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 hive foxer theme: 100 (defoxed by ylla)
ACRE WOOD (Nutfield)
BBC (ylla)
BENJAMIN (ylla)
CENTURION (Phlebas)
CIEN (Colonel_K)
COTTUS (Nutfield)
CURCUMIN (Colonel_K)
CWT (ylla)
DHRITARASHTRA (ylla)
FERMIUM (Phlebas)
FLO JO (Nutfield)
FLYING SCOTSMAN (ylla)
FOOTBALL WAR (Colonel_K, ylla, Nutfield)
FTSE (Nutfield)
HECATOMPYLOS (Colonel_K)
HYAKUMONOGATARI KAIDANKAI (Nutfield)
KARMAN LINE (ylla)
LA JAMAIS CONTENTE (Colonel_K)
SLEEPING BEAUTY (ylla)
SUPER SABRE (Nutfield)
TON UP (ylla, Colonel_K)
WERNER MOLDERS (ylla)
WHOOPING COUGH (ylla)
YEARS OF SOLITUDE (Nutfield)
ZOCCHIHEDRON (Nutfield)
D4 is a Henry, Hetty or James vaccuum cleaner. More likely to be Hetty or James due to the colour, although pale Henrys are available.
[edit] Actually, think it’s a Hetty due to the shape of the end of the mouth.
Also the eyelashes!
A1 – JOCELYN BELL
E3 – Carousel of a Carousel Slide Projector, whose Wikipedia page gives more possible links that I’d have imagined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel_slide_projector
C2 – CARL SAGAN stamp
D5 – Jean Paul Satre – Nausea
D1 looks like the tail of a Messerschidt Me262. Nickname Swallow or Storm Bird.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_262
C1 – This bus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Buses_route_RV1
First London bus to use hydrogen fuel cells, if that’s important.
Called Pulsar – wasn’t that Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s thing?
Yep. that’s a definite group candidate
A2 is the start of https://archive.org/details/blakes-7-zines/Blakes%207%20The%20Complete%20Comic%20Strips%20-%20Part%202/mode/2up?view=theater
Called ‘The Flying Bomb’
E1 – INA GARTEN – The Barefoot Contessa… (‘How great is that!?’) (Mrs Nutfield)
C2 & E3 could be linked by both having ‘CAR’ in the name?
D3 – Think it is a Warthog, which is also a type of Bronco.
BvS10 (Bandvagn Skyddad 10) – referred to as the Viking by UK forces
(Picture shows Queen’s Royal Lancers in Helmand in 2008).
A4 is, I believe, Blitzkrieg ’41
EDIT: Scratch that, maybe not. But it does seem to be one of the games from Command magazine.
The Carl Sagan stamp was a 41c stamp…
Ooh, maybe I’m not seeing the right counters then. But the Okt. Rev. part does suggest Russia circa 1917.
Wouldn’t it be slightly odd for an army unit to be named October Revolution while the October Revolution is happening?
I think you were closer the first time: WW2 in the area around Leningrad.
Ha yeah, I mean you raise an embarrassingly salient point. In my defence not being much of a grog I thought maybe the counter was not signifying troops but rather an event.
if A2 is the flying bomb, then A3 could be the Flying Scotsman? (Total guess, but how do you identify a steam train from one and a half wheels!)
They’re quite distinctive wheels, but I don’t know if they’re distinctive in a named way that can be searched for
Compared to this picture of the Flying Scotsman, it seems to have different spokes – like double spokes instead of single, if you see what I mean.
B4 – Looks like a Scout rocket (the diagonal black line is quite distinctive)
And here it is at the National Air and Space Museum – https://www.google.com/maps/@38.8882051,-77.0190451,2a,75y,293.95h,134.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sk3yjLoe0RRSAbOca0yfGDw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
C3 – Alberta Jones, first Black woman prosecutor in Louisville, KY.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/09/who-killed-alberta-jones-louisvilles-first-black-woman-prosecutor/
Was Muhammad Ali’s first lawyer.
B5 – Scaly Foot Gastropod, aka Volcano Snail or Sea Pangolin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaly-foot_gastropod
A3 – SCOA-P wheel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOA-P_wheel
Built by the Vulcan Foundry, which ties in with the Volcano Snail.
B4, B5, A3 – all start SC? (if only it was a Scoly Foot Gastropod…)
It’s possible B2 is a FN Herstal SCAR. Some parts fit well, and some don’t; and I think the picture is of a plastic model.
E5 – Russian battleship Petropavlovsk, renamed Marat by the Soviets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Petropavlovsk_(1911)#/media/File:Soviet_battleship_Marat_at_Spithead_Fleet_Review_1937_IWM_MH_7.jpg
C5. Alvis SALAMANDER Airfield Fire Tender, RAF Museum Hendon
D2. Un Homme et Une Femme (A Man and a Woman) – winner of the Grand Jury prize at Cannes 1966
B1. is an Aero L-39C ALBATROS at Hiller Aviation Museum.
ETA: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5127131,-122.2524991,3a,63.2y,278.91h,95.37t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP9GmvzAb8F5cgY-5UmlbB2KBTP4neubiVr6vKH!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP9GmvzAb8F5cgY-5UmlbB2KBTP4neubiVr6vKH%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya113.53406-ro0-fo100!7i13312!8i6656
And B2. strongly resembles an M4, definitely the ejection port + cover. I reckon it must be a modern variant rather than a derivative as it has a vertically-ribbed magazine inserted and the magazine release (?) above the trigger.
The centre of the picture in B1 seems to be the PM-1 Powered Parachute, not that I can make any more of that…
It’s not just words starting sc-, I think it’s SCO-
A4. SCORCHED EARTH (1987)
B4. SCOUT rocket
A3. SCOA-P wheel
and possibly
A2. SCORPIO is the craft’s name
Still on B2., I can’t get any more precise than it’s an ‘AR-15 style rifle’.
Hetty (D4), Alberta (C3) and a Viking (D3) are apparently ghosts in the American version of Ghosts, although I didn’t even know there WAS an American version, so I don’t know if it’s a bit too obscure…
https://ghosts-bbc.fandom.com/wiki/Ghosts_(CBS_series)
Oh, and a Girl SCOUT leader (B4), except that’s been claimed already.
E4. is the game FOXHOLE. The current version is subtitled Inferno.
The French port of LE HAVRE
E5. Renamed itself Hâvre de MARAT / Hâvre-MARAT in the latter part of the French Revolution
D5. A fictionalised version is assumed to be the setting for Sartre’s Nausea
C5. Has a SALAMANDER on its coat of arms
B5. 1982 cultural centre by Oscar Niemeyer is known as the VOLCANO
I can’t see a connection to E4. Foxhole or D4. Hetty, so the last member of the group must be either A5. or C4.
A5. has to belong to either the SCO-s or Le Havre
Corners on the Nurburgring, possibly
E4. FOXHOLE – apparently the hairiest
E3. CAROUSEL
E2. ??
E1. There are a couple of -Gartens: Tiergarten and 2 Pflanzgartens
D1. SWALLOW TAIL
C4. ASTONIA Remastered – free-to-play MMORPG
Operation Astonia was the Allied attack to liberate the port city.
Le Havre: C4, B5, C5, D5 & E5.
Words starting SCO- : A2, A3, A4, B4 & A5. (A5. as yet unidentified)
Would it be cheating to just say that A5 is a SCOnce and call it a day?
Since a sconce is what it is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sconce_(light_fixture)
(Torch-holder on the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence)
is it cheating to say it?
I guess you have to look inside your own soul.
(Cheating would be to call it a Scone-holder, Scottish or a Scofflaw).
Oh, that’s hilarious. I should have looked at wikipedia, but I was sure there was something more to it. So I guess in my soul there’s nothing but sheer laziness…
My best guess for the final group is the Pioneer Plaque
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque
A1. Location of our sun given relative to 14 PULSARS
B1. (Connection to be determined) ((Pioneer??))
C1. Hyperfine transition of neutral HYDROGEN
C2. CARL SAGAN – designer
D2. Figures of A MAN AND A WOMAN
B2. is M110 Semi Automatic Sniper System (M110 SASS)
It would leave ‘US remake of Ghosts’ with
B2. Sasappis/”SASS”, a cynical Lenape Native American
B3. (Some WW2 museum ship)
C3. ALBERTA Haynes, a flamboyant Prohibition-era jazz singer
D3. Thorfinn/”Thor”, a VIKING
D4. HETTY Woodstone, the uptight lady of the manor