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 or vertical line before anyone else to win ‘Connect 5’ bragging rights.
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SOLUTIONS
last week’s geofoxer theme: dancing (defoxed by Phlebas)
a. foxtrot (Aergistal)
b. barn dance, swan lake, and anna pavlova (Mrs Nutfield, Phlebas)
c. dancing house aka fred and ginger (Colonel_K)
d. sword dance (Mrs Nutfield, Phlebas)
e. reel (Nutfield)
f. dance steps (Nutfield, Colonel_K)
g. tango (Phlebas)
h. degas (Nutfield, Aergistal)
i. borrowdale (Phlebas)
j. polka (Nutfield and Mrs Nutfield)
k. danse macabre (Colonel_K)
l. jig and mulberry branch dance (Aergistal)
E5. AUTUMN (1900 version) by Alphonse Mucha from set of The {Four} Seasons
C1 – AntiFascist sign on Bridge in Corvetto (I think), suburb of Milan. translates as Corvette, maybe types of ships or Chryslers.
D3. Ordnance Survey BENCHMARK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_(surveying)
E1. BED SKIRT / Dust Ruffle (N. America) or VALANCE (Britain) ?
D2. MORAVIA – shown against current regions of the Czech Republic
B5 – Kabosu the Shiba Inu, aka DOGE
D4 – BIC Cristal Original pens, box of 150
D1 – ECO: a game of survival (Amiga)
B2 – CALVINO Noir
Maybe a cluster of Italian novelists with Eco and Moravia?
B1 – LEVI Eshkol on a 5000 shekel banknote.
Looks like we need C1 to be a modern Italian novelist.
Aha. In C1 we’re in Milan as Nutfield said, looking across the water to Alzaia Naviglio PAVESE.
RE: B4.
The answer lies somewhere in the following saga:
Ordered in 1911 by Brazil as RIO DE JANEIRO.
Not needed in a contracting economy, she was sold while under construction to the Ottoman Empire. Renamed SULTAN OSMAN I.
(Picture taken while fitting-out in 1914)
After outbreak of WW1, seized by British and renamed again to HMS AGINCOURT, aka Gin Palace.
C3. Araneus diadematus
(Another long one) aka “European garden spider, cross orbweaver, diadem spider, orangie, cross spider, and crowned orb weaver. It is sometimes called the pumpkin spider”
D5 – prosthetic tail for WINTER the dolphin
A1 – street art depicting the Angel of Mons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons
A3 – Animals in a Landscape (Franz Marc, 1914)
A5 -Mary SPRING Rice and Molly Childers aboard the Asgard
Another season?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howth_gun-running
A4. PASSENGER PIGEON – extinct bird – Painting of a male, K. Hayashi, c. 1900
E4. Dundee statue for WINKIE the Pigeon – awarded Dickin medal for service in 1942 helping locate crash-landed bomber crew of a Beaufort
A2. memorial in Budge Budge, Kolkata for the Komagata Maru incident
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komagata_Maru_incident
C4 – Google Doodle honouring Bengali artist Jamini Roy
https://time.com/4734074/jamini-roy-google-doodle-modernism-india/
Occurring in 1914
A1. Angels of Mons – 23rd August
A2. Komagata Maru – 4th April to 27th September; incident itself 23rd May
A3. Franz Marc paints Animals in a Landscape
A4. Martha, thought to be the last passenger pigeon, dies 1st September at the Cincinnati Zoo
And, most likely:
A5. Howth gun-running – 26th July
B3. GREAT THEODOLITE by Jesse Ramsden
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsden_surveying_instruments
(One of the same design used by Lieutenant-Colonel William Lambton in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India)
The original Royal Society theodolite was used in the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790), under the leadership of General William (C4.) ROY ?!
E2. OV-1C MOHAWK – 1:48 model of photo-recon aircraft by Roden
Has Roman finally set a perfectly symmetrical cluster Foxer?
E3. WRATH: Aeon of Ruin
John Ford Films:
The Man Who Shot Liberty VALANCE (E1)
Drums along the MOHAWK (E2)
The Grapes of WRATH (E3)
Wee Willie WINKIE (E4)
Cheyenne AUTUMN (E5)
C2 – Martello tower at Fort Denison, Sydney Harbour? I haven’t found the location on Google maps though.
C5 – Caesar Rodney’s Ride: The Story of an American Patriot by Cheripko