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 Whodunnit Foxer:
Murder weapon (rows 1 & 4) – UMBRELLA (AbyssUK)
Murder location (rows 1 & 3) – AIR RAID SHELTER
Victim’s occupation (rows 2 & 4) – DISTRICT NURSE (AbyssUK)
Hour murder occurred (rows 2 & 3) – NINETEEN (ylla, Viscount, Colonel_K)
Name of murderer (rows 2 & 3) – MARGERY
E3 – The POSEIDON adventure, Gods?
C3 – Might be ‘Photos of “New York City”‘ by Mondrian which was hung upside down for 75 years.
D3. SS Richard MONTGOMERY
Liberty ship wrecked on the Nore sandbank in the Thames Estuary, near Sheerness, Kent, England with a cargo of explosives still onboard.
I feel like D1 is a summit which is half in Germany and half in Austria (or half in Switzerland and half in Italy, or…), but I could be mixing it up with something else entirely!
D1 is the summit of Mount Toubkal in Morocco
Not divided, then – I must have been reading about Ultras rather than exclaves 😀
E5 – Remington NYLON 66
C1 – AYN RAND
E4 looks like GTA2…. but it isnt it’s Monaco
E4 is MONACO – https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/monaco-is-free-right-now
Aha – I’m done by the edit button once again 🙂
B1 is Machu Picchu in the photo but I’m guessing we want the guy holding it?
It’s Earth Platinum, apparently the world’s largest atlas https://www.millenniumhouse.com.au/title-earth-plat.html
A2 – Gibson Girls (“Picturesque America, Anywhere Along the Coast”) (link to wikimedia.org)
C2 is part of the Tabula Rogeriana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rogeriana
Showing Cyprus, I think, although the orientation is confusing me a bit!
Beat me by 3 mins.. Muhammad Al Idrisi’ map.
Which might fit with my dubious divided mountain top at D1…
Oh, also sort of upside down, like C3!
D2 – City Hall, Dendermonde stamp (link to belgianstamps.eu)
Originally upside down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Dendermonde
B3 – It’s a Zamboni
C4 – Bill Phillips with his machine to predict the economy using water – https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-does-economy-work
E1 – ATLAS moth… (Weirdly on the 4th row of results for moth wing!)
E1 Atlas Moth, D1 Atlas Mountains, C1 write Atlas Shrugged, C2 it’s an Atlas
B2 . It’s an Airbus A400M ‘Atlas’
B1 is an atlas too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Platinum
And south-at-the-top C2 might be needed to link the other upside down things at C3 and D2.
B4 – Michael Jordan in Fahrenheight 451 (Mrs Nutfield)
Plays the character Guy MONTAG – one for the Mon-group
D3 – The SS Richard Montgomery in the Thames
D4 – Swiss Cheese Plant – Monstera Deliciosa – https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/monstera-deliciosa-swiss-cheese-plant
MONs?
E4 MONaco
D4 MONstera
D3 MONtgomery
B3 MONdrian
C4 MONiac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC
So.. Atlas
E1 – Atlas Moth –
D1 Atlas Mountains,
C1 – Ayn Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged
B1 – A massive Atlas
B2 – An Atlas plane…
Hurrah! but credit goes to Nutfield mainly…
Famous Upside down?
C5 – Posieden
D2 – Stamp
C3 – Mondrian
I had C2/D2/D3, but didn’t know Poseidon was upside down. Getting there…
Although if that’s all correct I think E2 has to be in that group?
The ship in the film 🙂
A5. MANNED MANEUVERING UNIT (MMU)
“U.S. astronaut Bruce McCandless uses a Manned Maneuvering Unit during the 1984 STS-41-B mission”
– an astronaut propulsion unit that was used by NASA on three Space Shuttle missions in 1984.
Fahrenheight 451:
A2 – Mel GIBSON owns the rights
B3 – Massimo ZAMBONI owns a shop called Fahrenheight 451?
B4 – Still from the film
Roman is getting very ‘Only Connect Wall’ on us this week with overlapping groups.
But it’s nicely solvable – I feel like I’ve just banged my head on a few lately!
Think A4 is FABIO CAPELLO during his playing days, probably for Roma based on what can be seen of the shirt, although it could also be Italy. Capello means ‘hair’ in Italian if that makes a difference.
Found the colour version and it’s definitely Fabio Capello at Roma, which would make it 1967-70.
A1 – Church of Saint Anthony in KOBARID? (Mrs Nutfield)
‘The Slovenian anti fascist group TIGR planned to assassinate Mussolini during the inauguration of the shrine’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Italian_Charnel_House,_Kobarid
Assassination attempts on Mussolini
Violet GIBSON
Anteo ZAMBONI
Luigi CAPELLO
A3 – Porta Pia in Rome – a bomb was thrown at Mussolini’s limousine outside it
KOBARID ossuary was opened by Mussolini
‘The Slovenian anti fascist group TIGR planned to assassinate Mussolini during the inauguration of the shrine and a young man from Bovec was ordered to blow him up. However the plot was discovered and the attempt was foiled’
D4 I am pretty sure is an SEM of a plant stem…. but which plant i cannot find…classic plant cell structures though
It’s a swiss cheese plant.
It means most of the row at the bottom is joined.
I wonder if Fahrenheight 451 and Nylon 66 are joined.. Words + numbers :p
Sadly C5 isn’t the Magnificent 7, the Hateful 8 or the Dirty Dozen :0.
E2. Clyde “Upside-Down” Pangborn
adds to the ‘Inverted’ group
C5 – Poseidon
D2 – Inverted Dendemonde stamp
C3 – Mondrian
and C2 ?
Therefore E5 or B4 need to be MON don’t they, which blows numbers and words out of the window.
And Nylon 66 is a MONomer, or made of two monomers at least?
Groups:
Mussolini – A1, A2, A3, B3, A4
Atlas – B1, B2, C1, D1, E1
Upside Down – C2, C3, D2, E2, E3
MON – D3, C4, D4, E4, E5
Other
B4, A5, B5, C5, D5
I have:
ATLAS – B1, C1, D1, E1, B2
Upside down – C2, D2, E2, C3, E3
Mon- – D3, B4, C4, D4, E4
Mussolini assassination attempts – A1, A2, A3, A4, B3
Mystery group – the bottom row
In case it was missed up the thread the character portrayed from Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag.
I think the last group might still be Fahrenheight 451…
There is a McCandless in the book, which would link A5 and B4.
There can’t be too many McCandlenesses in the world can there?
Scratch that, Google confused me :p.
D5, might be a Fuchsia… which have flowers that hang upside down…
How about into the Wild ? Chris McCandleness owned a Nylon 66 :p
Damn it – I’m always a minute too late
While looking for Supertramp Album covers with horses, i stmbled across…
C5 – Stampede by the Doobie Brothers.
The Stampede trail was where Chris went missing…
E4 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedysarum_alpinum – it’s what poisoned him
Bah, i should have kept quiet 😉
D4 – Seeds from this plant were found in his stomach: Hedysarum_alpinum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedysarum_alpinum#/media/File:Hedysarum_alpinum_(7833274266).jpg
Who wants to identify the ship in B5, I’m done!
Made up for my abysmal showing last week.
So I make it that if we identify B5, and its connection to Chris McCandless, then we’re done.
B5 is a Zobel-class fast attack craft. But I don’t see the link with Chris McCandless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zobel-class_fast_attack_craft
Ah, nice spot. I was looking for ages for that.
It’s a Type 142 – same number as the Fairbanks “Magic” Bus that McCandless was camping out in.