ANUSTART

May 16-17, 2014

Answers for the Ultra Bonus

One of the great problems with contest-long puzzles, like the Ultra, is that it's hard to create the Goldilocks zone in which it is not too easy, yet not too hard, so that a few teams get it early and collect lots of points, while other teams only gradually figure it out. We've had some contests where the Ultra is barely guessed at all, and has the effect of just giving everyone an extra point or two, and others where everyone gets it early, which means that the later clues are basically valueless. Ours fell toward the latter end--though not egregiously so, as about half a dozen teams got it on the first set and then another team or two got it each hour or so for the rest of the contest. As it happens, we didn't get to put this together until late, because there was a split between a camp that wanted this idea and a camp that wanted to do "Pictures at an Exhibition," which would've fallen on the other side of that divide, I think. Perhaps there's a better sequencing available in these clues--but, then, it's hard to tell what will be obvious to folks and what will be opaque. For the record, the clues referred to--

  1. A Taylor frozen yogurt machine, a Hoover vacuum, and a Wilson racket
  2. Cleveland State Vikings, James Madison U bulldogs, George Washington U Colonials
  3. Map locating Jefferson City, MO; Lincoln, NE; and Jackson, MS
  4. Amy Grant singing “Baby Baby,” Rita Coolidge (and Kris Kristofferson) singing “Me and Bobby McGee,” the Carter Family singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken”
  5. Directions to Garfield House, Adams Memorial Theater, and Tyler House
  6. Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, William Redfield as Dale Harding, and Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchanan
  7. Two Harrisons (Rex and George), two Johnsons (Walter and Randy), and two Bushes
  8. Presidential portraits