« ROUND TWO: East & West Regions | Main | SWEET SIXTEEN: East & West Regions »

ROUND TWO: North & South Regions

NORTH
Each of these is the name of a current or former MLB player. The answer to Game A's higher seed is 62.

Game A:
H: Mike Piazza
L: Kenny Rogers

Game B:
H: Jeff Conine
L: Corey Koskie

Game C:
H: Jason Isringhausen
L: Mark Buehrle

Game D:
H: Ken Griffey
L: Darryl Kile

SOUTH:

Game A:
H: Highest possible score of an opening Scrabble move by playing the last name of the person who, in an event sanctioned by the National Scrabble Association, played the longest legal word without using more than one letter from any preexisting word on the board, as captured by the journalist whose first and last name can be created through a letter bank of the last name of the singer who once dated another bandmate who replaced the musician whose first and last names together anagram to parts of the body that would aid in the enjoyment of their music, on the same day that Macho Man successfully defended his title and belt against the same opponent for the second time in the same year.

L: The number that fills in the middle blank of this statement:
__________ is the ___th winner of the _____________
where the words that make up the two outer blanks (possibly more than two words in total) anagram to AJAX REGAINS LEADERSHIP with one letter changed.

Game B:
H: Someone unsuspecting people might be on the internet, and findsite dedicated to people who seem to like to ‘gorve’. On this site, there’s a section about fighting fat. A man name Hitlin says that a certain percentage of people who like to gorve walk more when gorving than at home. How many percent?

L: Sum of the numerators, for all applicable sequences of numbers, of the middle of three positive rational numbers expressed in simplest form, and as improper fractions when applicable, which meet the following criteria:
1. The three numbers form an arithmetic sequence
2. The three numbers have a prime product
3. The largest number in the sequence is an integer.
4. The numerator of the middle number in the sequence equals the prime product
5. The denominator of all fractional numbers is a single digit.

Game C:
H: This question is available as a PDF download.

L: Difference (subtract the lesser from the greater) of the year of President George W. Bush's 100th birthday and the nth prime, n derived by adding the last two digits of a) the year a certain TV show debuted in coulour and b) the years of births of a group of six people, who worked on the TV show, which group consists of: the person who composed a song whose lyrics contain 7 consecutive letters of the alphabet and whose last lyric is a name with the initials CC; the person whose birthplace has a traditional language, which, in the version of popular board game using that language, contains double Ls; the person whose real middle name, when combined with an adopted middle name the member used for a while, is an anagram of the name of an inn (the entire name minus the word "inn") found in a 11-letter community found 50 miles east of the city of Portland; the person who has passed on, and whose long-term life partner's last name is the name of the title character (minus the abbreviation) of a 1924 movie starring an actor who, in one of his last films, travelled across Canada in a railway handcart; the person whose documented travels have included attempting to follow an entire line of longitude, and whose last name is an anagram of a noted object to be thrown off Doune Castle in a movie; the only person of the group born in a country not the same country as the other members, on another continent, in a city founded in the 17th century, which Alexander Hamilton lived for a while, and who also worked on "We Have Ways of Making You Laugh."

Game D:
H: The number most often associated with these guys.

Showletter_1

L: This question is available as an Excel download.

#

Comments

Hey gang... SOUTH Game C's question is currently incorrect. I'll post the correct one tomorrow. Until then, enjoy all the other questions.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 19, 2006 12:37:17 PM

Hi...

I am having trouble with -->

"L: This question is available as an Excel download."

Could you put it in another format?...

Thanks...


I was wondering if

Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Mar 19, 2006 7:27:07 PM

All of the questions are now right. Jim, do you not have any spreadsheet program? If not, I can try to convert it but it'd be a bit if a challenge.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 20, 2006 8:27:38 AM

When it says "sum of the numerators of the middle of three positive rational numbers", what does "of the middle" mean?

Posted by: Ross | Mar 20, 2006 9:44:29 AM

"middle" appears to mean "median" in this case.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 20, 2006 12:56:50 PM

What does that mean? The middle of three numbers is the middle number. I'm not gettin' it...

Posted by: Ross | Mar 20, 2006 3:35:44 PM

Hey folks...

a real minor change to SOUTH Game C L

"50" replaces "15" miles.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 20, 2006 4:30:18 PM

Ross - I think it means to put the three rational numbers in order and use the numerator from the "middle one" in the list. If your sequence is 1/5, 2/3, 8/9 then you would use "2".

MY QUESTION -
#5 States:"The denominator of all fractional numbers is a single digit"

Does this mean they are each single digits or they are each the SAME single digit?

Posted by: Paula | Mar 20, 2006 5:16:21 PM

Hi...

I'm having trouble with SOUTH Game C L...

Should "Difference (subtract the lesser from the greater)of the last two digits of the year of President George W. Bush's 100th birthday" be "Difference (subtract the lesser from the greater) of the year of President George W. Bush's 100th birthday" ?...

Thanks...

Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Mar 21, 2006 4:02:48 AM

Hi...

I have a question about...

L: The number that fills in the middle blank of this statement:
__________ is the ___th winner of the _____________
where the words that make up the two outer blanks (possibly more than two words in total) anagram to AJAX REGAINS LEADERSHIP with one letter removed.

I can find an answer if I add an "S" to AJAX REGAINS LEADERSHIP...

Am I wrong?...

Thanks...

Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Mar 21, 2006 6:05:04 AM

But why does it say "sum of the numerators" if we're just talking about one middle numerator?! (I think I'm going to gorve, whatever that means.)

Posted by: Ross | Mar 21, 2006 6:22:14 AM

Presumably it says "sum of the numerators" because there is more than one solution that fits the criteria, and the sum of the middle numerators in each is the answer.

I second Jim's puzzlement over SOUTH game C L. The last two digits of the year of Bush's 100th birthday should be the same as the last two digits of his date of birth, so the phrasing seems odd. And is it the difference between that and the nth prime, or between that and the last two digits of the nth prime?

Posted by: Will Nediger | Mar 21, 2006 7:31:13 AM

That's it! I understand now! Thanks, Will.

Posted by: Ross | Mar 21, 2006 9:30:18 AM

In response to AJAX REGAINS LEADERSHIP "with one letter removed" should be "with one letter changed" if that helps.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 21, 2006 9:38:51 AM

For SOUTH Game C H, I have two questions. In clue xiv, is 'rollinking' correct or is this a typo for 'rollicking'? Also, different sources divide the lyrics for clue xi differently. Should the first line contain an even number of words or an odd number?

Posted by: Will Nediger | Mar 21, 2006 5:02:57 PM

Will,

xiv: rollinking is correct - I've found that one.
xi: that one still eludes me....

Jay

Posted by: Jay Winter | Mar 21, 2006 5:21:22 PM

Even number of words, Will.

Posted by: Michael | Mar 21, 2006 6:59:29 PM

Are we assuming "arithmetic sequence" means either ascending or descending order?

Posted by: Alan Lemm | Mar 21, 2006 10:23:35 PM

SOUTH Game C L: There was a change made. It should be much easier now.

Paula, I believe the questions means a single digit number (one through nine).

Alan, since the clue asks for the "middle" numerator, it doesn't matter if the sequence is ascending or descending.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 22, 2006 7:29:14 AM

ACTUALLY - Alan poses an important question. If we are considering ascending and descending order, it is possible that a sequence might be able to be written both ways and still work. This would cause the "middle" numerator to be used in two "different" sequences and it would be counted twice.

Posted by: Paula | Mar 22, 2006 8:53:16 AM

As it states the LARGEST number is an integer, rather than the THIRD number, it would seem that any ascending sequence, whose third number would be the largest and thus an integer, could also be reversed into a descending sequence with the integer first, but I see no reason to consider this a different answer, and assume he means distinctly different sets of numbers.

Posted by: Bob Lodge | Mar 23, 2006 6:30:40 PM

I, on the other hand, would include the reverse as a separate sequence (which, mathematically, it is). Perhaps we should wait for JmSR and/or the constructor to enlighten us as to what they meant.

Posted by: Will Nediger | Mar 23, 2006 7:24:21 PM

I noticed that Bob Lodge refers to the constructor of that puzzle as "he".... Hmmmmm...

Could it be that this is one of Bob's puzzles?...

Posted by: Jim from Minnesota | Mar 23, 2006 9:56:54 PM

I thought this was Bob's too.

I think that a clarification is necessary because
1) The sequences 1,2,3 and 3,2,1 ARE different.
2) From my calculations, counting and "double counting" both lead to valid values.

HOWEVER...I haven't figured out the High seed yet, so perhaps that would make this a trivial issue.

I do think JmSR better verify as to whether or not a clarification is necessary.

Posted by: Paula | Mar 24, 2006 11:45:35 AM

The sequences are ascending.

Posted by: JmSR | Mar 24, 2006 4:29:54 PM

Anybody else unhappy with the Sudoku puzzle?

Posted by: Jay Winter | Mar 27, 2006 1:48:49 PM

YES!
Finding "a numerical answer" seems to arbitrary. I can think of some ways to do it, but my methods seem too "random" - and I can find different ways to find different numerical answers...
Should the digits "jump out" at me?

Also - the sudokus don't even have unique solutions.

Posted by: Paula | Mar 27, 2006 3:12:30 PM

Unclear to me, too. To multiply by 10 and get between 25-100 you have to start with 3-10, which seems too small for whatever all those gray cells together is supposed to be. I must be missing something.

No, I'm not the author of the sequence puzzle. I like it, though--more to it than first meets the eye.

Posted by: Bob Lodge | Mar 27, 2006 3:46:19 PM

I have no shame in admitting that my sole entry this year is the Sudoku puzzle (to keep the trend alive), and I'm sorry to hear that it's disappointing to you. Please understand that the "Sudoku" part of the puzzle is not meant to be difficult, and yes, that portion of the puzzle does have multiple solutions, but they all lead to the same final answer -- I checked it several times. I had hoped that the puzzle itself would be aesthetically pleasing in how the non-white cells form "NCAA", but I understand that it's more satisfying to solve it than it is to stare at it.

I wish everyone the best in the coming weeks -- keep the madness going!

Posted by: Sean F | Mar 27, 2006 4:55:56 PM

Sean,

Not disappointing, I just haven't solved it yet, and really have no insight as to how to solve it (yet). I thought the NCAA blocks might be part of the solution...I guess I'll rule that out now. The inclusion of a Sudoku puzzle and the aesthetics of NCAA is pleasing, but I will remain frustrated with this until I solve it.

Don't take it personally, please.

Posted by: Jay Winter | Mar 27, 2006 5:11:31 PM

Thanks for the response, Jay.

All I can say is follow the instructions given with the puzzle, keeping an open mind as you do so -- and don't forget to use the title as well. I'm confident you'll get the answer before the deadline.

Posted by: Sean F | Mar 27, 2006 5:27:12 PM

Sean, I too was confused, until your last letter on the 27th. That is a BIG hint right there. I think I'll be able to solve it now.

I noticed the NCAA in the yellow and thought until now, it had something to do with the solution.

Posted by: Toni | Mar 27, 2006 10:06:35 PM

Yeah - I saw what I thought was a clue. I agree that I am simply frustrated, because I haven't "seen the light" on this one. Rest assured, there are a few questions I have spent much more time on that I feel even more "in the dark" about...

March MADNESS is an understatement...

Posted by: Paula | Mar 28, 2006 9:03:13 AM

Yes - there is more than enough present for me to be confident in my solution now. Terrific puzzle, Sean.

Now, if I only new how old I was when I last "gorved"...

Posted by: Paula | Mar 28, 2006 10:41:29 AM

Nuts! Confidence in the answer! Good work, Paula. I'm back to the drawing board.

Posted by: Jay Winter | Mar 28, 2006 2:31:22 PM

Had an epiphany on the AJAX REGAINS LEADERSHIP question today!

It's funny how a breakthrough on a puzzle will re-energize you!

Posted by: Jay Winter | Apr 7, 2006 8:54:25 AM

NORTH
Each of these MLB players was drafted late in their draft class and were eventually signed by the team that drafted them and became everyday players. Jay Winter, writer.

Game A:
H: Duchess 62 W
L: Austin College 39

Game B:
H: Two Lane 58 W
L: Yankovic 26

Game C:
H: Home Shopping University 44 W
L: Epsilon 37

Game D:
H: Hill Valley U. 29
L: Coast Guard 30 W

SOUTH

Game A:
H: Electoral College 74 W
L: University of Bikini Bottom 27

H: Randy “Macho Man” Savage and George “The Animal” Steele of the WWE wrestled for the Intercontinental Championship belt on March 14, 1987. On March 14, 1987, Chris Leal of No Doubt is replaced by Tony Kanal, who had a 7-year relationship with lead singer Gwen Stefani. Using STEFANI as a letter bank, you can create the name Stefan Fatsis, the author of Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players. In the book, he discusses the play of Ron Tiekert, who formed AUBERGINES through three disconnected letters.

Playing TIEKERT through the middle pink square as an opening move does not allow you to use more than one double letter score space, nor does it allow you to place the K on that space. The score for the opening play TIEKERT with one of the 1-point tiles on the double letter score, with 50 points scored for playing all seven of your tiles, is (1*2+1+1+5+1+1+1)*2 + 50 = 74. Jay Winter, writer.

L:
Niagara is the 27th winner of the Spiel des Jahres. JonMichael Rasmus, writer.

Game B:
H: Gipf University 70 W
L: University of Ainseenuthin Technical 49

H:
70% Gorving could be mistaken for the website www.goRVing.com (people who like to use RVs – Recreational Vehicles). Under Fight Fat with Fun, Dr. Robert Hitlin says 70% of RVers say they walk more when on RV trips. Michael Pickard, writer.

L: Naming variables: X as the lowest number, Y as the middle number, Z as the highest, P as prime product
Considering #3 & #4, you find that Y must always be fractional.

Equations derived from the criteria
#1: Z-Y=Y-X; Y=(X+Z)/2
#2: X*Y*Z=P

substituting #1 into #2,
X*Z*[(X+Z)/2] = P
becomes
Z*(X^2)/2 + X*(Z^2)/2 – P = 0

This is a quadratic equation in both X and Z. Applying the quadratic formula (with a few simplifications after substitution) to solve for X;

X={-(Z^2)/2 +SQRT[((Z^2)/2)^2 + 2*Z*P)]}/Z

Knowing X & Z will yield Y for a given P

I’m sure there’s a more elegant way to prove the solution, but at this point, I went through by brute force, using Excel to check integers against the equations for X and Y for a reasonable list of primes. Knowing that the solution has to be between 25 and 100 should have allowed you to limit your search to a much more finite set of primes.

Three series of numbers meet the criterion
1) 1, 3/2, 2
2) 1/2, 17/4, 8
3) 2/3, 29/6, 9

3+17+29=49. Jay Winter, writer.

Game C:
H: Auntie Em I T 93 W
L: Kansasota 29

H:
Answer: 93. Final square in maze is “AIRLINES”, left 4, down 4 (starting in top left corner). Flanked by 41, 33 and 19.

I will just give the correct terminology for each move, without any major descriptions. The gist is, though, that you have to solve a clue, and then take the instructions from that clue to move in the maze (if the answer was “RIGHT TURN, CLYDE”, you’d have to take a right turn until you found the square marked ‘CLYDE’)

i. ENTER SANDMAN (METALLICA SONG)

ii. COWBOY UP (KEVIN MILLAR, BO SOX)

iii. LEFT EYE (LISA ‘LEFT-EYE’ LOPES)

iv. BACK TO THE FUTURE (ELIZABETH SHUE NEW GIRLFRIEND IN SECOND MOVIE)

v. KNIGHT RIDER (KNIGHT INDUSTRIES TWO THOUSAND (KITT) VS KNIGHT INDUSTRIES SIXTY SIX (KISS))

vi. DOWN PERSICOPE (STARRING KELSEY GRAMMER)

vii. DIAGON-ALLEY (FROM HARRY POTTER)

viii. KANYE WEST (HE BEFUDDLED MIKE MYERS WITH COMMENTS ABOUT GW BUSH; MYERS FROM MOVIE ‘54’)

ix. ADAM WEST (BATMAN TO BURT WARD’S ROBIN)

x. DIAGONAL MATRIX (ALL ZEROES EXCEPT THE DIAGONAL C1…CN)

xi. WHAT GOES UP, MUST COME DOWN (HAROLD “BO” BICE’S FIRST LINE OF SPINNING WHEEL IN TOP 12 OF AMERICAN IDOL 4)

xii. SLIDE RULE (AS SUGGESTED, MODERNIZED BY A GUY NAMED MANNHEIM)

xiii. 7UP H2OH! (DRINK SOLD IN ARGENTINA AS PART OF 7UP FAMILY)

xiv. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES (ROLLIN KING FOUNDED IT, TRADES UNDER LETTERS “LUV”). Michael Pickard, writer.

L:
I tried to include 2 red herrings.
First the clues soon clearly point to the TV Show: Monty Python's (MP) Flying Circus, debut 1969, in colour.
But the last clue if completely followed does not fit Terry Gilliam, born Minneapolis, founded 18??. Further investigation would show "The Frost Report", debut 1966, which included the five Brit MPers, and an American writer named Dick Vosburgh, born Elizabeth, NJ founded 16??. There were other writers on "The Frost Report", but not consequential.
BUT again, the Frost Report debuted in B&W. So what's up? In fact Dick Vosburgh appeared once on MP, in "Owl-Stretching Time". So MP is the right show, but with DV and not TG. So:
306 = 69 (debut year of MPFC) + 39 (Cleese) + 41 (Chapman) + 42 (Jones) + 43 (Idle) + 43 (Palin) + 29 (Vosburgh).
306th prime is 2017.
2046 - 2017 = 29.
Other formulas might use 40 (birth year of TG) and 66 (debut year of The Frost Report). John Daly, writer.

Game D:
H: University of North Dakota - Ellendale 87 W
L: University of Louisiana - Besorreigh 50

H:
ANSWER: 87 (1961/62 TV Show "87th Precinct"). Paula Stevens, writer.

L: There may be multiple solutions in some instances, but I believe by symmetry, the answers will be the same.

NW grid - "N": 2 + 0 + 0 + 4 = 6
NE grid - "C": 4 + 2 + 3 + 0 = 9
SW grid - "A": 0 + 3 + 2 + 10 + 0 + 3 + 4 = 22
SE grid - "A": 2 + 2 + 1 = 5

Write together as 69225 and notice hint about multipying by TEN rather than 10. Convert 69225 to FIVE, then multiply to get 50. Sean Forbes, writer.

Posted by: JmSR | May 1, 2006 8:09:12 AM

After hours of fruitless searching for instances of GRAND PRIX, JAPANESE, ISLANDERS, and ANDRE AGASSI awards, I finally broke down and searched for all awards bestowed annually. Wikipedia had a nice list of them, and after scrolling down about 3/4 of the page, I found a section entitled "Sports and Games". It hit me that I should have been searching for games much sooner, knowing the company I keep!

Posted by: Jay Winter | May 1, 2006 9:28:48 AM

You guy's aren't gonna believe this....
On the Sudoku puzzle, the words "write these answers together" seemed to stick out just as much as "TEN"

Sean's intentions were to translate the sums to letters - FIVE and then multiply by TEN to get 50.

I noticed that there were 5 digits and put the sums together in another order - 22965.
22965 = the zip code of Quinque, VA
Quinque is Latin for the word FIVE.
So I took QUINQUE times TEN to get 50!

It seems weird enough for there to be two valid interpretations of a puzzle, but to have them produce the same solution is downright creepy!

Posted by: Paula | May 1, 2006 3:29:30 PM

Post a comment

Commenters please note: do NOT discuss ANY contest information for a currently active contest outside of what is printed in GAMES magazine.