Hints for February 2016 Puzzled Pint

Hints for February 2016 Puzzled Pint: Shel Silverstein

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Location — Spaghetti

  1. There seems to be various strands of spaghetti.
  2. Follow each strand from start to finish.
  3. Each strand seems to be spelling something.
  4. Each strand is almost a type of pasta dish.
  5. Each strand is missing one letter.
  6. The missing letter can be scratched off from the confetti, left over letters spell something.
  7. AnswerANSWER: POET

1. Eighteen Flavors

  1. Cut out the ice cream scoops and put them in groups according to the poem.
  2. Pay attention to all of the clues you are given! (point out the "produce aisle" line).
  3. Repeating flavors will give you a hint of how the groups chain together.
  4. The top scoop is the only flavor without a price tag on it.
  5. The bottom scoop is the only one not mentioned in a group.
  6. Order solutionThe order is:
    COCONUT
    BUTTERSCOTCH
    APPLE RIPPLE
    TOASTEDALMOND
    BRANDY PEACH
    VANILLA DIP
    BOYSENBERRY
    COFFEE
    PUMPKIN
    CHOCOLATE
    LIME
    CARAMEL CREAM
    LEMON
    ROCKY ROAD
    CHERRY
    BUTTERBRICKLE
    FUDGE BANANA
    MOCHA CHIP
  7. The price tags will help you turn the list of flavors into a phrase!
  8. Take the Nth letter of the ice cream flavor to get a message.
  9. The message is "Three-in-one ice cream"..... What ice cream do you know that has three flavors in one?
  10. AnswerAnswer: NEAPOLITAN

2. Importnt?

  1. Each clue is missing ‘a’s.
  2. Each answer follows a pattern.
  3. The pattern is: two words…
  4. … where the first word starts with G and …
  5. … has a single ‘a’ in it.
  6. Clue solutions great gatsby
    graph paper
    glass eye
    gall bladder
    great wall
    grand prix
    geneva convention
    glam rock
    grand piano
    grand canyon
    great britain
    galileo galilei
    gas station
    granny smith
    game point
    garter snake
  7. Once you have all phrases, use the position of the ‘a’ in the first word…
  8. … as an index into the second word.
  9. The extraction is: SPELL INCANTATION, which is a hint for…
  10. Answer… ABRACADABRA, a word that would, in fact, be very different without the As.

3. Band-Aids

  1. Count the lines in the poem. Count the number of body parts in the Shel poem.
  2. Each line in the poem corresponds with a body part in the Shel poem.
  3. Many of the words are very peculiar: gemelli, placeholder, flambeau…
  4. Think: poetry
  5. One word in each line rhymes with a body part from the Shel poem.
  6. Clue solutions
    linger → finger
    shipwreck → neck
    thin → chin
    shake'll → ankle
    flambeau → elbow
    cappuccinos → toes
    gemelli → belly
    chai → eye
    feminist → wrist
    quantum → bottom
    oui → knee
    compose → nose
    appeal → heel
    placeholder → shoulder
    hereby → thigh
    instead → forehead
  7. The number of band-aids on each body part is important.
  8. The number of band-aids on each body part is an index.
  9. Use the number of band-aids on each body part as an index into the word that rhymes with it. E.g. "Nine on my toes" => CAPPUCCINOS => N.
  10. TOES and NOSE both rhyme with CAPPUCCINOS and COMPOSE, but only CAPPUCCINOS can match with 9 ON MY TOES, since COMPOSE isn't long enough (i.e. it doesn't have 9 letters).
  11. Once you have the 16 extracted letters, arrange them in the order of the original poem.
  12. EYE and THIGH both rhyme with CHAI and HEREBY, so their match-ups are ambiguous. Try swapping their answers if you don't quite have the answer yet.
  13. AnswerThe answer is LOCAL ANESTHETICS

4. Fourth Place

  1. Some items seem to have things in common. Can you group them?
  2. The sets should seem similarly-sized. How many in each set?
  3. All items can be divided into sets of four items sharing something in common. Some things these commonalties relate to: what the things are made of, their initial sounds, an encoding. Notice anything interesting about any of the sets? Keep the poem in mind.
  4. There are only three "winners" in each contest and one "loser". After you've identified some of the "losers" you might notice something about them.
  5. Each set of four has three items that have an additional thing in common and one that does not. A lot of the commonalities involve wordplay.
  6. The losers all begin with a different letter. Look for a pattern there.
  7. Order losers by first letter, which are all different, A-M. Then index.
  8. CATEGORY NAMES
    Animals
    Band names
    Chemical elements
    Countries that start with C
    Foods from a Chinese restaurant
    Length of Nme
    Letters of the NATO Alphabet
    Math terms
    Phrases that contain the name of a season
    Phrases that start with the sounds of "aisle"
    Things that have sand
    Traffic signs
    Types of hats
  9. Turn to the flavortext again to find index. Use an idea again in a different way.
  10. Take the "fourth place" of each word to get a clue phrase. It tells you directly where to get the final answer.
  11. The fourth letter of each loser taken in order of the first letters spell "ALL OF LINE FOUR".
  12. AnswerAnswer: "I WAS SO SURE I'D WIN IT"

Bonus — Invisible Boy

  1. The numbers indicate the length of string(s) of shaded boxes in the row or column. Eg. (6,4) implies there will be a string of six shaded boxes, and a string of four shaded boxes, with at least one empty box between them. There could be empty boxes on either end too.
  2. Ignore the letters until the very end of the puzzle
  3. Finding which boxes are shaded: Start with shading the boxes you know for sure are shaded. Check out the last row, for example...
  4. ... and then look at the last number in each column....
  5. try x-ing out boxes that are for sure empty
  6. When you are finished, you should have a picture of a boy and a mouse in a house. But where is the cheese?!
  7. Read the unshaded letters for a message. No need to unscramble, just read left to right and top to bottom.
  8. Hidden message
    The cheese in this puzzle remains invisible
    But don't let that fact make you miserable
    Take some time to think
    Of a cheese that stinks
    Around Belgium it's traditional
  9. The answer is the #1 google result for stinky cheese
  10. AnswerAnswer: LIMBURGER

Meta — Where The Sidewalk Ends

  1. Each sidewalk is a specific number of squares. How does this relate to your answers from the night?
  2. Fill in each sidewalk with appropriate letters from answers skipping over the footsteps.
  3. Use the foot direction to help determine a logical path of your letters.
  4. Place the sidewalks over the 10 x 9 grid trying to locate your answers from the night. You can rotate pieces, but no need to flip them.
  5. Each sidewalk will have extra letters that appear at the foot steps.
  6. Spell out a message in order of the footsteps.
  7. MessageThe letters under the footsteps spell GO ONE MORE STEP PAST.
  8. AnswerGoing one more space past the each sidewalk phrase spells HOLE.