RE: QUIZ: To get the grey matter going

From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Thu Jun 12 2003 - 11:58:01 MDT

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    > Clues:
    > 1) THE SEASON IS JUST GONE
    > 2) PUTTING A CIRCLE INTO A SQUARE
    > 3) THEY CAN GO IN FROM THE FRONT OR THE SIDE
    > 4) AT WORK, HOME OR TAKE AWAY
    > 5) IT CAN FIT INTO TIGHT SPACES
    > 6) BRING IT ANYWHERE
    > 7) IT> '> S A JOURNEY OUT AND BACK AGAIN
    > 8) YOU CAN USE IT ONCE , TWICE OR OVER & OVER AGAIN
    > 9) YOU CAN FIND ME IN THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW
    > 10) OPEN ME TO DISCOVER KNOWLEDGE
    > 11) PUTTING THE BOOT IN
    >
    > What is the sound?

    I didn't get very far with this either. It's possible that we're supposed
    to answer each one separately and then take the first letters of the answer
    to spell out a sound. But most of the clues seem far too vague for unique
    answers.

    The other possibility is that all the clues relate to the same concept.
    One common element I saw had to do with circles. Circles also manifest
    as the letter O or the number 0. It seems that a number of the clues
    were related to either the letter O or to circularity in some way:

    1. Seasons form a circle; Gone has an O.

    2. The letter O can be thought of as a circle put into a square-ish
    typesetting location. (Also I thought of a round pizza in a square box,
    not sure how that fits in though!)

    3. Not sure; with an O you could go in the front (go through the hole),
    but from the side?

    4. Work and Home have O's in them; "take away" could leave you with nothing,
    a zero, which is another form of circle.

    5. A zero can fit into tight spaces since it is the smallest number.

    6. I can't make much of a connection to this one.

    7. A journey out and back is, conceptually, a circular journey.

    8. Lots of O's in this clue. "Once, twice" might hint at a number.

    9. The wording of this one somehow suggested a typograpical clue.
    Colours has two O's, as do Yellow and Violet.

    10. The obvious answer to this one is Book, which has two O's.

    11. Totally obscure, except again Boot has two O's. The similarity
    between Boot and Book is striking.

    And I don't really have an answer for the sound, unless it is Ohhh,
    the sound you make when you "get it".

    Hal

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