"Let me get this straight. One year ago, we founded the Too Big To Fail Puzzle Team & Investment Firm on the basis that it would be impossible for a ridiculously crowded room of dedicated MIT students and alumni to lose the Mystery Hunt. And you're telling me that not only did we lose the Hunt, but somehow we also lost several billion dollars of investor money?"
Your accountant nods gravely. "While I admire your team's dedication to playing the role of a corrupt Wall Street company, it probably wasn't necessary to accept dozens of rich clients and then empty their accounts to buy snacks for a weekend in January."
"You make a very valid point. So is there anybody who can bail us out of this?"
"Well, we did hire an absurd Richard Bransonesque playboy to act as CEO. We were hoping he might bring some financial knowhow to the table, but mostly he just rants about the merits of commercial space travel and how you can't find good fish and chips in this country. He's in the next room, and I've gotten him to sit still long enough to listen to some proposals. But I have a feeling we're going to have to figure out how to fix this situation ourselves."
And so began one of the more awkward pitch meetings in corporate history. Most of your suggestions were immediately dismissed by the CEO, who answered with a couple of sentences and then scribbled down semi-related puzzles while you brainstormed something more appealing. Until, finally, one of you said something that ignited a mad twinkle in his eye, and he enthusiastically answered...
How did the CEO respond to the one suggestion he really liked?
Suggestions for the CEO:
[Or alternatively, one PDF with all puzzles for those who don't like to click links.]
Congrats to everyone who's completed the hunt! The leaderboard is now full, but I'll continue to confirm your answers via e-mail.
There is now a Hints Page for your convenience, although I am happy to give hints by e-mail as well.
This is my pre-MIT-Mystery-Hunt mini-puzzlehunt for 2013. I created it for my MIT Hunt team (whose 2012 name was Too Big To Fail, and whose 2013 name is the entire text of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, which may encourage future length limits on team names) to practice with, and after the Hunt it will be released to the public.
For those unfamiliar with puzzlehunts, the puzzles often lack instructions; it's up to you to assess what you see and figure out what to do in order to extract the answer, which will be a word or phrase. The answers to the puzzles can somehow be combined to reveal an answer to the question asked in bold, which is the final answer to the minihunt. For those specifically unfamiliar with the MIT Hunt, MIT Mystery Hunt puzzles frequently require the use of the internet and other resources. So if you're used to solving with no tools besides your pencil and brain, be aware that these puzzles aren't designed for that; you're probably going to need references to complete many of them.
When you find answers to individual puzzles, you can "call them in" by e-mailing me at spelvin at gmail dot com. I'll tell you whether they're right or not, although for this hunt you won't receive any additional information for verifying an answer (but the answers themselves are likely to come in handy!). In addition, if you obtain the final answer, I can verify that as well, and the first ten solvers or teams to complete the hunt will be listed on the leaderboard. If you need hints on a puzzle, feel free to ask for those too, although if I give you any hints, you will no longer be eligible for the leaderboard. If you don't care about the glory, ask away!
I'd like to thank my diligent testers: My wonderful fiancee, Jackie Anderson, who solved every puzzle by herself as I completed them(!), and Rich Bragg, Todd Etter, Mark Gottlieb, Brent Holman, John Owens, Mike Selinker, Ian Tullis, and Gaby Weidling, who all acted as guinea pigs for the whole hunt once it was fully assembled. As always, any errors that may still exist are my fault, but many errors are gone thanks to their work.
In the last few years, online puzzle suites have really come into vogue. Foggy Brume and Mark Halpin have been posting fantastic puzzlehunts for as long as I can remember, and more recently, Patrick Blindauer, Trip Payne, Andrew Ries, and Puzzazz have all gotten into the game. Many of these authors write puzzles for a living (or part of their living), and as a result, a lot of these sets charge the solver money. Given the amount of time and effort that goes into building these puzzles, I think that's more than fair.
I've been releasing this hunt yearly on a "tip if you feel moved to" basis, and this was the first year that I seriously considered asking people to pay for it upfront. Ultimately I decided not to because (a) in this economy there may be some people who want to solve my puzzles and legitimately don't have the spare cash to throw around, and (b) I know my puzzle style isn't for everybody, and I want to give you a chance to sample the wares before you decide whether they're worth paying for.
So rather than suggesting you leave a tip, I'm going to ask you (politely) to pay for these puzzles on the honor system. If you enjoyed them, and you can afford it, please use the PayPal button below to send me, say, $5.00. If you had more than five dollars worth of fun, feel free to send more, or send less if you think it was worth less, but think of five bucks as the default. It's a low price point compared to most of the puzzle extravaganzas linked above (apart from Foggy's P&A, which is frankly the best bargain in the puzzle universe), and it will help ensure that I continue to commit the many hours necessary to write these minihunts in the future. My humble thanks in advance for this, and I hope you have a great time!