April 2026 - The Beetles

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Location - Meet The Beetles

  1. Do you notice that some portions of the words are bolded?
  2. What do you think 'LEFT AND RIGHT EDGES' refers to?
  3. Read down the left edge and then the right edge of the paragraph.
  4. EVERY THIRD LETTER PLUS FOUR.
  5. What code are the figures representing in their poses?
  6. Read every third semaphore letter and then shift them each +4.
  7. YELP

Roll Over Beethoven

  1. One of the rules should help you figure out which composer's bogus birthplace is Portugal.
  2. Another rule should help narrow down your choices for Chopin and Debussy to just two choices each.
  3. A third rule should let you decide which country Chopin must be in, and then Debussy as well.
  4. Continue to figure out all the remaining match-ups.
  5. Bogus birthplaces: Debussy in Belarus, Mozart in Jamaica, Chopin in Bhutan, Schumann in Portugal, Strauss in Ecuador, Vivaldi in Germany, Wagner in Sweden, Haydn in Ethiopia.
  6. What do you think would be gained by drawing straight lines from each composer to his country?
  7. The connecting lines pass through specific words. How might you order them?
  8. INDEX INTO EACH WORD USING PARTNERS UNDERLINE.
  9. DEBUSSY matches with BELARUS – which has its third letter underlined. What is the third letter in DEBUSSY?
  10. BACH IN THE USSR

Maxwell's Ag Hammer

  1. What two-letter element symbols can you find in ARENA AUCTION?
  2. One possible set is Re, Na, Au and Ti with A, C, O and N left over. These leftover letters could be made into Ca and No or Ac and No. How do we know that none of these work?
  3. The intact element symbols are Ar, Na, Au, Ti and the remaining letters can be made into Ne and Co. This allows for to adjacent elements: Ne and Ar.
  4. Can you find these on the table? Do you think their positions on the table may be useful?
  5. For the first clue, focus on 'writer' and the 'try-out.' Can you think of a word for 'writer' that uses a two-letter string from the list of elements, and a word for 'try-out' that also uses that same two-letter string?
  6. (AU)THOR (AU)DITION. Now try to fill in the others with sets of two or three words that have the same 2-letter string in common.
  7. The other phrases are BA(NA)NA SIG(NA)L, (CO)LOR (CO)ORDINATED PERIS(CO)PE, FES(TI)VE ACOUS(TI)C (TI)SSUES, and L(AR)GE WHEELB(AR)ROW.
  8. What purpose do you think the numbers serve that are next to many of the filled in letters?
  9. In order(1-18) the letters spell out ROAD PAVED WITH PASTA. What element has still not been used?
  10. PENNE LANE

The Long and Winding Road

  1. One good place to start drawing in diagonals is around the perimeter. Any 0's or 2's around the perimeter are quite informative.
  2. Within the body of the grid, 4's are very helpful. One has been filled in for you, but the other should give you four definitive diagonals.
  3. Now look around the fours; there should be some useful 2's to allow you to fill in several more diagonals.
  4. See the given '2'; since its two diagonals are shown, what does that mean about the diagonals in the two squares above it?
  5. Similarly, once the diagonal on a '1' is determined, it should give you three other nearby diagonals.
  6. Any 1's that are diagonal from one another within the body of the grid should be informative.
  7. Continue with this kind of logic to fill out the rest of the table.
  8. The diagonal strips for the 72 squares should look like this:

    Diagonals for Slant Puzzle
  9. What do you think 'the longest road' refers to?
  10. The longest pathway between diagonal strips crosses 33 characters. Does it convey any information?
  11. Those 33 characters spell out CROSS OUT ODD ROWS AND COLUMNS 1 5 9 AND 13.
  12. Following those directions leaves you with several rows of three circles each, but the circles are all empty. What do you think you need to do next?

    Rows and Columns Crossed Off
  13. If you fill in those circles with the numbers of diagonals touching each, you have the following sequences: 221 231 322 123 222 123 122 123 323.
  14. What information is contained in the second longest road?
  15. The second longest path is just to the right of the longest path and it contains 21 characters: MINUS 1 FROM WHAT REMAINS. What does this mean?
  16. Subtracting one from each of the numbers gives the following sequences: 110 120 211 012 111 012 011 012 212. What code do you think 'bas lll' refers to?
  17. Base 3 code is ternary, and in ternary code, the number triads give the solution: LOVE ME DEW.

Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

  1. Aside from looking like a chessboard, in what way is the letter grid different than a typical word search grid?
  2. Notice how the letters are all paired off. How do you think 'knight moves' apply to the word search?
  3. Each word is made up of the eight letters that fit the pattern of a knight’s move in chess.
  4. The clues are arranged so that the words they clue for are in alphabetical order.
  5. The nine words are: ANYTHING, BIRTHDAY, DIAMONDS, JEWELLER (the UK spelling), MICHELLE, SUDDENLY, SUITCASE, SUNSHINE, UNIVERSE.
  6. If all of these letters were crossed off, what would you be left with?
  7. The leftover letters spell out: READ FIRST LETTERS IN EACH BEND What do you think this means?
  8. The 'bend' refers to the right-angle bend in each knight move. But does 'first' mean the one on the left side or the one that comes first in the word being spelled?
  9. HAY CHEWED

Meta: Do You Want to Know a Secret

  1. There are only two B's in the entire grid, the B in BEETLES and the B which you must add for BACH IN THE USSR. Which one of these is not available to serve as the B in the BOY diagonal?
  2. The only three letter diagonals that can start with the B in BEETLES are BOH and BR_, so BACH IN THE USSR must provide the B for the BOY diagonal.
  3. Notice how there is only one chain long enough for BACH IN THE USSR. But which direction should it be written to allow the B to be used in the BOY diagonal?
  4. It must be written starting with the B in the 1st column, 7th square down.
  5. Once that is established, what songs can be written in to provide the O and the Y for the BOY diagonal?
  6. The remaining two songs should be placed in chains that create an ALE diagonal and a PEW diagonal.
  7. The grid letters are filled in as follows:

    Meta Grid Filled In
  8. What do you think is meant by 'the only letters that mattered: THE BEETLES'?
  9. Is there a code that is hinted at by the words 'couldn’t see'?
  10. Braille is a code made up of 2 x 3 grids, can the 8 x 9 letter grid be broken up evenly into 2 x 3 sections?
  11. Try circling the only letters that matter – those in the words 'THE BEETLES' (T, H, E, B, L and S).
  12. The grid resolves into three rows each of four braille symbols each, spelling: THE WIDE ALBUM

Bonus: We Can Work it Out

  1. The left hand column is a list first names of historically famous women, with graphic hints about the rest of their name/title. Do any of them look recognizable?
  2. According to world-renowned psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the 'first stage of grief' is 'denial.' Put that together with the chess piece shown (a female monarch).
  3. The moon and stars are intended to denote 'night.'
  4. What verb is usually associated with the kitchen implement shown to make small strands of cheese or carrots or chocolate?
  5. The referee raising the boxer's hand is intended to portray a victory. What's another name for a victory? Put that together with a price tag that implies no charge.
  6. What is the mathematical name for the portion of a circle's circumference?
  7. The jiggly object on the plate is meant to portray a popular gelatinous dessert.
  8. The hints for the six women are: ____ Queen of Denial (The Nile), ____ Nightingale, ____the Grate, ____Win-Free, ____ of Arc, ____ And Jell-O.
  9. CLEOPATRA, FLORENCE, CATHERINE, OPRAH, JOAN, MAYA.
  10. Similarly, the hints for the six sports are: Love-30, Duck, Headlock, Hang-ten, Stick the Landing, Bullseye.
  11. TENNIS, CRICKET, WRESTLING, SURFING, GYMNASTICS, DARTS.
  12. What word/phrase is spelled out by the bolded letters on the left side? What famous woman does it hint at?
  13. What word/phrase is spelled out by the bolded letters on the right side, and what sport does it hint at?
  14. HELEN or RUGBY