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Your online guide to the zaniness of the 2011 Post Hunt!
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When: 6/5/2011
Where: Freedom Plaza
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| The Post Hunt returns for a 4th consecutive year, and, for the third consecutive time, it's home is Freedom Plaza. |
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The Initial Puzzles
NOTE: The puzzle answers are hidden! In order to see them, you must highlight them with your mouse to reverse the text!
1. You and some of your friends
challenge Navy SEAL Team 6
to a friendly game of softball.
What would be the outcome?
U. You and your friends would win.
H. There would be no evidence that
you or your friends ever existed.
Answer: H
2. In a recent interview with Rolling
Stone, Donald Trump revealed the
process he uses to care for his
hair. What is it?
C. He washes it with Head and
Shoulders.
X. He sends it to a specialist
in London.
Z. He has a trusted member of his
staff lick it into place.
Answer: C
3. Denise plans to commute by
car from Fairfax to downtown
Washington, and she would like
the inbound trip to take no more
than 20 minutes. What time
should Denise leave her house?
Z. 8 a.m.
W. 7 a.m.
C. 1961
Answer: C
4. In the 1983 hit song “Islands in
the Stream,” performed by Dolly
Parton and Kenny Rogers, the first
line is “Baby, when I met you there
was peace unknown.” What is the
second line?
X. “Then my bulldog wet you ’cause
you took his bone.”
F. “I set out to get you with a fine-tooth comb.”
Y. “But I became upset when you
inhaled my scone.”
Answer: F
5. Consider the following:
[Image of a complex math formula]
Suddenly you are not feeling so smart.
The answer to this one is F.
Answer: F
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Main Puzzles (i.e. the puzzle sites)
NOTE: Puzzle answers and their descriptions are hidden! In order to see them, you must highlight them with your mouse to reverse the text!
Puzzle: Government Agencies Providing Solutions
Location: Freedom Plaza, at the main Hunt stage
Description:
Standing above a banner declaring they were "Government Agencies Providing Solutions", three representatives of different government agencies took questions from the Hunt players. From left to right, stood a woman wearing the number 27 and always answering questions with a reference to something about taxes. The woman in the middle, wearing the number 49, always brought up the importance of disaster preparedness and recovery. On the right was a man, sporting the number 88, who provided answers that usually involved food, farming and agriculture in general.
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: 92
How to get the answer:
Hunters were pretty quick to realize that the agencies represented on the stage, from left to right, were the IRS, FEMA and the USDA. Smart hunters realized that in the goody bags handed out at the Hunt was a sheet of paper with the title "GAPS - Fill in the blanks for a hidden message." The GAPS was an acronym for the words on the banner at the stage: "Government Agencies Providing Solutions" (GAPS). If Hunters filled in the blanks using the government agency names, from left to right, they revealed the hidden message: "FIRST FEMALE PLUS DATE". The first female from the left was number 27 and the date of the Hunt was June 5th, 6/5, or 65. So 27 + 65 = 92, which was the answer.
Puzzle: The Vanity
Location: The Old Post Office
Description:
Hunters arrived to the location to see a small vanity that looked very familiar...because it was in the Hunt magazine. However, there was one thing that was different...the vanity's mirror pictured in the magazine was missing.
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: 45
How to get the answer:
Hunters on top of their game realized that if the mirror was missing from the vanity standing before them, they had to remove it from the picture in the magazine, too. After removing the mirror from the magazine, Hunters would see through the page to the page behind it, where a hand was holding a 45rpm record, with the number 45 on it, the answer to this puzzle. This puzzle was submitted by a reader!
Puzzle: The Acrobat
Location: The Newseum
Description:
Hunters arrived at the Newseum to find a female acrobat stretching and contorting her body in various ways. She eventually stood up and said, "But you didn't come to see my routine. You came for a clue. Put on your thinking caps. I'm going to give you a password. Text it to 98999." She then proceeded to stand upside down, on her head. "The password is 'lemons'. Send that and I will text you what you need to know to find the solution." Hunters who texted any variation of "lemons" to 98999 received a reply back indicating the answer wasn't that easy.
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: 19
How to get the answer:
Hunters had to realize that since the acrobat was standing on her head when she gave the answer, they had to turn the all capital lettters version ("put your thinking CAPS on") of "lemons" upside down. Looking at it upside down, LEMONS looks like SNOW37. Texting SNOW37 to 98999 caused Hunters go get the following reply: WE. Hunters figured out that they needed to turn that over also, making it 3M, a coordinate on the map. Going to those coordinates, Hunters found a Hunt volunteer standing next to a tall number 61...not a valid answer. However, if they turned that over once again, they got 19, the correct answer.
Puzzle: The Monoliths
Location: The southeast corner of the Ellipse
Description:
Standing eight feet tall in a field of nicely cut grass were a series of all black monoliths. The first row had 10 square monoliths, the second row had 9, the third row had 7, and the last row had one extra wide monolith. In the first row, from left to right, the third monolith had "5,6" on it, the fifth monolith had "4", the eighth had "2". In the second row, from left to fight, the fourth monolith had "1,3". In the third row, the sixth monolith had "7".
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: 15
How to get the answer:
The key to this puzzle was to realize that Hunters were walking among keys...on a keyboard. For those who were not familiar with the QWERTY layout, there was a typewriter pictured on page 31. Using the numbers as references, Hunters realized which keys were being used and were able to spell out FIFTEEN, making 15 the answer to this puzzle.
Puzzle: The Scratch Off
Location: The US Navy Memorial
Description:
Volunteers were handing out scratch off cards at the US Navy Memorial. Hunters were told that the pound signs on the card were not clues. On the scratch off card, the instructions stated to "Scratch ONLY where needed." Scratching off any location on the card revealed a single digit number, so it seemed important to find out which ones needed to be scratched off.
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: 816
How to get the answer:
Alert hunters realized that you scratch where you have an 'itch'. The word 'ITCH' was on the grid, and scratching off the numbers revealed '0816', or 816, the answer for this puzzle.
Puzzle: The Grid
Location: In the Post Hunt goody bag
Description:
Instead of a list of clues, typical in every Hunt up until this particular one, Hunt creators Dave, Tom and Gene decided to try something new. As Hunters solved puzzles, they had to fill in the dots on the grid that had the same answer to the puzzle that solved.
Related puzzle photos and materials...
Puzzle Answer: A picture of an outhouse
How to get the answer:
No real explanation necessary...it was a picture of an outhouse, if it were completed properly using the correct puzzle answers.
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The Clues
No clues available for this year.
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The Final Puzzle
NOTE: The final puzzle description is hidden! In order to see them, you must highlight them with your mouse to reverse the text!
The Final Puzzle:
At 3pm, Dave Barry took the stage with a Beatles cover band. Dave told the crowd that each member of the Beatles was going to sing a song to the crowd, but only one of them had an important message. In order, each sang a line from a different song:
From "When I'm 64", "Paul" sang "Will you still love me, will you still need me, when I'm 64?"
From "Tea For Two", "John" sang "Just tea for two and two for tea"
From "Taxman", "George" sang "There's one for you, nineteen for me."
From 99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall, "Ringo" sang "99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall, 99 bottles of beer!"
Final puzzle photos and materials...
Solving the Hunt:
What Hunters needed to do is realize that the outhouse from The Grid was a "john", so they needed to focus on John's lyrics. "Tea for two" represented map coordinates T4.2, near the southeast corner of Franklin Park. If Hunters went there, they received a business card with the phone number 703-237-2283. If they called that number, they heard Tom Shroder tell them: "This number is not going to get you there. Remember all the words he sang." The lyrics were "tea for two and two for tea" or "T for 2 and 2 for T". Change the Ts in the number...which is 8 on the keypad...for 2s...and the 2s for Ts...or the number 8. The new phone number was 703-837-8823. Calling it, Hunters heard "Write your cell number on the small white ball and drop it in the hole in the bottom of the sea. Leave immediately and go to the main stage." The bottom of the sea? That actually meant "bottom of the C"...as in the C on the keyboard. Hunters who returned there found a small hole in the C monolith that had been uncovered. Dropping the ball in the hole with their cell phone number allowed them to win the Hunt...if they were one of the first three teams to do so.
Who won (Congratulations!):
Third Place: Tony Falk and Lisa Streit
Second/First Place: No names available
Photos & related materials for the winners...
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Articles/Ads
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Photos, articles, stories and other multimedia related to the hunt...
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