Scavengeroogle: A Google Maps Scavenger Hunt To Waste More Of Your Time On

Howdy. How’s your morning. Lunchtime for you eastcoasters. Anyhow, JCP sent me this clue which looks sort of like a building shaped like a crescent moon. (Extra Magic Bonus points to tell me what the reference of the title is.) This one may be a tough find because it is visible only at 14/15 and above. But you never know how the day’s game will turn out!

Well, I did a “re-find” on it, and it took me only 10 minutes if I knew the answer. I think the general location will help, and if you get the specific location it should be fast. However, I think the potential for herring banana peels is there so tread with caution. I decided to go with JCP’s suggestion for word clue nearly verbatim and see how it went from there:

“Mr. Packer would love to dine here, see you”

I’ve tacked on the two words at the end. Hopefully, that will get you going in the correct direction as opposed to a wild goose chase. I will try drop a region soon if the going is tough early on. And of course your usual clue drops along the way to 2:00 p.m. PDT. Okee dok, let’s Scavengeroogle…

[Edit: 10:46 PDT - There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount o’ confusion, but I’ll drop the region clue now cause I need to go out for a bit. Region: Colorado. That should also clear up the small herring that people have been following.]

Clue Name : “Moon Is A Sickle Cell”
Submitted by: JCP
Status : Solved (19)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Mike M, Chris R, Brian G, Michael J, Jenny, Jim M, JoJo, Shawn D, Tonia, Jason C, Justin, Josh C, Brian M, Mark L, Deuce, Golux13, Robert M, Tony A, Mike Z

Word Clues : “Mr. Packer would love to dine here, see you”
Magnification Needed: 13/15

SOLUTION TO “Moon Is A Sickle Cell”

I knew this one would be harder because I had such a hard time finding it even with the answer! Although the Dynamic Duo seemed to get it quite easily. I think one of the main problems was that there were so many golf courses around Louisville. I didn’t know that golfing was such a hot sport in Kentucky…

Mike Z, who submitted the clue admitted it was a bit tough, especially because the Valhalla reference was not immediately found in results by googling the clue. I thought that part wasn’t too bad, but still added “gloriously” as a clue drop later to help out. The hardest part was finding it once the location was known. Shawn D, who has actually been to the golf course before, notes:

Toughie, I never would have gotten this one without the geo clue, and I’ve played Valhalla Golf Course before. I got started late, so I got all the clues up front. From there it took about 15 minutes.

Some people were able to find the answer without even using major parts of the clue. Brian G:

I still have no clue what any of the word clues mean. I just stumbled on the Long Run Golf Course/Road near Louisville once you gave out that clue. I was all over the place on this one from Soledad, CA (soul + dead) to Marathon, FL (long run). Off and on for a couple hours for me…

That is pretty creative thinking for soledad and marathon… I might save those for another session, hehe. Golux 13 brought up an issue with googlemaps itself that I’ve had problems with before myself:

Time to solve: Way too long. I figured out the “Valhalla” part of the clue early and looked in Louisville for Valhalla Golf Club, but thanks to Google Maps’ inability to put a map marker anywhere near the thing it’s supposed to be marking, I could not find the actual Valhalla Golf Club, and thus went on a wild chase around the map for other “ghost” or “haunted” golf clubs. When I saw the clue drop, I went back and searched the map again, and after about 5-10 more minutes found what I needed.

I find that I often have to repeatedly switch between “citymap” and “satellite” views in order to try find things, and yes I often don’t trust Googlemaps markers at all. It is also difficult sometimes because the actual words don’t appear on things like golf courses unless you’re zoomed in to a certain degree. I found myself zooming in to any little green area on the “citymap” view to try find the golf course in question.

I think the “region” clue drop idea is a good one, and I’ll keep that up for now. Chris R wrote:

Whew… i definitely needed the second clue on this one. Spent a lot of time in New Orleans for some reason.

A common pattern was actually deciphering the word clues correctly but having trouble with the actual locating of ET. Tina wrote:

Took a little while to actually find him once I figured out the clue. Maybe 20 minutes.

and Katie N said:

It took me about 15 minutes. After a long time of looking around I finally came across the Long Run golf course.

JoJo went a herring huntin’ for awhile before finding the correct solution:

This one was tough. Places I looked before I found it: Gettysburg Golf Course, Big Run GC (next to Long Run creek), Bull Run GC, and searched all of both the Valhalla and Long Run GC’s before I finally just followed Long Run road. 1.5 hours.

Mark G got to the answer in this slightly roundabout way:

Excellent clue! I found Valhalla golf course fairly quickly. But not until I put in directions to “Long Run” Baptist church did I find what I was looking for. Probably took a half hour overall. Keep up the great work!

And of course many people are playing during work again like Steve M. Hey it’s a Friday, ain’t it:

i found the clue 5 min after you told me the city and state, now i can get some work done and make the boss happy.

OK, I don’t know if your finals are done or if they are coming up. But anyhow, congrats if you are done and good luck if they are coming up… man, I wish there was a major for Scavengeroogling. See you Monday morning at 9!

Solution to “ET And His Shadow”

How many of you saw the movie E.T. in theatres when it came out? Hmm… I guess I’m showing my age here. All I can say is that the sales of Reese’s Pieces must have skyrocketed after the movie… probably one of the more successful movie product placements in history. Aliens promoting candy instead of trying to take over the earth. What a concept!

Anyhow, Mike Z. has quite the eye for aliens, having sent me this clue that looks suspiciously like our favorite cuddly Extraterrestrial himself moseying along a grassy road. Mike says: “…I’ve got a new one that’s NOT in Texas. I’ve come across a lake that reminds me of a side profile of E.T.: big head, little neck, dumpy body. You sort of have to use your imagination a little.”

I actually had no problem recognizing him. You can even see his shadow on the ground as he moves! Er, moving in the opposite direction that is. Well, what do you expect, he’s a weird and wonky alien with magic powers! One can only wonder if this is the mark of the real ET who has lately come to earth to chastise Drew Barrymore for showing her ta-tas to David Letterman…

Back to business! ET is pretty small, but you can spot him at 13/15. I wouldn’t bet on anything farther out than that.

As for word clues, I was all set to just include Mike’s word clues verbatim for you to tackle. However, I tried attempting a “re-find” on the clue and couldn’t find it. For potential clue submitters: you should ALWAYS try and attempt this. If you are not able to “re-find” your own clue given a general location in satellite mode (say start at a major city), then chances are that it will be too difficult for others! Remember that they won’t even have a general location to start with, let alone a specific one.

So I’m going to add some more to his clue. His first clue was: “Souls of the slain are at the 19th hole”. To that I would like to add “… up the long run”. So your rather long total word clues are:

“Souls of the slain are at the 19th hole, up the long run”

I’m going to try out an idea I got from a suggestion by Jason C the other day. The first clue drop will be a “literal general region” hint, that will have no puns whatsoever in it. It will be something like “West Coast”, “Rocky Mountains”, or even a state (”Texas” comes to mind). Whatever it is, it will NOT be punny and will be straight literal. You can be assured that this clue drop will not have hidden meanings.

I think this will ease some of the frustration about not even knowing what part of the country to look. I know some people actually ENJOY that frustration (… crickets … silence) so I won’t start off with a general region but drop it as the first clue. I will of course drop other clues as time goes on and there are no solutions. However, these other clue drops are NOT guaranteed to be literal. =)

Anyhow, did I mention that you are all kick-ass clue solvers? Well, you are, and thanks for playing along with this insanity of sometimes lame or frustrating clues. Thanks for the feedback as well, that’s how we make the game better…

How are finals? I remember those… just barely. Anyhow, this clue will be open for solutions until 2:00 p.m. PDT today. Oh, P.S. Happy friday the thirteenth!

[Edit: 9:52 PDT - I think many are on the right general track, but nevertheless here is your region clue: Louisville, KY]

[Edit: 10:09 PDT - Hey crazy kids who have finals… go study! We’ll still be here next week! =) ]

[Edit: 10:25 PDT - Man. I just tried doing a second “re-find” and it took me 15 minutes. Ok, a second clue to get you closer: try “Souls of the gloriously slain”]

[Edit: 12:33 PDT - I gotta get some lunch. Hmm, I’m don’t think there’s any other clues that can be dropped to help people along. I’ll be back at 1:30…]

Clue Name : “ET And His Shadow”
Submitted by: Mike Z.
Status : Solved (14)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Dynamic Duo, Tina, Chris R, Mike M, Golux13, Katie N, Mark G, Shawn D, Brian G, Steve M, JoJo, Angie S, Chris P, Ken S

Word Clues : “Souls of the slain are at the 19th hole, up the long run”
Magnification Needed: 13/15

SOLUTION TO “ET And His Shadow”

Hehe, thanks for all your emails. I do complain a little too much… don’t mind me! =)

Well, I think this one was definitely a little easier on the brain. Still, I thought it was a good clue. Angry clown! Scares me.

By the way… does anyone know what this clue is, or is it just some random building…

I belatedly noticed there was a town called Broken Arrow near Tulsa as well as the expressway itself, which probably made it even easier for a few. Robert M wrote:

Guess I got lucky with this one. Immediately thought of broken arrow and googled it to find Broken Arrow, OK, then I found the highway and it was easy from there. Maybe 1 minute.

And Golux 13 made a similar connection:

Time to solve: ~2 minutes (”Busted Aero” was pretty easy to translate into “Broken Arrow,” and a quick Google search gave me Broken Arrow, OK. The angle of the highway through town convinced me I had the right place, and it took me about 20 seconds to slide along the highway until I saw Grumpo the Clown.)

I noticed the highway angle as well. That’s cool when people use the area surrounding the main part of the graphical clue or the color of the clue to help figure it out. Some people also tried out the clown insurance angle for kicks. Scotty B:

Took about 20 minutes, I was looking way too deep into the clues.

I thought the insurance thing might have been about Hartford, CT, and then something about the Boston (busted) Post (aeropostale) Road (highway).

and Mike Z:

An easy one. I sure wouldn’t have gotten this with “Do you want to buy clown insurance?” By the way, I had never heard of Broken Arrow Expressway before.

Regarding the clown insurance, that was supposed to be a reference to the fact that there is a road near the clown called “State Farm Road” or something. I was going to use that in combination with broken arrow, but decided not to because I could see how it would be an extremely bloody herring!

Lastly, it is good to see the “working” Scavengeroogles are still playing once in awhile. Fight the power, peeps. Mark G:

This is the first one I’ve gotten within a minute… My boss will be happy I’m not wasting my day

Well, I thought I’d be free tomorrow but looks like that’s not the case. Clues shall return this coming Friday morning. For those of you who are finishing up finals, I hope they went well!

Solution to “Angry Clown!”

Grr… this clown is very angry. Hehe. Er, I don’t know what else to write about this. Clowns actually scare me, ever since I was a kid. Coulrophobia = Fear of clowns. I kid you not. I googled it.

Anyhow, this clue comes to you from Johnny K. who wrote “…looks like a clown…an ANGRY clown. He’s got a frown. The building in the middle sorta looks like a big nose, and the stuff on the left and right looks like crazy clown hair. The lake looks like it could be some more hair, Krusty the Clown style.”

I like using these types of clues because there is little chance of them appearing on other people’s googlemap sites. Unless they happen to have a category for “Buildings that look like clowns”. Like I said, I really could care less about famous landmarks and locations…

The delicious word clues I shall provide you with are:

“Busted Aero Highway”

Tasty. And yet… Johnny’s original word clue was going to be something absolutely crazy like “Do you want to buy clown insurance?” Life insurance, I suppose, for when the clown tries to come and getcha in the middle of the night.

Mr. Clown is visible at 11/15. Usual time trial until 2:00 p.m. PDT today. I may need to skip tomorrow (Thurs) but will definitely have something up on Friday to look at. Keep an eye on the clue launch at top of page. Now quit clowning around and get to work. Ah, you saw that coming…

Clue Name : “Angry Clown!”
Submitted by: Johnny K.
Status : Solved (21)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Chris R, Tim R, Golux13, Mike M, Ken S, Robert M, Andy K, Mark G, Scotty B, Jason C, Mike Z, Katie N, Tony A, Tina, JoJo A, Mark, Shawn D, Josh C, Chris R, Daniel R, Michael J

Word Clues : “Busted Aero Highway”
Magnification Needed: 11/15

SOLUTION TO “Angry Clown!”

As opposed to the previous three clues, this one was blastingly hard! Absolutely no solutions at the halfway point. I can claim some innocence here; those were the word clues as given by Charlie…

I was originally going to change the clue to something like “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Mon” but I think that may have been even worse!

The clue drops seemed to help somewhat, but not nearly enough. This was just a hard clue through and through.

So, does anyone know what the spiral thing(s) in the middle of the track are? I was wondering if it was just decoration or what.

I had seriously underestimated how many other “Monmouth”s there were around the country. JoJo says:

Got started on this one after the 2nd clue drop. Only took a couple of minutes to get Monmouth but a google search led me to Illinois. And it wasn’t till I saw monmouth park racetrack that it became easy. Only took about 20 minutes but that was after the helpful 2nd clue.

and Justin says:

It took me a long time, around an hour off and on. After the clue drops I looked up towns called Monmouth, and then I searched for horse tracks in towns called Monmouth, and it was pretty easy from there.

I thought the “oval-ness” of the surrounding area might help, but Michael J notes:

Very frustrating. I had Monmouth for a loooong time and finally found the grass color from the pic in Monmouth country, NJ. Checked out the city of Colts Neck and the surrounding area, and couldn’t believe how many oval tracks there were. Guess it must have been a horse track. Overall, before and after the clue drop, total time about 45 minutes.

I was wondering if anyone would try the accent as a clue. Shawn D:

About 5 minutes. Started out in Jamaica, N.Y. at the mouth of the river. Then I took a different take with Monmouth University (thank you March Madness)…

But only a few got it that quickly. JCP said:

Found it in about 5 minutes. If you live in the area (I live in NYC, cousins in NJ), theres no way you could not know this given the clue.

So it seems the majority of solutions came at a cost timewise. Here are other comments:

Tim R:

I worked on and off for three hours. I probably spent between 1.5-2 hrs working on
this.

Mike M:

more than an hour……turns out I didn’t need the “horses” clue, just realized it was monmouth university

Chris R:

Wow. For some reason that was tough. Didn’t get the Monmouth connection for a long
time.

Dang, the perfect “15 minute average” clue continues to elude. Anyhow, thank you for playing and for sticking through the tough ones. One note: I’ll return on Wednesday morning with a new clue. Have a good break in the meantime!

Solution to “Spiral Stairs”

Gah, it is too early to be up this morning. Anyhow, so this clue is called “Spiral Stairs” even though there’s no stairs involved at all. It’s just the first thing I thought of, me being a Pavement fan and all. Yeah, I know they broke up. But I just got the Crooked Rain re-release so it’s been on my mind lately.

Charlie E. is responsible for this green spiral which he sent in more than a week ago. On that note, I just checked and there’s currently a few weeks worth of clues backlogged so if you’ve sent some in be prepared to wait a little bit to see if they go up or not. But thank you again for sending them in, I go through every single one of them.

I actually thought Charlie’s word clues were rather clever, so I’m going to give them to you au naturale, exactly as he wrote them:

“Quit runnin’ yo mouth, Mon”

Anyhow, I tend to meddle too much with the word clues. I’m curious how hard this will be… though it seems to be rather accessible at 11/15. Not sure about herrings for this one. I’m always boggled how the quick Scavengerooglers get it within like 2 minutes or so. I don’t think luck or location has THAT much to do with it because some people repeatedly get the solution quickly… so there must be some pretty good puzzle people out there. I think these clues are starting to bore them! One of these days, if I have time, I’d like to do a 5 or 10 clue all-day Scavengeroogle hunt. Maybe try to figure out a prize or two for the winners. That would be really fun, I wonder if people would be interested in that though? And more importantly whether I’d be able to run it all day…

OK we’ll have our usual 5 hour session until 2:00 p.m. PDT today. Probably no clue drop necessary, but I’ll check back about halfway through. Till later: I need to sleep, I need to sleep, I need to sleep why won’t you, why won’t you let me sleep…

[Edit: 10:25 PDT - Hmm.. nothin’ but crickets. I don’t know if that means no one’s playing today or the clue is too hard! I didn’t get the usual couple of solutions 5 minutes after the starting bell…]

[Edit: 11:25 PDT - Wow. No solutions yet. Hm.. ok, let’s try start with a clue drop of: Horses]

[Edit: 12:31 PDT - I gotta eat some lunch, but here you go: Switching around the order of the words in the word clue may help. Also, this has nothing to do with Montana!]

Clue Name : “Spiral Stairs”
Submitted by: Charlie E.
Status : Solved (15)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Mike M, Chris R, Shawn D, Tim R, JoJo, Justin, Phil M, Mike Z, Tina D, Michael J, Tony A, JCP, Andy K, Ken S, Golux13

Word Clues : “Quit runnin’ yo mouth, Mon”
Magnification Needed: 11/15

SOLUTION TO “Spiral Stairs”

Ok, this was definitely too easy. I DID check to see how the map would come up if someone typed in Fate, TX but I didn’t count on the clue standing out so much (being white) and people making the quick connection to Rockwall. I seriously don’t try to make ‘em easy. It’s more I’m trying not too make ‘em too hard!

By the way, as to what this actually is, Shawn D. lives like 2 blocks away from it:

I got started late on this one and it ends up being in my home town. This is what used to be the Church on the Rock, now it is Lakeside Baptist Church. It’s huge, seats about 3500.

Wow, that is a big church indeed!

I think a mistake in the word clues was capitalizing “Fate” and maybe I should have said something more ambiguous like “Stonewall met his fate” or something. Scott’s original two ideas were “Stonewall Jackson” by itself and something about “30 on Fate” (I-30 is one of the highways near there). He wasn’t sure if either would be enough info and I agreed and so combined them. That turned out to be a mistake!

Also, I probably shouldn’t have said it was IN Texas, although I just think it’s funny that many of the clues sent in and the ones I pick are from Texas. Not nearly enough people tried to connect “Stonewall Jackson” into the mix. Some selected responses:

Michael J:
Too easy. Took 2 minutes… checked Fate, TX and immediately saw Rockwall.

Robert M:
Pretty quick. First thought of Stonewall Jackson and looked at his hometown of Clarksburg, WV, bur figured out that was wrong pretty quick.

Eric W actually knows the place:
Under a minute. As soon as I heard Stonewall Texas I was transported to many happy summers at my grandparents’ house on the lake in Rockwall. Mapped Rockwall then saw Fate, TX not too far away (Never heard of this town before) then saw the circular shape from pretty far out. I don’t know what the thing is and I suspect I’ve never been there.

Mike Z:
I’m not kidding about the one minute time. I put in Fate, Texas and saw Rockwall to the left, switched to satellite and there it was. It’s amazing how that yesterday I was totally cluelss all day and today I get it immediately.

Brian G:
Didn’t realize there was a Fate, TX. The previous clues have me looking for puns or synonyms for everything. About 20 minutes today…

Andy K:
The clue of TX outside the actual clue was a lifesaver for this one. Both are cities in TX, however one is in a rural region. Took 10 min.

Tonia:
It took me about 15 minutes to get this one. I got thrown off by Stonewall and was searching in Jackson, Tx. Then in Stonewall, LA. Finally, I searched Fate, Tx and found it.

JoJo A:
Figured Fate was a city in Texas. Searched for it in google maps and saw Rockwall to the left of it. Took about 2 minutes, which is cool cuz this is the first one I have actually solved.

Angie S:
The clue was way too easy. I got it in one minute maybe. When we already knew it was in Texas, looking for a Fate, Texas was the obvious first step. Finding a town called Rockwall to the immediate left sealed it for me.

Phil M:
I feel that the clue was a bit too easy. Searched for Fate, TX and noticed the city of Rockwall. I then found it in about 30 seconds.

Bill C:
easiest one yet took about 3 mins.

Golux:
How long: 20 minutes, of which the first 7 or 8 were wasted in looking in Jackson, MS (”Stonewall Jackson”) before realizing you had said the pic was in Texas. D’oh!

Well, I hope it wasn’t such a bummer to find the answer so quickly. It really varies, though I think this one had the strongest number of responses that said it was too easy. Hopefully that will improve next week. By the way, I am probably going to need to do clues every other day or so for awhile as I got a ton of work to do in next month or so. So, just check the “Next Launch” up at top for information on when the next one will come up, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Solution to “Baby Rattle”

Salutations, and happy Friday. We just cannot seem to get away from Texas. Scott L. sent in some cool clues, among them this neat looking building that resembles a baby’s rattle. Quite visible recognizable from as far out as 12/15. Scott is also one of the few to actually do some hard thinking on what kind of word clues would be appropriate and send in his ideas. That’s very much appreciated, in case I haven’t mentioned it! I’ve taken some of the suggestions he had and combined them in usual Scavengeroogle fashion to leave you with:

“Stonewall, left of Fate”

Note that this is a combination of his ideas; I fear I may have scavengeroogled them into oblivion. Hopefully, this won’t turn into a hair pulling fest again. I am going to be ready to drop clues furiously in case of that, but I’m thinking that there’s a chance I won’t need to. There’s really no way to predict it; the clues I think are too hard are too easy and vice versa. That’s life!

Actually, here is one hint up-front: Don’t jump too quickly to conclusions with this clue, or you might find yourself up to your necks in herring!

Okay, you’ve got until 2:00 p.m. PDT today or so. I’ll be checking in every so often… On your mark, get set, Scavengeroogle!

[Edit: Eeps. Ok, I hear ya…The consensus is that this was WAY too easy. What say we knock off early today around 12:00 then? Happy Friday to ya, and see you all hopefully on Monday.]

Clue Name : “Baby Rattle”
Submitted by: Scott L.
Status : Solved (17)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Michael J, Eric W, Robert M, Ken S, Andy K, Wes B, Tonia, JoJo A, Mike Z, Brian G, Angie S, Jason C, Josh C, Phil M, Bill C, Golux, Shawn D

Word Clues : “Stonewall, left of Fate”
Magnification Needed: 12/15

SOLUTION TO “Baby Rattle”

This seemed to be a pretty average clue… not exceedingly tough but hard enough that not everyone got it right away. Many have actually been to the Corn Palace I guess, or have heard of it. I think I heard of it on TV (travel channel?) Here are some of the responses:

Paul D:

I had heard about a Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD so I thought I would start there. It took me about 2 minutes after that.

Ken S:

In 1982, I visited the Corn Palace in Mitchel, SD. Just a matter of time before I found it.

Max D:

I remembered the corn palace from an article I read a long time ago. Took me awhile to hunt down the city, though, and the path was none to close to the palace! Fortunately, the color match on the photos kept me in the right town.

Total time ~ 40 minutes. Time in Sioux City ~ 10.

Yeah, I have noticed that it can be supremely important to note the “color” of the clue background… this can help in rejecting possible locations sometimes. Michael J. thought May 5 might have something to do with it:

This is funny. First I tried using the Spanish versions of the three words, no luck… I was thinking Cinco de Mayo. Then tried “prints”, corn festivals, corn museums, etc… finally after about 30 minutes figured out “Corn Castle”, which I remembered as the incorrect name of Corn Palace.

Some actually lived in the vicinity of the Corn Palace. Ryan said:

Took me around 15 seconds to understand the clue, but then I live about 60 miles away from Mitchell so the corn palace isn’t a new thing to me. Took about 10 minutes to find the dang bell tho.

It is good to see people taking “mini-breaks” from working to play Scavengeroogle. Life’s too short, enjoy it a little! Like Jeremy R.:

Less than 10 minutes…good thing since I’m supposed to be working!

Or, I liked this particular comment from Josh C. Dude, nothing wrong with sleeping in. Sleep is greatly underrated…

First time I’ve checked out the page before the deadline (I sleep late) it was fun to find it “in time”

Others got a hankering for corn after the clue. Interestingly, I just had corn yesterday! Canned, unfortunately. I do like me a good corn on the cob. Brian G:

Thankfully, I’ve heard of this place before, so I knew to head to Mitchell. About 10 minutes browsing around there. I need to get out there some time and have some corn…

Argh, I know I promised Double Clue Fun Friday tomorrow, but I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do that. Not that we’re lacking for any clue submissions! Thank you all for them, by the way. I might have to be out in the afternoon which is when I was planning for the bonus Scavenger clue. I guess we will see, but you’ll definitely get your daily 9 a.m. PDT. fix. See you later, corn. Haha.

Solution to “Ring My Bell”

Top of the Cinco De Mayo and Boys Day to ya. Is today really 5/5/5? Yes. Interesting. Angie S. sent in a bunch of clues and I settled on this one for your Scavengeroogling pleasure today. This is an interesting set of paths that outlines a bell shape. Viewable at about 12/15 if you squint, but more like 13/15.

I decided not to get all windbaggy today and write the usual essay. Instead, I’ll just give you the word clue. Uh, here:

“Corn Prince House”

Potential 2nd clue-drop around 11:30. This will run until 2:00 p.m. PDT today or until all hell breaks loose on the clue like yesterday, whichever comes first. OK: Repent, Scavengeroogles! Said the Ticktockman…

[Edit: 10:56 PDT - I need to go leave earlier than I thought, so here’s an early hint. You may want to separate the clue this way: “Corn / Prince House”]

Clue Name : “Ring My Bell”
Submitted by: Angie S.
Status : Solved (15)
Duration: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. PDT

Solved By: Chris R, Mike M, Andy K, Ken S, Scott L, Max D, Michael J, James C, Tony A, Golux13, Ryan, Brian G, Jeremy R, Paul D

Word Clues : “Corn Prince House”
Magnification Needed: 13/15

SOLUTION TO “Ring My Bell”

Unfortunately, as I suspected this clue has already been noted before. This was the reason I stopped the clue early. Sorry…egg on my face. I did search the pearljam site for “ships” but for some reason it didn’t come up. Greg J notes:

This is a link off of pearljam’s Interesting Google Maps Page. Under Virginia (Mothball Fleet). Took less than a minute to solve this one.

It was only a matter of time before there was duplication. But, PLEASE check your clue submissions on the various googlemap sites to see if they are already found, especially if they are famous places. I can’t always catch them… this one slipped through the cracks.

Well, so this wasn’t the hardest of clues for many. I actually thought it might be tougher because since I live on the West Coast and am not so familiar with East Coast geography… I actually had no idea where the James River was until it was pointed out to me. I suspect this is like someone saying they don’t know where the Grand Canyon is. Duh again I guess!

This was also a sort of experiment to see how much easier a clue is to find when it is visible from very far out, as in 8/15 or so. I believe it is MUCH easier, and if you have gotten the word clues mostly right I think it is almost inevitable to stumble across it, unlike clues at 14/15. Shawn D. echoes this thought:

Got this in about ten minutes. Pure luck. I still don’t get the clue but when I put ships and James together I thought of Jamestown Virginia. Keep up the good work.

I have gotten many decent clue submissions that are zoomed out 8/15 or farther so I wanted to see how one of them fared. Seems like I might stay away from them for now, unless they are spectacular. Although, I would REALLY like to use some non-U.S. clues someday (some of you have also mentioned this) and other countries are definitely not zoomed all the way in. We’ll just have to wait until Google gets more maps. =)

I didn’t know so many people would pick up that “R” meant “river”. Michael W speaks for many:

Once I saw the clue I just assumed that James R. meant the James river in Virginia. Took about 5 minutes to find.

I’d be curious to know how many non East Coast people knew right away that James R. was the James River in Virginia. Eric W. writes:

Got it! I just saw water and James R and guessed the James River. I don’t have a clue what the Tormentor bit means, could we get an explanation?

“Tormentor” was supposed to be “Lake Tormentor” which is due south of the ships location. I liked the name of the lake so I included it, and also thought it might help in locating where on the James. But most didn’t even use it!

Other people got a little tangled with my mentioning of synonyms and homonyms and other goodies. (I do love me some puns!) I meant in GENERAL that’s a good idea… not for this specific clue. =) Andy K:

the whole synonym thing threw me off. replaced ‘tormentor’ with ‘pirate’ and searched ‘james’ and ‘pirate’. obviously wrong. very clever combining lake and river names. took approximately 30 min.

We are set for around 9 a.m. PDT. tomorrow again. But please check the notice at the top of the site at least once to make sure. Sometimes there’s some last minute stuff I need to fix before launching it up. Shiver me timbers…

Solution to “You Sank My Battleships!”