That name rings a bell

First, the answers for the teasers posted earlier. These two were taken from Challenge 2 of our company hunt recently.

Answer for first teaser: Downright stupid.

Answer for second one. A bit tough. But the theme was about Christmas. So here it is:



Some other quality road questions here:

Q7. Think out with Indian Leader within.
A7. Perindo Enterprise

Q24. Pour out in here for a healthy flow.
A24. Heropure Mineral Water Pot @ Ashita

Another teaser here from Challenge 2:

Q6. SETPOTIA

Answer later.

India

Just been to our company's treasure hunt last weekend to Penang and now I am in New Delhi, India supporting a project here.

I have to freeze my leave and will spend at least 10 days including Christmas in India. I am already missing my family.

This is my first time in India and I am sure I will share some interesting photos and stories later. There are also some topics/ideas I wish to write about, but I have to wait until later.

Oh..yeah, in case you are curious about the hunt that I went last weekend, it had a Christmas theme "Jingle All the Way". And Dominic mentioned that because of the theme and the fact that we won theSun hunt, he had set a higher level of difficulty. I think some first-time hunters must be blaming us for the difficult hunt. Perhaps I can share some questions later. But first, teasers here:



Hopefully can get some of you thinking along the theme for the Charity Xmas Hunt on 29/12/08. I will not able to make it for this hunt although I wanted to earlier.

Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad

Q. Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad.

You maybe excited to find out the answer. Mmmmm........intercourse, not feel bad. Where? Well, you have to wait awhile.

First consider this question from the recent theSun Motor hunt, in the open category.

Q31. What a dog and cow have in common?

A31. Centre Circle @ Centre Circle Galeri Audio & Visual

I shot this photo when I was near the sector with my camera phone.

For the explanation, if you read the question literally you will think of answers like "animal", "four-legged" etc. I showed this question to a non-hunter, and the answers are the ones stated earlier. But experienced treasure hunters are trained to think laterally first, then literal. In fact, this way of thinking has been a norm for many regulars.

Thinking laterally, the common thing about the word "dog" and "cow" is the letter "o" in the middle. So scanning the sector, you will find the signboard above, Centre Circle Galeri Audio & Visual. Note that an "o" is a "circle" also (although for most handwritten "o" are not exactly like a circle shape).

So, if we remember this (unwritten) rule, most treasure hunt questions are designed to trap hunters who tend to read it literally or take its surface/obvious/common meaning. When CoC (Clerk-of-Course) set the questions, they did not indicate what their intended meaning was. Therefore you cannot tell which is the right line of thinking. Actually, I should not say right, but the intended line of thinking of the CoC.

But if the surface meaning is too common and general such as this Q31, the danger is that, there could be alternative answers out there, besides the intended one. If there is an alternate answer to the literal meaning of the question, can it be accepted?

I was near the sector of Q31 a few hours ago, and I captured this photo here.

This signboard was found within the same sector for Q31 & before Q32.

Now, consider this literal answer:

A31. Haiwan @ Kedai Haiwan Peliharaan Puppy Cottage Sdn Bhd

The words "Kedai Haiwan Peliharaan" are found on the top left side of the sign. The keyword here is "haiwan", the Malay word for animal. It fits perfectly for the literal meaning of the question.

So the question now is, what is there to say the alternate answer above is wrong, or not accepted? Is it because there is an unwritten rule for the hunters to laterally first? Or is it the lateral answer is more sophisticated than the literal answer? Or simply put it, it is not the intended answer of the CoC, period.

Now, back to the original question I have posted at the top.

Q. Where you can have intercourse and not feel bad.

The question above is a classic question for a hunt that I joined many years ago.

Now, let's apply the lateral thinking first. Wordplay, umm.... the keyword or indicator here is "bad", definitely an indicator for anagram. So "not feel" bad, go look for anagram of "not feel" and in that sector, you may find this common sign below.

A. Telefon

An "intercourse" can mean a conversation, communication. So the answer is definitely fitting.

Now, consider these alternative answers:

Hotel Gembira

Rumah Tumpangan Ceria

Of course, the intercourse that normally takes place in hotels and rumah tumpangan can be of a different kind, e.g. between a couple. I remember we have a good laugh for one or two minutes when the "interesting" answers were shared to all by the CoC.

Back to the lateral versus literal issue again, what is stopping the alternative answers above as a valid and correct answer to the question?

While the lateral side of the question forms a good anagram clue, the literal side of the question was vulnerable. Overall, this question/clue was not tight enough. In this case, perhaps the CoC should cross-check thoroughly and make sure there is no literal and valid alternate answers available within the sector.

Similar (I say, similar) issue came to light during the recent virtual hunt organised by a well-known critic. I followed that posting and I applauded the way that the master handled the issue. The master acknowledged the blunder for leaving room for alternative answers, then listened to the alternative answers and explanation, seek advice from peers (masters), followed the rule of cryptic clueing, his principle and being fair when he made his decision in the end.

theSun hunt 2008 - Brilliant Q25

The answer (or should I say question?) for Q25 was staring at me.

Q25 (bolded). Bays?

A25. Vocal Station @ Golden Sun

I thought this was a brilliant question.

It was a Double Jeopardy question. The question itself was the answer. And hunters were required to find the signboard that could be a question for Q25.

There are not many signboards that the CoC can use for Double Jeopardy. Basically you need some key words in the signboard for this type of question. Naturally, I think, CoC would be tempted to use Double Jeopardy whenever they have the chance.

I've never liked short clue, Q25 has just one single-syllable word. It didn't tell you much. Figuring out the CoC's intention was like finding a needle in the ocean.

We scanned this long sector on foot but didn't manage to get it. I was looking for a word that could mean "cry", "howl", "space" etc. I didn't find any.

Why I say this was a brilliant question? Because the presence of the question mark, "?" It disguised itself as a direct question, rather than a Double Jeopardy question. So many hunters (including me) were led thinking elsewhere.

In the end this was what Dom was meaning to say:

"Station" can mean "base." "Vocal" can be sounds-like indicator. "Bays" is a homonym of "base". Therefore the intended answer, "Vocal Station."

In the IOI run this morning, I was near this sector. I went back to this sector and took photo of the board (see photo above). I've seen the board earlier during the hunt but the light bulb remained off that time. Argh...

But I still think this was a solvable clue. And it was solved by a few teams only according to Dom. We were running out of time (during the hunt) and the sector was badly congested. We decided to move on and try to get the rest. I didn't want to give up on Q25 but I remember we made the decision as a team to move on. Come to think of it now, it was another wise decision that we'd made.

theSun hunt 2008 - Sneaky Q8

Q7 (not bolded): I can make them a restroom, But they can make you drapes.

A7: Letto curtain

Q8 (bolded): From a starlet today and then blind, such may fall if the answer you don't find.

A8: Letto curtain

(The adventure posted below happened during the first leg of theSun hunt 2008, and it is extracted from my hunt log book.)

We went back to Sector 3 and dropped Raj there to look for Q10, "The Lady with the Lamp!!” Sath, Doug and I then went back to Sector 2 for Q6, Q7 and Q8. Here we got Q7 quickly but faced problem with Q6 and Q8 (both bolded). Here was the problem, Q7 was found at middle of the sector. So Q6 and Q8 can be either side of the signboard found for Q7. We spent some time here walking and were still stuck. In Q8, there’s a word “blind” in the clue, I was pretty sure I was looking for a “screen”, but there was nothing there to suggest that, except the word "curtain" in the answer for Q7, “Letto curtain”. Then I examined the question again and found the letters “let to” in between some words in the clues. Then it became clear to me, this was a sneaky question. Treasure hunters were so trained to find one signboard for one question and the CoC never mention the same signboard can be the answer for two different questions. And it can.

I called Sath quickly and met up with Doug. Doug also cracked this independently and he also thought the logical answer for Q8 was the same answer as in Q7. Here was another issue we faced: with answers of Q7 and Q8 being the same signboard at the middle of the sector, Q6 (bolded) could be either way, and that was a long sector. I have to say this again: this Q8 was a sneaky question, it didn't make the bolded Q6 any easier (if you got A7 and A8 first) because it didn't reduce the scope of search. By that time, I had to write down quickly some possible answers for Q6, to be discussed with the team later, and we moved out from that sector. This proved to be a wise decision later.

One Utama Walk Hunt Question - Che?

Q4. Recall the words spoken between a man and a woman.

Answer: Guy Laroche

This question caught me early as I suffered from mental block at the beginning of the walk hunt (like in most hunts).

Keywords here are "recall" and "between". Looking at "recall", the question directs us to look for a word that means something if read backward. The word "spoken" can mean verbal, oral etc.

In the word Laroche, there is laro. If read backward, we have oral. Then this word is in between Guy and che. There you have it, the answer intended: Guy Laroche.

But if you check carefully, che (in Malay or English) does not mean woman. Che sounds like cik, which can be used as salutation of a (unmarried) woman (or even a man/woman that you don't know well) according to Kamus Dewan.

So technically, che doesn not mean a woman or anything that relates to a woman. If it is intended to be a sounds-like clue, there is no sounds-like indicator in the question. So what do you do? Under normal circumstances you will choose this answer anyway, hoping the CoC has equated che with cik.

This kind of adaptation (select best answer based on a technically wrong question) is one of the skills that hunters should have. Probably it has been accepted that not all questions are perfect.

For this question I didn't got the answer right. Spank, spank, spank.