The New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 1)

This year at Wuffmeet we held the initial New Year’s Puzzle Hunt. Teams spent an afternoon racing around the Hampton Inn Lincolnshire trying to work through the clues and get the answers to the questions we posed to them in the fastest time with the least number of hints. The rules were simple:
1. No asking for help from anyone else or using the Internet.
2. If you leave the hotel You’re Doing It Wrong.

After a bit of sorting out, we got everyone together into eleven teams of two. They were:

Coondog DataHawk & Linnaeus
Die Piggies! Rama & RB
Easy As Jam Aureth & Jenne
Ginger Squee Initially Basil & Jen, then Quasi & Jen
Isentropic/Failing Illini Hartree & Roho
Minot Artemis & Dbruin
Team Awesome Woody & AidenDingo
Team Burnout Stevie & Zexyz
Team Hot Tub Spork & Madius
Team Rawr Rusty & Kellic
Team Slobber Tolemur & Vish

We started out with a 50-question trivia quiz. There was no penalty for incorrect answers, but each correct answer was worth a 6-second reduction in the final time. We gave everyone exactly ten minutes to complete the quiz. The quiz is shown below (highlight the black box to get the answer).

1. What is the name of the embattled founder of Wikileaks? Julian Assange
2. In what town was “The Andy Griffith Show” set? Mayberry
3. What album featured Michael Jackson’s smash hit “Billie Jean”? Thriller
4. What European country’s name is abbreviated “CH” in Internet addresses? Switzerland
5. What is the Italian cooking phrase that means “to the tooth”? al dente
6. In geocaching, what do you call an item that is moved from cache to cache, with its location being logged on a main website? Travel bug
7. What is the seasonal port for the crab fishing fleet featured in Discovery Channel’s “The Deadliest Catch”? Dutch Harbor
8. Finish the line: “Goodnight Moon / Goodnight room / Goodnight moon / Good night cow __________________” jumping over the moon
9. What is the actual title of the theme song that Benny Hill made famous? Yakety Sax
10. Name the band who scored a hit with “Over My Head (Cable Car)”. The Fray
11. Name the actor who played the terrifying Dr. Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”. Anthony Hopkins
12. Who was Sancho Panza’s master? Don Quixote
13. What game does this haiku describe? “Great rail shooter / Intergalactic combat / Do a barrel roll” Star Fox
14. In the TV series “How I Met Your Mother”, this actor supplies the voice of the father speaking to his children. Bob Saget
15. Every year on the last Wednesday of July, a herd of wild ponies is driven across Assateaugue Channel from what island? Chincoteague
16. To what continents were the saber-tooth cats indigenous? North America and South America
17. This terms is used in Congress meaning “to terminate debate and call for a vote” Cloture
18. Let’s go to Wine Country! Napa is a lovely town – it’s nestled in _______ County in California. Sonoma
19. What major US television network is headquartered in Rockafeller Center in New York City? NBC
20. Ursula Vernon is a talented writer and artist. What is the title of her long-running webcomic about an occasionally grumpy wombat? Digger
21. “The Eye of the World”, “The Great Hunt”, and “The Dragon Reborn” are the first three titles in which long-running fantasy series? The Wheel of Time
22. What is the official anthem of Canada? O Canada
23. “New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures” is the translation of The Bible preferred by which religion? Jehovah’s Witnesses
24. Although NASCAR is headquartered in Daytona Beach, FL, it also maintains offices in four cities in which southern state? North Carolina
25. Everyone has heard of the Fortune 500. But by what metric are companies ranked, that these are the top 500? Gross revenue
26. Baby Bop, B.J., and Riff are compatriots of what popular character? Barney the Dinosaur
27. Who directed “The Nightmare Before Christmas”? Henry Selick
28. What university, based in Ithaca, New York, calls their sports teams “Big Red” and is represented by a bear named “Touchdown”? Cornell University
29. Riggs and Murtaugh were paired up in which series of movies? Lethal Weapon
30. What former president of the National Rifle Association said “From my cold, dead hands!” Charlton Heston
31. The capital of the state of Oregon shares its name with a brand of cigarettes. What is it? Salem
32. Belinda Carlisle had a successful solo singing career, but what band did she first hit it big with? The Go-Gos
33. What deadly Australian poison is odorless, tasteless and highly soluble, and is suitable to battling wits to the death? Iocane
34. Confurence East was about to change its name for its 1997 edition before it was abruptly canceled. What was its new name going to be? MoreFurCon
35. What is the name of the high school at which “Glee” is set? William McKinley
36. What is the name of the Amtrak train that runs from Seattle to Los Angeles? Pacific Starlight
37. What famous actor provided the voice of The Joker in “Batman: The Animated Series” and successive Batman cartoons? Mark Hamill
38. “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” was a hit in 1981 for Tom Petty and which female singer? Stevie Nicks
39. Billing themselves as “The World’s Most Popular Football Team”, what is the name of the soccer team based in Manchester, UK. Manchester United
40. Brett Favre is currently stinking up the field in Minneapolis, but where did he originally make his name before “retiring”? Green Bay
41. What is unique about the music composition titled 4′ 33″? It is completely silent
42. The Quad Cities include Moline, Davenport, Bettendorf, and _____________. Rock Island
43. The discount airline Airtran isn’t long for this world, since it was bought out by what airline? Southwest
44. Kings Island, Michigan’s Adventure, Canada’s Wonderland, and Valleyfair are all owned by what theme park giant? Cedar Fair
45. The journey of the dog Balto to deliver serum to Nome to save children from a diptheria epidemic is commeorated with what annual event? Idiatrod Trail Sled Dog Race
46. What is the name of the oddly dog-like horse in the movie “Tangled”? Maximus
47. What signals the end of a play in “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind”? “Curtain!”
48. In “The Lion King”, prior to launching Zazu off into the distance, the hyenas said they were going to put him into what? The Birdie Boiler
49. “The Devil in the White City” is set in 1893 Chicago during what event? World’s Fair
50. What was the name of the president in “The West Wing” who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis? Bartlett

Once the ten minutes were up, we sent all of the teams out at once. We had a total of ten checkpoints for each team to complete. The order in which each team visited the checkpoints was randomized for each team. What were the checkpoints? You’ll have to tune in here tomorrow to find out! 🙂

3 thoughts on “The New Year’s Puzzle Hunt! (Part 1)”

  2. aiden_raccoon

    Without looking and a few guesses in there…
    1.Julian Assage
    2. Mayberry
    3. (Guess) Thriller
    4. (Guess) Chekoslavakia, probably Czeck Republic now.
    5. Al Dente
    8. (Guess) Goodnight Chicken
    9. Yakety Sax
    11. Anthony Hopkins
    13. Starfox
    14. Bob Saget
    16 (Guess) Africa
    17. Cloture
    18. um.. NapaValley County
    19. NBC
    22. O Canada
    23. Jehovas Witness
    24. (Guess) Tennessee
    25. (Guess) Impact on the Dow Industrial Average
    26. Barney
    27. Tim Burton
    29. Lethal Weapon
    30. Charleton Heston
    31. Salem
    35. William McKinley in Lima, Ohio
    39 (Guess) Manchester United
    40. Green Bay Packers
    41. (Guess) Is that the Minute Waltz?
    42. (Guess) Rock Island
    43. (Guess) Delta
    44. (Guess) Six Flags
    45. Iditerod
    46. Maximus
    47. CURTAIN!!
    48. OH NO NOT THE BIRDIE BOILEH!!
    49. (Guess) Great Chicago Fire

    HMM.. I guess I was only sure about 23 of them. Did I get any of the guesses right?

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