October 17, 2012
The Last Row
We’re in the last week of the Great American History Puzzle, and if you’ve passed every obstacle and dodged every arrow, all is (hopefully) starting to become clear. The treasure may seem to be almost in sight.
But at least two of the last three puzzles in the grid (including today’s!) may be among the hair-pullingest yet. I’m not a sadist, mind you. I genuinely think you’ll have fun with them. Maybe only in occasional moments of insight, or even hindsight. But that’s sort of how puzzles work, my friends.
Don’t give up! Not so close to your goal.
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But I have no hair to pull! Aaaargh!
Puzzle #8 is… puzzling.
Ha ha, John! However, if we haven’t been driven insane already, I think we’ll be fine. Let’s do this!
I’ve been trying to join the Twitter conversation without any luck. I’ve tried to join @historypuzzle without success. Any help on getting on board?
Search for the hashtag #historypuzzle on Twitter.
– The Puzzle Team
Oh, I got the hashtag, but nothing I’ve posted has shown up there. I also tried to follow @historypuzzle (I’m assuming that’s official, but I could be wrong), but i haven’t been allowed to.
The #historypuzzle isn’t official, and there isn’t an official @historypuzzle from us. We do tweet about the puzzle, but via @SmithsonianMag.
– The Puzzle Team
Well well well…this doesn’t look like a puzzle that will give up its secrets easily. Not to be solved by an intuitive guess, eh?
If I am doing this puzzle right, this is going to take a while to figure out.
I’m stuck near the end of the process I selected for my first try at this one, and I don’t see an approximate solution forming.
I *think* I have gotten the clue to this puzzle but can’t seem to find the answer. Is that odd?
So I’ve really been sailing right through all of these so far and have completed seven of them with no problem… but that infernal #3′s just killing me. I know the answer’s supposedly staring me right in the face, but I have to believe I’m making it way harder than it really is. The cryptogram took mere minutes, and that was the easy part. I should let my kids take a crack at it – I’m overthinking it.
…and it finally smacked me right in the face.
OK, so everything’s solved! Just waiting for puzzle #9 now.
I dreamt of presidential portraits last night! I may be obsessed.. ah well, I will hope for subliminal inspiration or any kind I can get on this one!
I meant subconscious, duh!
Subconscious, subliminal…I’ll take any help I can get at this point.
I’ve finished the time-intensive first layer of this one, now stuck at the “figure out where to go from here” part. Tried at least ten different things to the information I’ve collected, nothing is turning it into anything intelligible.
Ahh..that was it..bring on puzzle#9!
This contest has taught me one thing for sure: I should be more confident in my ability, instead of thinking things are way beyond me. I always make it more complicated that it really is.
Just solved #9 in 25 minutes. I cannot WAIT until next Monday – the agonizing wait’s already unbearable!
Okay, maybe I’m being a smart alec, but how did the professor from puzzle 7 manage to take a picture of the earth from his observatory on campus?