Today’s co-op brainteaser is the work of my Chief Foxer Setter’s talented understudy. If you think Roman’s word chains are tough, you’ve clearly never attempted one forged by Colonel K.
Word chains are composed of 24 words. A word can be any length and is linked to the next word in the chain by its last two or three letters. For instance ‘honeysuckle’ might be followed by ‘leviathan’. ‘Handel’ could come next. Then ‘delta’. And so on. Clues are provided but beware, six of them – the green italicised ones – have been shuffled. For example “Formidable one-eyed military leader.” probably doesn’t refer to word #8.
1. A man-portable torsion-powered weapon.
2. His victory monument shows the first example of 1’s mobile big
brother.
3. An elite military that became a way to get ahead.
4. An extinct Native American tribe from Texas.
5. This cocky Norman’s act got him killed by the English.
6. A prototype car, and a fictional killer of children.
7. A person who doesn’t know.
8. Formidable one-eyed military leader.
9. Thursdays are his day. Oaks are his tree.
10. The English name for this saint.
11. Person to whom the blue plaque on this house is dedicated
12. This object.
13. A word that links these three images.
14. Either of the two chemical elements that could fill this gap.
15. The Anglicized name of the (South) African river visible in the lower half of this map.
16. The town where this picture was taken.
17. A novel by this American writer.
18. According to Shakespeare: a delicacy, but also a worthless trinket.
19. A band of ruffians from the time of Queen Anne.
20. Richard III for instance.
21. Missing from this image.
22. Old, old English word for a judge.
23. An official, ranked from ruby down to silver.
24. A place claimed to have been discovered on the East coast of North America.
* * *
SOLUTIONS
Last week’s rithmetic foxers
12 x 7 x 0.25 = 21 or 12 x 7 + 1907 = 1991 (defoxing team: Colonel_K, Viscount, gusdownnup, and ylla)
(119 + 11) / 13 + 46 = 56 (defoxing team: Colonel_K and Nutfield)
4 x (500 – 308 – 187) + 23 + 0 = 43 (defoxing team: Phlebas, Whistler, Nutfield, and Colonel_K)
9 – THOR
15 – UMFOLOZI River (Also uMfolozi, Imfolozi or Mfolozi)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umfolozi_River
18 – KICKSHAW
19 – MOHOCKS (But doesn’t go with 18, so dunno?)
19 is another gang of the time – HAWKUBITES – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkubites
1. CROSSBOW or ARBALEST?
If it was something like that, then TRAJAN’s column shows a Ballista… So maybe 1 is something ending in tra?
There we go…
1. Cheiroballistra (No i’m not putting it in capitals, it’s a copy/paste!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheiroballistra
2. TRAJAN
3. JANISSARY – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary
17. KALKI (That is Gore Vidal, points go to Mrs Nutfield)
8. could be DATE MASAMUNE (Watched Netflix’s Japan Series)
Or 8 could be ANTIGONOUS Monophthalmus one of Alexander’s Companions.
11 is probably in (London)derry, but all the blue plaques I can track down are on other kinds of houses!
30 Bishop Street Within, commemorating George BERKELEY.
7. IGNORAMUS?
AGNOSTIC?
16 is exactly what is says it is – Cadushy Distillery in RINCON on the island of Bonaire.
Bah!
16. RINCON – https://www.google.com/maps/@12.2381661,-68.3321534,3a,75y,231.58h,89.18t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAF1QipPIpZBFtGY3C__wvSYdSOsx2_4wyUU0YGBzGvkT!2e10!7i11358!8i5679
I am continually amazed by how often I go to give an answer and someone else got it a minute before – I even have the same Google map linked copied, ready to paste in 🙂
Yeah, it’s generally the order I attack stuff. Some are easy so it’s when you look, it’s surprising when you go for a tricky one and get pipped by seconds!
With these ones I generally start with the pictures, but not necessarily in any particular order.
21 is missing a Quenya ANDO
https://omniglot.com/conscripts/tengwar.htm
Which might make 22 a DOOMER or DOOMSTER
I think 22 is DOMESMAN, from Chaucer.
13. POLYMORPH/SHAPESHIFTER – will be one of those or similar
SHAPESHIFTER would give the required two possible elements for 14 – ERBIUM or TERBIUM
10. The bearded lady saint is Wilgefortis, whose English name is given by Wikipedia as UNCUMBER.
Which I think makes 9 PERUN rather than Thor.
14. TERBIUM or ERBIUM
Making 13. SHAPESHIFTER
Or SHAPECHANGER -> ERBIUM or GERMANIUM
23. MANDARIN
24. RINCON from 16.
I was hoping to say: “Ha, 13! Unlucky for some.”, but I see there are several correct answers already.
Ah well, I guess there’s nothing for me to do this week. I could shake my fist at Roman for failing to blur some useful words in 16…
… or maybe try to come up with a new style of Foxer:
It’s like Sudoku, but some of the individual numbers are replaced with single picture clues from a ‘Rithmetic Foxer.
24 might be VINLAND which would half fit in 20, but then 19 would need to end in VIN or VI.
8. ZIZKA fits in 16.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%BDi%C5%BEka
20. USURPER?
That would fit at 8 if 7 is IGNORAMUS
4. EYEISH (at 12)
12 (at 4): ARYABHATA – India’s first satellite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhata_(satellite)
I have a question about last week’s Foxer! What was the plane with the 187? Was it a Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke? I don’t think we quite solved that one.
Du hast recht!
http://panssarivaunut.blogspot.com/2017/02/focke-wulf-fw-187.html
23. MANDARIN
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(bureaucrat)
so 16. RINCON presumably goes at 24, and 24 will need to fit between HAWKUBITES and ANDO.
By my reckoning we are missing:
5 – needs to follow on from ARYABHATA
6 – runs onto IGNORAMUS
24 – goes in 20 between HAWKUBITES and ANDO
1. CHEIROBALLISTRA
2. TRAJAN
3. JANISSARY
12. ARYABHATA
5.
6.
7. IGNORAMUS
20. USURPER
9. PERUN
10. UNCUMBER
11. BERKELEY
4. EYEISH
13. SHAPESHIFTER
14. ERBIUM
15. UMFOLOZI
8. ZIZKA
17. KALKI
18. KICKSHAW
19. HAWKUBITES
24.
21. ANDO
22. DOMESMAN
23. MANDARIN
16. RINCON
6 seems like Erlkönig.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlk%C3%B6nig
https://www.bmw.com/en/automotive-life/prototype-cars.html
Or rather the translation Erlking
We need it to end -ig or -ign, so Erlkönig looks correct (and while the child killer’s name/title translates, the term for a prototype car appears to be quite specifically German).