Name: Brennan Comments: This is not really a hint per-se, and I do not want to seem condescending, considering that this...puzzle has been continuing for 20 years and thus many individuals have likely thought of this already...but I think that there is a very good chance that the perpetrators of this irritating puzzle are probably all faculty members at this Arizona University or whatever college the newspaper belongs to. Certain basic logical assumptions lead me to this presumption: The time period during which the clues started appearing, continuing all the way till the present day suggests that the perpetrators want to remain in that specific locale where the newspaper is published. This fairly long length of time strongly suggests that they are tenured faculty members (teachers, professors). In addition, they have some sort of insider access or authority regarding the newspaper so that the clues can be assured of being published on a near yearly, regular basis. If this assumption is true then it may well be likely that this puzzle will not persist beyond the time that a single standard human lifespan takes to elapse. If the puzzle is being made by teachers, the regulations would specifically prohibit they're ability to provide a monetary award. Sorry. The second point is that the content of these elaborate clues strongly suggest that the knowledgte base of the perpetrators or creators of the puzzle is extremely wide, encompassing detailed knowledge of history, languages, mathematics, arts, etc. Considering the extent of the knowledge suggested by the quotes I believe it is likely that there is not just a single perpetrator but several who are working in collaboration. However I could be wrong, but the single individual to create these clues would be required to be a near genius. They is also likely to be teachers/faculty members because clues that are of this level of detail suggest that the perpetrators have large amounts of time on their hands. Professors/faculty members are also indicated because these sorts of individuals would be the only candidates who likely would have easy access to the required range of knowledge and information necessary to create a puzzle of this magnitude. The internet can make the task of creating these clues much easier, but the clues have been created since at least 1980, suggesting that they may predate the Internet as we currently know it. This means the perpretrators of this puzzle must have had access to more immediate sources of information. (libraries, obscure and technical reference books) and it takes an extensive prexisting amount of knowledge to properly utilize such technical reference materials in the physical world. This extensive knowledge is suggestive of training in these technical areas, such training as college professors are required to already have. The other logical (or at least rational) piece of evidence in favor of this interpretation is that very few individuals other than professors would have any remotely plausible interest in creating a puzzle of this magnitude and regularly forcing it to be inserted into a student newspaper. Most newspaper editors would also disregard or edit out such seemingly enigmatic puzzles as this as the purpose of newspapers is usually to present information in a clear fashion. The puzzle forces the students to think...very hard, which is exactly what most professors would prefer students do. Furthermore each clue of the puzzle forces students who become involved in it to look things up and learn new things. These side effects of figuring out the puzzle are also some of the primary objectives that most professors and teachers tend to have. As such it is my belief that the best way to find out what is going on is to attempt to find out the source of these clues and ignore the clues themselves. They are in effect, highly complicated blind alleys. The true puzzle should be to track down the source of the clues themselves and then thoroughly interrogate the individuals that the evidence leads you to. A good place to start would be the college newspaper publication office. The day before may first, it might be a good idea to keep the office under constant surveilance and record everyone who comes and goes from it. Also you can attempt to thoughly...interview the newspaper's editors. This is what I like to call...thinking outside of the box. The puzzle itself is the "box" in this scenario. (Of course it could also be that the newspaper itself is behind the creation of the puzzle, although the specific individual must have been at the college since at least 1980) Perhaps this can narrow the range of potential suspects down. Graduate students can also be consulted through various means to see if they have witnissed information regarding where the source of these puzzles lie, as they are often in closer contact with the faculty than most other students. If the college newspaper allows students to work for it, embedding a student or otherwise infiltrating the newspaper organization may be a useful means of gathering information regarding the source of these clues. Seeing how the newspaper regularly prints these interesting little clues, the newspaper editor almost certainly knows at least somthing about where the clues are coming from. If you can get a hold of an original copy of some clues from which the newspaper prints them, (if an orginal copy exists) still more (possibly forensic) information could be potentially gathered (Any criminology graduate type students there?). In any case the clues appear to be a nice work of art, but I for one would find it quite enjoyable to persue this mystery in a far more...aggresive manner, utilizing methods that actual modern investigators and investigation agencies currently use, rather than simply allowing myself to be manipulated by the ever going stream of hints. Oh yeah, One last thing that suggests that these are professors/tenured faculty members doing this puzzle: The occasional cryptic correction sheets or clues that sometimes pop up...Some teachers can't help but feel an urge to correct what they see as mistakes in a student's work. :-) Name: Brennan Comments: I am sorry to submit this suggestion twice, but I did not realize that a newer page was availiable than the one I was on. I will add that some of the tenured college faculty members who are probably doing this may well be in the humanities, arts and languages department. History is also a major role seen in the clues. The prevalence of language, artistic and aspects of the clues is a strong suggestion of this. Perhaps befriending one of the professors in these departments may yield some results? Also may be useful to, when you speak to them in their offices, to roam your eyes over their paraphanelia. (teachers always keep mememtos of their past and present in their offices.) Perhaps something may be there that either was in a past clue or will be in a future one? Another plan that could potentially yield results is to blindly claim within earshot of the professors that you have figured out the identities of the perpertrators of the puzzle. Just be non-specific, but perhaps using this tactic may cause further information to come to you. (Like maybe you could write a letter to the newspaper saying that you know the unstated names of the creators of the puzzles and would like to communicate further with them. Of course this tactic carries with it the risk of causing yourself to lose credibility in the eyes of whoever you communicate to, but hey, why not? its only a game of sorts anyhow. Maybe you just might want to take it to a new playing field...the playing field of real life. Perhaps the puzzle creators may not be comfortable with this and you may be able to force them out of hiding? just a string of thoughts. This is not really a hint per-se, and I do not want to seem condescending, considering that this...puzzle has been continuing for 20 years and thus many individuals have likely thought of this already...but I think that there is a very good chance that the perpetrators of this irritating puzzle are probably all faculty members at this Arizona University or whatever college the newspaper belongs to. Certain basic logical assumptions lead me to this presumption: The time period during which the clues started appearing, continuing all the way till the present day suggests that the perpetrators want to remain in that specific locale where the newspaper is published. This fairly long length of time strongly suggests that they are tenured faculty members (teachers, professors). In addition, they have some sort of insider access or authority regarding the newspaper so that the clues can be assured of being published on a near yearly, regular basis. If this assumption is true then it may well be likely that this puzzle will not persist beyond the time that a single standard human lifespan takes to elapse. If the puzzle is being made by teachers, the regulations would specifically prohibit they're ability to provide a monetary award. Sorry. The second point is that the content of these elaborate clues strongly suggest that the knowledgte base of the perpetrators or creators of the puzzle is extremely wide, encompassing detailed knowledge of history, languages, mathematics, arts, etc. Considering the extent of the knowledge suggested by the quotes I believe it is likely that there is not just a single perpetrator but several who are working in collaboration. However I could be wrong, but the single individual to create these clues would be required to be a near genius. They is also likely to be teachers/faculty members because clues that are of this level of detail suggest that the perpetrators have large amounts of time on their hands. Professors/faculty members are also indicated because these sorts of individuals would be the only candidates who likely would have easy access to the required range of knowledge and information necessary to create a puzzle of this magnitude. The internet can make the task of creating these clues much easier, but the clues have been created since at least 1980, suggesting that they may predate the Internet as we currently know it. This means the perpretrators of this puzzle must have had access to more immediate sources of information. (libraries, obscure and technical reference books) and it takes an extensive prexisting amount of knowledge to properly utilize such technical reference materials in the physical world. This extensive knowledge is suggestive of training in these technical areas, such training as college professors are required to already have. The other logical (or at least rational) piece of evidence in favor of this interpretation is that very few individuals other than professors would have any remotely plausible interest in creating a puzzle of this magnitude and regularly forcing it to be inserted into a student newspaper. Most newspaper editors would also disregard or edit out such seemingly enigmatic puzzles as this as the purpose of newspapers is usually to present information in a clear fashion. The puzzle forces the students to think...very hard, which is exactly what most professors would prefer students do. Furthermore each clue of the puzzle forces students who become involved in it to look things up and learn new things. These side effects of figuring out the puzzle are also some of the primary objectives that most professors and teachers tend to have. As such it is my belief that the best way to find out what is going on is to attempt to find out the source of these clues and ignore the clues themselves. They are in effect, highly complicated blind alleys. The true puzzle should be to track down the source of the clues themselves and then thoroughly interrogate the individuals that the evidence leads you to. A good place to start would be the college newspaper publication office. The day before may first, it might be a good idea to keep the office under constant surveilance and record everyone who comes and goes from it. Also you can attempt to thoughly...interview the newspaper's editors. This is what I like to call...thinking outside of the box. The puzzle itself is the "box" in this scenario. (Of course it could also be that the newspaper itself is behind the creation of the puzzle, although the specific individual must have been at the college since at least 1980) Perhaps this can narrow the range of potential suspects down. Graduate students can also be consulted through various means to see if they have witnissed information regarding where the source of these puzzles lie, as they are often in closer contact with the faculty than most other students. If the college newspaper allows students to work for it, embedding a student or otherwise infiltrating the newspaper organization may be a useful means of gathering information regarding the source of these clues. Seeing how the newspaper regularly prints these interesting little clues, the newspaper editor almost certainly knows at least somthing about where the clues are coming from. If you can get a hold of an original copy of some clues from which the newspaper prints them, (if an orginal copy exists) still more (possibly forensic) information could be potentially gathered (Any criminology graduate type students there?). In any case the clues appear to be a nice work of art, but I for one would find it quite enjoyable to persue this mystery in a far more...aggresive manner, utilizing methods that actual modern investigators and investigation agencies currently use, rather than simply allowing myself to be manipulated by the ever going stream of hints. Oh yeah, One last thing that suggests that these are professors/tenured faculty members doing this puzzle: The occasional cryptic correction sheets or clues that sometimes pop up...Some teachers can't help but feel an urge to correct what they see as mistakes in a student's work. :-) Name: Brennan Comments: The clues are listed in the Arizona Wildcat Newspaper as paid advertisements... This means that someone is paying the newspaper to place the clues... This means that the newspaper is recieving money from someone... This means the newspaper may very well have information regarding this person or persons so that they may contine to recieve their due payments for the clues... This means that...questioning...interviewing or infiltrating the newspaper may indeed yield further information regarding the source of these clues, and the source of the clues should have all of the anwswers to the clues. Perhaps this investigatory method is an...unusual approach to solving a puzzle, but unsual puzzles may sometimes require more unusual approaches. Perhaps this is missing the point...but perhaps it may still yield some more information anyhow. This approach is afterall simmilar to the approach that the police agencies use to solve the puzzles that they are given. By the way, if you want to know some background on me: I am 24. I am an english major. I find mysteries to be simultaneously compelling and annoying. I would tell you where I am appoximately, but I do not yet trust this sight. In my opinion, the entire sight itself may be some sort of elaborate hoax. I find that the best way to solve a puzzle is to toy with it a bit for my own benefit, and then look the answer up on the Internet. Wrong answers and failures teach us much less than knowing the right answers and realizing successes...not just our own successes but the successes of numerous others. When I go from point A to point B, I often find it most logical to take the most direct route. A puzzle or mystery is no different. The puzzle itself may be relatively irrelevant as the clues may well never end. They have persisted for the past twenty years at least, so why should they ever stop? Perhaps the true answers lie in the identities of whomsoever is creating the puzzle. Besides, would it not be more interesting to speak with the puzzle's creators rather than solve the petty puzzles themselves? Perhaps you already do speak to the puzzle's creators however...Everyday if you participate in class.
Also, during my 6 year stint at the college, I never ran into any profs, etc. who knew anything about this. And we looked high and low ...
From: Kattttnip1@[redacted] To: bhance@maydaymystery.org Subject: (no subject) I see where Brennan has drawn his conclusions, however, if this were an elaborate hoax brought on by bored tenured professors and a host of student teachers and collaborators, it would seem that it would be a relatively easy thing to uncover just because of the nature of human beings. People talk. Secrets always come out. If this encompassed the many people Brennan thinks it does, then someone, somewhere knows something and the chances of them NOT talking for 20 years while carrying this on are astronomical. Could you honestly keep your sights on a hoax of this magnitude for TWENTY years? IF that is so, then I would like to meet this tenured professor, or group of professors who are likely enjoying how they've duped the thousands and thousands of people who can't figure this thing out. If I had that kind of brain, I certainly wouldn't be wasting it on a college prank. Kat