January 2017 Puzzled Pint: HAMILTON

Tap on any hint box to view it. (NOTE: These hints are just for solving at home. At Puzzled Pint events, you always receive customized hints from friendly Game Control.)

Location Puzzle: Alexander Hamilton

  1. Every four-line stanza describes a different well-known historical figure or celebrity. Web searching is encouraged; try combinations of quoted phrases, proper names, and any other unusual details.
  2. partial solutionThe people described are: Isaac Newton, Tony Hawk, Ernest Hemingway, Eric Idle, George Harrison, and Taylor Swift.
  3. solutionFill in the blanks with each person's initials to get IN THE HEIGHTS (the title of Lin-Manuel Miranda's previous Broadway show).

Puzzle #1: Guns and Ships

  1. YorktownFIVE(5) soldiers will end up adjacent to more than one object (tree, tent, flag, or cannon). Remember, diagonal does NOT count as adjacent!
  2. YorktownThere are FOUR(4) soldiers in the third column from the right (labeled with letters EU-E-YO-E, top to bottom).
  3. YorktownThere are THREE(3) soldiers in the top row (labeled TG-O-ME-E, left to right)
  4. YorktownThere is only ONE(1) soldier in the bottom row, in square E to the left of the American tent and below the cannon.
  5. Yorktown - partial solutionUsing the blanks below the grid, break up the sequence of letters marked by the soldiers (TEE-EYE-EN-KAY-E-ARE), then sound them out as letters to spell a word: T-I-N-K-E-R
  6. Chesapeake BayEvery British ship can be seen by at least two US ships.
  7. Chesapeake BayThere are THREE(3) British ships in the third column from the right (labeled 3RLYDTEK4, top to bottom).
  8. Chesapeake BayThere are TWO(2) British ships in the second row from the top (labeled QSOLOURZ3, left to right).
  9. Chesapeake BayThe last TWO(2) British ships are in the far right column and the bottom row.
  10. Chesapeake Bay - partial solutionThe letters marked by the British ships spell SOLDIER.
  11. Do the words TINKER and SOLDIER remind you of anything? Perhaps a 1974 spy novel by British author John le Carré, which was made into a 2011 film starring Gary Oldman?
  12. solutionThe answer is TAILOR SPY.

Puzzle #2: Nonstop

  1. Notice the bold words in the flavortext: flag and time. (Also the alarm-clock and human-with-arms icons in the corners of the "parchment.") Yup, it's everyone's favorite code: semaphore using analog clock hands!
  2. To start, only look at the times (7:50PM, 4:35PM, etc.) and translate those as semaphore letters.
  3. partial solutionThe semaphore spells: INDEX SUM OF MONTH DAY
  4. Now substitute the proper number for each month name, add that value to the day number, and use the result to index into the associated essay title. For example, the first line: 1+7=8 and the 8th letter is "I".
  5. solutionThe answer is: I NEED A RIGHT HAND MAN (but you only need the last three words for the meta).

Puzzle #3: What'd I Miss?

  1. Note the bold word miss in the flavortext: every crossword answer will include that sequence of four letters.
  2. Furthermore, when filling in the grid, all four letters "MISS" are crammed into a single cell. So the answer for 13-down is actually eight(8) letters long.
  3. ACROSS answersMISSpoke, MISSissippi queen, reMISSion, eMISSary, MISSion impossible, MISS universe, interMISSion
  4. DOWN answerstransMISSion, subMISSive, perMISSion, case disMISSed, MISSouri, little MISS muffet, lying by oMISSion, comMISSioner, MISSoula
  5. Once you've filled in the grid, take the letters from the cells labeled with round callouts in alphabetical order.
  6. solutionThe answer is PRIDE OF MT. VERNON.

Puzzle #4: The Room Where It Happens

  1. Note the bold word in flavortext: initial. Only look at the first letters of the words in each speech bubble.
  2. partial solutionEach person is saying something different. "James Madison's guiding words" tell you what to do: SHIFT STATES AND THEN REVERSE
  3. "Thomas Jefferson's stated claims (often abbreviated)" indicates you want the two-letter postal abbreviation for the states whose capital cities are named. SEE OPTIONAL REFERENCE SHEET.
  4. partial solution"Hamilton's calculated comments" are numbers: ELEVEN, TWENTY-THREE, FIFTEEN, and ELEVEN.
  5. For each "table," take Jefferson's letter pair, shift the individual letters forward in the alphabet by Hamilton's number, then reverse the order of those two letters as Madison instructed. So "The Meeting" yields PA, shifted by 11 to AL, then reversed to LA
  6. solutionThe answer is LANCELOT.

META: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

  1. The first letters of the biographies spell out BOOK CIPHER. Fun fact: in musical theater, "book" means the lyrics of a show. Do you see Hamilton lyrics anywhere on the previous four puzzles?
  2. The bold words in the flavortext indicate a specific variety of book cipher: puzzle, quote line, word, and letter. Every sequence of four numbers will yield a single letter. Can you connect the icons on page 2 to four of the bios on page 1?
  3. The previous puzzle answers appear in the relevant biographies: Alexander Hamilton ("right hand man"), Marquis de Lafayette ("Lancelot"), Hercules Mulligan ("tailor...spy"), and George Washington ("pride of Mount Vernon"). On page 2, draw two lines for each man's "life path": from his birth decade to the puzzle referencing him, then from the puzzle icon to his death decade. For example, Hercules Mulligan goes from "1740-1749" to the top icon ("Guns and Ships") to "1820-1829". You'll end up with eight lines total.
  4. Each line segment crosses exactly four numbered scrolls. That book cipher uses the lyrics quoted inside the scrolls at the top of each puzzle. For example, Hercules Mulligan's first cipher is 4-3-2-1: puzzle #4 (The Room Where It Happens), 3rd line of quote ("We just assume that it happens"), 2nd word, 1st letter = J. Lather, rinse, repeat.
  5. solutionThe final answer is... JUST WAIT !

Questions? E-mail Curtis