Oscar Hopeful Taps into Crosstown Rivalry

An ad for the movie "Birdman" in the sports section of today's LA Times.

Cartoon Bear Porn

Just for you, KB:

Off-Day Puzzle #14: Solution

You get another video solution today. The secret message from yesterday's puzzle is "The Future Is Bright - Buy Shades! - SoSG." And hopefully you were wearing those shades if you were holding this up to the sun while solving.

The puzzle title and subsequent reference to "Coming Together" were key. Here's the methodology:

Congratulations to UBragg, Josh S, rbnlaw, Keven C, drewdez, J Steve, Matt, Fanerman, and Jose! Special kudos to rbnlaw and Matt for their first solve. New rankings to be posted soon.

Next Puzzle: Monday, August 24, 7am!

Off-Day Grand Slam Puzzle #12: Solution

Word to the wise: bring a jacket. Because it's off to Norway we go!

The first part of yesterday's puzzle is to find the correct path:

1. As per the Cub's first question in Puzzle #6, his true love is Jasmine. Thus, he must avoid Matilda, Eve, and Grace.
2. As per the Cub's second question, he can move only at night, so he must reach her by 6am. At 30 minutes per move, this gives him 16 moves.
3. As per the Cub's third question, his first move must be to the south.
4. Assuming the Cub moves south with his first move, his next four moves are entirely determined by where he does not cross paths with a tree, an eagle, a vulture, or a spurned love. In each case, he has only one possible move.
5. With his sixth move - at 12:30pm - he has an option of going either East or South. If he goes South, he will not be able to reach Jasmine in time. Therefore, East is his only move.
6. All his subsequent moves are determined not by avoiding enemies, but by beating the clock to Jasmine.
7. Here's the path in its entirety:

Once that's done, you must next figure out the words the forest speaks, as follows:

1. The first 4 utterances are the 4 letters on which the Cub sits at the indicated times: midnight (M), 2am (K), 4am (4), and 6am (5).
2. Using the green="0" and pink="1" convention indicated by the clock color scheme, the last 2 utterances correspond to the ascii translations of the 8-digit binary strings that correspond to the Cub's first 8 squares (01101010 = J) and his second 8 squares (01110010 = R). This device was used in last year´s grand finale puzzle.
3. Put the 6 utterances together and tack 'em to the end of SoSG's tinyurl.com favorite, and you have tinyurl.com/MK45JR, which brings up the Norway wikipedia page.

"Gratulerer" to UBragg, QuadSevens, BWrightson, Josh S, Drewdez, Fanerman, J Steve, Mr Customer, and Erin. Next Puzzle Thursday, July 23, 7am...the first from SoSG Orel! Also, updated rankings to be posted soon, and of course prizes awarded as well!

Off-Day Puzzle #4: Shell Game

As mentioned, the first puzzle prize will be awarded after the 6th or 7th puzzle. Anyhow, in our ongoing effort to mix things up, here's today's puzzle, video-style:

>Off-Day Puzzle #4: Shell Game @ Yahoo! Video

Hint (2:50pm PT): This might help (or it might not, no promises): tinyurl.com/yr27hr

Hint #2 (6:54pm PT): tinyurl.com/ongl8s

Solution here.

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Puzzle Rules: 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. 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. Good luck!

Not familiar with SoSG's off-day puzzle competition? We're always looking for more participants!

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!

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 #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 #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!

A Look Back at 2007

Happy New Year (a day late) from SoSG. For those of you who are just now emerging from the haze of your 2006 New Year's Eve celebrations and missed the past 366 days, no worries - I've got you covered in the world of sports (though you may have some explaining to do to your employer). Here's my 3-minute take on all the past year's probable, improbable, exhilarating, and depressing sporting moments that didn't include the words 'Vick', 'Bonds', or 'Donaghy'. Enjoy!

Howie Clark: 3*

Because not every player in the Mitchell Report is a household name...

Creative inspiration from abovetheinfluence.com's "I Feel Bad" ad.

Vets vs. Youth Debate Hits New Lows

All the media coverage about this stupid "vets vs. youngsters" debate got me so riled up, that I felt compelled to write post after post after post. But eventually, like my reflections on the Dodgers' lost season, the whole brouhaha story simply became comical. Can't we all just get along?

And so, without further ado, my first video.

Thanks to our own Eric Karros for teaching me the ropes on this. I've gone from a photoshop hack to a windows movie maker hack. (Whatchoo talkin' about, Karros?)

Time's a Wastin': Story of the 2007 Dodgers