|
Guuse posted:I guess the legeater is the surest thing, but it isn't unique. So in which other North American city has that exact legeater design been also found in the last 31 years of treasure hunting?
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 14:31 |
|
|
Imazul posted:So in which other North American city has that exact legeater design been also found in the last 31 years of treasure hunting? How many leg eaters were destroyed in the last 31 years when a handful of people were looking for them? I would love for a St. Louis goon to look all over Forest Park for one.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:13
|
|
|
Imazul posted:So in which other North American city has that exact legeater design been also found in the last 31 years of treasure hunting? None had been found anywhere until the one was seen in Montreal. It took 25 years to find that one. It might be the one Preiss had in mind, it might not be. The one he intended as a landmark may no longer exist for all we know. We do know that there are many of them in Palermo, Sicily, so they've been available. There may be one sitting outside an Italian restaurant right now in some city nobody has thought to look at yet. We know Montreal is a possibility. We do not know it's a certainty.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:20
|
|
|
Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:How many leg eaters were destroyed in the last 31 years when a handful of people were looking for them? I don't believe I've seen anything that ornate in Forest Park, but I mostly stick to the museums, the zoo, and occasionally the coffee place. Someone might want to check out the Jewel Box or the World's Fair Pavilion. (I still think the legeater's Montreal, though.)
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 04:46
|
|
|
Casque 9 This is something that's been bugging me about his face. It's showing two emotions at once:  Here's the right side of his face, mirrored:  And here's the left side of his face, mirrored:  It's like the tragedy/comedy drama masks. It must be significant, but I'm not sure why.  Sorry if it's old news, I don't remember seeing it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:01
|
|
|
I've lived in Vancouver most of my life and I can't connect any of the iconography from the picture to anything that is remotely familiar. Give me an outline of the mountains or shoreline or something that mirrors local architecture. How does the collar line fit? The top left corner of his hat? The shape of his hands? As much as I'd love for it to be Vancouver, I don't have one solid or even plausible connection. Edit: ^^ I wonder what mirroring does to the collar? Viking Blood fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:02
|
|
|
einTier posted:Except that area didn't look like that in 1982. It looks so nice today and such a perfect fit that I also ignored the problems for a long time. Oh god it's getting harder rookhunter where are you please give me permission to share some stuff with this person IT HURTS THE PAIN IT HURTS SO BAD!!
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:16
|
|
|
Viking Blood posted:I've lived in Vancouver most of my life and I can't connect any of the iconography from the picture to anything that is remotely familiar. Ask and ye shall receive:   ed: I doubt picture 9 would go with Vancouver. Picture 12 might - it's the Russian one, and Russian America was Alaska.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:20
|
|
|
What does Vancouver have to do with Alaska?
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:47
|
|
|
I think this number is clearer than the other hair curls, but it's not a coordinate.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 05:49
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Casque 9 That's actually really interesting. Urban Smurf mentioned thinking that there may be a fold-in picture that could be obtained from the drawing on account of the guy's resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman and this is something similar. Deteriorata posted:Ask and ye shall receive: Victoria Tower bell possibility for whoever mentioned Ottawa earlier? I think the other has been mirrored before without making a dome match, but that is what it looks like. Prof. Numbers posted:I think this number is clearer than the other hair curls, but it's not a coordinate. Eh, I still get a 9 or a 6 from that before 2.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 06:00
|
|
|
Guuse posted:Eh, I still get a 9 or a 6 from that before 2. I don't think we're talking about the same hairs.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 06:01
|
|
|
MassaShowtime posted:What does Vancouver have to do with Alaska? Geographical proximity. He mentions in the story about the Russians encountering the Mohicans (page 23, from here):  Preiss was well versed in mythology and the creation myths of the various indigenous tribes. The whole book is basically him showing off about what he knew of mythology and tales of both the Old World and the New. He certainly knew this: quote:In the early 1700's, Hendrick Aupaumut, Mohican Historian, wrote that a great people traveled from north and west. They crossed waters where the land almost touched. ... What is meant by the "north and west" and "waters where the land nearly touched" is not known. The Bering Strait theory is questionable, based on current research.) For many, many years they moved across the land, leaving settlements in rich river valleys as other moved on. In 1980, the Bering Strait hypothesis was the only one going so it's undoubtedly what Preiss would have understood it to mean. Since he's got most of the ethnic groups moving to where they are most traditionally associated, the Russian fairies would head for Alaska. Out of all of that, I get that he's implying the Russian fairies met the Mohicans before they had reached New York state, but after they had crossed the Bering Strait. The fairies were headed north and west the Mohicans were heading south and east. Elsewhere in the story Vancouver features prominently, so Vancouver as their meeting-place seems a reasonable deduction. That is how I get a possible connection between the Russian image and Vancouver. It's an educated guess, but not a bad one IMO. Deteriorata fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 06:18
|
|
|
Vancouver Just an observation: the collar shape isn't entirely dissimilar from lost lagoon in Stanley park, rotated by 90 degrees. The lagoon was redeveloped in '86 as part of the expo, but I've tried a few rotations and it's not a very good fit; that said it's reasonably close, as in it could be traced from an aerial shot of the lagoon at an angle. Like I said, not a strong lead, but combined with Siwash rock as the inner collar, it may be something.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 08:22
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Geographical proximity. He mentions in the story about the Russians encountering the Mohicans (page 23, from here): Except that that part of the book has nothing to do with the puzzle because he didn't write it and its been made pretty clear that its just filler and not to do with the treasure hunt.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 08:25
|
|
|
Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:How many leg eaters were destroyed in the last 31 years when a handful of people were looking for them? I've asked a St. Louis goon to be on the lookout. I specifically asked about Tower Grove Park area, I will ask him about Forest Park. AFAIK, the goon hasn't taken an interest in the thread. However, he's super smart, and into photography. He was going to be downtown doing some things, so I passed along the high res. picture of Cask 9, and asked him to take pictures. I also showed him our legeater, and asked if he's seen any. He would be the type of person to see something like that and photograph it. Hopefully he'll come through!
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 08:40
|
|
|
einTier posted:I'm not 100% sold on it myself. Every time I look over the Hermann Park solution, I am drawn to that damned 982 locomotive and I love the "small of scale, step across" referring to the miniature trains. I can't tell you how much those things call to me. I'll ask at work today about John Tucker (I work at the Fort Sumter Visitor's center). I can't give names or anything away but I'm pretty positive I can get out to the Fort during the day and not have much trouble digging. With this new job a whole new way it could have been buried at the Fort Occurred to me. Normally, the way we sell tickets out to the Fort, there's never much time that you could actually have alone on the Fort. However, visitors are allowed to do the "extended stay" where you can basically stay on the Fort for about 4 hours. Now, you would still be somewhat supervised, but that gets rid of the time constraints issue. According to several of the employees I talked to at the Fort, it might not have actually been as hard to dig at the Fort as previously thought. Apparently, it wasn't until the early 1990's that they started really getting kind of serious about conserving the Fort and making sure people didn't take bricks home with them. One of my friends from work said he would not be surprised if, back in the 70's and 80's, someone just started digging a small hole and no one said anything to him. Now, to put this all into context, I still don't believe that the Cask is at Fort Sumter. However just because of how few places it could actually be (there's only so much exposed dirt on the island) on Fort Sumter, and the fact that many of our clues in the verses deal with the fort, I think it would be a good place to eliminate from consideration. I will definitely ask about John Tucker today and I will just generally ask around to see if anyone has even heard of the Casks.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 12:04
|
|
|
PunkNickel posted:I've asked a St. Louis goon to be on the lookout. I specifically asked about Tower Grove Park area, I will ask him about Forest Park. AFAIK, the goon hasn't taken an interest in the thread. However, he's super smart, and into photography. He was going to be downtown doing some things, so I passed along the high res. picture of Cask 9, and asked him to take pictures. I also showed him our legeater, and asked if he's seen any. He would be the type of person to see something like that and photograph it. I used to live on on Tower Grove so this would be great if one were there. There are a lot of good parks in Saint Louis. I miss it! I suppose the leg eater could be on the Hill someplace.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 12:31
|
|
|
MassaShowtime posted:Except that that part of the book has nothing to do with the puzzle because he didn't write it and its been made pretty clear that its just filler and not to do with the treasure hunt. That's an assertion many have made, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence to back it up. I spent a lot of time on image 12 and it doesn't have much of a New York feel about it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:04
|
|
|
I've had a brief look at these pictures and I'm fairly certain that cryptic puzzles are not what I was born to be good at (combined with living in London and not having local knowledge of these cities to supplement), however I read this thread end to end last week and it's now the first one I check in GBS. I'm really hoping that of the ten remaining casks, goons can solve one and the cask location is intact (San Francisco, Boston and New Orleans sound like the cask may have been destroyed)
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:29
|
|
|
I don't believe Preiss had nothng to do with the LotJ. He may have not written it but that doesn't mean he didn't supply a playbook or a list of words to exercise his lampoon writers who had no direct knowledge of his casque locations.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:33
|
|
|
Egbert confirmed 100% when he met Preiss that the rest of the book has nothing to do with the treasure. There was no hint, no coyness, he said it very directly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:36
|
|
|
xie posted:Egbert confirmed 100% when he met Preiss that the rest of the book has nothing to do with the treasure. There was no hint, no coyness, he said it very directly. Did he also confirm that the verse he worked off of (verse 4) actually matched with his cask site? I was surprised reading through the verse thread on q4t how much of the verse could not be matched to the final location. Given that there was also Xenophon and Thucydides at his location, could it be that, since it was largely an image match, verse 4 is still in play and that somehow verse 3 fit Cleveland? I agree there are some pretty good clues such as the "find the columns" but it seems that a lot of things can be shoehorned into these verses if one tries. Just a thought - there's enough in verse 3 to make one think of Boston but would hate to be on a wild goose chase because we accepted something as truth. Chicago fits perfectly.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:43
|
|
|
Guuse posted:Eh, I still get a 9 or a 6 from that before 2. I see a 39 instead of a 12. The first number has a bottom curl to the left like a 3. The other is most definitely a 9.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:43
|
|
|
Urban Smurf posted:I don't believe Preiss had nothng to do with the LotJ. He may have not written it but that doesn't mean he didn't supply a playbook or a list of words to exercise his lampoon writers who had no direct knowledge of his casque locations. I find it significant that the two found were for ethnic groups with no strong geographical area associated with them. The Irish were everywhere, not just Boston, and Greeks were nowhere in particular. Coincidentally, those groups get scant mention in the book and their images included strong geographical clues to indicate where they were. The groups that get talked about the most in the book all ended up where they have strong geographical attachments. Most of those connections have been made by people apparently working independently of the text. I'm working from the assumption that the story was intended to be an integral part of the solution to most of the casques. Ignoring the text hasn't produced much, so maybe it will be useful. xie posted:Egbert confirmed 100% when he met Preiss that the rest of the book has nothing to do with the treasure. There was no hint, no coyness, he said it very directly. Did he state that it was irrelevant for all of them, or just for the Chicago casque? The latter is certainly true. Deteriorata fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 14:48
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Did he state that it was irrelevant for all of them, or just for the Chicago casque? The latter is certainly true. All of them. This is really just wanting something to be true that isn't at this point. Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:Did he also confirm that the verse he worked off of (verse 4) actually matched with his cask site? I was surprised reading through the verse thread on q4t how much of the verse could not be matched to the final location. Given that there was also Xenophon and Thucydides at his location, could it be that, since it was largely an image match, verse 4 is still in play and that somehow verse 3 fit Cleveland? I agree there are some pretty good clues such as the "find the columns" but it seems that a lot of things can be shoehorned into these verses if one tries. Verse 4 is full of exact locations on the wall to dig from - what doesn't match? The article about the find from 2004 talks about the verse specifically, I believe. edit: Verse 4 is a flawless match - what doesn't fit? The names in the verse are even carved on the wall. http://thesecret.pbworks.com/w/page/22148511/4_verse xie fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 15:05
|
|
|
xie posted:All of them. This is really just wanting something to be true that isn't at this point. Do you have a link to the quote? I've learned not to take peoples' word for it on this stuff.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 15:07
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Do you have a link to the quote? I've learned not to take peoples' word for it on this stuff. He didn't say it in an interview or an e-mail. He met Egbert in person at the vault. The author confirmed with no uncertainty that the rest of the book has nothing to do with the treasure - you'll have to go read through the thread on Q4T, as I don't think it made the newspaper article. I'm sorry your theory is wrong, but the other two puzzles were solved without the rest of the book, and so will these 10.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 15:10
|
|
|
xie posted:He didn't say it in an interview or an e-mail. He met Egbert in person at the vault. The author confirmed with no uncertainty that the rest of the book has nothing to do with the treasure - you'll have to go read through the thread on Q4T, as I don't think it made the newspaper article. Fine. Ignoring the book has produced nothing, so I'm going back and questioning assumptions. The worst I can do is equal to what's already been done. VVVVV That makes perfect sense. The "Field Guide" is a bunch of silliness that obviously has no connection to anything. Deteriorata fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 15:12
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:Ignoring the book has produced nothing, so I'm going back and questioning assumptions. Good idea. Once again, Preiss confirmed to Egbert that the countries of origin were connected with the casque sites. The introduction which deals with this topic and includes the litany and maps was pretty obviously written by Preiss and contains at least one direct clue IMHO, regarding the Spanish puzzle and the Fountain of Youth in Florida. Preiss also told Egbert that the material following the verses contained no additional clues. This "Field Guide" is the section which was put together by the writers from National Lampoon. (Despite this assertion, it's still interesting to glance at, though it's not available online.) BJG fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 15:13
|
|
|
Dr. Gitmo Moneyson posted:Oh god it's getting harder rookhunter where are you please give me permission to share some stuff with this person IT HURTS THE PAIN IT HURTS SO BAD!! Permission granted. Hopefully we will have a casque soon to share with everyone.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:05
|
|
|
rookhunter posted:Permission granted. Hopefully we will have a casque soon to share with everyone. Oh, you tease. Honestly Rookhunter, you're being unnecessarily mean, raising their hopes like this. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:09
|
|
|
rookhunter posted:Permission granted. Hopefully we will have a casque soon to share with everyone. I'm really hoping this means I don't have to read Pierre. Ayn Rand was bad enough, but Melville writes in that 19th century style that I hate. It's overly wordy and everything thing is hidden behind multiple layers of meaning. I tried reading it again last night, and by the time I got to the "tallest tower of delight" section, I wanted to poke my eyes out.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:28
|
|
|
xie posted:Verse 4 is full of exact locations on the wall to dig from - what doesn't match? The article about the find from 2004 talks about the verse specifically, I believe. If you read the thread about the verse on q4t, you'll see a lot more half-baked ideas about Italy plus Vatican equals two countries (and the US and Greece thing is a stretch). It sounds like from his post that he couldn't really use the square things and just did the hop up to justify the location. Certainly those dead Greek guys were on the monument but the other dead Greek guys Thucydides and Xenophon are on the very plaque in question so...I think it's at least a reasonable mental exercise to try and poke holes in it. Again, it seems that verse 3 matches Boston pretty well but Cleveland had a coliseum and maybe there's more that I just don't know that fits pretty well there, too. I think that the Cambridge Commons is a great fit so far and think it would be nice to go to the history commission and see if we can get more information about it. Also, even thought I've walked by the stairs outside of Harvard T stop many time but there is definitely a circular aspect to it that I would like to better trace because, surprisingly, I cannot find a great outline of it on an image search.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:29
|
|
|
The Harvard T stop was completely redone though, wasn't it? I'm under the impression that Harvard Square proper looks nothing like it did even 10-15 years ago. I think the solution listed on that wiki is needlessly complex. Beneath two countries - either Italy/Greece or just the fact that the Greek one was between two others (Italy/Lithuania) make more sense than USA being one of them. I guess being a greek thing on US soil makes some sense too. It gets you to the gardens, the road curving gets you to a very close location, the images get you even closer, and then the almost step by step directions take over. Not sure about the hops, could just be something that disappeared in the 22 years. Chicago was solved with an "incorrect" understanding of the verse, so it's absolutely possible, and we only actually found out what M&B meant in 2004. xie fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:36
|
|
|
InvictaHOG, I remember that Vatican theory. It was the only place in the world where full country status existed 100% within the borders of another country. Not a stretch one bit, a highly specific solution actually. Since there's no "maybe" in that idea, there's nothing half-baked, [though I've been half-baked for much of my life, let's not make this personal.] I'm sure you've looked closely at the map (many changes to the gardens must be taken into account) and there's no way to see this as beneath or (south of) two contries. Once you rule out the phyically impossible you have to resort to understanding how an informed understanding of Italy relates to the location.
Urban Smurf fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
Urban Smurf posted:InvictaHOG, I remember that Vatican theory. It was the only place in the world where full country status existed 100% within the borders of another country. Not a stretch one bit, a highly specific solution actually. Since there's no "maybe" in that idea, there's nothing half-baked, [though I've been half-baked for much of my life, let's not make this personal.] What about San Marino? It is also fully within Italy and that makes three countries. The Vatican idea makes no sense and doesn't fit at all. I don't know about the Harvard station but I would be interested in knowing more about the history there.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:42
|
|
|
Urban Smurf posted:It was the only place in the world where full country status existed 100% within the borders of another country. There are many. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vui-qGCfXuA
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:44
|
|
|
Invicta{HOG}, M.D. posted:What about San Marino? It is also fully within Italy and that makes three countries. The Vatican idea makes no sense and doesn't fit at all. San Marino is not 100% surrounded by Italy, it shares a border with the sea. Edit: Sleepstupid posted:There are many. Oh, I stand corrected. I recall researching for awhile and ruling out San Marino for some reason. It's complicated stuff when you look at all the enclaving and whatnot. Maybe it's something about the word "country" vs Sovereign Nation or Republic. Ugh, I'll have to go back and delve. Deadit: I delved enough to say I can't conclude that Italy is 2 countries. It's one really, and has 2 enclaves within it. If only the line read "Beneath two enclaves...". Urban Smurf fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Jun 25, 2013 |
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 1, 2024 14:31 |
|
|
Urban Smurf posted:InvictaHOG, I remember that Vatican theory. It was the only place in the world where full country status existed 100% within the borders of another country. Not a stretch one bit, a highly specific solution actually. Since there's no "maybe" in that idea, there's nothing half-baked, [though I've been half-baked for much of my life, let's not make this personal.] I'm sure you've looked closely at the map (many changes to the gardens must be taken into account) and there's no way to see this as beneath or (south of) two contries. Once you rule out the phyically impossible you have to resort to understanding how an informed understanding of Italy relates to the location. Lesotho fully exists within South Africa. Now, did it 20 years ago? I'm not sure.
|
|
#
?
Jun 25, 2013 16:46
|
|
