zotmeister | Detritus

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Detritus

I am slowly but surely excavating myself from beneath the detritus that was my life last month - not that I'm depressed or have been wronged or anything; it's just that I felt I was largely lacking in momentum, and I'm taking the initiative to remedy that. I have officially started dieting and exercising again; my not-so-secret podcast project is underway; I've started refamiliarizing myself with game design and programming; I'm making significant strides in my gaming and especially in my Xbox Live Gamerscore; I updated my LiveJournal user profile. I'm hoping that I can carry some of this momentum into fiction before it fizzles out, but I don't want to push myself too hard (I can only do two-and-a-half things at once, after all). Perhaps once my Disgaea hardcore (see my profile) has been completed, I'll write some stories. ...Don't laugh. I'm on Episode 11. Anyway, I'll soon be sorting through the email backlog I've accumulated. Puzzle 45 is coming along, but I am, as perhaps you've figured, prioritizing other things. Amongst the detritus are some truly valuable bits I thought some of you may appreciate, being puzzle afficionados and all: One "Infinity Squared" created the graphic below as xkcd fanart; it is one of the cleverest (and quite possibly obscurest) "comics" I've seen in a long time. My thanks to infintysquared (not a typo) for permitting me to offer it to you all: I'll explain it later in the comments if you don't get it. Incidentally, if you're not reading xkcd, you're missing out on genius. Whether it's a clever observation of human behavior reminiscent - and worthy - of the best of Candid Camera's history, a catchphrase begging to become the next great meme, a deep dig at very technical mathematics, or just a your-mom gag, each strip is incredible. Add it to your Friends page! Wei-Hwa Huang, multiple World Puzzle Championship individual winner, created one of those "Gadgets" that can appear on a personalized Google homepage. E's been updating it weekly, and e's had some very clever challenges. I really like the Mini Battleships puzzles, Last Chessman Standing, and (despite non-unique solutions) Series of Tubes. Thankfully, e also has a page where all the past puzzles can be accessed. A recent post by motris detailing es attempts to recall the names of the U.S. senators reminded me of one of my earliest published puzzles, and I thought you might appreciate it, so I dug it up: Puzzle Two: And One Other... Ostralek's eating habits are legendary, but very few are aware of just how pervasive they are to himself as well as his victims. As a result, he has a very curious habit: whenever he needs to remember a list of names, no matter how long that list may be, he can't help for the life of him but forget exactly one name in the list - as his mind has subconciously eaten one of them! Here is an example of his insanity's handiwork: EX) Starr, Harrison, McCartney, and one other... No, it has nothing to do with the Clinton scandal - wrong Starr. The missing name is "Lennon" - these are The Beatles [Ringo, George, Paul, and John respectively]. Just as Ostralek always seems to eat the most valuable recruit in his group, he tends to forget the most recognizable name in any list. Note that "John Lennon" would be considered correct (with additional information), but just "John" isn't, as the list was of surnames. Make sure your answers fit the lists. Here is a collection of ten lists of names - some real, some fictional - that Ostralek has attempted to recall, and came up short by one each time. Can you provide the name missing from each list that Ostralek has mentally eaten? 1) Bashful, Sleepy, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Sneezy, and one other... 2) Bashful, Speedy, Shadow, and one other... 3) Bryan, Felber, Sonefeld, and one other... 4) Green, White, Plum, Scarlet, Mustard, and one other... 5) Ed, Claude, Arnold, Oscar, Charles, George, Fred, and one other... 6) Laughlin, Störmer, Tsui, Kohn, Pople, Furchgott, Ignarro, Murad, Saramago, Trimble, Sen, and one other... 7) McCormick, Marsh, Broslovski, and one other... 8) Jack, Jack, Jay, Joan, Johnny, Steve, Al, and one other... 9) Jones, Rogers, Dinkley, Blake, and one other... 10) Evans, Goldin, Miles, Schmidt, Smith, Starghill, Stidolph, Walker, and one other... I suppose I should say (for both background and copyright purposes) that Ostralek is a character from the collectible virtual-card game Sanctum; e is an elder imp and hero of the House of Abomination. E eats one of his own party members every turn, gaining strength when e does. I published a total of twenty-three puzzles for The Sanctum Puzzler between 1999 and 2001; although all of them were tied to the game, many were only attached superficially via story. This one in particular was based upon my own personal affliction: I actually do tend to forget exactly one item on lists I try to remember. No matter how long the list is. In fact, the item I can't remember in any given list has been known to change from day to day! At least it gave me a puzzle idea. I encourage you to come up with more "And One Other..."s and post them in the comments; the really good ones are those whose list has a focal element: knowing it would make generating the rest of the list fairly easy; leaving it out makes the list a bit non-descript, even given the entirety of what remains. The first one I came up with - and my favorite - is number seven; I really like number nine as well. I'll warn you right now: you won't get number ten. Don't even try. Nobody got it in the original contest. I'm not even sure the original source of that list still exists in any verifiable form (though it might). I only left it there for sake of completeness. Note that I'm not including this puzzle in my typical LiveJournal numbering scheme; it is both not the kind of puzzle I'm aiming to present here and not the first time I've published it. I will likely break rank on the latter eventually, but I've said before that the puzzles I'll be originating here are to be strictly logical. As such, I'm offering no (further) prizes for it, and I'll even be posting the solutions in the comments in a day or two. Bonus puzzle: I cut-and-pasted the puzzle, leaving a mistake I had made in the original intact. Find it. Lastly, before I forget: the SMAC PBEM game is still not dead. In fact, I just received my turn today. I'm hoping to provide the fictionalization I'd alluded to earlier, in ten-turn installments. It's currently the ninth round. - ZM

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I have a couple.

Brad, Ted, Jake, Kyle, Danny, and one other...

James, David, Jake, Bob, and one other...

Michael, Connie, Tom, Sonny, and one other...

Sean, George, Roger, Timothy, Daniel, and one other...

Ben, Connie, Zeke, and one Other...

Sean, George, Roger, Timothy, Daniel, and one other...

I would argue this list is also missing David and possibly Woody as well as the one you're intending, but that can easily be argued away. (In fact, you could add Barry and Bob as well if you wanted to be thorough.) It is otherwise an excellent list, although I got it right away. (To be fair, it was the subject of a question on Cash Cab I saw not long ago.) The other four I didn't immediately get, but I haven't spent much time thinking about them. I'll get back to them.

Here are couple of other lists I just came up with:

Terry, Terry, Micheal, John, Eric, and one other...

Winston, Raymond, Peter, and one other...

- ZM

It occurred to me there's a non-spoiler way I can do this. I'm making the text white - highlight it to read the solutions:

Sean et al.
Sean [Connery], George [Lazenby], Roger [Moore], Timothy [Dalton], Daniel [Craig], and... Pierce [Brosnan] are all the actors that have played James Bond in EON Productions films. (David Niven and Woody Allen played James Bond and "Jimmy" Bond respectively in the original Casino Royale film; Barry Nelson was the first actor to hold the role - on television; Bob Holness played the role on the radio.)

Terry et al.
Terry [Gilliam], Terry [Jones], Micheal [Palin], John [Cleese], Eric [Idle], and... Graham [Chapman] are the comedians known as the Monty Python troupe.

Winston et al.
Winston [Zeddemore], [Dr.] Raymond [Stantz], [Dr.] Peter [Venkman], and... [Dr.] Egon [Spengler] are the Ghostbusters.

- ZM

I think I now have the html down correctly. Took me long enough.

Brad, et. al:

Brad (Taylor), Ted (McGriff), Jake (Decker), Kyle (Chandler), Danny (Lightfoot), and Melody (Hanson): The hired help at the Bar None Ranch on the Nickelodeon show "Hey Dude."

James, et. al:

James (Earl Jones), David (Prowse), Jake (Lloyd), Bob (Anderson), and Hayden (Christensen): Actors who have played Anakin Skywalker.

Michael, et. al:

Michael (Corleone), Connie (Corleone Rizzi), Tom (Hagen), Sonny (Corleone), and Fredo (Corleone): The children (biological and adopted) of Don Vito Corleone, from the Godfather.

Ben, et. al

No last names are given, as it happens. But the Other is Juliette. They are the Others from the show 'Lost.'

I bit the bullet and read the answers, and I must say I'm disappointed: the "James et al." list is faulty - it's missing Sebastian. (No wonder I didn't get it.) The others are references I'm not familiar with, so I never stood a chance (not your fault, mind you), although I'd have sworn the "Micheal et al." list was one I should have known. I will say that I like the subtlety in the last one, even if I don't know the source. - ZM

Regarding James et al: If that is indeed the case, I humbly apologize. I did do some research and those are the names that fit. It could be I mis-read the research results, however. If that is the case, everyone please consider Zotmeister's comment to be official errata.

I tried my own research, and even knowing the full name, I still had trouble finding Bob! Sure enough, e fits, but I have to ask - how could you have possibly missed Sebastian [Shaw - the unmasked version in Episode VI -] but found Bob? There is apparently also one [C. Andrew Nelson] that could be argued to fit. - ZM

I'm proud of this one:

Pat, Kate, George, Joe, Jennie, Benny, and one other.

Pat (Tuesday), Kate (Monday), George (Earnest Frankly), Joe (Grecko), Jennie (no last name), Benny (Pill), and (Chief Green): The employees of Math Net.

You don't know the answer to your own list?! Your list is of first names, the answer has to be a first name. Shame on you. - ZM

P.S.: A quick Google search turned up [Thad] as the answer.

I'm not as proud any longer.

I had a thought about multiple-solution puzzles (though I haven't yet had a chance to look at the web site you referred to): I think I wouldn't mind a puzzle with multiple solutions, if the author were aware of all solutions, and all solutions were challenging or interesting in some way. A single-solution puzzle could even be made from a multiple-solution puzzle, by saying that to solve the single-solution puzzle, you must find all the solutions to the multiple-solution puzzle.
If I had tried to say that out loud, it would have been quite a mouthful.

Wouldn't it be nice if English had a pronoun whose antecedent was always stated explicitly and never changed until changed explicitly? A sentence like that one of mine could be greatly simplified with such a construct.

"Wouldn't it be nice if English had a pronoun whose antecedent was always stated explicitly and never changed until changed explicitly? A sentence like that one of mine could be greatly simplified with such a construct."

Precisely why I started learning to speak C++.

- Ian

"I'll explain it later in the comments if you don't get it."

Please do. I got some things, e.g. the "ku" and "nein". But it seems like there must be a fair bit I'm missing.

If you got that much, then you're really only missing one thing. This should point you in the right direction of the final piece:

http://xkcd.com/c149.html

Apparently it's some Unix thing.

One thing that bugs me about the image I posted is the coloration of the text in the last panel. Where'd the pink go? Pretty confusing. I left it in its original format, though.

If there's a further subtlety you think you're missing, you'll have to bug the original source about it. - ZM

Thanks... that helped. Now I get the "sudo" part. Which sort of illuminates the "root" bit.
Not sure about the "terms" business... sounds like an allusion to solving equations. Aside from that, it's beyond me.

"If there's a further subtlety you think you're missing, you'll have to bug the original source about it."

But you said you'd explain if I don't get it... ;-(

Overall I'm left feeling like I got a most of the individual references but no uniting theme justifying all the details. I feel there must be more to it, since you called it "one of the cleverest (and quite possibly obscurest) 'comics' I've seen in a long time". Oh well...

Does the off-kilter grid overlaying the orthogonal grid signify anything?

Okay, I think you missed something I saw as obvious if you're asking about "terms". It's "terms" as in "circumstances" or perhaps "contract". There's clearly a servant/master relationship between the two parties; the subservient pink-speaker doesn't want to "nine" and the dominant blue-speaker doesn't want to order it to do something it doesn't really want to do, as it wouldn't feel genuine. Of course, the servant wants to be ordered... The final "NEIN!" is, of course, pronounced as "nine" but means "no", a simultaneous acceptance and refusal of the order. The whole thing is a pun orgy (the "root" pun actually slipped past me earlier...), that builds up to a massive pun climax. And I daresay - although this may just be my inference - that the fact that I needed to make a rather BDSM-sounding description of it to explain it was something the original author intended. [Any further discussion comparing puzzles to sex is beyond the scope of this comment, and I am not expressing any opinion regarding such at this time nor should any be inferred.]

I believe that covers it all. If you disagree, then that's what I meant by "further subtlety"; I see in the comic a cohesive whole that makes sense to me, and if you think there's a missing element, I don't see it.

The "off-kilter" lines just separate the panels of the comic, and perhaps more importantly put the Sudoku grid into the background. I don't expect there to be any significance to them beyond that (I hadn't thought about it before). - ZM

Never did post these here (highlight to view):

1) Bashful, Sleepy, Grumpy, Doc, Happy, Sneezy, ... Dopey: Disney's Seven Dwarves
2) Bashful, Speedy, Shadow, ... Pokey: Usually called by their nicknames - Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde, respectively - the Pac-Man ghosts
3) [Mark] Bryan, [Dean] Felber, [Jim "Soni"] Sonefeld, ... [Darius] Rucker: Hootie & the Blowfish
4) [Mr.] Green, [Mrs.] White, [Professor] Plum, [Miss] Scarlet, [Colonel] Mustard, ... [Mrs.] Peacock: the Cluedo (Clue in the U.S.) suspects
5) Ed [Cicotte], Claude ["Lefty" Williams], Arnold ["Chick" Gandil], Oscar ["Happy" Felsch], Charles ["Swede" Risberg], George [D. "Buck" Weaver], Fred [McMullin], ... Joseph ["Shoeless Joe" Jackson]: The "eight men out" of the 1919 World Series scandal
6) [Robert B.] Laughlin, [Horst L.] Stömer, [Daniel C.] Tsui, [Walter] Kohn, [John A.] Pople, [Robert F.] Furchgott, [Louis J.] Ignarro, [Ferid] Murad, [José] Saramago, [David] Trimble, [Amartya] Sen, ... [John] Hume: the 1998 Nobel Prize winners
7) [Kenny] McCormick, [Stan] Marsh, [Kyle] Broflovski, ... [Eric] Cartman: the original four South Park friends
8) Jack [Paar], Jack [Lescoulie], Jay [Leno], Joan [Rivers], Johnny [Carson], Steve [Allen], Al ["Jazzbeaux" Collins], ... Ernie [Kovacs]: hosts of NBC's The Tonight Show
9) [Fred] Jones, [Norville "Shaggy"] Rogers, [Velma] Dinkley, [Daphne] Blake, ... [Scoobert "Scooby"] Doo: the roster of Mystery, Inc.
10) [Andrew] Evans, [Andrew] Goldin, [Seymour] Miles, [Mike] Schmidt, [Jimmy] Smith, [Skylar] Starghill, [David] Stidolph, [Aaron] Walker, ... [Marcus] D'Amelio: everyone listed under "Other contributors" in the Sanctum credits (I told you to forget it)
And the typo: I put an 's' in instead of an 'f' in 'Broflovski' in question 7. - ZM

Edited 2010-12-14 12:07 (UTC)

Well, I'm about five years late to the party here, but I thought I'd post these anyway. This has become my favorite type of trivia puzzle, and I've made some for a couple puzzle contests I've run. Here are some of the better ones:

Frye, Cobb, Serra, Washburne, Washburne, Tam, Tam, Reynolds, and one other...

Hare, Toad, Lombardi, and one other...

Up, Down, Top, Bottom, Strange, and one other...

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and one other...

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson, Grant, Franklin, and one other...

Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Billy, and one other...

Helga, Rowena, Salazar, and one other...

Four, Six, Eight, Ten, Twelve, and one other...

Larry, Morton, Iggy, Roy, Lemmy, Ludwig Von, and one other...

Catton, Ryan, Tishkoff, Malloy, Malloy, Dell, Tarr, Yen, Bloom, Caldwell, and one other...

Sorry it's taken so long for me to respond to this. I'm always happy to see my little ideas taking root elsewhere; you've become quite the proponent of that!

Since comments can no longer be colored, I'll just have to bark out a SPOILER ALERT. What I can do, though, is not directly mention the nature of the lists (although for the best of these, knowing the answer gives the list away).

1) Book. I still haven't watched the show, but I knew enough from 'Cobb' and 'Tam' to know the nature of the list and what I'd have to look up.

2) McCloud. ("Chief!" "McCLOUD!!") I should have gotten this one FAR sooner. Very good one!

3) Charm. Got it right away - it was the subject of an MIT Mystery Hunt puzzle I worked on.

4) Roosevelt. Amusingly, you could add Kennedy to the list and have the same answer, although the subject would be MUCH smaller (and a small proviso would need to be allowed for).

5) Hamilton. This one and the preceding make a nice diptych! I can't help but think they'd be better off in the other order, though. (My first two from this entry are a similar diptych, and I had the same reasoning for ordering them as I did.)

6) Trini. I knew it was some lame kids show, just not which one. I wish I hadn't have looked it up. Here's one based on something I thought this one might have been - it's actually a pretty good one:

Zack, Kelly, Lisa, Jessie, A.C., and one other...

7) Godric. I'm happy to report I had no idea and had to look it up.

8) ...If it isn't Two, then I have no idea. And I'd have no idea why even if it were. Given how very generic that sequence is, this list is either epic win or epic fail; which it is depends on the answer, which I hope you'll provide.

9) Wendy O.. Awesome. Got it right away, of course, but that doesn't take away from this being one of my favorites here.

10) Ocean. I had to look it up. But I shouldn't have had to. This one is perfect. This is exactly the sort of prime example of "And One Other..." I like to come up with. Well done.

And now I can delete that message in my LJ inbox I've kept for months to remind me to answer this! I also just posted a new one in its own entry. - ZM

8) ...If it isn't Two, then I have no idea. And I'd have no idea why even if it were. Given how very generic that sequence is, this list is either epic win or epic fail; which it is depends on the answer, which I hope you'll provide.

The answer is "Twenty". What do you think? (If you're still not clear on the nature of the list, I can certainly provide that as well. I'm rather surprised that a Google search for the full set doesn't pull up any relevant results.)

4) Roosevelt. Amusingly, you could add Kennedy to the list and have the same answer, although the subject would be MUCH smaller (and a small proviso would need to be allowed for).

Said proviso being "Eisenhower doesn't count", I assume?

"The answer is 'Twenty'. What do you think?"

I think epic fail. Thirty is far from uncommon. Heck, seven has been done. There is a way to make it work, but you'd need to do two things to it to make it even remotely passable: 1) use digits (or at least lose the capitalization), and 2) list '10' twice. That would have given it a reasonably fair shake (pun intended).

"Said proviso being 'Eisenhower doesn't count', I assume?"

No sir. The proviso is a number. Or, more accurately, a value. A reasonable restriction under the circumstances, but still not a list I'd form. - ZM

Heh, well, I stand by the list. While I own a few unusual dice (purchased individually) myself, I've never seen a standard set of polyhedron dice contain anything more or less than 4-, 6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, or 20-siders, and every tabletop RPG I've heard of, including the now-common D20 system, requires that specific set of dice.

That said, I do think I agree with both your suggested changes.

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