Friday Foxer #129

This week’s handmade co-op puzzle won’t defox itself. If you’re a dab hand at quizzes, lateral thinking, and search engine sleuthing, why not help out.

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

Colonel K’s “Things Found In, On, Or Under Frozen Places” missing vowels foxer:

1. MLN – moulin (Phlebas)
2. WLL YMMMTH – woolly mammoth (Nutfield)
3. B LDFLLS – blood falls (Nutfield)
4. WMP – wampa (Nutfield)
5. PT FFKSP CBS – pituffik space base (a_monk)
6. FVHN DR DNDTH RT YTH RRL SFSL NTF LM – five hundred and thirty three reels of silent film (Nutfield)
7. G LCRMC – glacier mice (Electric Dragon)
8. KHRKVCHNK – kharkovchanka (Nutfield)
9. CS LTSFT HW HTW R – casualties of the white war (Nutfield)
10. MND – amanda (a_monk)
11. MR CLNNDFR NCND MLN – marcelin and francine dumoulin (Phlebas)

12. GRTGH T – great eight (Electric Dragon)
13. TZ – otzi (Electric Dragon)
14. F VCR TSFMCK NLYWHS KY – five crates of mckinley whiskey (Nutfield)
15. WHTW NGDD CFN CH – white winged diuca finch (Nutfield)
16. JHNTR RNG TNSGRV – john torrington’s grave (Nutfield)
17. MTRTSCN TST – meteorite scientist (a_monk)
18. LCK HDPFL GHT NNG – lockheed p-38f lightning (Nutfield)
19. WR LDSLR GSTDSRT – world’s largest desert (Nutfield)
20. PSYCHRPHL – psychophrile (Nutfield)
21. DR NKNTRS – drunken trees (Nutfield)
22. GM BRTSVMN TNRNG – gamburtsev mountain range (Nutfield)

23. DT HSPRL – death spiral (Nutfield)
24. ML BRPRNCSS – malabar princess (Nutfield)
25. SK DNY QV – skoda enyaq iv
26. CHLD RNFLLLL LLC – children of llullaillaco (Electric Dragon)
27. N NFRND LL – anna of arendelle
28. RNBWVL LY – rainbow valley (Nutfield)
29. CG R – ice auger
30. RC KFLR – rock flour
31. GR GLVCKSNT BK – george levick’s notebook (Nutfield)
32. PT GNNDRGN – patagonian dragon (Viscount, Nutfield)
33. LYN SMDC DRBR RL – lyons maid cider barrel (Electric Dragon)

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51 Comments

  1. B3 – The execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche, one of our fave paintings 🙂

  6. C4 – Looks like a Pangolin, but isn’t on the wikipedia page which it normally is.

    • ‘The image of the king placed over the depiction of the Nine Bows, a representation of the traditional enemies of Egypt, is an important visual depiction of the king fulfilling his role as protector of Egypt.’

      So another 9?

    • Yep. Being relocated to Fort Lee, Virginia as part of America’s Ordnance Museum (Aug. 3 to 7, 2009).

  12. E5 – looks like a Regal Raptor car – a K3 or a K5? I’ve not found the advert pictured yet

  13. B4. Celier XENON 2 – Polish-made autogyro

    ETA: D4. Cardiff SEARCHLIGHT TATTOO 1975

  14. B2 – Greyfriar’s Friary where the Skeleton of Richard 3rd was found. GREY or SKELETON?

  16. E4 – I think it’s a Macedonian Rolo Kima, meatloaf with a boiled egg in it, like an extreme scotch egg… No idea!

    • Right, second guess it’s a Polish Pieczeń rzymska which then links with E5 as POLISH

  17. B5. HOPE FOR PEACE Monument, Yarze, Lebanon
    (made to celebrate the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990)

    • That’s three things ending in -non in that corner – although again it all seems a bit simple!

  20. E3 – I think its the Flying Scotsman at the national rail museum, it’s in its war time livery.
    LENR A3 4472

  21. ylla’s ending -NON’s:
    A3. Neil HANNON of The Divine Comedy as Napoleon
    A4. Sendai DAIKANNON
    A5. (to be identified)(Super) Constellation doesn’t quite work
    B4. Celier XENON 2
    B5. HOPE FOR PEACE Monument, Yarze, LEBANON

    Xenon 2 as an answer and the connection isn’t Bitmap Brothers games! I’m very, very disappointed.

    Skeletons:
    A1. SKELETON ARMY
    A2. SKELETON TANK
    B1. (to be identified)
    B2. Greyfriar’s Friary where the Skeleton of Richard 3rd was found
    https://www.google.com/maps/@52.6339206,-1.1366262,3a,90y,82.51h,85.55t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1siI3b4gxgfCJhX49yNxVFBg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DiI3b4gxgfCJhX49yNxVFBg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D7.3082376%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en-GB&entry=ttu
    C2. SKELETON CREW by Stephen King

    Nines:
    B3. Lady Jane Grey – “NINE DAYS’ QUEEN”
    C3. R-9 Desna
    C4. NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO
    D2. NINE BOWS beneath the feet of Rameses II
    D3. USS O-9

  22. (Assuming the above is correct) Unidentified Group 1:
    C5. RUSSIAN TOY TERRIER
    D4. Cardiff SEARCHLIGHT TATTOO 1975
    D5. Universal Monsters Pinball machine
    E4. (unidentified) Some sort of central/east european meatloaf?
    E5. (unidentified) Nutfield thinks is something Polish?! Post in moderation?

    Unidentified Group 2:
    C1.
    D1. (unidentified) Some kind of spaniel? Or the spaniel’s owner?
    E1. 591 SIGNALS UNIT
    E2. ‘The Plainsman’ – La Conquista del West (Gary Cooper plays Wild Bill Hickok?)
    E3. Flying Scotsman LNER A3 4472 ?

      • I don’t there’s a link between Regal Raptor K5 and Polish – as far as I can see it’s Chinese.

        • Maybe it’s that there’s a polish brand of motorcycles, Junak, that also make something known as a Regal Raptor.
          However, the thing shown seems to be a Regal Raptor K5 (Long) electric mini car.

    • Re: C1.
      I assume the counters are for the Panzer Lehr Division and 11th Panzer Division. With a cursory scan of their histories, the only battlefields they shared would be (the bridge at) Remagen and then the Ruhr pocket, both 1945.
      (The 11th Panzer Division entered combat in Saarland and Moselle and fought at Remagen with 4,000 soldiers, 25 tanks and 18 guns that still remained; Panzer Lehr was sent to crush the bridgehead).

    • Re: D1. President Reagan holds REX in the Diplomatic Reception Room, March 7, 1986
      (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

      • I can connect D1. REX to E2. The PLAINSMAN via the Cinema Rex bombing
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_Rex_bombing
        Antwerp cinema destroyed on first day of Ardennes offensive by a V2; 567 killed. – insipration for Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
        Unfortunately the others don’t fit:
        not 591 casualties
        V2 is not a flying bomb

        • Apologies, defoxers. The ‘e1’ tile is a rogue – a leftover from an abandoned cluster that Roman forgot to remove/replace. A portion of ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ book cover should have been in that spot.

  23. I think my brain got the car and helicopter origin mixed up so ignore my Regal Raptor Polish idea!

  24. Really struggling on E4. (At least until we know who Roman considers the ultimate authority on culinary matters).

    Might just be meatloaf, and the egg’s not important.

    Germany: falscher Hase (“false hare”)
    Jewish: Klops
    Czechia: sekaná
    Poland: pieczeń rzymska (“Roman roast”) or klops
    Hungary: Stefánia
    Romania/Bulgaria: Rulo Stefani, after the Hungarian
    Greece: Rolo kima
    Italy: polpettone

    even Chile: Asado Aleman (German roasted meat)
    Cuba: pulpeta
    Puerto Rico: albondigón
    Philippines: embutido

  25. Unidentified Group:
    C5. RUSSIAN TOY / Russkiy Toy (in case it was a word one) / Terrier
    D4. (Cardiff) SEARCHLIGHT / TATTOO (1975)
    D5. UNIVERSAL / MONSTERS / PINBALL
    E4. (unidentified) Some sort of central/east european meatloaf?
    E5. (Viscount identified, apologies) REGAL / RAPTOR / K5 (or K3 possibly)

    Obviously Universal is a movie studio, and Searchlight Pictures became a part of Fox.

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