasf 152, curious gene 139, dunkhawk 116, nicholas 110, dusto magnifico 102, steve dittmore 99, danielle 75, lauro 73, berkowit28 70, loney fan 62, rbnlaw 62, wicks 54, bryan 50, mishap 50, erin 30, karina 30, fred's brim 22, midnight drive 10.

Off-Day Puzzle #9: Solution

Last time you thought about Jeff Shaw - the answer to yesterday's puzzle - was when? I couldn't remember either.

The first step is to solve the Eric Gagne sliding unscramble puzzle in the 35 moves, as follows:

But looking at the result, the letters still make no sense. And what's the deal with the poem?

That's the second step. Taking the cue from the poem's line "Track his footsteps to the light," you must keep a record of the letters traversed in solving the unscramble puzzle:

SDZLKDZCDQHMRZUDRVGHKDJZQQNRZCNCFDQ

Then, from the poem's final line and using google and/or wikipedia to research the sequence of the alphabet, take "one last step to the right" by advancing each letter one (with 'Z' wrapping around to 'A'), and get:

TEAM LEADER IN SAVES WHILE KARROS A DODGER

The great Eric Karros' Dodger career spanned from 1991 to 2002. The Dodger closers' saves during that period stack up as follows:

Like a double-overtime NBA game, Jeff Shaw edges out Todd Worrell, 129-127.

Congratulations to UBragg, drewdez, Mr Customer, Jason, and Golem.

Updated rankings to be posted soon. Next puzzle Monday, Aug 9, 7am!

Off-Day Puzzle #9: Welcome to the Jumble

Some of you puzzlers are better with the word puzzles. Some are better with the visual puzzles. Here's one with both!

Unscramble the image of Eric Gagne below in 35 moves or fewer. Then, well, solve the puzzle:

When you're in a close fought fight,
In for the save comes a brave knight,
Track his footsteps to the light,
Then take one last step to the right.

Hint #1 (1:06pm PT): It's about the journey, not the destination.

Hint #2 (5:15pm PT): The step referenced in the 4th line of the poem is different than the steps referenced in the 3rd line.

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is a current or former Dodger (Eric Gagne is not the answer). Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with the first and last name of the Dodger player who is the answer, along with your reasoning (answers arrived at via luck or the wrong reasoning, even if correct, count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I may not be able to reply to your original email promptly, so please be patient and check back on the comment thread for the latest news; I may confirm correct answers there.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun, all are welcome!

Updated PCS Rankings

Here they are. As always, please double-check:

(720 possible points)

Current Rank	Previous Rank	Player	PCS Tour Points
1	1	UBragg	617
2	2	Mr Customer	566
3	3	Jason	465
4	9	golem	334
5	7	Mr F	330
6	T-4	J Steve	322
7	T-4	Drewdez	318
8	11	Josh S	313
9	6	Keven C	285
10	12	Greg Finley	283

Others receiving votes: dusty baker 272, matt 255, quadsevens 251, llcooll 220, dunkhawk 195, mlasf 192, curious gene 189, steve dittmore 174, nicholas 160, dusto magnifico 142, lauro 123, rbnlaw 102, bryan 100, danielle 75, berkowit28 70, loney fan 62, jose 50, the trite fantastic 50, mishap 50, erin 30, fred's brim 22, karina 20, midnight drive 10.

"So where's my thanks, golem?"

Off-Day Puzzle #8: Solution

The solverinos are as follows:

• Mr. "One Tough" Customer
• "igloat," ubragg
• "OshKosh B'gosh" Josh S.
• "Not the one in Kavalier & Clay" Golem
• Danielle "Blue Steele"
• "Uni-"Curious Gene
• "Not glossy but" Matt
• Dunk "Name a sneaker after me" Hawk
• drewdez; "Do you?"
• Jason "not Freddy"
• LLCoolL ".571 L-percentage"
• Greg "Not Steve" Finley
• J. Steve "Not Greg"
• Dusty "Armpit" Baker
• "They call me" Mr. F
• Mishap "The rookie"

Next puzzle: Monday, June July 26, 7am PT!

participation credit: rbn "long arm of the" law, 7777, HerrLASF

Off-Day Puzzle #8: Jumbelaya

(click for larger version)

Puzzle Rules: The answer to the puzzle is five (5) unscrambled names AND one (1) "surprise answer." Comment freely in the thread, but if you have the solution, please don't give it away to everyone in the comments section. Instead, do the following:

• Email us with ALL SIX parts of your answer (incomplete answers count for participation credit only). And please include your screen name somewhere in the email; and
• Post a comment simply saying you have emailed your solution attempt. I probably won't be able to check answers until tonight, so there won't be any hints or confirmations. Dum-da-duhhhhh.

You have until midnight PT tonight to submit your answer. Solution will be posted tomorrow. Good luck!

*New to SoSG's PCS Puzzle Series? Here's how it works. Join the fun; all are welcome!