|
Post by kite on Dec 19, 2017 15:18:14 GMT -5
I wouldn't say it wasn't solved "right" or "properly". It wasn't solved as planned by MPC... but it was solved using alternate clues from he papers that were a guide to the correct word. It is definitely nice to know the solution as designed by MPC though because I always felt there was something missed. What alternate clues? I thought that the correct answer figured out pretty much by brute force/trial and error.
|
|
|
Post by centaurofattn on Dec 19, 2017 15:30:57 GMT -5
There were lots of included things that were not used as much that led us to the answer. Some of those things are below: All of the liturgical and time references in either items or Curator notes - Joan of Arc, vesper, Northanger Abbey, monastic, time, etc A true brute force of a 5 letter word would have taken a very long time. In my opinion anyway.
|
|
|
Post by jackoat on Dec 19, 2017 15:36:10 GMT -5
I wouldn't say it wasn't solved "right" or "properly". It wasn't solved as planned by MPC... but it was solved using alternate clues from he papers that were a guide to the correct word. It is definitely nice to know the solution as designed by MPC though because I always felt there was something missed. What alternate clues? I thought that the correct answer figured out pretty much by brute force/trial and error. There was a picture of a monastery on a sticker, plus other religious connotations and then knowing the time of day that the it had to be harvested. It could be said that it was brute forced I suppose but the "planned by MPC" method would have led us to clues that would have spelled out the answer for us while using alternate clues made us find the word using knowledge of religious times of day.
|
|
|
Post by wortelboer on Dec 19, 2017 16:45:05 GMT -5
My problem with the solution to this puzzle is that those that found the Bridge letter and posted it...folks still had substantial enough work to do to decipher the letter. With this puzzle, for those that come along later (for instance those working on Volume III now)....if they don't/can't brute force the solution, it will basically be handed to them because the only way to show this is to reveal the symbols found at the library and from there is a quick easy solve. In fact, they could easily skip the steps of the Harvest Time website altogether.
|
|
|
Post by dmikester on Dec 19, 2017 17:11:15 GMT -5
All right, as promised, here's the picture of the (extremely cool and published in 1964 by Arkham House) book at the Burbank Central Library and the image of the piece of paper inside: Book cover: Piece of paper inside: I should note that I left the book and piece of paper as I found them in case any future solver may want to go on their own to find it. It's a very small library, so won't take you long to find at all.
|
|
|
Post by dmikester on Dec 19, 2017 19:58:16 GMT -5
So we're now missing the first and third symbol. I can't get to any of the libraries on those lists (well, I guess I could get to San Diego, but it's a serious commute away), but maybe some people here could. Here's what we've got: A New Era of Thought (15) Suzzallo and Allen Libraries- Seattle, WA Memorial Library- Madison, WI Library of Congress- Washington, DC UMKC- Miller Nichols Library- Kansas City, MO From Death and Dark Oblivion (1) Free Library of Philadelphia- Philadelphia, PA Waukesha Public Library- Waukehsa, WI Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh- Pittsburgh, PA Cleveland Avenue Branch Library- Atlanta, GA Indianapolis Public Library- Indianapolis, IN The Kansas City Public Library- Kansas City, MO San Diego Central Library- San Diego, CA The most obvious thing here is if someone's close to Kansas City, the libraries needed are fifteen minutes away from each other. The other state where there are two is Wisconsin, though those are significantly farther apart from each other (over an hour). kite if you could get San Diego, then if the piece of paper is still there, we'd only need A New Era of Thought.
|
|
|
Post by centaurofattn on Dec 19, 2017 20:24:34 GMT -5
I think the Cleveland Avenue Branch Library is in Atlanta. I had someone check there yesterday and there wasn't any paper in any of the books related to Jonson. Could have been a different book, but I'm not optimistic. Didn't we already find that one though?
|
|
|
Post by dmikester on Dec 19, 2017 20:43:43 GMT -5
I think the Cleveland Avenue Branch Library is in Atlanta. I had someone check there yesterday and there wasn't any paper in any of the books related to Jonson. Could have been a different book, but I'm not optimistic. Didn't we already find that one though? Whoops, my bad. Edited the Cleveland Avenue line. We have the one for Child of The Cavern and for At The Mountains of Madness, so the second and fourth lists are done. But yeah, we still need A New Era of Thought and From Death and Dark Oblivion. From Death and Dark Oblivion might be tough as it's a poem, so it's highly doubtful that there would be a book just called "From Death and Dark Oblivion" but it's more likely that it would be found in "Underwoods". It took some serious digging and talking to librarians to find a copy of Underwoods in the Los Angeles Public Library when I visited there the first time; it's not exactly a "bestseller" these days.
|
|
|
Post by centaurofattn on Dec 19, 2017 21:36:12 GMT -5
We found a few copies of "complete works" but none of them had what we were looking for. Few more libraries though.
|
|
|
Post by amanda on Dec 20, 2017 0:34:38 GMT -5
So we're now missing the first and third symbol. I can't get to any of the libraries on those lists (well, I guess I could get to San Diego, but it's a serious commute away), but maybe some people here could. Here's what we've got: A New Era of Thought (15) Suzzallo and Allen Libraries- Seattle, WA Memorial Library- Madison, WI Library of Congress- Washington, DC UMKC- Miller Nichols Library- Kansas City, MO From Death and Dark Oblivion (1) Free Library of Philadelphia- Philadelphia, PA Waukesha Public Library- Waukehsa, WI Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh- Pittsburgh, PA Cleveland Avenue Branch Library- Atlanta, GA Indianapolis Public Library- Indianapolis, IN The Kansas City Public Library- Kansas City, MO San Diego Central Library- San Diego, CA The most obvious thing here is if someone's close to Kansas City, the libraries needed are fifteen minutes away from each other. The other state where there are two is Wisconsin, though those are significantly farther apart from each other (over an hour). kite if you could get San Diego, then if the piece of paper is still there, we'd only need A New Era of Thought. I have a friend who is going to check out the Madison Library for me. He said probably this weekend unless he can make it sooner.
|
|
|
Post by Virginia R Hall on Dec 20, 2017 2:01:42 GMT -5
We found a few copies of "complete works" but none of them had what we were looking for. Few more libraries though. Did you try the book by Ian Donaldson ? I'm pretty sure the poem in question is in there. I'm about 6 hours from Waukesha or I would've checked it (and Madison along the way!) already.
|
|
|
Post by kite on Dec 20, 2017 15:51:19 GMT -5
The ambiguity of what exactly group 3 is looking for is a bit frustrating. I'm certainly willing to have a look, but San Diego doesn't own the obvious thing (though it does have some collections, and the biography mentioned in the previous post). That was one of the reasons I dismissed this solution to begin with, unfortunately.
|
|
|
Post by Todd on Dec 20, 2017 16:02:22 GMT -5
The ambiguity of what exactly group 3 is looking for is a bit frustrating. I'm certainly willing to have a look, but San Diego doesn't own the obvious thing (though it does have some collections, and the biography mentioned in the previous post). That was one of the reasons I dismissed this solution to begin with, unfortunately. The San Diego library should have this: sandiego.bibliocommons.com/item/show/297501104
|
|
|
Post by phraca on Dec 21, 2017 21:38:39 GMT -5
I have a friend who agreed to go to the one in Seattle sometime after the first of the year. That one is in the first group. According to the catalog there is only one print copy of A New Era of Thought, so should be straightforward.
|
|
|
Post by kite on Dec 29, 2017 16:09:22 GMT -5
Hawkeye and I checked the San Diego Central Library just before Christmas. We looked at all of the Ben Jonson poetry collections, all of the Ben Jonson biographies, and (a long shot!) Robert Louis Stevenson's "Underwoods." (They did not have a copy of Jonson's "Underwoods" outside of volumes of collected poetry.) We checked page 1 and the page(s) containing the relevant poem, and flipped through the entirety of each book to boot. We looked at every possible book we found in the catalog, whether it was from the regular stacks, onsite storage, or reference. If anything was there, it doesn't seem to be there anymore. I wish we knew for certain which item was the relevant one, but I'm satisfied that we checked each one thoroughly. Bummer. It's a beautiful library, though.
|
|