Every Friday at 1300 hours, Tally-Ho Corner’s cleverest clogs come together to solve a ‘foxer’ handcrafted by my sadistic chum and colleague, Roman. A complete ‘defoxing’ sometimes takes several days and usually involves the little grey cells of many readers. Don’t be shy. All are welcome to participate.
The ‘cluster foxer’ is regarded by some as the most demanding form. Solving one involves identifying 25 pictures and five hidden themes. The enlargeable mosaic below consists of five interlocked picture clusters (some possible cluster arrangements are shown above) each with its own theme. Themes have nothing in common with each other. Don’t be surprised to find, for example, “Crocodiles”, “Tulip mania”, “Words beginning with “ter””, “1948” and “Fictional policemen” sharing a puzzle. A picture’s connection to a particular theme won’t always be literal. An image of the Brandenburg Gate is just as likely to be part of a “Bach” cluster as a “Berlin” one.
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SOLUTIONS
Last week’s ’33 things wot you might find in Sri Lanka’ missing vowels foxer
1. RGLY – aragalaya (Electric Dragon)
2. KNG DMFKN DY – kingdom of kandy (Electric Dragon)
3. THMMTTM – thammattama (Electric Dragon)
4. DMSBRD G – adam’s bridge (Electric Dragon)
5. STRS ND YRD – easter sunday raid (Colonel_K)
6. PRT GSBRGHR – portuguese burgher (Electric Dragon)
7. F LQ – fuel queue (Electric Dragon)
8. BZTSPR LFSH RS – bizet’s pearl fishers (ylla)
9. L CGN NS SNNR MYN FRM – alec guinness in an army uniform (ylla)
10. LYRD SPRKT – layard’s parakeet (Electric Dragon)
11. NCR NRMR DPRS NNLCRRR – unicorn armoured personnel carrier (Colonel_K)
12. RV NSCLFT – ravana’s cleft (Phlebas)
13. HNSKNTHL PHN T – hansken the elephant (Electric Dragon, Colonel_K)
14. RJ VGNDHSS SSN – rajiv gandhi’s assassin (Electric Dragon)
15. KRBTH – kiribath (Phlebas)
16. THHGH STTS TWC KTTK RNCR CK THST RY – the highest test wicket taker in cricket history (gusdownnup)
17. DLLR S – dull rose
18. MR RRWLL – mirror wall (Colonel_K)
19. TM PLFT HTT H – temple of the tooth (ylla)
20. STG R – sea tiger (Colonel_K)
21. LSCRN – lascarin (Colonel_K)
22. THS TFT HWR LDSD D LSTR LDSS TR – the site of the world’s deadliest rail disaster (Electric Dragon)
23. V – uva (Phlebas)
24. SN HLNL YCT – sinhala only act (Electric Dragon)
25. RB BDSMK DSHTRB BR – ribbed smoked sheet rubber (Colonel_K)
26. SR NDBS CPSWL – serendib scops owl (ylla)
27. THW RT RFRND ZVSW THR M – the writer of rendezvous with rama (Electric Dragon)
28. KSTN – kastane (Colonel_K)
29. LT STWR – lotus tower (Electric Dragon)
30. SRMVBND RNK – sirimavo bandaranaike (Electric Dragon)
31. BD DHSFTPRNT – buddha’s footprint (Electric Dragon)
32. BRD BYSHLDNCN TR – bradby shield encounter (Colonel_K)
33. CNN MNRC S SNCR VN – cinnamon air cessna 208 caravan (Colonel_K)
A5 – THE SILENT AGE
https://store.steampowered.com/app/352520/The_Silent_Age/
D1 – SIR FRANCIS DRAKE statue in TAVISTOCK
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.5452999,-4.1525753,3a,55.1y,280.02h,93.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIGlh7ttcxfgEs2amIxUteQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
(the blurred out place name is OKEHAMPTON in case that’s relevant)
B3. Ambrose BURNSIDE – inventor of sideburns 😉
ETA: D5. PRINSENHOF (“The Court of the Prince”), Delft, Netherlands
Bullet holes from the assassination of William I of Orange (William the Silent) at the main stairs of the Prinsenhof, 1584
Another Silent One!
E4 – THE LAUGHING CAVALIER by FRANZ HALS
https://waldemar.tv/2021/11/you-think-you-know-about-frans-halss-the-laughing-cavalier-hes-not-laughing-or-a-cavalier/
E5 looks like it might be laughing or smiling too…
C1. Judith beheading Holofernes by Foxer favourite Artemisia Gentileschi, at the Uffizi
A1 – looks like the flag of the region of PIEDMONT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Piedmont
B1. DIEGO (?) – sabre toothed tiger from Ice Age animated films
Not sure where the model might be located for people to pose with
C2 – Pistachio flavour kulfi
https://www.kulfibhai.com/
A3 – Bianca Castafiore in The Castafiore Emerald
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castafiore_Emerald
D4 – Dario Argento’s Le Cinque Giornate / The Five Days
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Days
E1. could be an Mi-24 HIND
which, as the Golden Hind, would go with D1. Drake / Tavistock
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-special-painted-hungarian-air-force-mi-24-hind-attack-helicopter-museum-38940867.html?imageid=6D25A539-D167-4FF1-9EFF-E2DE8C837001&p=377294&pn=1&searchId=88ae4c7ba85f7b14e5ea00d707a5e81d&searchtype=0
I think you’re right on the Hind – it looks a lot like this Hungarian one:
https://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000413814.html
D2 – Brenda Blethyn and Kenny Doughty in Vera
Drake group so far:
B1. Diego ? – escaped/liberated slave, became ship-builder
C1. Judith – first command ? – “Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith”
D1. Tavistock – birthplace
E1. (Golden) Hind – formerly Pelican, circumnavigation ship
D2. Mike Leigh film ‘Vera Drake’ is probably a red herring
Can’t find a connection to Piedmont, so the group most likely finishes with either B2. (Penguin Modern Classics book cover) or E2.
E5. Pixar short film LAVA (2014)
Inklings, for what they’re worth:
C3. Chinese rocket artillery of some form, the star looks right
E3. Brass musical instument ?, related to the jazzophone, maybe or the saxhorn
ETA: I’m fancying a silent group, which might be a sailplane in B5.
There’s a company called Alisport that makes sailplanes with models called Silent, Silent 2 etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisport
Can’t find the actual picture though.
There’s a Silent Wings simulator that has that sort of streamer showing the path, but yeah, still can’t find the actual picture.
ETA: Yep, SILENT WINGS – second picture on the Studio page
Re: E3. closest I can get is the Thayer axial-flow valve on some sort of trombone; might qualify as an F-attachment
Tell a lie. C3. is Russian featuring the orange & black ribbon of Saint George.
I thinks it’s a 9P78 transporter erector launcher carrying Iskander-M missiles (SS-26 Stone in NATO).
B2 – SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1010/scoop-by-evelyn-waugh/9780141907178
Ice Creams ?
Would be nice if the Chinese had a rocket system called Mr. Whippy, but it’s more likely a ’99’.
C5 – OBELISCO DE BUENOS AIRES, which once featured the motto “El silencio es salud” (Silence is health, which it probably was if you didn’t fancy an unexpected visit from Peronista goons)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@-34.603449,-58.3811948,3a,75y,246.63h,85.95t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sup63NbFHPUKk64rORbknFw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
C4 – ALFA ROMEO badge
contains the red cross of Milan and a grass snake swallowing a child, the symbol of the House of Visconti.
Always thought it was a fire breathing dragon but once you see it… The most gruesome car logo?
D4 the Five Days of Milan, then?
Looks like it!
B4 – MILAN Central station
‘Castafiore leaves for Milan to perform in the opera La gazza ladra (Italian: The Thieving Magpie).’
Most of it isn’t set there. though…
E2. USS DOLPHIN at the Maritime Museum of San Diego
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7211634,-117.1734394,3a,59.8y,248.4h,87.53t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sOQ9b6uDWWw1XKlEIWEXRvg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DOQ9b6uDWWw1XKlEIWEXRvg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D184.39085%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
Not sure I can connect that to Drake just yet.
A4 – Suppressors
Looks like A4 A5 B5 D5 C5 is our silent cluster then!
D3 – One of the games by Rachel Simmons, either Bonaparte at Marengo or Napoleon’s Triumph
It’s the first one: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/85736/bonaparte-marengo
A2 – Wildfire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/431940/Wildfire/
The Andromeda Strain:
• A1 – Piedmont (Arizona)
• A2 – Wildfire protocol
• B2 – Scoop satellite
• C2 – the monkey they nearly killed for the film?
• C3 – Dr. Jeremy Stone
C2 – this bit of dialogue
[Leavitt and Stone examine a micro-meteoroid embedded in the Scoop collection medium at 60x magnification]
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: Jeremy, do you think maybe…
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Maybe it’s just a grain of sand. Go to 80.
[at 80x, specs of green become visible]
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: What about the bits of green?
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Paint!
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: For God’s sake!
Dr. Jeremy Stone: Pistachio ice cream! There’s no basis to assume it’s anything yet.
Dr. Ruth Leavitt: You’re too good a scientist to not be thinking the same thing I am. If this really is something now, some brand-new form of life…
The Andromeda Strain
(I had the wiki page open earlier as it linked Piedmont and something, but I can’t remember what that something was).
A1. PIEDMONT, Arizona – nearest town to landed satellite, everyone apparently dead
A2. Project WILDFIRE – program to contain threats to life
B2. SCOOP – military satellite + recovery program that sets plot off
?? C2. Kulfi
Potentially C3. Dr. Jeremy STONE- lead scientist
See above
Just plain Milan, I think:
A3. Bianca Castafiore – the “Milanese Nightingale”.
B3. AMBROSE Burnside – patron saint of Milan, formerly Bishop of Milan 374-397.
B4. MILAN Central station.
C4. Alfa Romeo – founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy.
D4. The Five Days – set during The Five Days of Milan, anti-Austrian revolt of 1848.
Final unknown group:
E5. LAVA (Pixar 2014) / UKU ? (character)
E4. LAUGHING CAVALIER / FRANZ HALS
E3. THAYER axial-flow valve / some sort of TROMBONE / F-attachment
then, most likely
D3. Bonaparte at MARENGO
and then either
D2. VERA / KENNY DOUGHTY (DS Aiden Healy)
or E2. USS DOLPHIN / BERKELEY
Cripes, Google works fast!
THC’s Friday Foxer #85 is the third result for “thayer marengo lava”.
SEO opportunity?
D2 – DOUGHTY – probably belongs in the Drake group – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Doughty_(explorer)