Here's my disclaimer- this diary really has nothing to do with politics. Over it? Moving on...
For those not familiar with the Herald Hunt, it's a giant multi-part puzzle created by Dave Barry and Tom Shroder for the express purpose of driving everyone who takes part in it completely MAD.
The diary I wrote yesterday detailed a play-along-at-home version of the Hunt. If you haven't read that one yet, go do so now. I'll wait. Seriously, unless you do, this diary won't make any sense at all.
Done? Are you stumped? Then join me over the fold for a review of how each puzzle was solved, and how the endgame was played out.
First puzzle was located at coordinates G-4 on the Main Stage, and featured a choir dressed in shirts that read "The Miami Herald", with two of the singers wearing halos and wings. Astute hunters noticed that although all chorus members hummed the opening tune of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", not everyone sang every line of the "12 Days of Christmas". The Herald Angels only sang three lines:
"Three French Hens"
"Five Gold Rings"
"Eleven Pipers Piping"
So the solution to G-4 was simply 3511.
The second puzzle was located at coordinates H-0, where you were given a blue bracelet that read P.3, and a set of instructions that read PUT IT ON YOUR WRIST. Did you figure out that P.3 was page 3? Did you remember that the letter jumble was located on page 3? Did you figure out that you didn't need to wear the bracelet, but you had to put it on the letter jumble on "YOUR WRIST"? If you did, you might have gotten something like this:
So the solution to H-0 was 16.
The third puzzle was located at coordinates J-1, where you were given a sudoku sheet to fill out. It was missing a few numbers, which were replaced by question marks that were marked on the map. Going to the map coordinates gave you the numbers to enter into the sudoku sheet:
The recording at the top left question mark was a 3 point field goal. (3)
The sign at the bottom left question mark was a golfer about to tee off, yelling "Fore!" (4)
The sign at the bottom right question mark was a slam dunk, 2 points! (2)
The top right question mark was an IV. (4, in Roman Numerals)
So, solving the "Bottom Line" Sudoku is now a piece of cake:
And what's the bottom line? 2134 is the solution to J-1.
The fourth puzzle, located at coordinates C-6, required you to call the House of Montague, whose number was helpfully listed in the puzzle section. Once you called it, you reached a recording which said;
"Wherefore Art Thou has four syllables. No. Yes. No. Yes."
Where? No. Fore? Yes. Art? No. Thou? Yes.
Fore Thou.
The solution to C-6 was 4000.
The fifth and final puzzle was located at D-5 and featured a murder mystery, with a whole lot of misdirection and some really bad videography. Sorry if you couldn't tell that the poor dead Jack was the only thing that changed during the "technical difficulties"! Before the break, he was white, and after the break, he was black.
Blackjack. It really was that simple. The solution to D-5 was 21.
So! Now we have five clues:
16 - I’ve found that forewords are often especially meaningful.
21 - Don’t want to look? Fine. We are down with that.
2134 - Put on your cape. Take them far away until they’re quite lost.
3511 - Find how to separate the old from the ancient. That’s how.
4000 - This is your chance. Take a number.
We've got some time to kill before Dave Barry gives out the Final Clue at 3 o'clock, so let's take a closer look at those clues. Number 16 tells us that forewords are important... Four-words? Let's highlight every fourth word:
16 - I’ve found that forewords are often especially meaningful.
21 - Don’t want to look? Fine. We are down with that.
2134 - Put on your cape. Take them far away until they’re quite lost.
3511 - Find how to separate the old from the ancient. That’s how.
4000 - This is your chance. Take a number.
Aha! A hidden clue: "Look down on them. They're how old? That's your number."
But what do we do with that? Here's Dave- maybe the final clue will shed some more light.
Dave Barry: "I'd like to give you the final clue... it's just too gross."
If you're a clever hunter, you've got to have numbers on the brain. So did you hear that, or did you hear "Two Gross"? One gross is a dozen dozen, or 144, so two gross would be 288. And hey, look! 288 is a clue:
288 - If words were inches...
So how many words are there in the original five clues? 48. And 48 inches is four feet. Didn't we see that somewhere else? That's right, on the map! Quick, run to coordinates A-5 and look down:
They're how old?
H.H. FOOT I, 1870-1948 = 78
H.H. FOOT II, 1904-2002 = 98
H.H. FOOT III, 1962-2001 = 39
H.H. FOOT IV, 2000- = 9
789-8399. That's your number. Put a (305) area code in front of it and call, and you've solved the Hunt!