In this puzzle, we are presented with a list of things to do and a set of tickets. The number of events matches the number of rows of tickets, which implies that the number of tickets should match an “answer” to each of the events. We can start by trying to identify some of the references that appear to resolve somewhat uniquely with the tickets to help us confirm our findings.
- Award gold to a Golden Slam champion. There is only one Golden Slam champion, Steffi Graf (matching 6 4)
- Launch the Free Speech Movement in a city. The Free Speech Movement launched in Berkeley (matching 8).
- Open a magical resort. Both Walt Disney World and Disneyland are magical, but only Walt Disney World matches the enumerations of 4 6 5.
As clued by the flavortext, we could look at the “date” these events occurred. We find that these all started on October 1, which is also the start date of our carnival. On the puzzle page, the events are alphabetically sorted to help with identifying the entity. Some webpages like this one or Wikipedia are also helpful.
| Clue | Entity |
|---|---|
| Launch the Free Speech Movement in a city | Berkeley |
| Nationalize a radio corporation | British Guiana Broadcasting Service |
| Mourn the death of an English king | Eadwig the All-Fair |
| Start selling an affordable car | Ford Model T |
| Publish a recipe collection | Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management |
| Begin operations of a federal independent agency | NASA |
| Found a colonial educational institution | South African College |
| Open an American educational institution | Stanford University |
| Award gold to a Golden Slam champion | Steffi Graf |
| Sign away Louisiana in a secret agreement | Third Treaty of San Ildefonso |
| Open a magical resort | Walt Disney World |
| Establish a nature reserve | Yosemite National Park |
The flavortext further suggests putting the events “in order.” Sorting the events chronologically by year and taking the letter marked by the golden tickets spell: WILLIAMSBURG.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 959 | EADWIG THE ALL-FAIR |
| 1800 | THIRD TREATY OF SAN ILDEFONSO |
| 1829 | SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE |
| 1861 | MRS BEETON'S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT |
| 1890 | YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK |
| 1891 | STANFORD UNIVERSITY |
| 1908 | FORD MODEL T |
| 1958 | NASA |
| 1964 | BERKELEY |
| 1968 | BRITISH GUIANA BROADCASTING SERVICE |
| 1971 | WALT DISNEY WORLD |
| 1988 | STEFFI GRAF |
Author's Notes
Rachel: I was originally going to write ten different versions of this puzzle, one for each day of the hunt, all solving to WILLIAMSBURG, because I thought it would be cool to have a puzzle that changed over the course of the hunt independent of what solvers did. I wrote the October 1st version and then realized it was quite difficult to find enough interesting things for October 2nd - 10th; I assume because people like to schedule things for ‘interesting‘ dates like the 1st of a month, and because it‘s an easy default choice for paperwork-related events like establishing government agencies. This puzzle then died until we needed a last-minute replacement puzzle and it was resuscitated in its current form. The idea of a puzzle changing over the course of the hunt did eventually somewhat make its way, after many mutations, into Remember to Hydrate, but I would love to explore or see this idea explored more.