Queens Puzzles Hints

Location - Queen Bee

  1. Bold words in the flavour text are very useful.
  2. "Base" and "six" are the key words here. If it helps, binary is base two.
  3. Visited left bees and right bees are helpful bees.
  4. In base six, a number like 14 is worth ten in decimal. To calculate base six, multiply the first digit by six and add it to the second digit. So 32 would be (3x6)+(2x1)=twenty in decimal. Each hexagonal cell represents a letter in base six. The bees on the bottom left are worth six, on the bottom right are worth one.
  5. Follow the queen bee's path to see what message she's spelling out. The message starts "PUT...."
  6. The message is PUT A RING ON IT SINGER
  7. ANSWERBeyonce

Queen's Biggest Fan

  1. Look at each plate's border - Notice anything out of the ordinary?
  2. Each plate has morse code in the border.
  3. What could the numbers form when using the "center"?
  4. Create a clock orintation for each plate around the one that is center.
  5. Each fact can be applied to the clock to form a common encoding.
  6. Use semaphore to get final answer.
  7. ANSWERQueen Mother

Piece De Resistance

  1. Don't know Chess?Click here.
  2. You want to take turns making normal chess rules and recording them until there's only one piece left
  3. The first four queen moves are: W->C1 B->F5 W->G5 B->E6
  4. The next four queen moves are: W->D5 B->E7 W->D2 B->C5
  5. The final four queen moves are: W->B4 B->F8 W->E7 B->E7
  6. Note the flavortext and the fact that a chessboard has 8 directions you can move any piece.
  7. You'll want to use semaphore where the first flag is the direction of the White Queen's move and the second flag is the direction of the Black Queen's move.
  8. ANSWERRuPaul

Poker Night

  1. Don't know Poker?Click here.
  2. Perhaps start with the best possible hand and work backwards.
  3. The hands are 2-pair, a straight, a flush, and a 4 of a kind.
  4. Look at the marks on the cards two cards at a time.
  5. Arrange each hand left to right, with rank decending and the suits reverse-alphabetical within cards of the same rank (standard Poker/Bridge suit ranking)
  6. ANSWERQueen of Hearts

Drama Queens from Queens

  1. Notice there are 15 neigborhoods and 15 people at the party.
  2. Each clue should match up fairly easily with one of the neighborhoods. Googling clue words and/or nieghborhood might help.
  3. The flavortext is cluing you to find the minimum number of intersections you need to traverse to get to the party from each home.
  4. There's an easy way to do this, and know you're right, involving labeling each intersection.
  5. The house in Bay Side requires 9 intersections, yet "Bay Side" only has 7 letters in it. What has 9 letters?
  6. Index the distance into the name to get the letter for each clue.
  7. ANSWERFreddie Mercury

Meta - Quotable Queens

  1. Notice the symbols in each corner, and how they are oriented.
  2. There is a familiar similarity among many of the repeated symbols on the page
  3. Have you checked your code sheet?
  4. Look for symbols matching the words in the NATO alphabet on your code sheet
  5. Googling "<queen> <word>" where the word is a word you've found in the puzzle might help you find the right quote.
  6. Queen Mum's QuoteThat’s the way you should live your life, as it tomorrow you’ll be run over by a big red bus
  7. Freddie Mercury's QuoteI won't be a rock star. I will be a legend.
  8. RuPaul's QuoteIf you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?
  9. Queen of Heart's QuoteOff with her head!
  10. What's left once you've eliminated all the symbols used in all four of the quotes?
  11. ANSWERHappy 90th Birthday

Bonus - Blockbuster Redux

General Hints

  1. Do any words/phrases stick out to you from within the flavor text?
  2. What could “my favorite song” be referring to?
  3. Keep in mind this month’s theme.
  4. What is the pattern of the numbers/letters on each movie picture?
  5. How do the numbers/letters at the end of each grid row compare to this pattern?
  6. How can these numbers/letters be applied to the song identified?
  7. The song is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
  8. Use the song lyrics to match to the movie scenes provided.

Specific Movie Hints

  1. 31WLJimmy Stewart at his brother’s grave, whose life he remembers saving as a child back in 1919.
  2. 3Mark Wahlberg and his best friend sing a song to the heavens to ease their fears. Did you notice the corner logo? [Can logically only fit in one grid row.]
  3. 13GMJack Nicholson getting taken from a courtroom, while Tom Cruise looks on. What is Jack’s famous line?
  4. 39RThe warden and inmate Morgan Freeman are surprised to find a large hole within the cell wall of another prisoner.
  5. 35SStephen Baldwin ambushes a powerful man’s assistant. No Oscar winner Kevin Spacey to be seen #1. [Highlighted letter can be surmised without knowing movie title.]
  6. 7Kate Winslet makes a promise to Leonardo DiCaprio in very frigid waters.
  7. 67RWhat do you see in the image besides Tom Hanks and company?
  8. 86Thora Birch and Wes Bentley watch a video of pure beauty, a bag blowing in the breeze. No Oscar winner Kevin Spacey to be seen #2.
  9. 22TAWhat do you see in the image besides George Clooney and Anna Kendrick?
  10. 73TCFIf the movie cannot be recognized, did you notice the candy bar near the boy?
  11. 72Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen welcome a new baby into the world.
  12. 34OWSLeonardo DiCaprio chucking copious amounts of cash.
  13. 42SElizabeth Banks sneaking out after a one-night stand.

Grid Answers

  1. IITRL“is this the real life? is this just fantasy?” - The Matrix (3 6)
  2. LU“look up to the skies” - ET: The Extra-Terrestrial (11TE)
  3. PAG“put a gun against his head” - The Usual Suspects (35S)
  4. MLH“mama, life had just begun” - Knocked Up (72)
  5. BNIG“but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away” - The Wolf of Wall Street (34OWS)
  6. CO“carry on, carry on” - Up in the Air (22TA)
  7. TLMT“too late, my time has come” - Back to the Future (42TF)
  8. GLYA“gotta leave you all behind and face the truth” - A Few Good Men (13GM)
  9. ISW“I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all” - It’s a Wonderful Life (31WL)
  10. ISA“I see a little silhouetto of a man” - Saving Private Ryan (67R)
  11. TA“thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening” - Ted (3, also with Fandango logo in lower left corner)
  12. HJAPB“he’s just a poor boy from a poor family” - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (73TCF)
  13. NL“never let you go” - Titanic (7)
  14. OMM“oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia” - Mamma Mia! (53)
  15. SYTYC“so you think you can love me and leave me” - Walk of Shame (42S)
  16. JGGO“just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here” - The Shawshank Redemption (39R)
  17. AT“anyway the wind blows” - American Beauty (86)

Final Steps

  1. Try reading in columns
  2. Highlighted Cell TextMISS CROW SANG ABOUT THIS THOMAS CROWN ACTOR
  3. “Miss Crow” refers to Sheryl Crow. “Thomas Crown” refers to the movie The Thomas Crown Affair.
  4. FINAL SOLUTIONSTEVE McQUEEN