Friday Foxer #189

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.

In an attempt to ensure as many people as possible get a chance to participate, Roman requests defoxers solve no more than five squares per person on Day 1, and guess no more than one cluster theme. (After 24 hours have elapsed, fill your boots!). Use your ration to complete an entire horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line before anyone else to win ‘Connect 5’ bragging rights.

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SOLUTIONS

Last weeks wikifoxer letter: w

1. wristlock (Colonel_K, a_monk)
2. wobbly-web wheel (a_monk)
3. wiphala (a_monk)
4. wren day (Aergistal)
5. windsor castle (Aergistal)
6. weird west (Colonel_K, a_monk)
7. weather modification (Colonel_K)
8. westland wallace (a_monk)
9. wanderer above the sea of fog (Aergistal)
10. wire fox terrier (a_monk)
11. willow (a_monk)
12. walrus (a_monk)
13. wheelchair fencing (a_monk)
14. wyoming (a_monk)
15. wandjina (a_monk)
16. waterboarding (Colonel_K)
17. west berlin (Colonel_K, a_monk)
18. winged monkeys (Colonel_K, a_monk)
19. wardenclyffe tower (Zwack23)
20. warchalking (Colonel_K)
21. wrasse (Colonel_K, a_monk)
22. wine accessory (Aergistal)
23. whitehall street (a_monk)
24. wewe gombal (a_monk)
25. wedding at cana – damaskinos (a_monk)

36 Comments

  10. C2. is the Coat of Arms of Colombia, featuring a pomegranate fruit but also a Phyrigian cap

    Makes Phrygian Caps a theme, with a strong suspicion that one or more may in fact belong in other groups:
    B1. Smurfs – headwear
    B2. Jeu des Bonnets Phrygiens
    C2. Coat of arms of Colombia
    C3. ???
    C4. The Phryges – 2024 Olympics mascots

    Re: C3.
    If that’s the Black Sea to the north, then historically, I think, Phrygia would be intruding in the lower left corner.

  18. Sorry, I’m late to the party.

    Here is what I found:
    A1. Borealis quadrangle
    A2. Coat of arms of Australia
    B1. Peyo
    B2. Jeu des Bonnets Phrygiens – Queen of spades
    B3. The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius
    B4. 2012 Summer Paralympics gold post box Jonnie Peacock Doddington, Cambridgeshire, 13, new street
    C1. Goodison Park – Howard Kendall
    C2. Colombia Coat of arm
    C3. Field of Glory: Kingdoms – Byzantine empire
    D5. Webbed video game

    Regarding the cluster, I think we have:

    Peacock:
    B3. The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius – A peacock is visible on the paint
    B4. 2012 Summer Paralympics gold post box for Jonnie Peacock
    B5. Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense – The seat is a Peacock Chair
    C5. the Peacock Clock
    D5. Webbed – The hero is a Peacock spider

    Phrygian Hat
    B1. Peyo – Phrygian Hat for the Smurf
    B2. Jeu des Bonnets Phrygiens – Queen of spades
    C2. Colombia Coat of arm – Phrygian Hat
    C3. Field of Glory: Kingdoms – Byzantine empire – Kingdom of Phrygia
    C4. The Phryges

    3 clusters to complete:
    A1. Borealis quadrangle
    A2. Coat of arms of Australia
    A3. ???
    A4. The OLD VIC theatre, London
    A5. French departement AISNE

    C1. Goodison Park – Howard Kendall
    D1. Scrubs (clothing)
    ???
    ???
    ???

    E5. ???
    E4. BUDE – for sunshine and surfing (Southern Railway)
    ???
    ???
    ???

    Identified pictures without cluster:
    D2. the archetypal English château is Witherslack Hall which is also the name of the GWR 6959 Class 6990 locomotive.
    D3. El Húsar de la Muerte
    D4. Curtiss SOC Seagull
    E1. The Smiths – Strangeways, Here We Come vinyl cover
    E2. Oscar Wilde statue in Dublin

    Picture to unfox:
    A3
    E3
    E5

  19. Locos that participated in the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Locomotive_Exchange_Trials

    D2. GWR Modified Hall Class 6990 Witherslack Hall
    D3. LMS Rebuilt Royal Scot Class 46154 The Hussar
    D4. LNER Class A4 60033 Seagull
    E4. SR West Country class 34006 Bude
    and presumably
    E5. ???

    Three of the five that seem to form a cluster are related to prisons:
    D1. (Wormwood) Scrubs
    E1. Strangeways
    E2. (Ballad of) Reading Gaol

    Ahh! Logo of C1. Everton FC features the ‘Everton Lock-up’ aka Prince Rupert’s Tower, though it was built more than a century after the Civil war.

    • So, for this cluster, we are looking for a link between Mercury/ borealis quadrangle, the coat of arms of Australia, 2024 Olympic medal, the Old Vic theather and the French Departement of Aisne. Maybe a book or a movie?

      • Three of them have IRON in common:
        – Mercury is an iron planet
        – the medals contain iron from the Eiffel Tower, shaped like a hexagon
        – there’s an Iron commune in Aisne

        It doesn’t seem to fit the remaining two however.

      • – Australia is the world’s largest IRON ore producer
        – kind of stretching it, but the safety curtain is British theaters is called an IRON, the origin of the Iron Curtain?

      • I must say that the iron curtain sounds a bit sketchy, but I m afraid I dont have a better idea. I got lucky with the first two clusters. If Tim comes around, he will tell us if we are on the right pass or not.

  21. Re: A2.
    Quote: “Australians are sometimes erroneously claimed to be the only people who eat the animals on their coat of arms, and the combination of both kangaroo and emu meat in a single dish such as pie or pizza is known as the Coat of Arms.”

    Probably not helpful for _this_ Foxer.

    Component parts doesn’t work as a theme:-
    There are several types of North Pole: magnetic, geographic, inaccessible, etc
    Aisne has 5 constituencies
    Australia is 6 states plus 1 territory
    There are only three olympic medals…

  22. RE: remaining cluster

    What about something to do with “Vic” / “Victoria”?

    There’s Victoria in Australia, Old Vic is self-explanatory, the Victoria quadrangle on Mercury is apparently next to the Borealis, and there’s also Vic-sur-Aisne

    ETA: The obverse of the Olympic medals seem to have Nike aka “Victory” on them

  23. So, it turns out if was indeed IRON for the last cluster.

    But I still wonder about the Old Vic. Was it the safety curtain, the iron cast columns, the corrugated iron boxes in which the actors had to change or something else?

    Could Roman please enlighten us.

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