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NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
FINAL:
A: Total number of ears, eyes, toes, noses, elbows, ankles, tongues, shoulders, knees, necks, wrists, and fingers (including thumbs) on the creature depicted on a recreational device on the cover of the pop album whose tracks include these five:
* Title is a 14-letter name used for the largest land mammal that ever lived
* Lyrics contain: “… Telephone, telefax, telefunkin' teletrash...”
* Title is the surname of a performer used in an anagram in Altered States
* Lyrics contain: “Though in slumber you fill my dreams And I make contact with you”
* Title is a 3-word Biblical phrase whose middle word self-describes its position in the M th verse of the D th chapter of the Y th book of the Bible, where M-D-Y represents the date of the N th birthday of the eponym of the first skater to land a quad combination in competition, where N is the day of the month of the birthday of the person who portrayed the roles of Dixie, Jesse, and Jillette in three films whose titles (in no particular order) are anagrams of MY CRONE, BELT SHEARS, and TO BE NTH OCCULT.
Z: If the first and last letters of the surname of a prominent CEO were removed and replaced with two different letters, the surname of the founder of the CEO’s company would be spelled. These four letters (the two original letters and their replacements) can be combined with a fifth letter (A) to produce a two word phrase which is half-antonymic of the title of a certain 1960s film. Two years later, the chief protagonist of this film reappeared in another film in which also appeared another character (B) played by an actor who appeared in yet another (fin-de-siècle) film whose star (best remembered on television as C) also starred in another film of that same year in which he played a character (D) originated by an actor who appeared in a 1970s documentary (E) and died in a country whose current president’s middle name (F) is the same as the common name of a holding of a major corporation whose managing director celebrated his fifth birthday in X.
Fill in the answers to each of the answers A-F and X (a number) on the lines below. Read down the first letters of answers A-F revealing a message that is completed by the number referred to by X. Follow the completed message to reveal the final answer.
A: ______________
B: ______________
C: ______________
D: ______________
E: ______________
F: ______________
X: ______________
Comments
I think the first title for A is 13 letters (not 14).
I don't know why I'm doing this puzzle, because I don't think I'll finish enough of the others to be confident about a winner. a feww of them are just too tough...
Posted by: Paula | Apr 5, 2005 9:53:34 AM
Paula, I didn't create this question, but I, too, found the title right away and counted 14 letters, not 13.
Posted by: Sean F | Apr 5, 2005 10:00:03 AM
Hmmm....OK, I'll keep looking.
Posted by: Paula | Apr 5, 2005 10:04:21 AM
Ahhh. Yes - alternate spelling. I was led astray at first!
Posted by: Paula | Apr 5, 2005 10:06:01 AM
"A" seems like a strange question (haven't tried it yet). The fifth track seems like a tough and interesting puzzle, but the album can seemingly (I presume) be derived by solving as few as one of the clues.
Posted by: Michael | Apr 5, 2005 2:29:18 PM
I'm now realizing the toughest part of Team A's question is counting the various parts. Are we only to count the actual parts seen, or also the parts that are assumed to exist and may just be obstructed by other parts or objects in the picture? Should it make sense to count visible parts as well as those potentially obstructed in a manner consistent with the album title?
Posted by: Sean F | Apr 5, 2005 7:01:00 PM
We were wondering about the same thing, but because it says, "total number...on the creature depicted" rather than "total number...depicted on the creature", we think that we can assume body parts not actually seen. Incidentally, the creator has ingeniously and deviously eliminated a "short cut" possibility we were hoping for. This guy is GOOD.
Posted by: DonV | Apr 6, 2005 1:03:59 AM
Are you referring to a shortcut to the whole bracket(because I thought I was going to take advantage of one that didn't appear) or a shortcut for part A of the championship?
Posted by: Paula | Apr 6, 2005 9:49:41 AM
The whole bracket. You were probably counting on the same one we were. Bummer.
Posted by: DonV | Apr 6, 2005 9:01:11 PM
JM, I do not understand the A and Z nomenclature for the national championship. In the rules, it says: "In Semi-Finals and Finals, the team's region name (North, South, East or West) will be used." Did I miss something?
Posted by: Michael | Apr 7, 2005 12:38:27 PM
Oops - I re-read the change to the rules - does A and Z represent alphabetical order? Of the two teams left, the one which comes first in alphabetical order is A, the one that comes second is Z? If so, there goes that short cut everyone was talking about!
Posted by: Michael | Apr 7, 2005 12:42:05 PM
Yes, Michael you have it exactly right. The problem was pointed to me by one of the constructors before the first questions were asked. I thought it was a good idea since it would require the solution of most of the puzzles to finish the grid.
A: Means first alphabetically
Z: Means last alphabetically
Posted by: JmSR | Apr 7, 2005 12:54:02 PM
Yes - it does require pretty much every question to be solved.
I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make the deadline...
Posted by: Paula | Apr 7, 2005 1:35:25 PM
We're anxious to see a response to Sean F's question concerning counting of body parts. This might provide us with a couple of inches along our goal (even though we still have about a mile and a half to travel).
Posted by: DonV | Apr 11, 2005 12:05:07 AM
The composer wishes to clarify that it is the creature's total listed parts, not just those visible in the picture.
Posted by: JmSR | Apr 11, 2005 6:19:18 AM
JmSR, After reading your response and re-reading my original question, I realized my intended question was not laid out clearly enough. I had wanted to include an example at the time, but I didn't want to give too much away. Now, however, I think it is important to include some examples of what I was trying to ask.
Take the listed item "ears". On one part of the creature, ears are presumed to exist but are most likely just being covered by hair. Those ears, although "listed", are not visible in the picture -- do you count them or not? Another example involves "fingers". If the hand is positioned in such a way that only a few fingers show, and we have no reason to think that the others are physically missing, shouldn't we count all of them?
I hope that helps you see what I was asking.
Posted by: Sean F | Apr 11, 2005 10:28:33 AM
JmSR, Even with the extra week, I'm nowhere near the National Championship yet, but since Don V and other might be, I was wondering if you could respond to my revised question above regarding how to count the appropriate number of listed body parts for Team A's question. Hopefully, the restated question makes more sense.
Posted by: Sean F | Apr 13, 2005 8:17:01 AM
The author has not contacted me for any revision at this time. It is mys understanding that you are to assume that the creature has standard number of items unless otherwise depicted.
Posted by: JmSR | Apr 13, 2005 8:44:15 AM
FINAL:
Camden-WI St.: 37-44 Wisconsin State
A:
As five different tracks are described, we seem to have potential multiple or redundant avenues of solution.
The largest land mammal has been known both as Indricotherium or Baluchetherium. See here:
HYPERLINK "http://www4.vc-net.ne.jp/~klivo/gen/indricotherium.htm" http://www4.vc-net.ne.jp/~klivo/gen/indricotherium.htm
The performer Morey Amsterdam was anagrammed in Altered States. Surname is Amsterdam.
Thanks to a search feature on character names in the venerable IMDB, it doesn’t take too long to use the anagrams to confirm titles NO MERCY, BREATHLESS, and THE COTTON CLUB.
Despite feminine appearing names, the parts are all male, and played by Richard Gere, whose birthday is August 31. The skater is Elvis Stojko, named for Elvis Presley, who was 31 years old on Jan 8, 1966, or 1-8-66. So we need the 1st verse of the 8th chapter of the 66th book, which is Revelations 8:1. (Mistakenly using Stojko’s birthday ends meaninglessly at Leviticus 22:3)
And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour
The 7th word is “seventh”, the middle word of the 3-word phrase “The Seventh Seal”
So far we have these titles:
Indricotherium or Baluchetherium
Amsterdam
The Seventh Seal
It’s a bit harder to search for lyrics, but just the titles and a bit of Googling should easily find a site such as this, perhaps:
HYPERLINK "http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1101406/a/Balance.htm" http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1101406/a/Balance.htm
and scrolling down a bit, to the track listings, there they are—The Seventh Seal, Amsterdam, and Baluchetherium! So it appears the album in question is Balance, by Van Halen. On the cover is a “balancing” device, a crude playground seesaw, on which sits, discreetly shielding her nudity, a very strange critter indeed, a young child with two heads and torsos, thus an extra ration of all listed body parts above the waist. So we tally them:
Normal: 10 toes, 2 ankles, 2 knees
Double: 4 eyes, 4 ears, 2 noses, 2 necks, 2 tongues, 4 elbows, 4 wrists, 4 shoulders, 20 fingers
Grand total answer: 60! Piece of cake, right?
Wrong! All may not be as it seems. 60 is not the correct answer!
Digging a little deeper may reveal a site like this:
HYPERLINK "http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/van_halen_lyrics_2887/balance_lyrics_8513/" http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/van_halen_lyrics_2887/balance_lyrics_8513/
in which all the lyrics of each track (none for instrumental-only) are archived. It doesn’t take long to find that Big Fat Money contains the “telephone, telefax”, etc line. But the other excerpt
Though in slumber you fill my dreams And I make contact with you
is not to be found anywhere among the lyrics of any other track. What gives?
The answer is, there is another version of Balance, the Japanese version! And this one has an added track, a song called Crossing Over. See here:
HYPERLINK "http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/store/albums.php" http://www.vhlinks.com/pages/store/albums.php
If you scroll down a ways, there it is, but then keep going, and farther down you see the second Balance album, and as the text states, “This import is the same as the US album version, except that it contains the previously unreleased track ‘Crossing Over’.” Well, that’s not quite true. It is also not the same in that the cover picture is different! The Japanese version, and only that version, depicts a normal child instead of the 2-headed one!
You can find the lyrics to “Crossing Over” here:
HYPERLINK "http://www.modernrocklyrics.com/V-Z/vanhalen_balance.html" http://www.modernrocklyrics.com/V-Z/vanhalen_balance.html
and there are the elusive lines! So, the album containing all five of the tracks described is the Japanese Balance, which depicts a normal child with the normal count of body parts: 10 toes, 2 ankles, 2 knees, 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 neck, 1 tongue, 2 elbows, 2 wrists, 2 shoulders, and 10 fingers, including thumbs. Grand total, and correct answer to the question, is 37! Q.E.D.
Z:
CEO: Michael EISNER
Founder: Walt DISNEY
Four Letters: E R D Y + S = Dr. Yes (half-antonymic with Dr. No - 1962)
Chief Protagonist: James Bond, who in 1964 reappeared in Goldfinger in
which appeared Desmond Llewelyn as Q. Llewelyn appeared again in The World
is Not Enough (1999) which starred Pierce Brosnan (Remington Steele) who also
reprised Steve McQueen’s original Thomas Crown role in 1999. McQueen
appeared in 1971’s motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday. He died in
Mexico where Vicente Fox Quesada is president. Fox is owned by News Corp.
which is managed by Rupert Murdoch born in 1931.
A: S
B: Q
C: Remington Steele
D: Thomas Crown
E: On Any Sunday
F: Fox
X: 1936
Message: Sq. Rt. of 1936 (Square Root of 1936) = 44
Posted by: JmSR | Apr 25, 2005 8:32:19 PM
I loved this Van Halen question! Note that I was the one who had posted how I thought the question was 'strange'. I had the obvious (but wrong) answer, but further thought made me conclude that JM would never have left this as one of the pinnacle questions unless there was a trick to it. I had been searching for some kind of 'best of' compendium, and eventually saw the picture (below) when I went through several pages of a Yahoo! image search. I then backsolved it by finding that one of those references did not appear on the more generally released version.
http://nagasaki.cool.ne.jp/yorumeki/mekimeki/van_halen_balance_95.jpg
Posted by: Michael | Apr 26, 2005 8:26:31 AM
A was written by Bob Lodge
Z was written by Stephen Williams
Posted by: JmSR | Apr 26, 2005 9:12:09 AM
I thought of it too late, but the final touch should have been to present the cruical "Crossing Over" lyric as a cryptogram, assuming that most solvers would get far enough with the other four to ignore it.
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Apr 26, 2005 2:03:46 PM
I started working with CEOs and founders but got nowhere, and reading through, I decided a good place to start would be with middle names of presidents. So I got out my trusty World Almanac and began going through the world leaders, and when I hit Fox, I knew that was it, Mexico being a reasonable possibility for some unknown Hollywood type to have died in. When I had ____F 1936, it seemed obvious that it was something OF 1936, which I immediately recognized as a perfect square (1849 and 1936 being both squares and recent years have popped up many times over the years, so I had long ago learned them) and I was very confident the answer was 44 without ever solving A-E. I found this format very inspiring, and about a week or two back I wrote a vaguely similar but much longer narrative which basically romps through the IMDB, requiring 19 words to be filled in, but inviting one to jump in anywhere and then expand either direction. More complex mixing at the end will require all to be found.
I have a nephew who is pleased, from a related mathematical standpoint, that he was born in 1980. That is the first year since 1892 with the particular property that delights him, easily discernable by all reading this, I am sure.
Posted by: Bob Lodge | Apr 26, 2005 2:40:10 PM
By the nature of the question I figured the word had to be something like double, triple, square,etc.
I actually looked at a list of 1960s films, scanning for titles that would have clear antonyms. Dr. No stuck right out. Which led me right to Goldfinger with "Q" (I was already thinking 'square') which led me to Remington Steele and Thomas Crown.
That was enough to know that the year was going to have to be 1936 for anyone who was still alive.
So I solved it with just B-E, but not nearly as impressive as you, Bob!
Posted by: Paula | Apr 26, 2005 2:57:01 PM
It is so rewarding to hear people comment on your puzzle! This was my first ever creation, and (as such) it was difficult to assess whether it was too easy or too hard. It was never my intention for this question to be incredibly difficult, and I guess in retrospect the F clue proved too easy an inroad. I needed 1936, and the Mexico/Fox/Rupert Murdoch connection proved too perfect. Frankly, I always envisioned people solving this from the beginning. I was watching a Michael Eisner interview on the news a few months ago, and his title "Disney CEO" was listed under his name in such a way as the ISNE lined up. I thought that was pretty interesting, and I bean to think what I could do with ERD and S. A few days later, I was watching Dr. No, and when the title screen came up with those oversized letters my eye immediately went to the "DR" and the uncanny occurence of ES. YES followed quickly. The rest pretty much wrote itself, especially finding the necessary "Q" for SQ! I ended up writing a very long puzzle with the message SQUARE ROOT OF ONE NINE THREE SIX (with some cool connections), but I decided to shorten it in the interest of the contest. You're right Bob, a few weeks ago I started wondering why I didn't mix the letters; it would have made it a little harder.
Posted by: Stephen | Apr 26, 2005 3:32:48 PM
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