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It’s time for the MIT Mystery Hunt again!

The MIT IAP Mystery Hunt is an annual puzzle competition held at MIT during the January Independent Activity Period (IAP). The competition challenges each team to solve a large number of puzzles which lead to a coin hidden somewhere on-campus.

*Sigh* … if only I lived in Boston. Although, given the weather this week, I’m perfectly happy to be here in Florida right now.

Recently, Groundspeak released a new feature for geocaching that allows users to mark a cache that they’ve found as one of their favorites – it’s essentially a limited-use Like button for geocaching.

A few days ago, one of the volunteer reviewers for Florida posted a note on my Puzzle Solving 101 – The Final Exam cache that said that the PS101 Final was one of the 20 most favorite caches in all of Florida.

Naturally, I’m honored. But I’m also naturally curious. I know some of the caches on that list, and some of them have been found literally thousands of times, while the PS101 Final has been found very few times. Because you can only mark a cache as your favorite if you’ve logged a find on it, caches that are found more often should get more favorite points than those that are found less often.

So that got me thinking – what if we ranked caches by the percentage of finders that marked a cache as one of their favorites? That would get us closer to measuring the overall reward factor of a cache than just a raw measurement of favorite points.

So I took the top 20 caches in the state as of this writing (in terms of absolute number of favorite points), and I sorted them by the percentage of finders that marked each cache as a favorite, and here’s the results:

Now, this analysis isn’t complete – a cache with one find and one favorite point has a 100% favorite factor. It’s probably useful to consider a more statistically significant sample of caches that have, say, 25 finds or more, before considering them in this list, given the relatively low rate of marking caches as favorites. But I bet the result would be the same – the easy-to-find vacation virtuals would go to the bottom of the list and the mysteries, multis, and Wherigos would float to the top.

Wordplay, the New York Times Crossword Blog, doesn’t just post info about crossword puzzles. They also run a regular feature on mathematics and logic problems called Numberplay, which is quite fun.

Here’s a puzzle that appeared recently on Numberplay … I didn’t get it, but my 14-year-old son did in just a few minutes:

You are in a room with three switches each of which controls one of three table lamps in a separate room that’s some distance away. The switches are all in the “off” position and have been so overnight, but you know that all three table lamps work. Once you leave the switch room, you can go into the room with the lamps only once. How do you figure out which light switch goes with which table lamp? No tools, helpers or cellphones allowed.

Here’s the solution:

Show Answer ▼

I just upgraded the site to the latest WordPress and associated plugins. Should be fine, but let me know if it craps out on you for some reason.

Sneaking into the run-down carnival at the edge of town seemed like an easy way to get a cheap thrill; certainly more of a thrill than was ever on offer when the carnival was still in business. Wandering the backstage areas, you just finish adding “J. Kilroy was here” to the end of a long list of similar graffiti when you are briefly blinded by a sudden light.

After regaining your bearings, you head back to the midway and notice perhaps a halfdozen attractions running at full tilt. Your natural curiosity to see what’s going on struggles with your desire to not be that character in a bad horror movie, and loses. As you turn toward the hole in the fence that got you into this madhouse, you discover that the fence is now complete. Moving closer, you discover that the fence is also very sharp, and now very electrified.

While lying dazed on the ground, you hear the loudspeakers sputter into life: “You have entered my limbo, my temporary place of abode which is becoming distressingly permanent. The price for your freedom is my freedom. Work, and work hard, and work without fail. Set me free, and you may get a good night’s sleep.”

As the silence descends, you decide that even if you are in a bad horror movie, your only choice is to obey. You begin to explore. . . .

This is the introduction to the new puzzle suite by Andrew Feist called Ghost in the Machine.

These puzzles are free, and you can confirm answers (to individual puzzles and the final answer) by email to tabstopva+acs@gmail.com. If you want hints, or answers, that’s a dicerent story. To receive the hint file for this suite, send Andrew a copy of a receipt for a $5 donation to the American Cancer Society; for the hints and answers, make it a $10 donation. Don’t send him the money; just send him (at tabstopva+acs@gmail.com) a copy of the receipt.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Andrew sends his thanks to his playtesters Brian Cimmet and Charlie Reams. Also thanks to the puzzle community, especially the ones from whom he has subconsciously,  unconsciously, and unknowingly stolen puzzle ideas.

Ghost in the Machine home page • Direct download

Confused and disoriented, you stagger through doors marked “Two Second Cruises” and find yourself in a travel agency. Surveying the office, you find yourself with a choice of different travel agents. Of the four, only one looks friendly. Ignoring a woman in an spotted animal print, a man with a fierce mane of hair, and a woman hungrily devouring a Subway combo meal, you opt for the man wearing a Virgin Airlines button.

He somehow knows exactly what’s on your mind. “Puzzles you want, puzzles you’ll get!” With quick keystrokes, he reserves you a spot on a cruise to a tropical island. When you stand up to thank him, you lose consciousness.

Waking up, you find yourself on the deck of the cruise ship. There’s noise coming from behind you and the island itself. The travel agent has left a note for you however.

Enjoy the island as long as you want. If you want to know where to go, try looking for some helpful individuals. Flag them down, and they’ll not only show you the hottest spots on the island, but help you decide what to do next.

What is the Puzzle Boat?

The Puzzle Boat is an online puzzle extravaganza, similar to the MIT Mystery Hunt or Microsoft Puzzle Hunts. It can be solved entirely online.

Puzzles (red links on the map) are in PDF format (with one exception). Puzzle types include cryptograms, crosswords, and visual puzzles. Some puzzles are traditional, others are unconventional, others defy categorization. The use of outside references are acceptable, and absolutely necessary in some cases.

As you solve puzzles, new puzzles will become available. Some puzzles require solutions to other puzzles. Solving these meta-puzzles will give you the names of several individuals on the island. Finding all of these individuals will allow you to complete the extravaganza.

You can solve the Puzzle Boat with others. To register a team, click Register above and enter a team name, password, and team members. Others on your team can use this name and password to access puzzles, and see how far the team has progressed. You can also solve on your own, but it’s not as much fun…for most.

If you have questions regarding the Puzzle Boat, write to Foggy Brume at editor@pandamagazine.com.

Amanda Yesnowitz and Brian Cimmet wrote a wonderful little tune called “A Way With Words”, which they performed at the “Crossworders Got Talent” program during the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Here’s the video on YouTube … enjoy!

On Friday, February 21, 2010, in Brooklyn, New York, Dan Feyer ended the 5-year winning streak of Tyler Hinman to become the A Division Champion at the 33rd annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT).

Click here to discuss the ACPT in the Puzzlehead forums.

Part 4 – Competition

In 1978, the director of marketing of the Marriott Hotel in Stamford, Connecticut, was searching for a way to sell the services of the brand new hotel during the winter – typically a slow season. He came up with the idea of running a crossword puzzle tournament using this logic: lots of people live in the Stamford area and commute to New York City by train, and many commuters like to solve crossword puzzles on the route, so a tournament might appeal to that crowd.

He called the then-editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle Eugene Maleska who suggested a constructor in Stamford might be interested in running it. That constructor also declined, but he recommended a 25-year-old puzzle whiz named Will Shortz who might be interested.

Shortz had restarted the National Puzzlers League (NPL) conventions just two years earlier, and jumped at the chance to create it, and with that the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was born. In its first year, 149 contestants showed up and had such a great time solving and socializing that the tournament has become an annual event. The 2005 ACPT was documented in the motion picture Wordplay (which was selected for screening at the Sundance Film Festival) and was lucky to capture one of the most exciting conclusions to the tournament in ACPT history.

The tournament is a full weekend event. There are five divisions to the tournament that allow people to compete with others at approximately the same skill level (E Division is for beginners, A Division is for expert solvers). Six puzzles of varying size and difficulty are solved on Saturday (with Puzzle 5 being the most difficult), followed by one puzzle on Sunday morning. The top three finishers in each of C, B, and A divisons then compete head to head with each other on stage in front of the tournament audience. (Trophies are given for finishers in all divisions as well as age groups and geographic regions.)

You never know what kinds of puzzles will appear at the tournament – one puzzle had every single clue written as a spoonerism (if the answer is HUMERUS, the normal clue would be “Funny bone”, but the spoonerism clue was written as “Bunny phone”). Another featured a story with numbered blanks – you had to figure out the words that went in the blanks from the context of the story, then place those words into the corresponding places in the puzzle. Crazy stuff!

Dan Feyer, Winner of the 2010 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Tyler Hinman won the 2005 tournament and went on to win the next four in a row in an unprecedented streak of competetive solving. The question of who would unseat Hinman was wanswered this past weekend as Dan Feyer (who won C Division in 2008 and B Division in 2009) dominated the competition, finishing first in the points standing and first in the A Division final.

Even if you can’t get to New York City for the tournament, you can still play online. All of the puzzles from the past several years are available, and you can solve them while on the clock, just like the tournament players do in person. (I played along online this year and my score would have put me in 468th place if I was there in person.)

On Friday, February 19, 2010, in Brooklyn, New York, the registration desk for the 33rd annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) will open for business, marking the commencement of one of the single largest gatherings of puzzleheads from across the country.

Click here to discuss the ACPT in the Puzzlehead forums.

Part 3 – Evolution

While crosswords became popular in the early 1920s, it was not until 1942 that The New York Times (which initially regarded crosswords as frivolous, calling them “a primitive form of mental exercise”) began running a crossword in its Sunday edition. The first puzzle, a Sunday, ran on February 15, 1942; the motivating impulse for the Times to finally run the puzzle (which took over 20 years despite the fact that its publisher, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was a longtime crossword fan) appears to have been the bombing of Pearl Harbor: in a memo dated December 18, 1941, an editor conceded that the puzzle deserved space in the paper, considering what was happening elsewhere in the world and that readers might need something to occupy themselves during blackouts.

The puzzle proved popular, and Sulzberger himself would author a Times puzzle before the year was out. In 1950, the crossword became a daily feature. That first daily puzzle was published without an author line, and to this day the identity of the author of the first weekday Times crossword remains unknown.

There have been four editors of the puzzle: Margaret Farrar, who edited the puzzle from its inception until 1969, Will Weng, former head of the Times’s metropolitan copy desk, who edited the puzzle from 1969 to 1977, Eugene T. Maleska, who edited the puzzle until 1993, and the current editor, Will Shortz. Of the three former editors, Maleska alone held the position until his death.

In addition to editing the Times crosswords, Shortz founded and runs the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament as well as the World Puzzle Championship (where he remains captain of the US team), has published numerous books of crosswords, sudoku, and other puzzles, and serves as “Puzzlemaster” on the NPR show “Weekend Edition Sunday”.

The popularity of the puzzle has grown over the years, until it came to be considered the most prestigious of the widely circulated crosswords in America; its popularity is attested to by the numerous celebrities and public figures who’ve publicly proclaimed their liking for the puzzle, including opera singer Beverly Sills, author Norman Mailer, baseball pitcher Mike Mussina, former President Bill Clinton, conductor Leonard Bernstein, TV host Jon Stewart and music duo the Indigo Girls.

In addition to their appearance in the printed newspaper, the Times puzzles also appear online at the paper’s website, where they remain the only part of the paper’s content for which users need to pay for online access (unless they already subscribe to the printed version of the paper for home delivery). In 2007, Majesco released The New York Times Crosswords game, a video game adaptation for the Nintendo DS handheld. The game includes over 1,000 Times crosswords from all days of the week. Various other forms of merchandise featuring the puzzle have been created over the years, including dedicated electronic crossword handhelds that just contain Times crosswords, as well as cookie jars, baseballs, coasters, mousepads, and other items.

Will Shortz does not write the Times crossword himself. Instead the puzzles are submitted to him as the editor by a wide variety of contributors. Aside from the increasing difficulty throughout the week, the Monday-Thursday puzzles and the Sunday puzzle always contain a theme, some sort of connection between 3-5 long (usually Across) answers. The theme could consist of a similar type of pun in each theme entry, a similar type of letter substitution or alteration in each entry, or any of numerous other types.

Notable dates, e.g., holidays or anniversaries of famous events, are often celebrated with an appropriately themed puzzle, although only two holidays are currently commemorated on a routine annual basis: Christmas and April Fool’s Day. The Friday and Saturday puzzles, the most difficult in the paper, are routinely unthemed and are usually “wide-open”, with fewer black squares, and more long words.

Given the Times’s perception as a paper for a generally literate, well-read, and somewhat arty audience, puzzles frequently reference works of literature, art, or classical music, as well as modern TV, movies, or other touchstones of popular culture.

Next time – the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

We here at Puzzlehead understand how fortunate we are that we can enjoy warm tropical weather year round. But if you’re snowbound and suffering from cabin fever, here’s something at which to throw your collective brains.

That Fedora Guy has put together an interesting geocaching.com bookmark list called The Unfoundlings. On it are caches all around the world that have never been found after having been published for at least six months. As of October 2009, there were 53 unfoundlings, and it should come as no surprise a good number of them are mystery caches. A few of them are just challenges, such as the 100 Letterbox Challenge or the South Dakota County Challenge. But most of them are just really tough puzzles, such as:

• Secrecy
• Cache Noir – Scene One
• Different Alternating Universes

Good luck with these, puzzleheads!

-eP

PS: My favorite unfoundling is not a puzzle – it’s the single most remote cache in North America.

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