Friday Foxer #205

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 week’s wikifoxer

a1. weight pulling (a_monk)
a2. wharf of the caravels (copperbottom)
a3. wings (a_monk)
a4. with god, all things are possible (Phlebas)
a5. witches’ sabbath (AbyssUK)
b1. wirephoto (Colonel_K)
b2. watchman (a_monk)
b3. wendigo (Colonel_K)
b4. wagner group (copperbottom)
b5. winchester repeating arms company (Phlebas)
c1. windpump (Colonel_K)
c2. wedding-cake style (a_monk)
c3. warsaw uprising (copperbottom)
c4. worm drive (Colonel_K)
c5. woodstock (Colonel_K)
d1. wunder von lengede (Colonel_K)
d2. whitesnake (copperbottom)
d3. wroclaw dwarfs (Phlebas)
d4 welfreighter (a_monk)
d5. wearable technology (a_monk)
e1. whisky war (a_monk)
e2. whiplash (a_monk)
e3. wuthering heights (Phlebas)
e4. warty frogfish (Colonel_K)
e5. who put bella in the wych elm (Colonel_K)

43 Comments

  20. B5 – MR-73 train on the Montreal Metro – the sound of these trains as they leave the station are the same three notes as the start of Fanfare for the Common Man.

    And that’s me done for today (as you’re only supposed to guess one cluster on the first day…)

  21. Re: C4.
    is from the second generation of Ford Econoline vans. I think the grille puts its year as 1971 to 1974.
    Intended for passengers, it might be a Club Wagon.

    • Probably completes the ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ group. Quote:
      [The work]was inspired in part by a speech made earlier that year by then American Vice President Henry A. WALLACE, in which Wallace proclaimed the dawning of the “Century of the Common Man”.

      A3 – THE COMMON MAN cartoons by RK Laxman
      A4 – COPLAND – composer
      B4 – WALLACE
      A5 – T-Mk 6 FANFARE
      B5 – Montreal Metro MR-73 – same opening notes

    • Belongs with Jane Eyre surnames: Bertha MASON being Mr Rochester’s first wife

      A2. Bertha & Richard MASON
      B2. Grace POOLE
      B3. Edward Fairfax ROCHESTER
      C2. Miss Maria TEMPLE
      and, most likely,
      D2. ???

  24. A1. The Triangular Hour by Salvador Dali
    It is used as a cover for Jean Paul Sartre novel Nausea (La Nausée in French) by Penguin Books number 2276
    Nausea – Jean – Paul Sartre. 1967 Vintage Penguin Paperback

  25. E5. The Palma Arena (also known in Spanish as Velodrome Palma) is a multisport pavilion of the city of Palma. Its construction involved major cost overruns, and massive corruption.

  26. Words ending -EA:

    A1. Jean-Paul Sartre NAUSEA
    B1. ERITREA
    C1. Fiat IDEA
    D1. GALATEA of the Spheres
    and, by necessity,
    E1. ???

    Leaves an unidentified group:
    E2. Parthenon- view of east facade
    D3. Spire on O’Connell Street in Dublin
    E3. ???
    D4. ???
    D5. CRAB / Senior EOD

    • I think the link for the last group could be Bomb/Explosive devices:
      E2. Parthenon- In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon.
      D3. Spire on O’Connell Street in Dublin – Built on the Nelson’s Pillar, which was bombed and severely damaged by former IRA members in 1966.
      E3. ???
      D4. ???
      D5. CRAB / Senior EOD – EOD technicians are specially trained to deal with the construction, deployment, disarmament, and disposal of high explosive munitions

      No idea for the last two. D4 could be a memorial related to a bombing.

      • You’re right about explosions!
        E3. is Cornelia Parker, known for her notable work cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991).

        She had a garden shed blown up by the British Army and suspended the fragments as if suspending the explosion process in time. In the centre was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room.

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