Question 0

[SDC 2002 Home]

Welcome to the Totally Gratuitous Question Zero

of

The 2002 Totally Official Summer Doldrums Competition

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To get things underway, here are 26 clues...

a.   a colossus was once here
b.   a saintly healer lived here
c.   a sheik lives here
d.   this city's marathon passes by here
e.   synonymous with silk
f.   the little mermaid can be found here
g.   catherine founded this estate
h.   little fifties from the 50s hang out here
i.   victor hag lived here
j.   the subject of a forced buy order
k.   the gateway to Asia
l.   inspiration for a theme park
m.   gave its name to a cocktail
n.   it has four faces
o.   a phantom lived here
p.   the Arabian nights took place here
q.   lady gaudier was here
r.   buster died here
s.   Lincoln logs are made here
t.   the end of polo's journey was here
u.   Santa's helper lives here
v.   there's a big library nearby
w.   wan Newton performs here
x.   M&Ms were invented here
y.   it gave its name to a tea
z.   kangaroos live here

Please note that each clue is given a letter. So far, so good, right? Next, here are 11 pictures...

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Now for the puzzle: if 15 of the 26 clues are eliminated, the remaining 11 will match the pictures, *and* be in the correct order.

Take the 11 letters (in alphabetical order) and use them to replace the question marks in this URL

http://www.totally-official.com/???????????

If you have solved this, don't forget to get back to the newsgroup to help your fellow aue civilians learn the correct url!

Also, if anyone can name the *exact* locations for these pictures, we would love to hear that also!

Good Luck!

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Additional notes by the alt.usage.english webmaster

The correct answer is:

http://www.totally-official.com/bdhjlnoqtvy

That URL led to a page something like this:

	Congratulations!
"Your answers may be correct, ours are Totally Official"
Congratulations upon arriving here. That's worth something...(maybe) If you think you might be the first to reach this point, then you may be in line for a special award. To claim your award, you should post a message to aue with the subject line [=SDC=] The answer is squeamish ossifrage If there is already a thread there with this subject heading, well, it was a good try. But maybe you still have a chance for a special award... If you follow this link you will find a crossword puzzle. This is a very special crossword puzzle, designed to provide regular readers of aue with an unfair advantage. One of the answers to this crossword puzzle contains two A's, two O's, and two K's (as well as some other letters probably). In other words, it contains the letters AAOOKK in some order, and possibly intermixed with others. If you are the first to figure this one out, then you may claim your award by posting a follow-up to the above thread containing the text of this answer that you found in the crossword.

Note that you won't be able to see the puzzle if your browser doesn't execute JavaScript. The answer to the puzzle is archived here.