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Domus posted:Anyway, it makes more of a case for Boston involving the library, as he's used names on monument type things Re: Boston, I don't remember if anyone mentioned: Horace Walpole posted:The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York BJG fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Jun 11, 2013 |
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Jun 11, 2013 08:16
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Your hidden Q4T erudition is not gonna change the fact that I just found the treasure.
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Jun 11, 2013 08:23
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45 Degrees posted:I scanned in the first section of the book and uploaded the pages to a Flickr account. Fantastic - thanks! BTW if anyone is still having problems getting access to Q4T I suggest a follow-up email to the webmaster, Mark Parry, explaining you're from Something Awful...contact on the homepage. I mentioned to him that people from this forum were having trouble registering. BJG fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Jun 11, 2013 |
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Jun 11, 2013 09:19
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Didn't see anyone mention this yet but I found another forum working on solving this book over here. Looks mostly dead at this point, lots of references to Q4T but maybe worth looking through for those so inclined.
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Jun 11, 2013 10:13
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Devyl posted:GENERAL On the other hand, those are the two which have been found. Possibly due to the relative transparency of given clues.
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Jun 11, 2013 10:18
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Nesetril posted:Your hidden Q4T erudition is not gonna change the fact that I just found the treasure. I like some of what you have found and will try and get out there tomorrow. Halfway through the image 11 thread on q4t and it is really not much help so far.
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Jun 11, 2013 11:32
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Merlot Brougham posted:Montreal Huh. It turns out that the Boer War was an "object of Twain's attention," too. From: http://www.twainquotes.com/19351024.html "I talk the war with both sides - always waiting until the other man introduces the topic. Then I say, 'My head is with the British, but my heart and such rags of morals as I have are with the Boer - now we will talk unembarrassed and without prejudice.' And so we discuss and have no trouble." The Lion of Belfort monument that's associated with Victoria/the British is just east of the Boer War monument in the park, right? Maybe it's between the two? Or like you say, where the horse is pointing? I don't think the legs match the fingers, but maybe it's just the angle I'm seeing in pictures. It looks like there are bronze reliefs on the base of the statue. It would be neat to get photos of those and see if we can make matches from those. stab posted:god drat how did I miss that connection. I think Burns, Boer and Belfort form one line of the cross, and Laurier, Boer and the kiosk form the other. Were they that way in 1982? So Boer in the middle I guess.
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Jun 11, 2013 16:12
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Can someone just explain what makes people think the New York verse and picture are supposed to go together? Are we actually not sure?
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Jun 11, 2013 19:35
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Finally read all of the Q4T thread on Houston. Mainly the picture, but some of the verse. Here's what I'm thinking. Generic -- Applies to all pictures and verses Brian Preiss was not some kind of puzzle mastermind. He was no Marvin Gardner. In his mind, he thought the puzzles were easy and would be found in a month. Looking at the two puzzles that have been solved, he's right -- they're ridiculously easy in retrospect. The problem is, they're not as intuitive as Preiss would have liked, and now that it's gone on for years, we're trying to find meaning anywhere and we're convincing ourselves that it must be more complex or someone would have found it by now. That isn't necessarily true. Preiss probably had access to aerial photography, but it probably would have been limited and might have just been maps of the area in question. Google Earth, particularly the historical data is very helpful, but he couldn't expect someone in 1982 to have that kind of access. Remember, this was expected to be found in a month, matching aerial photography back then would have been hard and would have taken a long time. Same with finding phrases in other books and such -- they might point you in the right direction, but they won't be pivotal to solving the puzzle. It's very easy for us to do this today with Google, but it would have been fantastically hard in 1982. What I'm trying to say here is, if you have to struggle to make something fit or make several leaps of logic to find the meaning, you're probably trying too hard. Be very careful of confirmation bias. I saw a lot of that in the Houston thread, which I'll detail below. If your solution isn't working, don't keep trying to force it. Now, let's talk about the pictures and the commonality between the two found so far. First, they start with lat/long coordinates in the image. That should be the primary clue to get us in the general vicinity. Next, several images in the picture will be found to let you know you're approximately in the right place. There may be a map or it may be a famous landmark nearby. These outlines will be indistinct, but recognizable. Other, more detailed images tell you that you're in the general area. There will be something that says, essentially, "you are right here". If you can't find these very concrete -- perhaps, literally -- landmarks, you're not even remotely in the right place. The verses tend to work from the outside of the park they're buried in and work their way inside, getting more specific as you near where the treasure is buried. They also seem to be fairly straightforward -- he's not a puzzle mastermind and they weren't designed to be difficult. Remember too, the found casks were found in public parks that are accessible pretty much any time and usually in a secluded area. He mentions that he did it very clandestinely, and the one treasure someone helped him bury -- Cleveland -- the other participant talks about how they did it at night and without permission. He flew around on planes with a six-foot shovel and didn't bother to tell anyone why. Anything buried out in the open would have been noticed, and likely dug up. It had to be secluded so that the area had time to settle for at least a few days and blend back in with the undisturbed earth. Remember too, that replanted earth tends to settle, which is why it's often easy to find buried treasure for a while after it's buried -- there's a shallow impression left where you dug. It's also the reason that graves are overfilled. Sure, it was the 1980's and people didn't ask as many questions and you could get away with things you couldn't today -- but it was still the 80's, and burying something in a public park would definitely draw questions. If they saw you burying something, they would have come back and dug it up. So, your final site would need to be somewhat hidden, and accessible any time of the day or night. City parks are a very good place to bury, because they're usually empty at night but easily accessible. Plus, while you may think the treasure will be found in a month, you have to plan that it may not be found for a year or maybe even five or more -- particularly the last ones to be found. City Parks in the middle of the city are well established, have been built over decades, and because of the history and tradition contained within, they will change very gradually over time, if at all. The fact that he was fairly unconcerned with people finding the treasure even decades later -- and the fact that both found locations still look mostly the same 30 years in says that he was thinking along these lines. Houston First, let me address the Children's Zoo. I've been troubled by this since it was first mentioned. Looking over Q4T, you have one guy -- literally one guy -- who becomes convinced it's in the Children's Zoo and shouts down anyone who disagrees. He makes some compelling points and he writes well as a persuasive writer, but once he gets it into his head that the treasure is in the Zoo, he can't let it go. He keeps looking for things that confirm what he already "knows", and telling anyone with an alternate theory that they have to convince him that he's mistaken. Eventually everyone just agrees, sure, it's in the Children's Zoo. He even gets permission to dig up the Children's Zoo with a goddamn backhoe and never finds anything. Even today, he will not let it go. Here's his "evidence". It really starts with this elf statue:   He's convinced it's the Djinn, because of the close approximation of the cap on it and the Djinn's cap. The fountain in his hand becomes "the spout" and it just goes sideways from there. It's the party room because the globes outside of it line up with a column that makes it look like the central column in the picture. No, wait, it has to do with the Aqua Tunnel, because you can look up there and see water from the children's aquarium. It "veers" around the tunnel. No, wait, it's in the middle of the children's zoo because there were four sections -- four alike -- and one of them is Asia! It has to be there! You can see some of his photos of the Children's Zoo around 2006 here, if you're interested. It goes on like this for years and many pages. Seriously. While I'll admit the hat is similar, nothing else in the statue matches anything else anywhere and honestly, the connection is a stretch at best. While he has a point about everything else, he ignores many lines of the poem because he can't make them fit and never really reconciles how you get from the 982 to the Children's Zoo -- there is not and never has been a forest between them. There's also the challenge of sneaking into the zoo after hours to bury the treasure -- something that would have probably gotten you arrested if you'd been found. For these reasons and many others, I don't think it was ever in the Children's Zoo. However, let me address one last point -- the email with the author. Here's his post: quote:Slappy, Then again, maybe I'm just confirming my own biases. I just can't see the definitive icons in the zoo that you find in the other pictures and locations. Most troubling to me is that virtually nothing concrete from the picture has ever been found. Possible New York Connection in Verse 1 I'm not entirely convinced that we have the right verse. Again, wilhouse is leading the charge that this is the right verse. I have to admit that "the 982" is a very strong lead, but ... nothing else really seems to fit with Hermann Park apart from "four alike" -- which could be anywhere and "small of scale", which could also be anything. But humor me for a moment. Am I the only one who thinks this line: quote:Our strongest tower of delight Interesting photos  Aerial photo of the zoo in 1981. You can also see more historic aerial photos here.  The casks are likely much smaller than you think. Smaller than I thought, anyway. The plexiglass box isn't much bigger. What I think I know Almost nothing. There are numbers, 30, 95, and 96. Using the previous numbers, I think we're correct that it's Houston. But is it even Hermann Park? I think I remember seeing confirmation of that in the Q4T thread, but now I'm wondering if it's more conjecture. There are other big parks in Houston, even ones downtown. What I learned most from reading Q4T is that perhaps the best thing we can do is discard all "existing knowledge" and start fresh. Those people have been looking for the treasure for literally years now and haven't been able to find it. It's very likely that they are completely off base and directed by previous knowledge. It's very hard to challenge what you think is correct. I'd use the resources here in this thread, but I wouldn't be afraid to start from scratch and rethink it. This really should be easier than we're making it out to be, which says to me that we're overthinking everything. einTier fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Jun 11, 2013 |
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Jun 11, 2013 21:08
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These links were posted earlier in the thread, about the initial publicity for the book: http://kspot.org/trove/ct_111682a.jpg http://kspot.org/trove/ct_111682b1.jpg http://kspot.org/trove/ct_111682b2.jpg The second one contains this quote from Preis:  So let's make this very clear. He made the puzzles with what he perceived as varying degrees of difficulty. He expected one to be found in 30 days, and some might never be found. The argument that these are all supposed to be superficially easy is not supported by Preiss himself. Some of these are going to be obscure and difficult.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:28
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More Houston Starting from scratch. What if it's Tranquility Park, not Hermann Park? It was opened in 1979 and celebrated the moon landings, so it would have been the new hotness back then. Look at these towers and tell me they don't look like the pillars in the background and the one under the rhino head. They're the only things in Houston I've seen that even remotely match those things.  What about the lines in these verses? Verse 7 posted:Giant pole  Or... Verse 5 posted:A wingless bird ascended
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Jun 11, 2013 21:37
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Deteriorata posted:These links were posted earlier in the thread, about the initial publicity for the book: Fair enough. I rescind my previous statement. ...and man, is that hard to do. I had a lot invested in that supposition. drat it. Still, that bolsters the idea that he planned that they may not be found for years -- maybe decades -- so he likely buried them in places unlikely to change any time soon. Parks in the middle of cities -- where the previous casks were found -- makes the most sense. I also believe that he was not a puzzle mastermind, so while the clues may be obscure, I'd be surprised if he came up with something that required fantastic leaps of logic.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:50
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einTier posted:More Houston I like this line of logic - in the picture, perhaps the cross with circle in the upper left hand corner is highlighting the moon, referencing its influence on this puzzle? But I'd have no idea what the camel, rhino, or ball atop the pillars would be in connection with.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:52
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I was going through BJG's pdf about Milwaukee and he's referring to a couple of natural gas line markers as being possibly a part of the picture. I'm sure that a gas system is probably a real old part of a city's infrastructure, but bright, plastic access markers? Not so sure. Also, DO NOT DIG OR POKE THE GROUND ANYWHERE AROUND GAS LINE MARKERS. Just sayin'.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:54
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einTier posted:Finally read all of the Q4T thread on Houston. Mainly the picture, but some of the verse. Here's what I'm thinking. I want to point out that aerial photography of 1981 is widely necessary now and not just something we are erroneously expecting everyone in 1981 to have needed to solve the puzzle. The reason we need it now is simply because we are not in 1984, we cannot go back to 1984 any other way, and an enormous amount of change has happened since 1984. I actually firmly believe aerial or similar detailed maps of ~1980s is crucial to us confirming most puzzles and can be argued simply on the fact that the very first puzzle found would be unsolvable without one now simply based on the fact that the fence (a big clue to the final exact area) is now gone. Matching up borders/rivers/etc on google maps is worth a look but, I agree that it's probably overdone in this forum. However, it was not difficult to take a photo of a building/map of a river/etc and use a projector to overlay it on a canvas back then. I think how the Milwaukee building (city hall) is so exact in it's silhouette is probably either because of a projector OR the artist is just that good in examining a photo and painting dimensionally correct off of that. If that can be done, why not something more complex? Again, I do think it's a bit overdone and we need to tone down the photo manipulation to simply supporting existing and concrete evidence. edit: in response to above post, there exists USGS Benchmarks (examples: http://mountainclimbingawards.com/Benchmarks.htm) that I thought might be the "compass" for the Milwaukee poem but I think if they were used, he would be specific about it in each poem. crashdome fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jun 11, 2013 |
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Jun 11, 2013 21:57
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Deteriorata posted:So let's make this very clear. He made the puzzles with what he perceived as varying degrees of difficulty. He expected one to be found in 30 days, and some might never be found. It becomes too easy with technology to over-analyze clues which may not be intended or may not even be there. Look at the morons finding coverups or clues to alien civilization in the satellite photos of the moon and Mars. An artist in 1980s who was not working with computers only had tracing paper and an art projector to work with. Some things that are easy to do today in Illustrator were extremely difficult to do the old way. Artists were creative with the tools they had and they did some amazing stuff with it but it is unlikely they were putting in clues that could only be discovered by technology and Photoshop.
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Jun 11, 2013 21:57
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Very Nice Eraser posted:I have the book coming in this week or next and I have access to a stupidly-high-detail imaging system at work if anybody wants high res images of certain pages or parts of pages.
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Jun 11, 2013 22:35
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HoustoneinTier posted:Doesn't that describe the Apollo rockets pretty well? People dreamed of flying to the moon, but it took a wingless craft to get us there. Looking at the jinn, on his left shoulder there's a marking that kinda looks like a mirrored Apollo 11 eagle Douginc posted:I like this line of logic - in the picture, perhaps the cross with circle in the upper left hand corner is highlighting the moon, referencing its influence on this puzzle? But I'd have no idea what the camel, rhino, or ball atop the pillars would be in connection with. The pictures are supposed to help you find the city and the verses help zero you in, right? Maybe some of the visual clues help identify the city, but also where not to look? In this case, don't look in Hemisphare, don't look in the zoo, don't look in Memorial Park (maybe it's a Hog/Hogg?) but look in the park with the pillars?
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Jun 11, 2013 22:46
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Douginc posted:I like this line of logic - in the picture, perhaps the cross with circle in the upper left hand corner is highlighting the moon, referencing its influence on this puzzle? But I'd have no idea what the camel, rhino, or ball atop the pillars would be in connection with. Maybe the star just represents the Apollo 11 mission?  The camel could symbolize travel, given camels are used to carry people and things across long distances in the desert. The rhino could symbolize travel at great speed/force. I also had another thought awhile back that I didn't bring up: Perhaps the column with the sphere on top is supposed to represent a flagpole. I'm interested in exploring this new line of thinking with regard to which park Cask 8 is buried in, but I think we need to sync up more parts of Verse 1 with the areas around these other parks before we get too attracted to any theories.
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Jun 11, 2013 23:37
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Actually, I'm starting to think that throwing everything out that isn't blatantly obvious -- like the Lat/Long coordinates or the extremely distinctive Legeater statue -- is the way to go. All this conjecture and no one's found anything on that board other than the cask in Cleveland -- which seems to have spurred on the board itself? I think some of the things accepted as "truth" aren't. It's really hard to talk yourself out of an idea once it's planted in your head.
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Jun 11, 2013 23:47
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Douginc posted:I like this line of logic - in the picture, perhaps the cross with circle in the upper left hand corner is highlighting the moon, referencing its influence on this puzzle? But I'd have no idea what the camel, rhino, or ball atop the pillars would be in connection with. I was thinking maybe they were the logos of companies or businesses nearby. But it looks like, from a cursory glance at wikipedia, that several blocks got re-developed after 1981.
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Jun 11, 2013 23:48
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Verse 8 posted:From woman, with harpsichord This is the only harpsichord sculpture I could find. Could this be it? That's Galatea silently playing a harpsichord. Galatea is described various ways, but always a female. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/89.4.2929  At any rate, it's in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:02
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Houston Just did a quick Google search for "houston 982" and after filtering out all the train and real estate links, I found this article from the University of Houston. http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi982.htm UH's mascot is a Cougar, which might help in explaining the line "No lion fears". I also found this in the above link:  Sphere column much? 
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Jun 12, 2013 00:02
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Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:Houston Nope. That's just episode 982. It's not tower 982, and even so, it would still be a reach for the sphere column. I think what I'm most disappointed about is that we're not finding anything like the archer on horseback of Chicago or the Lion's Head Basin of Cleveland. Surely, there is something on the picture that matches up directly with something somewhere in Houston. I keep scouring google images for outdoor art in Houston but coming up empty.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:18
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I checked and I am sorry if this was posted but I found this forum cached in google they had some pretty good pictures of the park in Houston where they thought it was and the photobucket account is still active and all of the pictures are uploaded there that the guy took from the park. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:A0uguN17eeEJ:tweleve.org/secret/26510-herman-park.html+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/rookhunter/library/?sort=3&page=1
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Jun 12, 2013 00:18
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einTier posted:Actually, I'm starting to think that throwing everything out that isn't blatantly obvious -- like the Lat/Long coordinates or the extremely distinctive Legeater statue -- is the way to go. Houston I found your theories incredibly interesting and have to admit that Tranquility Park does look an awful lot like the columns in the painting. According to Wikipedia, the columns at the park are meant to represent the rocket boosters, which looking back at the painting, I can imagine the bottom of column as the nozzle at the bottom. Looking at google maps for the area, I can see some pretty good spots to hide a cask north of the park. I'm really starting to believe that the wrong verse is matched up with this picture and would really love to know how they were matched originally. The "giant step" one especially stands out to me due to the footprint plaque, I'm just poking around seeing if there's an "object of Twain's attention" somewhere nearby.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:30
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Also and this could just be my eyes seeing what they want to but when I look at the dark area in the picture running along the background blue they look like a puzzle pieces and they look like they would fit in Herman Park on a map if put together.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:35
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GaryLeeLoveBuckets posted:Houston Yeah, I think knowing how the verses were originally matched with the pictures would help out immensely.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:37
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This looks like a dead ringer for the object in the leaves at the upper right.  Also, could the strange leaf to the upper right of the orb pillar be this ship outline? 
GaryLeeLoveBuckets fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Jun 12, 2013 |
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Jun 12, 2013 00:39
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Houston Austin goon checking in. I'm off on the weekends and if some other goons are willing to pitch in some gas money, I'm down for an exploratory road trip to Houston. I feel like we're close and I want to scour the areas around both parks for some 'aha!' clues. I have PMs if anyone is interested.
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Jun 12, 2013 00:49
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GaryLeeLoveBuckets posted:This looks like a dead ringer for the object in the leaves at the upper right. Thats reaching. Also, the Columbia accident wasn't to happen for more than twenty years. Hell, Challenger didn't happen for another five or so, after the casks were buried. The shuttle program was brand new when this book came out.
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Jun 12, 2013 01:01
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GaryLeeLoveBuckets posted:Also, could the strange leaf to the upper right of the orb pillar be this ship outline? The first space shuttle mission was in 1981. The leaf is larkspur.
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Jun 12, 2013 01:05
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Raccoon Leaf posted:The first space shuttle mission was in 1981. The leaf is larkspur. I have such a sad face right now. I really don't want that leaf to be larkspur, but you're definitely right.
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Jun 12, 2013 01:13
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einTier posted:Generic -- Applies to all pictures and verses I'm breaking down Cask 12's image and would like any comments anyone has. I'll note the commonly accepted assumptions, but I think it's worthwhile to think outside the box. I'm using "generally accepted," "thought to be," and "speculated to be" as indicators of the level of confidence people in this thread have in the accuracy of the predictions, with notes where people have suggested explanations that stand out. The Big Picture  The picture is generally accepted to represent New York City. It is also speculated that the cask is near but not in New York City, largely based on the assumed pairing of the picture with the line from Verse 6 "In the shadow of the grey giant." The nationality represented is generally accepted to be Russian. It has been noted that the picture has a general Art Deco style, which may be significant. What cities could match the clues in this picture? There are many places in the US with large Russian-American populations. The latitude and longitude of the city where the cask is buried is thought to be in each picture. Can you find any numbers in the picture? (see section The Water for more on this) Assuming it is New York City, remember that the city has 5 boroughs and what you see of NYC in pop culture is almost exclusively lower Manhattan. Byron Preiss said very little about the locations of the casks, but stated unequivocally that he did not bury one in Central Park. If you find any matches outside of New York City, see how many matches you can find for other elements of the picture. The Bird  The bird appears to be a seagull with an eagles' head. It is generally accepted that the bird represents the gargoyles on the Chrysler Building. Can you find a better match for the bird's head than the gargoyles? Do the mismatched head and body mean anything? Do the bird's wings match any statue, geographical feature, or the outline of any manmade construction? Does the continuation of the line of the window pane onto the bird's wing mean anything or is it just a coincidence? Does the shape formed by the bird's legs and feet mean anything? The "Church"  The silhouette appears to be that of a Russian Orthodox church. This could be a general suggestion or a specific landmark. There is no generally accepted match for the church, but it has been speculated that it may be St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church or the Russion Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord may match. Can you find a church whose silhouette matches the one in the picture? If so, where would you have to stand for that silhouette to match the picture? The Clock  The square clock is generally accepted to be a reference to Times Square. The hour is 11:00, which is generally accepted to indicate the month of November. Can you find a clock whose face, numerals, or hands match this clock? The Rectangle  This rectangle could represent a building, monument, or other feature. It has been suggested that it may represent one of the World Trade Center towers, the UN building, or part of a bridge. It has a ratio of approximately 2.72:1, which is Euler's number. The suggestion that it is one of the World Trade Center towers has the most support, but there is no generally accepted match and it is still up for debate. It has been suggested that the rectangle matches the shape of Ellis Island. Can you match the dimensions or orientation of the rectangle to any building or other object? Does the 2.72:1 ratio match anything? The Water  The picture has an aquatic theme (waves, droplets, seagull) and this is thought to be an indication, combined with other clues, that the cask is either buried on an island or near water. It is generally accepted that a 74 and a backwards 41 are visible in the water, approximating the latitude and longitude of New York City (the exact location of 41N 74W is in a wooded area SSW of Old Tappan, New Jersey.) Several individuals have suggested that shapes in the water may match landmarks or symbols. Are there any numbers, symbols, or outlines in the water? The Window  The top of the picture resembles a stained glass window. There is a section missing between the bird's wings that is generally accepted to be of significance. The dotted panels are speculated to resemble colorblindness tests, but no clear patterns have been identified in the panes; several colorblind people have mentioned that they see something but aren't sure what, and I suggested that the top left pane contains the zodiac sign for Ares tilted about 45 degrees to the right, but nobody has found anything of apparent significance. It has been speculated that the colors are significant. It has been suggested that the shape of the window is similar to that of the windows of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It has been speculated that the window pane may be a map, may match a real window, or may represent the shape and/or style of windows of a building that serves as a landmark to help orient the reader when they get to specific directions. Part of the window is missing between the bird's wings, and the panel to the right of the bird does is wider and extends to the left of the center of the window, past where you would expect it to end. Does the outline of the window panes match a window on any building? Does the outline of the window match any street map? What does the notch missing from the pane behind the bird signify? What does the oversized panel to the right of the bird signify? The Woman  The woman is the central theme of the picture and generally accepted to offer several clues to general and specific locations. Do the woman's dress and pose match those of any statue or artwork? The Woman's Face  The woman's face is generally accepted to be the Statue of Liberty. It is not clear whether this is a general reference to New York City or a reference to a specific location. Does the woman's face match any statue, artwork, or person better than the Statue of Liberty? Is she just looking off into the distance? If not, what is she looking at? The Woman's Dress The outline is thought to be an approximation of the outline of Manhattan. The drops of water and jewel are thought to represent islands south of Manhattan. Does the outline of the dress match any geographic location more closely than Manhattan? Does the positioning of the water droplets and the jewel match anything on a map? The Face in the Dress  There appears to be a face in the woman's dress. This could be a clue to a specific location if identified. It It has been suggested that it may represent one of the iconic lion statues in front of the New York Public Library, but this is not generally accepted as it is not an exact match and there are two statues. Can you find a statue, artwork, or person whose face matches this? The Sleeves of the Dress   Several people have speculated that the sleeves of the woman's dress may represent geographical or architectural features. One person noted that the white spot at the bottom of the right sleeve may have been hastily added as it lacks the detail and shading of the rest of the dress. GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Jun 12, 2013 |
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Jun 12, 2013 01:52
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Anyway, I think it's time we stopped thinking about the riddles as "unsolved for 30 years" and started treating them as "perfectly solvable with the right bit of information". To this effect, let's have more fun in the thread and maybe go gold with it. Houston I was reading The Golden Mile-stone by Longfellow for the Boston riddle and encountered this: quote:From the hundred chimneys of the village, Ifrits and genies are interchangeable as far as their visual depiction goes and an ifrit (a fire spirit) would work very well with the moon mission interpretation. Not saying that this is directly relevant as a clue or anything, but BP's erudition could make him think this way when he was designing the riddle. (In order to solve the riddle, you have to think like the riddler.  )
Nesetril fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Jun 12, 2013 |
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Jun 12, 2013 02:23
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NYC Excellent summary, GWBBQ. The image is maddeningly imprecise, with very few obvious or recognizable landmarks. I assume that once the right spot it found, a lot of it will fall into place - but NYC is a rather large place, and the right place is going to be difficult to track down. The pose of the woman is similar to a statue of Artemis in the Metropolitan Museum of Art:  Unfortunately, I have no idea if it was on display in 1981. It's been in its current location in the museum since 2007, but who knows where it was before that. I was struck by the pose of the woman as reminiscent of classic sculpture or perhaps Mary and that was the closest match I could find through GIS. The face in her belt reminds me of Chico Marx, but that isn't going to be helpful. Other bits: The vertical line under the bird does not continue to the top. The blue bubbles go farther left than they should. The maroon and cream colors are close to those of Fordham U. The blue "bubble" could be stones and thus might refer to bluestone, a form a slate used for sidewalks in NYC the past. The rectangle in the lower left may also refer to the harbor at Ellis Island or actually any number of large buildings in NY. The small hand on the clock looks like a shadow of the large one. That's about it for now.
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Jun 12, 2013 03:01
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New Orleans Wife and I did some poking around on Verse 7/ Cask 7. Think it may be in Jackson Square. At stone wall's door The air smells sweet Couple of ideas here. Perhaps a reference to the smell of the flowers in the park itself. On the face of the clock, in the upper corners, there are what can either be described as flowers or bells. From all the pictures we could find, the flowers appear to have that general shape. St Louis Cathedral, which is directly across the street from the park, is built of stone. Standing in the doorway of the cathedral, you may be smelling the flowers. The other thought is, less than a block away from the square is the second oldest standing wall in New Orleans. The area is full of restaurants. Not far away High posts are three Education and Justice For all to see The Louisana Supreme Court courthouse is two blocks southwest of Jackson's Square. Courthouse houses the Law Library(education), as well as the Louisiana Supreme Court and Appeals Court(justice). Sounds from the sky Near ace is high Back at St Louis Cathedral, the cathedral contains church bells that were installed in 1819(sounds from the sky). Again, in the upper corners of the clock in cask 7 appear to be either bells or flowers and the number 19. Not sure how ace fits in. Bell tower goes off on the hour, so 1 o'clock? Running north, but first across In jewel's direction Is an object Of Twain's attention Twain's greatest passion was the Mississippi River, it is referred to as the "Jewel of the Midwest." Across the street, southeast from Jackson Square is the Mississppi River, and at that point the river turns from running north, to east. Prior to the river turning north, it was also running west to east Giant pole There is a flagpole at the southwest end of the park. From the Jackson Square Wikipedia "The flagpole, commemorating the city's transfer from Spain to France to the United States in 1803, symbolizes the square's rich cultural history." Giant step To the place The casque is kept. One step away from the flag pole? Other items of note: -On the clock in the picture, it says "Preservation." Preservation could have two meanings; Preservation Hall is 2 blocks northwest of Jackson Square. However, and more likely, (more wiki) "In the center of the park stands an equestrian statue of Jackson erected in 1856." That may explain the picture of a horse's head in the lower right hand corner of the cask picture. On the equestrian statue reads the following quote from Jackson "The union must and shall be preserved." -Also on the clock are the numbers 29 and 90. Jackson Square is located at GPS +29.95748 -090.06310. -The clock on the cask looks very similar to the clock face on St Louis Cathedral. The clock face also looks very similar to the layout of the square from above, but my mind may be playing tricks on me at this point. Feel free to poke our theory full of holes. emosx fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Jun 12, 2013 |
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Jun 12, 2013 03:03
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anybody feel like checking montreal's city archives? I was just told by a friens who works for the city that they photograph every 5 years all landmarks 
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Jun 12, 2013 03:38
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Guuse posted:Huh. It turns out that the Boer War was an "object of Twain's attention," too. with better weather ill take requests for anything in the square. so ask specifics and ill try to get them in to you guys for friday. rule out the checkerboard tiles folks, those were installed in 2009.  and in that square alone, that is the correct formation, with macdonald on the other side of the street across from marie reine du monde.
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Jun 12, 2013 03:44
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Deteriorata posted:NYC Look at that statues hands. The way the fingers curl is really similar to the way the fingers curl on the hand on the right side. Welp, apparently it was in buffalo before the MET. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_and_the_Stag
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Jun 12, 2013 03:58
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