|
Never Been Banned posted:Alright. In the spirit of contributing something to the thread beyond posturing and vague claims here's some writings about the SC puzzle that I've done over the past year or so. What does this mean for San Francisco's verse? As far as I saw Q4t is focused on it absolutely being the match to image 1.
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 16:15
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 05:48 |
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:
That the stripes are red, yellow, and green suggests it has nothing to do with a flag at all. Those are stoplight colors.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 16:17
|
|
|
Deteriorata posted:That the stripes are red, yellow, and green suggests it has nothing to do with a flag at all. Those are stoplight colors. I don't own a copy of the book myself, but I'm pretty sure it isn't a matter of speculation that the bars are red, white, and blue.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 16:33
|
|
|
Image 1, Verse 7 - San Franciscoobliviums posted:What does this mean for San Francisco's verse? As far as I saw Q4t is focused on it absolutely being the match to image 1. I wouldn't say that Q4T is absolutely focused on matching this verse to image one, although there is a strong connection. Image 1 has the prominent portcullis:  It also contains a direct match to the letters and font on the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company building:  The portcullis being suggestive of Alcatraz which is a very conspicuous landmark when seen from Ghirardelli square. These are the connections that link image 1 to Verse 7 according to the theory: At stone wall's door. (The portcullis) The air smells sweet. (Ghirardelli Chocolate Building). According to this theory, the question is, why would Preiss would put a direct photographic match to an iconic landmark that is a Chocolate Company, combine it in an image that has a stone wall's door, and then not have that image be paired to Verse 7? Someone looking at Image 1 for the first time isn't going to connect the G and the H from the Ghirardelli building immediately, but once you figure that out, you know what Preiss is talking about when he says "The air smells sweet" rather than having it just be some arbitrary reference to gunpowder or flowers. Preiss demonstrably used a similar technique with both solved casks as well as Verse 11/Image3 pair: Verse 4, Image 4, Cleveland Seek the columns For the search.  Here he's directly referencing the columns in Image 4 to help you link the Verse to the Image. Granted, image 8 also contains columns, but this narrows things down to two images. I think this is the extent of Preiss' trickery, as demonstrated by other connections that have been made about how complex the clues are. He certainly isn't in the business of throwing out blatant red herrings. Verse 11, Image 3, Roanoke Ride the man of oz to the land near the window  Here he's directly referencing the outline of Roanoke Island drawn next to the window in Image 3. Again, other images do contain windows in them, so this isn't a freebie, but once you realize that the Image 3 window also contains a perfect map of Roanoke island next to it, you know he's talking about this Image/Verse Pair. Verse 12, Image 5, Chicago Fence and fixture Central too  This part of the verse connects it to Image 5 by directly telling you to connect it with the fence and fixture as drawn exactly in the center of image 5.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 18:16
|
|
|
Those Gh's don't match. I think people want them to match but when you actually look at them, they don't. I think the alcatraz match is dubious, as well. There is nothing on alcatraz that looks like that barred window. Again, it seems like someone likes the idea so much they are making it real. Same with the Golden Gate Park shape and the asian thing and pretty much everything that matches that picture to SF. Nothing is solid. Everything requires a leap. The SC one actually does make a lot of sense. There are definite matches in the picture. Same with Chicago and Cleveland.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 18:28
|
|
|
Waltzing Along posted:Those Gh's don't match. I think people want them to match but when you actually look at them, they don't. I think the alcatraz match is dubious, as well. There is nothing on alcatraz that looks like that barred window. Again, it seems like someone likes the idea so much they are making it real. Same with the Golden Gate Park shape and the asian thing and pretty much everything that matches that picture to SF. Nothing is solid. Everything requires a leap. If we didn't already have the Chicago solution, I imagine you'd be claiming the fence in the image can't be a match for the fence at the treasure ground based on the comparisons. Image 1 is absolutely showing us an outline of the border of Golden Gate Park and the G and H from the Ghirardelli sign, just as Image 9 is absolutely showing us a lamp post. Merlot Brougham fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 18:52
|
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:If we didn't already have the Chicago solution, I imagine you'd be claiming the fence in the image can't be a match for the fence at the treasure ground based on the comparisons. Image 1 is absolutely showing us an outline of the border of Golden Gate Park and the G and H from the Ghirardelli sign, just as Image 9 is absolutely showing us a lamp post. Except it is not the outline of GGP. The panhandle is missing. E: And the Gh is a different font. It's a leap, but not a definite one. Waltzing Along fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 19:03
|
|
|
Waltzing Along posted:Except it is not the outline of GGP. The panhandle is missing. The Bowman sculpture in Grant Park isn't actually holding a bow like he is in image 5. You can make similar arguments about the outline of the map of Ohio and the Terminal Tower in Image 4, both which were solved. What's your point? Waltzing Along posted:E: And the Gh is a different font. It's a leap, but not a definite one. e: The Gh was hand drawn from a Polaroid in the early 80's. I don't know what more to say about nitpicking slight font differences with the obvious matching features, namely the tails at the end of each of the letters. Also, of all the letters in the alphabet to choose from, he uses an upper case g and a lower case h. Not a coincidence given the rest of the context of the image. Merlot Brougham fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 19:11
|
|
|
Still, no one can find anything close to resembling that window at alcatraz, nor anywhere else.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 19:43
|
|
|
I'm actually struggling to come up with something I lost for SC. My info (calling it a theory is unfair, I have no emotional attachment to it, these are just my findings/notes) on SC has a completely different and pretty OK explanation for the "Sumter" image. I have never believed it to be Sumter, because it's so obviously Sumter, and I've found various bits and pieces of evidence that lead me to believe that there are some actual false hints in the paintings. Nothing like "I found this Polaroid/shape, but it's meaningless" but just obvious clues that might have a slightly different meaning than first comes to mind. To me, and I freely, 100% admit that I can't say if any pictures from this angle were available, the "Sumter" in the image looks like Washington Park, in Charleston's historic district. When viewed from above, the replica of the Washington Monument makes the exact "clock" effect seen in the painting. The exact placement is not perfect from this angle, but if you zoom in you can see the "teeth" in the painting in this photo as well. http://i.imgur.com/nxa59nW.png The eyes on the face almost exactly match the "screws" seen on historical plaques in this area. This is what I've lost. At some point in my crazypants travels I had pictures of almost every single plaque and monument in Charleston. It was a plainish white site (Wayfinder looks similar, but if it's Wayfinder they ditched the feature I need) that would list info about monuments and statues and plaques, their inscription, and more importantly, NEARBY monuments as well. I can't find my picture of these screws, so I need some help. Further down the block from Washington Park is The People's Building (now a condo), Charleston's first "skyscraper" and one of it's historic buildings. In front of it were two marble "Leopards" (that have seen been destroyed/moved inside) that look like this: http://i.imgur.com/JXqLUPQ.jpg This is around the corner from Washington Square. The next part ties into the verse: "Edwin and Edwina named after him Or on the eighth a scene" I've done a lot of research on Washington Square and the surrounding stuff, and it's right downtown in Charleston's Historic District. Using the traditional SC verse (which NBB has done a good job of shaking me up about, I think all of the verse pairings need to be rethought) there is a theater nearby (to these other clues) that I find interesting: http://www.charlestonstage.com/dock-street-theatre.html It's the type of thing that's easy to find on Google but needs to be explored in the area. Here is another link: http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/doc.htm Booth was not a no-name actor, he was widely considered one of the best and most famous of his time, and his name is associated with this theater in many places. Edwin Booth is of course named after him, being his son (and the brother of John Wilkes), and the line "Edwin and Edwina named after him" could very easily be referring to Edwina Booth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwina_Booth) another well known actress. The next line almost undoubtedly refers to the Booth Theater in NYC (alarm bells should be going off here, the verse/paintings need to be rethought, hard) located on 8th Ave (Broadway). I don't think it's much, and I need help finding that plaque/statue directory again to show you the screws, but it's a bit. There is some not awful work being done at Q4T on this image actually, including some similar locations to NBB's theory. There are a LOT of pictures of Sullivan's Island up there, including a marker which may be a Polaroid. Tough to say. I swear someone at Q4T posted a picture that looked like the fairy in Image 2 but I can't find that either, so I could be misremembering. edit: Ah, here we go. This is old and hasnt' come up much, but: http://i.imgur.com/cukcSPY.jpg This is about .6-.7 mi away from Washington Sq in a museum. xie fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 19:56
|
|
|
Drunk Nerds posted:Still, no one can find anything close to resembling that window at alcatraz, nor anywhere else. We could be looking for that exact window, or it could be symbolic. The Chicago cask never would have been discovered if the guys deciphering image 5 spent the entire time looking for anything close to resembling "that windmill in Chicago" rather than understanding it was symbolic of the "windy city". It very well could just be a clue that narrows the image in to San Francisco as a starting point. From there you are able to zero in on more specifics such as the local parks that may have maps hidden in the image (like GGP), or unique local landmarks, such as the Ghirardelli building.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 20:01
|
|
|
We have absolutely no clue whether or not the windmill was meant to signify the Windy City, or just an obfuscation of the Water Tower.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Image 2, Verse 6 - Charlestonxie posted:This is around the corner from Washington Square. The next part ties into the verse: Since Image 2 is largely African themed, I don't think the Blyden connection can be ignored if (big if) one is going to go for the Verse 6 pairing with this image:  Knowing that Preiss already uses Abroad in America as a source for hunt material doesn't hurt to back this angle up. quote:We have absolutely no clue whether or not the windmill was meant to signify the Windy City, or just an obfuscation of the Water Tower. I don't think it's ridiculous to suppose a windmill would be "Windy City" reference in an image we know to be linked to Chicago, no. Merlot Brougham fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 20:20
|
|
|
I didn't say it was ridiculous, so we're in full agreement. I said we can never know, so it's difficult to use it as a basis for other clues/assumptions. It's very possible, I don't think it's out there, but as it was never confirmed (M&B...) I'm just hesitant to make a "rule" based on it. I know the Abroad in America thing, I'm not arguing against it either. Just posting my notes. I think that was so drat obscure as to be useless in 1982, but again, I don't know for sure so saying "no way" is silly. One of the issues I've had with Q4T is they have a lot of "knowns" that aren't really known. I try to avoid them, because I don't think you absolutely needed the answers to any of the puzzles to solve one. The internet didn't exist in '82, so it's not like he expected the people in Boston to know what the people in SF were doing. xie fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Nov 8, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 20:23
|
|
|
xie posted:
Agreed, but I also think this makes it easier to assume that there are certain themes Preiss employed that are constant more or less throughout. For example, I think everyone's on the same page that Preiss hid numbers in the images and those numbers give us the latitude and longitude of the city where the cask is buried (The Milwaukee rebus being the notable exception, of course). I just think that we can cautiously build on that to see what other similar techniques he used. I'm not sure there's as much groupthink over at Q4T as people are suggesting here, but that's another conversation.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 20:53
|
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:We could be looking for that exact window, or it could be symbolic. The Chicago cask never would have been discovered if the guys deciphering image 5 spent the entire time looking for anything close to resembling "that windmill in Chicago" rather than understanding it was symbolic of the "windy city". It very well could just be a clue that narrows the image in to San Francisco as a starting point. From there you are able to zero in on more specifics such as the local parks that may have maps hidden in the image (like GGP), or unique local landmarks, such as the Ghirardelli building. It's a window. How does that symbolically help us realize its San Francisco? If i want to reference Alcatraz, there are about a thousand symbols I could use, none of which would be a window. The illustration is generally China themed. Chinatown is about a mile or so in back of Ghirardelli square. I certainly can't recall being able to see the backwards Gh from a point in ChinTown when I was growing up in sf during the 1980s, but is it possible?
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 21:08
|
|
|
Drunk Nerds posted:It's a window. How does that symbolically help us realize its San Francisco? If i want to reference Alcatraz, there are about a thousand symbols I could use, none of which would be a window. It's a barred up prison like window in the center of a big rock.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 21:19
|
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:It's a barred up prison like window in the center of a big rock. You'd have a much easier time of it if you focused on the numbers that could be the right lat/lon than on things that don't match at all or barely match. Barely: GGP with no panhandle. Or a big long rectangle. It's a park! I know it! Not at all: The alcatraz link. You can make a leap by saying alcatraz was called The Rock, but it's not a good one. Barely: Gh. These three things seem more like someone falling in love with an idea and wanting it to be true rather than on something concrete. That shape in the rocks on the left? That is consistent with other pictures in that it looks like it is a shape of some sort of land/water body. Nothing like that around SF, though. The only thing that does make sense is the numbers.
|
|
#
?
Nov 8, 2014 21:30
|
|
|
AARP LARPer fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jan 23, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 07:34
|
|
|
allta posted:
Sorry if any of these ideas are super old but I haven't read the entire thread and just want to share what jumps out at me here: The "grey giant" might be Manhattan itself, the "arms" bridges or tunnels. The lady in the picture might actually represent Manhattan as well:  I think the drops/gem either represent the small islands around Manhattan or the four other boros. The ferry to Governor's Island only runs during the summer, makes a whirring noise and is full of cars. The Roosevelt Island tramway makes a whirring noise. The subway to New Jersey is called the PATH. None of the other poo poo makes any kind of sense to me  EDIT: The lady is flying above the water, like you would on a tram to Roosevelt Island (or maybe a ferry??) d0s fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Nov 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 08:56
|
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:I don't own a copy of the book myself, but I'm pretty sure it isn't a matter of speculation that the bars are red, white, and blue. It's not. This is foolishness. It's a simplistic rebus clue whether it applies to what i have here or not.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 10:28
|
|
|
I'd like to keep the dialogue regarding these puzzles moving forward. To that end I'm now going to post for public consumption the work I did with the Boston puzzle. Once again, I think it is wrong some degree. You need to be on site and to use your own camera and scientific process to sort out what's going on with each image. Unfortunately, and to the dissent of many, I personally believe that people have had the right notion going forward all these years--the author interacted significantly with the Charlesgate circles. Or at least he probably did. I can't quite pull together the idea that he did not. For the folks that are really into the themes of these puzzles I will say this. It looks like a parallel between Pheidippede's marathon run and Paul Revere's ride is what you should focus on, in terms of making sense of the verse. In the past few months Boston theories have emerged that make me want to toss this one to the gutter, but we should look at it anyways. It's familiar to the PNW solve. Here is the theory, for the curious, said items matching what i presume to know about the puzzles. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7yo20hapk6mrm72/Boston%20Solution.pdf?dl=0 Never Been Banned fucked around with this message at 11:36 on Nov 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 11:31
|
|
|
I can't share publicly why this is wrong (I'm still sworn to public secrecy not to reveal this persons work, which you can understand) but via PM I can prove to you conclusively that Charleagste is not involved in this hunt. Today is my birthday though so I just haven't had the time this weekend, and I left my laptop charger at work so I only have my phone. Edit: the s is not a proper match for the Somerset. Believe me, I've spent hours and hours there.  I have yet to find a good explanation for the S anywhere.Charleagste is a site that works on Google but not when you go there, but it's not far from where you should be! I also know it's been dug at, and that's all I'll say about that. Something that can never translate about Charlesgate is what a huge dump the place is. It's under a lovely, ugly, hated & congested highway on ramp. It doesn't really rule it out on its own but it's not a pretty little park by some condos. xie fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Nov 9, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 12:46
|
|
|
xie posted:I can't share publicly why this is wrong (I'm still sworn to public secrecy not to reveal this persons work, which you can understand) but via PM I can prove to you conclusively that Charleagste is not involved in this hunt. I'll gladly cede to someone local. A street view based effort is really a half measure for these, and if you say the site is unviable i'm inclined to just accept it. The harebrained Athens/Sparta component and potentially dubiously imprecise cask placement component of the theory make it difficult to believe even despite some of the very convincing elements.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 18:04
|
|
|
Maybe I missed it somewhere, but does anybody know what happened to the actual Polaroid pictures that Preiss was apparently hanging on to for all those years before he died?
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 18:25
|
|
|
Cask 4, Verse 4 - Cleveland  In light of the recent conversation, here's a good comparison of image 4 with the actual treasure ground that demonstrates a certain degree of artistic liberty. Those columns are clearly not the same font. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 18:43
|
|
|
Houston goon here. So granted I only found out about this last night and haven't had the time to do the googling and in-person looking around, but has anyone connected the circle with lines through it in image 8 with the Mecom Rockwell Colonnade in Hermann park? It's been there since pre-1982 and has a fountain in the center. And I've seen people speculating that the rock with a curve is important; there's a roundabout across the street with the Mecom fountain that's been there since pre-1982. Sorry if this has been brought up before. ETA: And the more I read the lines connected with the area, the more that I'm thinking that the water and spout refer to fountains, especially with the Herman Melville quote. Whales and all.
|
|
#
?
Nov 9, 2014 20:15
|
|
|
d0s posted:Sorry if any of these ideas are super old but I haven't read the entire thread and just want to share what jumps out at me here:   This is the train yard behind the NJ Central station that I discussed earlier. Given the rest of the evidence and the fairly linear path from Liberty Island -> Liberty State Park (a ferry only in the summer), the shape of the windows on the terminal building, the clock, and the 3 stories by Irving connection to Communipaw, the Ellis island terminal gargoyle, ferry slip, and "russian church" shape... I feel it's in that area. xie fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Nov 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 00:10
|
|
|
Never Been Banned posted:Alright. In the spirit of contributing something to the thread beyond posturing and vague claims here's some writings about the SC puzzle that I've done over the past year or so. I'm writing this in a constructive spirit, I'm hoping to help here. I think your image analysis is robust and highly credible. I think it gets very close to nailing down the possible locations. It's easily obvious the general area is correct. It's all very good work. I have my doubts that it's correctly matched against the right verse, however. Too much feels forced onto the verse. One example is "is an object / Of Twain's attention". I don't think that the Ben Sawyer bridge sharing the last name of Tom Sawyer is enough of a match. My feeling is this clue should lead to a strong, obvious match. That's not what this is. Let's go through this pedantically looking at the language of the verse. First, the bridge itself wasn't an object of Twain's attention because he was dead before it was built and it was named after a state highway commissioner. Secondly, if we are stuck on Tom Sawyer as the link, well he's not really an object at all. Choosing "object" instead of many other words totally obfuscates a clue. Why wouldn't you write "is a namesake / Of Twain's attention" and even that is still confusing as to what/who Mark Twain is attentive to. Also, the Ben Sawyer bridge/Blvd only ever runs (sorta) North. "but first across" instead of "and first across" should mean that it is, at first, not running north at all, but across (east west?) "In jewel's direction" (casque). The problem here is that if we have the Ben Sawyer starting on Sullivan's running North, then it is running away from the jewel, and never first in any direction toward the jewel. In short, I think too many meaningful details in this section of the verse aren't matching up. I hate doing this without a credible substitute theory but too much doesn't pass the smell test. We should look at better matches for these clues in the area and a potential better matching verse since there is some disagreement on that front as well. Good luck. edit:grammar Polish Avenger fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Nov 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 18:27
|
|
|
Merlot Brougham posted:Cask 4, Verse 4 - Cleveland Merlot is right. The real scenes depicted by the images are couched very carefully using a measured amount of artistic license and distorting techniques such as composite perspective sketching and adjustments to the proportionality of objects. BigFactory posted:I think it's entirely likely that priess wasn't very good at making puzzles. Maybe, but that's not the case with all of them at very least. The one up here in my area, once you've matched proper poem and painting, followed the verse to within 20 square yards of the cask or so, and managed to get your eye tuned to the slight of hand style at play in the image is a really fair puzzle, and much of it ends up hardly even seeming subtle in retrospect. Outside of the one puzzle, I really have no idea how any of the remaining 9 images work, but I can say that I completely expect them not to be that difficult to decipher once the correct immediate site, not just city, for each has been accurately worked out and intimately photographed by boots on the ground working to tease out the details. I'm not confident at all that these sites have been identified for most of the remaining puzzles. At least not to my limited knowledge of the work that's been done with these.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 18:31
|
|
|
Just post the location or at least say which painting and verse you are using
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 18:55
|
|
|
Deadite posted:Just post the location or at least say which painting and verse you are using He's found a secret painting and a secret verse:  Verse 13: X marks the spot, human being.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 19:36
|
|
|
Yes but what does the verse mean? I await your analysis
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 19:45
|
|
|
Deadite posted:Yes but what does the verse mean? I only accept analyses that are at a minimum of thirty pages in PDF format.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 20:02
|
|
|
Never Been Banned posted:Merlot is right. The real scenes depicted by the images are couched very carefully using a measured amount of artistic license and distorting techniques such as composite perspective sketching and adjustments to the proportionality of objects. dig it up
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Pls don't post a thread about my junk
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
The Milwaukee one - perhaps the "three stories of Mitchell" refers to the three domes in Mitchell park, each of which contains a unique biosphere, telling its own story. This would line up nicely with the next line, for which I have never heard a good explanation "as you walk the beating of the world", which seems to me to be a reference to the Hank Aaron trail - Hank Aaron was a big deal in Milwaukee and beat Babe Ruth's "world" record while there.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 21:16
|
|
|
Saltin posted:The Milwaukee one - perhaps the "three stories of Mitchell" refers to the three domes in Mitchell park, each of which contains a unique biosphere, telling its own story. This would line up nicely with the next line, for which I have never heard a good explanation "as you walk the beating of the world", which seems to me to be a reference to the Hank Aaron trail - Hank Aaron was a big deal in Milwaukee and beat Babe Ruth's "world" record while there. That's a drat nice accounting for "as you walk". Best i've ever heard by a longshot.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 21:21
|
|
|
did you find a child's ceramics projecyt yet?
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 22:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 05:48 |
|
|
I actually popped over to Roanoke when I was traveling for my job and despite knowing that I was at a cask location I still couldn't find anything. Nothing matched the picture, Preiss didn't give a poo poo and didn't declare casks out of play or care if anyone found them, and buried them in places where digging is a felony. Sorry but the thread peaked when the guy dug for six hours because the flat rocks he uncovered "told him the treasure was close." Everything else has been interesting but pointless theories that don't mean anything because nobody is going to dig. Let this thread die.
|
|
#
?
Nov 10, 2014 22:26
|
|
