allta posted:

Cask 12

The location of this cask is thought to be New York
Verse 10
In the shadow
Of the grey giant
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
In summer
You'll often hear a whirring sound
Cars abound
Although the sign
Nearby
Speaks of Indies native
The natives still speak
Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols.
Take twice as many east steps as the hour
Or more
From the middle of one branch
Of the v
Look down
And see simple roots
In rhapsodic man's soil
Or gaze north
Toward the isle of B.
As you might have noticed in the verses there are several spelling errors, I figured they were important so I left them in, and I did my best to preserve the original spacing.

Oyak posted:

That was an interesting idea for Verse 10...personally, I think the New York box is in Battery Park for a few reasons: one is that it was in the shadow of the World Trade Center (the grey giant), and the other is that it's next to the American Indian Museum (the reference to the Indians). Not quite sure how to place the box now that the WTC has been gone for 10 years, though. Also, if you look North from Battery Park, you will see Brooklyn (the Isle of B?).

The Walking Dad posted:

Cask 12

The location of this cask is thought to be New York
Verse 10
In the shadow
Of the grey giant
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
In summer
You'll often hear a whirring sound
Cars abound
Although the sign
Nearby
Speaks of Indies native
The natives still speak
Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols.
Take twice as many east steps as the hour
Or more
From the middle of one branch
Of the v
Look down
And see simple roots
In rhapsodic man's soil
Or gaze north
Toward the isle of B.


Could it be that this is in Providence Rhode Island?

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=41.796987,-71.4258&q=loc:41.796987,-71.4258&hl=en&t=m&z=15

Statue of Columbus points north along an avenue, if you walk down that avenue there is a cemetery "Rhapsodic man's soil"

quote:

Verse 10
In the shadow
Of the grey giant
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
In summer
You'll often hear a whirring sound
Cars abound
Although the sign
Nearby
Speaks of Indies native
The natives still speak
Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols.
Take twice as many east steps as the hour
Or more
From the middle of one branch
Of the v
Look down
And see simple roots
In rhapsodic man's soil
Or gaze north
Toward the isle of B.

Bankok posted:

There also seems to be something just below the middle of the clock in the New York one, but it's either too grainy to make out, or I'm imagining things.

Bankok posted:

I wonder who has the original artwork, love to see some high def scans of them.

allta posted:

So according to the forums, the way they got the Lat for the San Francisco(cask 1) was by counting the boxes on her sleeves? If thats true, my assumption that the lat and long are actual numbers hidden somewhere in the picture are a tad off.

It's still without a doubt San Francisco though, so don't worry about that.

quote:

The location of this cask is thought to be New York
Verse 10
In the shadow
Of the grey giant
Find the arm that
Extends over the slender path
In summer
You'll often hear a whirring sound
Cars abound
Although the sign
Nearby
Speaks of Indies native
The natives still speak
Of him of Hard word in 3 Vols.
Take twice as many east steps as the hour
Or more
From the middle of one branch
Of the v
Look down
And see simple roots
In rhapsodic man's soil
Or gaze north
Toward the isle of B.
As you might have noticed in the verses there are several spelling errors, I figured they were important so I left them in, and I did my best to preserve the original spacing.

Deteriorata posted:

Verse 6 does indeed work well for that picture.

Of all the romance retold
Men of tales and tunes
Cruel and bold
Seen here
By eyes of old

I first thought of the Metropolitan Opera, which looks like this:



Those windows are almost identical to the picture. And right across Columbus Avenue is Dante Park, with a statue of Dante Alighieri ("Seen here by eyes of old").

I'm having trouble with the rest, but that seems like a pretty good fit thus far.

xie posted:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Hamilton_Seal.PNG

That's the bird, isn't it? Just without the face. The Chrysler building is nowhere near a park. also the bird in the painting has its mouth open.

Deteriorata posted:

Something else no one seems to have noticed is the odd shadow under her nose. It's far too long to be natural.


It looks to be the shape of a fish, or perhaps a dolphin (looks like two flukes at the edge of her cheek, a dorsal fin at the edge of her mouth).

The shadows covering her eyes seem odd as well. She seems to be lit from the left (her right) based on the shading, but the nose and eye shadows make it seem from directly above her. It's just all wrong. There has to be a clue in all that somewhere.

Delthalaz posted:

Okay so I absolutely need to stop now so I'm going to post the crazy thoughts I've been having in an effort to get them out of my head.

Assuming this works with the new york image.

Of all the romance retold
Men of tales and tunes
Cruel and bold
Seen here
By eyes of old
Okay, sounds like a playhouse or a courthouse
Stand and listen to the birds
Hear the cool, clear song of water
Harken to the words:
Freedom at the birth of a century
Or May 1913
I am mystified by this.
Edwin and Edwina named after him
As folks at the other forum noted, this has to be a reference to Edwin and Edwina Booth. According to the internet, Edwin Booth was named after Edwin Forrest, a notable American 19th century actor, so in a sense, his daughter was named after him too.

One of the things Edwin Forrest is most famous for is his incitement of the Astor Place Riot over rival performances of MacBeth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot)
[timg]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Mg9O6BE.png[/timg]
Or on the eighth a scene
Eighth street? Scene eight? Let's say follow eight street..


Where law defended
Between two arms extended
Below the bar that binds

If we follow eighth street from here we get to a library that used to be a court house - the Jefferson Market Library (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Market_Library)

http://untappedcities.com/tag/jefferson-market-library/

This former courthouse features beautiful stained glass windows created by Charles Booth. Some of the designs are quite geometrical, which may resemble the NY art (or not)





The courthouse also apparently has an unusual Tympanum depicting the trial scene from the Merchant of Venice. And the building used to be connected with a women's prison (http://untappedcities.com/2012/05/17/partners-in-preservation-jefferson-market-library/)
However, now that area is the "Jefferson Market Garden", which had actually opened by the time these objects were buried. Here's a neat little map

This might be the sort of place to bury a casket.


Sounds kind of court-y, or maybe Merchant of Venice, or possible instructions for where to look in the garden. Also, the men who designed the courthouse also went on to some design projects at the White House grounds. (http://greenwichvillagehistory.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/calvert-vaux-and-greenwich-village-architecture-3/)

Sadly I can't figure out how this would link up to most of the images, though you definitely would have been able to see the WTC from that location. It does have gargoyles, though they don't resemble the one in the art nearly as well as the Chrysler building.

e: I don't think this is a reference to the Booth statue in Gramercy Park I don't think there is a way anyone could bury anything there

Queen Gnome posted:

^ aw drat. I guess a hidden number like that was too easy

#12 NYC
A few people mentioned the similarity between the woman in the NYC image and the statue of liberty. Here are comparisons and an overlay with an image from roughly the same angle.



After looking through a lot of photos of the statue, it's pretty clear that shadow pattern only happens at a certain time of day because of one of the spikes. No idea what time, though. Lady Liberty's face shape is more angular than the other, but if I thought I'd see what you guys all thought.

StinkyMeat posted:

How long until we try contacting John Jude Palencar for some drat answers?

Barfoid 3 posted:

Is there a better summary of the OP's evidence that cask 11 is boston? That's just a link to unlabeled images.

Viking Blood posted:

NYC

A few spurious thoughts

Duarte Square
- connected to Indies (founder of Dominican republic)
- three names in his statue inscription Juan Pablo Duarte
- Paved with brick circles ( accounts say that the brick paving "survived" the 2005 revamp of the square but not sure if the circular patterns were there pre-2005)
- conceivably within the shadow of a WTC
- look north to Isle of B could indicate Broadway or even referring to Winston Churchill Square (Britain?)
- shaped like a V
- Cars abound (6th and Canal)

Possible Trinity Church and grounds?
- Grey giant could be BNY Mellon building
- eagle on top of monument at the NE corner of the grounds.

Delthalaz posted:

You're right, but the NYC one is so drat vague I don't know how we can possibly figure out a location from that image.

The Walking Dad posted:

His scientific, political and social works are published in Volume III, compiled and reproduced by Edgar Cerqueira Falcão with the title Obras científicas, politicas e sociais de José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. Its third edition came out in 1963 to celebrate the bicentennial of the Patriarch of the Independence. (Wikipedia)

StinkyMeat posted:

Neat! This window by LaFarge is from the church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan:





Not sure if it means anything, but like Essential said, it's fun to learn.

Delthalaz posted:

Welp, that guy also made stained glass here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Transfiguration,_Episcopal_(Manhattan

including one image of (gasp) Edwin Booth as Hamlet


That greco-roman roof resembles the gap in the Liberty lady's right-arm, as does the roof of the NYPL to be honest. Maybe there are more stained glass windows in that area?

hippieman posted:

NYC

I've been thinking about the NYC image, and how the robes could still be Manhattan.

The NYC Subway maps are not drawn to scale. They exaggerate and rotate Manhattan to fit in all the lines. I'm trying to look for 1970s or 1980s map. I think most New Yorkers know the shape of the island from the Subway map not a geographically accurate map.

I'm using this site to see if there's a Subway map that matches the Statue's dress better:

http://www.nycsubway.org/wiki/Historical_Maps

It seems to me that Google Maps is a very accurate map to use, but I feel like the author would of used the information available at the time, and Subway maps are everywhere.

Delthalaz posted:

Hmmmm... cool art deco bird and lion on the front of the building.

SheepNameKiller posted:

NYC

One of the biggest problems with the bryant park theories is that they're unfalsifiable claims. I would assume that the author would've said before he passed away that the NYC cask was no longer out there to be found unless he was a gigantic dick. Remember that he kept the lockboxes there for over 20 years because he believed these things would one day still be found. And as others have said, if it was at one time in Bryant, it's long gone.

HoboZero posted:

BOSTON
I made a real basic template of the shapes, negative space, etc. for the Boston image:

I have the layered Illustrator .AI and .EPS versions if anyone would like to play with the individual components. It's handy to drag a chunk out of AI into photoshop to lay over other stuff (though I have no idea where to upload/host non-image files bigger than 2Mb, though, so I'd need a suggestion).

Oh, and it's retarded but I can't stop seeing this:

HoboZero posted:

gently caress, duh. Having a retarded day. Here you go, everybody, have a Boston image template in a few vector formats.

fishtobaskets posted:

NYC - Cask 12

I have one piece of exclusionary evidence. For Battery Park, one of the supporting ideas is that it's next to the Museum of the American Indian. This seemed like a promising lead so I started researching the area a bit more. Unfortunately, the Museum didn't move to its current location until some time after 1994. Up until then, it had been located at Audobon Terrace on the upper west side. I looked briefly at Audobon Terrace but that seems like a dead end.

One other thing I noticed (although this probably doesn't pass Flewdefur's litmus test) is Ellis island's topology is a pretty good match to the monolith pane. The island didn't originally look like this but as far as I can tell it's had this shape for many years:


On older maps, it has an even better resemblance since there's less detail and it's not a satellite tracing. Actually I don't know for a fact that they didn't use satellites to make maps pre-1982, nevermind.

Deteriorata posted:

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.

BJG posted:

I'm just waiting for the day when people stop yakking about this puzzle and dig a hole in the ground, but I doubt it'll ever come.

Good old Wilhouse armed himself with a bulldozer and a ground-penetrating radar system and had a drat good try at digging one of these things up. Gotta respect that.

Emacs Headroom posted:

Speaking of which those of us in NYC should prove it by doing some scouting this Sunday:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3552979

I'm still leaning toward McCarren Park for the first outing/scouting. Not because I think it's the most likely, but it's not insanely far for most people and we can grab a beer afterwards (or some tea for non-drinkers) and plot our next moves in case we don't just hit the jackpot on day 1.

Viking Blood posted:

Gents, I may have found an interesting church for the NYC crew...

http://goo.gl/maps/b1XiU

BJG posted:

Toe the line bud, or your avatar will get transformed like you wouldn't believe. They do that here.

quote:

Merlot Brougham posted:

To answer the more general question that was asked, Boston is also located at 42° N 71°W.






The one thing that I've never seen any type of convincing answer to, which is obviously intended to be a clue, is the hairline here. I've tried making some comparisons, including what historic aerials I could find but can't match anything in the vicinity of Boston Harbor.

xie posted:

Here is one of the matches I promised you at the Compass Im on my phone, but take a look at the Gypsy's sleeve (her right, our left if memory serves) and notice the ' ^ ' that seems out of place. Now, we know it isn't the Citgo sign which appears on her dress 'columns,' so what is it?

http://i.imgur.com/g7utxIx.jpg

It's the very unique way the letter 'K' is carved into the Compass. the 'cuts' in the stone separate the K into a | and a <, and this is absolutely a Polaroid Photo inserted into the painting.

xie posted:

Yeah they reached out to me immediately to make sure it wasn't me (the DCR itself didn't respond, the MA police report made its way to them today). Of course it wasn't, and I talked to the head of permits again today. No damage to my case, they're still excited to dig with me. Hopefully we can all line up schedules in the next few weeks. The initial hope was the 9th, but the permits aren't going to be approved by then.

Urban Smurf posted:

M and B are set in stone
Mozart and Beethoven, composers of music which is conducted.

This is the Celtic prize. CELTIC ... "C ILECT" = "see" + "elect". This goes two ways, 1) those who are elected and 2) electricity.

R is for Roosevelt, L is for Lincoln, Grant Park, near the Van Buren train stop, at East Jackson Drive...

I came to the conclusion that the "Fair Folks treasure holder" at "the end of ten by thirteen" could be the 1913 patent holder of Tungsten whom has the same name as a President: William Coolidge. I noticed that by addition 10 by 13 is 23. The 23rd letter of the alphabet is W, also the chemical symbol for Tungsten, the high melting point metal used in the composition of light bulbs.

Tung means "heavy", sten means "stone" (swedish). Many clues in the Chicago puzzle point to things which involve conducting: music, trains, ornamental lightning rods on the rooftops of the giant's hat. The LotJ gives us a great clue: Brilliant as eyes, Celtic emerald, cold morning green. Electric lamps are brilliant. Also, cold morning's could be in the twenties...Andrew Jackson on the 20 dollar bill... Maybe this embodies the nature of this Celtic puzzle: it's about power (electricity) and money (green). Most money has Presidents' faces. Maybe Coolidge is also a reason why Preiss made the word choice "cold morning".

The Chicago finders dug a lot of holes and most folks seem to think a tree grid is the crucial component to locating the cask. I think the real method involves relating all the clues to electricity, like the lightning rods on all the rooftops or the electrified train system, and the windmill is a power generator. This involves noticing the electic powered lamp fixtures in the setting, not a bunch of trees in a grid that has never been proven to be exactly 10x13 in size.

Jackson has street lamps along either side and a second set of lamps are attached to parapets along the bridge's shoulder. The last parapet on the end meets the path that leads south into Grant Park. This reminds me of the fairy from the book sitting on a pedestal/parapet structure with a long shovel in the first pages of the book. Go 13 paces south from this parapet to a spot thats in between the first park lamp and the fence post halo. Then walk 10 paces towards the fence post and center your shovel on the first lamp fixture on the bridge shoulder to the north.



E: I'm trying to establish that there is a clear albeit tricky rear end method at work in these puzzles. The poor assumptions that have become the foundation for what people think has defined how these puzzles work has become a greater obstacle than just the passage of time. Everything seems to apply if you look more closely at the introductory stories and poems leading to the 12 paintings and verses.

Concerned Citizen posted:

anyway, this is my very ill-researched theory for cask 12. i wish i had more info to look at previous solutions but i'll just give it a whirl anyway.

most of the poem is fairly literal. the grey giant is a literal large statue and many of the directions are straightforward. in this case, columbus circle makes some sense. the grey giant is the giant 70ft statue of christopher columbus on a pedestal.

1. the object in the shadow of the grey giant is the uss maine monument, just across the street in central park. the statue has multiple arms that "extend."

here's a google street view that has both monuments in view (the top of the uss maine is cut off in this photo)


2. the uss maine and columbus square fit the sea motif going on in the image that accompanies the poem.

3. the area is a major tourist spot and likely also was in 1980. "in summer you'll often hear a whirring sound" doesn't refer to the cars - it refers to ye olde analog cameras that made whirring noises when you shot a photo. summer is a major tourist season for nyc.

4. major traffic area. although honestly that could basically be anywhere in manhattan. but the cars certainly abound here.

5. the indies & natives could refer to either columbus' interactions with natives (who still have a lot to say about him) or uss maine's position in cuba (west indies) when it was destroyed. who knows! the verse here claims there is a sign but i have no idea if that is the case.

6. the monument is right next to central park and honestly, if you're going to bury something in manhattan, wouldn't central park be the place you'd pick? yes, it's a fairly obvious place but that's not the worst thing.

that would mean the rest of the instructions are to narrow down the location to a very specific point. possibly referring to the road structure - "east steps" could refer to east dr., for example. or rhapsodic soil could be related to rumsey playfield, which numerous plays and musical performances take place. who knows! one of the downsides of central park is that you can probably fit anything in there if you try hard enough.

of course, since this is a lovely theory there are unanswered questions that don't fit:

a. what is isle of b? there's certainly nothing that matches that near the area i've pinpointed. it could either be a. something farther away, once you've followed the cryptic directions a bit farther or b. completely unrelated and this entire theory is hilariously wrong. but truthfully there are basically no "isles of b" near nyc that make sense. in the chicago solve, every initialism was literally that - "L" referred to Lincoln, etc.

b. the uss maine monument does feature multiple arms extending, but not over a slender path. however, columbus circle was renovated several years ago and this particular spot might have been modified as well at some point to accommodate additional tourists.

c. of all the casks, one in manhattan is least likely to survive over the years. if it was here, it's probably long gone. also, central park is no longer a den of crime so you probably can't get away with just wantonly digging the thing up even if it was there.