7.15.2010

Solution: Winning Builds…Something Something

Here's the dish on yesterday's puzzle. You were instructed to "Run the numbers" but the clues you were given didn't make a lot of sense on their own, so let's parse them out. Each clue is associated with a particular number or year.

  • A medical journal from the year that Watson and Crick made their famous discovery. - DNA discovered in 1953
  • A novel featuring the adventures of an Assyrian-American WWII bombardier. - Catch-22
  • A 8x10 glossy of the Pope, signed "To Mr. C - Keep up the good work!" - Benedict XVI
  • A set of architectural plans for the top floor of the Empire State Building. - 102nd Floor
  • A copy of the official MLB rule book from the first year the DH was used. - DH was instituted in 1973
  • Edmond Halley's Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae. - Halley's comet returns every 75 years.
  • A psychological treatise on the origins and causes of triskadekaphobia. - Fear of the number 13
  • A Torah. - 5 Books of Moses
  • The transcript of the Quayle/Gore/Stockdale Vice-Presidential debate. - 1992 Presidential campaign
  • A guitar tab from the Beatles' "White Album" - Revolution 9
  • The infamous inaugural address of the first president to die in office. - William Henry Harrison was the ninth president
  • The book Lost Moon by Kluger and Lovell. - Subtitled "Apollo 13"
  • Eliot Asinof's baseball scandal retrospective. - "8 Men Out"


So our resulting pattern is 53, 22, 16, 102, 73, 75, 13, 5, 92, 9, 9, 13, 8. If we consult the dreaded periodic table and use the abbreviations for the elements listed above, we get the following. I, TI, S, NO, TA, RE, AL, B, U, F, F, AL, O. A Bison is most certainly not a real Buffalo, but Matt Kemp is most certainly the Bison.

Thanks to all who played. I'll update the standings faster than a stampeding Bison.

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