This page takes a few minutes to load -- contains some cool pictures!
______________________

Contest Four, March 2000 Series, has been solved.  The Winner is:  Nathaniel McRae.  Congratulations!!

I will soon publish a full description of all the clues.  For now, here is Nathaniel's story:

Our family has enjoyed exploring the local riddles ever since joining Joe Cramer’s Silver Treasure Hunt Riddle back in 1987, solving it that year and also in 1988. Then we discovered your contest in 1992 and 1993...our van has a right rear quarter panel wrinkle due to a too close brush with a telephone pole at John Ball Park, where we came close to solving the first riddle...and we got stuck by a book store, instead of a library, in the next hunt. Last August, we were at the park in Ada, at the pond, and yet didn’t solve "nail" or "docked", so of course we were unsuccessful in finding the prize. 

However, we did enjoy being so close, and doing the brain work to get there. The last #4 contest (about the book quote) was quite frustrating because we had the author, the quote, and yet could not find the book to complete the search.

We have followed (no, that’s not right--we’ve participated in) all of the local riddles we become aware of, and very often have been in "touch" with the prize (one time literally) though not discovering it, but always have enjoyed the challenge of the hunt, and the satisfaction of solving the clues along the way. It is a family participation event for us, and everyone contributes. We enjoy becoming familiar with different parts of the community and the wonderful scenic vistas that we have in this area. Thank you for providing another excuse for us to be "out and about", in search of another prize.

 I’m Nathaniel, the third oldest of the seven McRae children.  Our family had been working on this puzzle since it came out but we were busy with summer activities and we didn’t really get into it until the end of July. We weren’t getting anywhere with it. 

Working on the first clue, "Joseph dreamed, but not in Egypt," we knew that the Bible never records Joseph dreaming in Egypt, only interpreting others’ dreams. He did, however dream in Canaan.  But we had no idea what Canaan had to do with anything. So that didn’t help at all. Then my oldest brother Thaddeus recognized the name Aldous Huxley from the July 24^th clue, that "BNW"(5/21) stood for Brave New World by Huxley and that "...almost home..."(7/17) was an acrostic for Aldous Huxley. 

We then searched for any books he had written with "...not a very colorful title."(7/3) When Zachary, second oldest, suggested Grey Eminence, we realized that the clue from March 11, "Where black and white merge" meant the grey in Grey Eminence, and that the August 7^th clue about GE referred to the initials of the book title. We already knew that the citation started with the words "No less..." (4/23,6/11), and ended with the words "...or very quickly." (3/18-4/17) So we got the book from the library and, going by the June 4^th clue, "Page totals 14", we checked every page on which the sum of the numbers equals 14. We found the citation on page number 185 and confirmed it by seeing that the July 31^st clue ("Nothing but a high hard one gets the happy German power hitter.") referred to "...the overthrow of Hapsburg power..." in the citation. 

And after reading the citation, we realized the first clue referred to Father Joseph, not Joseph in the Bible. We sent in the answer on September 5^th with Harper & Brothers as the publisher and 1941 as the date.  The next day we got a message telling us it was incorrect. We went back over it and concluded that the citation had to be right, and so did the author and title. That left the publisher and date published. We searched over the internet for any copies of the book by another publisher. We found that it had been published by quite a few different publishers.  We tried submitting it with a few different publishers, but it still wasn’t right. According to the August 14^th and 21^st clues, "Z=M" and "Y=N" the third word should start with an "M". Very much puzzled and a little frustrated with this we began to wonder if the citation could be wrong.

It seemed like an awfully big coincidence that all the words fit perfectly.  Then the September 26^th clue came out, and we thought of the word meridian

but didn’t know what that had to do with anything. When we found the October 9^th clue "meridan" we looked meridian up in the dictionary and the previous clue was almost word for word the definition of "meridian". Now we knew that meridian was an important word, but we didn’t know why. So Dad got back on the internet and found that Grey Eminence was published in 1959 by Meridian Books. So we sent in another submission with that information on it and we got an e-mail back telling us we had solved it. However, we still have no idea how the "Z=M" and "Y=N" fit in

Chronological Explanation of Clues for March, 2000, Puzzle 4

No less than the overthrow of Hapsburg power, the realization of Father Joseph's dream of sea power and an empire was contingent upon the unification of France; and that work was not to be accomplished easily or very quickly.

 

CODE          PLAINTEXT

 

Q---------------------A

W---------------------B

E---------------------C

R---------------------D

T---------------------E

Y---------------------F

U---------------------G

I---------------------H

O---------------------I

P---------------------J

A---------------------K

S---------------------L

D---------------------M

F---------------------N

G---------------------O

H---------------------P

J---------------------Q

K---------------------R

L---------------------S

Z---------------------T

X---------------------U

C---------------------V

V---------------------W

B---------------------X

N---------------------Y

M---------------------Z

 No ---- ---- --- --------- -- -------- -----, --- -----------

of ------ ------'- ----- -- --- ----- --- -- ------ --- ---------

---- --- ----------- -- ------; --- ---- ---- --- --- -- --

------------ ------ -- ---- -------.

 Progressive Solution:

 No S Tss Z I Q F --- --------- -- -------- -----, --- -----------

of ------ ------'- ----- -- --- ----- --- -- ------ --- ---------

---- --- ----------- -- ------; --- ---- ---- --- --- -- --

------------ ------ or very quickly.

 

1--(9) Clue--Joseph dreamed, but not in Egypt.

 This Joseph is 'Father Joseph,' not the Joseph of the Old Testament.  Joseph in the OT interpreted dreams in Egypt.

 

2--(17) Clue--Where black and white merge

 Grey Eminence

 

3--(24) Clue--Adverbial ending

 The passage ends with the adverb:  "quickly."  

 

4--(31) Clue--Double Adverbial ending

 The passage ends with the adverb:  "quickly," preceded by "very." 

 

5--(38) Clue-- or ---- -------.

These are the last three words of the puzzle.

 

 

6--(45) Clue-- or very -------.

 These are the last three words of the puzzle.

 

 

7--(52) Clue-- or very quickly.

These are the last three words of the puzzle.

 

 

8--(79) Clue-- Opposite of "No more…".

 Text starts out with:  "No less…

 

 

9--(86) Clue-- Text starts ends with:   Adverb, conjunction, adverb, adverb.

 Text starts ends with:  "easily or very quickly."

 

10--(93) Clue-- http://www.purplehunt.com/5782810.htm 

Some people have a vision of power, this gentleman had a dream of sea power.

 Text reads:  " dream of sea power"

 

 

11--(101) Clue-- http://www.purplehunt.com/54790002.htm 

 This is from one of his lesser works.

 Aldous Huxley wrote many books, but Grey Eminence was not one of his major works.

 

 

12--(107) Clue-- BNW 

 Brave New World was Aldous Huxley's most famous work.

 

13--(113) Clue-- http://www.purplehunt.com/54790002.htm 

 This is from one of his lesser works.

 Aldous Huxley wrote many books, but Grey Eminence was not one of his major works.

 

14--(119) Clue-- Page totals 14. 

 Citation is located on page 185.

 

15--(125) Clue-- No STss

 First characters of first line of puzzle

 

16--(131) Clue-- Not a matter of mere happenstance.

 "Hapsburg" is part of the text.

 

17--(137) Clue-- No S Tss Z I Q F

First part of puzzle, plaintext and ciphertext.

 

 

18--(143) A fairly colorful author, but not a very colorful title.

 Grey Eminence

 

19--(149) How boring….

 Grey is considered to be a boring color:  "Grey Eminence."

 

 

20--(155) You're almost home, acrostically speaking

"Almost Home."  AH, Aldus Huxley.

 

21--(161) Ahlud Xulsey

"Aldus" Huxley -- Alternating letters, taking the first letter of the first name, then the first letter of the last name, then the second letter of the first name, etc.  In this case, we left off the silent "o."

 

 

22--(167) Nothing but a high hard one gets the happy German power hitter.

 "No less than the overthrow of Hapsburg power."

  

23--(173) GE Brings Good Things to Life.

 Grey Eminence

 

 

24--(179)  Z=M

 Just what it says.

 

25--(188)  X=B

 Just what it says.

 

26--(194)  Y=N

Just what it says.

 

27--(200)  The World Publishing Company.

 This is the publisher of Huxley's book.

 

28--(206)  If you really like it you can have the rights it could make a million for you overnight….

 This is a line from the Beatles:  "Paperback Writer.  The selection is from the paperback edition.

 

29--(212)  Think "student," not "bourgeois."

 

The selection is from the paperback edition.  Students use paperbacks.

 

30--(218)  World view:  The hour of noon; a great circle of the celestial sphere passing through its poles and the zenith of a given place.

 Definition of "Meridian."  This book was published by World, and this is the Meridian edition.

 

31--(218)  World view:  The hour of noon; a great circle of the celestial sphere passing through its poles and the zenith of a given place.

 Definition of "Meridian."  This book was published by World, and this is the Meridian edition.

 

32--(224)  Meridian

 This book was published by World, and this is the Meridian edition.

Back To Top