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
Last week’s geofoxer theme: comets and their discoverers/probes
a. hartley (Colonel_K, Nutfield, Phlebas)
b. holmes (Colonel_K)
c. tempel (Colonel_K)
d. contour (Phlebas, Colonel_K)
e. comet (ylla)
f. komet (Colonel_K, Phlebas)
g. halley (Colonel_K)
h. bradfield (a_monk, Colonel_K)
i. stardust (Phlebas, Colonel_K)
j. rosetta (Nutfield, Colonel_K)
k. comet (Phlebas)
l. comet (Colonel_K, Phlebas)
B3 – Could be Silent Service, but can’t find that particular screenshot.
B3 – The Hunt for Red October: https://www.mobygames.com/game/2212/the-hunt-for-red-october/screenshots/apple2/44300/
1C – Juan Pujol Garcia, “Agent Garbo”
https://www.npr.org/2012/07/07/156189716/agent-garbo-the-spy-who-lied-about-d-day
A5. The Detectorists ? – BBC TV comedy series
E1. Volodymir Zelensky (Wolodymyr Selenskyj) on cover of Stern 10.3.2022
A4 – The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
https://www.mobygames.com/game/2212/the-hunt-for-red-october/screenshots/apple2/44300/
I think Detectorists (A5) is set in Essex? (though confusingly the real Danebury is in Hampshire)
B2 is Audubon’s stormy petrel, reversed for some reason
https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/stormy-petrel – click on ‘See full plate’
D1. SAMBO – Russian unarmed combat/wrestling style
E2 is Peru
D3 – Indian Mutiny Medal – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Mutiny_Medal
C1/D1 – ends in BO? 😛
A1. “RAMBO: The Video Game” (2014) – not quite confirmed, but UI and enemy seem to fit
D4 is the Kansas City Southern Railway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Southern_Railway
E3 – Compartment C Car, 1938 by Edward Hopper
https://www.edwardhopper.net/compartment-c-car.jsp
D2. AURORA Safety Car (1957) – designed by catholic priest Father Alfred A. Juliano
Just one more thing…
I reckon B1. is the Lotus (flower) tower in COLOMBO – South Asia’s tallest building when opened
ETA: https://www.google.com/maps/@6.9285847,79.8578812,3a,90y,166.72h,117.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1snFH8JtU53GgqevcItALmYg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu
D5 – SGS’ Heia Safari, I think!
E5 – Living with the Lama by Lobsang Rampa
(in case it’s relevant: Lobsang Rampa was born Cyril Henry Hoskin and the cat was named Mrs Fifi Greywhiskers)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsang_Rampa#/media/File:Rampa_greywhiskers.jpg
A3. Fore Hobby Fv107 British Army SCIMITAR Mk.2
C4. The cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress
ETA: remaining flyables are FIFI and Doc.
The Battle for Lake Tanganyika (as depicted in Heia Safari, D5) featured HMS FIFI – looks like we have another cluster!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Fifi
B5 – Grayson Perry’s “A House for Essex”
Joins A4 and A5 in the Essex cluster
Mutinies ? :
– D2. Russian cruiser Aurora
– B3. Red October, Tom Clancy
– D3. Indian
B4 – Mini-D, a Doe-style tractor custom built by an Essex farmer.
https://heritagemachines.com/restorations/unique-doe-3000-tractor-build/
C4 – FIFI hooks!
https://verticalarchaeology.com/2016/06/09/vertical-archaeology-in-alpinist-magazine/
And C3 is the poster for Mademoiselle FIFI – we have a full Fifi cluster!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mademoiselle_Fifi_%281944_poster%29.jpg
If in doubt, go route one: A2. JUMBO Water Tower, Colchester, Essex
…BOs
A2. Jumbo
A1. Rambo
B1. Colombo
C1. Garbo
D1. Sambo
Essex
A3. Flag features 3 what look like scimitars but are meant to be Saxon seaxes
A4. Essex Serpent
B4. Mini-D
A5. Detectorists setting
B5. A House for …
ETA: Jumbo Water Tower
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8899351,0.8957273,3a,75y,226.76h,99.13t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shO-epKsdoM_ztMX24okTVA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en&coh=205409&entry=ttu
Unidentified Group 1:
B3. Hunt for Red October
B2. Storm(y) petrel (= Maxim Gorky ?)
C2. ?
D2. Aurora Safety Car
D3. Indian Mutiny Medal
Unidentified Group 2:
E1. Stern / Zelensky / Selenskyj
E2. Peru
E3. Compartment C Car / 1938 / Edward Hopper
E4. ?
D4. Kansas City Southern Railway / KCS
Soviet frigate Storozhevoy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_frigate_Storozhevoy
B3. inspired the novel Hunt for Red October
B2. Burevestnik-class = Storm petrel
C2. ?
D2. planned to moor alongside Aurora to transmit message of protest to people of the Soviet Union
D3. Mutiny
Having exhaustively reviewed the photographically-documented niche that is underclothed female on two-wheeled motorised conveyance …
C2. RIGA-16 moped – something something Bay of Riga
(dubious sigh)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Movie
Directed by Dennis Hopper who also plays Kansas, written by Stewart Stern, set in Peru
Might E4 be a still from The Last King of Scotland, then?
E4 is a picture of the John Frum cargo cult (fits in with The Last Movie, about a cargo cult).
https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-frum-cargo-cult#3