OT: 27 Words Puzzle

[Maple Leafs]

Here's a new puzzle for the day. This is a new creation, although I've borrowed liberally from previous puzzles by others.

As tends to be the case around here, the puzzle involves figuring out what to do with the information you start with, then figuring out what to do with whatever results from that. I've tried to capture some of the classic elements of FOFC puzzles, but the format of this puzzle is not exactly the same as any past ones (although it may seem that way at first). I'll nudge you along here and there if necessary if I see things getting off track.

I've never created a puzzle before and I haven't tried this one out elsewhere, so I really have no sense for how easy or difficult this one is, or whether it will even hold any interest. Apologies in advance if, at the end, everyone thinks it was too obscure/easy/dumb/etc. My gut feeling is that someone will get to the answer fairly quickly, but who knows.

There's one hint to start with right away. The final answer you're looking for is a person.

Here are the 27 words you start with:
BERRY
MAIL
NEWS
MARK
HOP
WHITE
BLACK
BUD
STREAK
SUPER
MINUTE
HUNT
GARDEN
PARK
PLACE
SPACE
CHURCH
PUDDING
DOOR
PRESS
ARMS
CUB
RED
STOCK
DEEP
YARD
TROT

[VPI97]

Theory - The words need to be grouped in threes by a common fourth word.

Ex.
BLUE - BERRY
BLUE - STREAK
DEEP - BLUE

MINUTE - RICE
RICE - PUDDING
WHITE - RICE

FOX - TROT
RED - FOX
FOX - HUNT

etc... Thoughts?

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by VPI97
Theory - The words need to be grouped in threes by a common fourth word.

Ex.
BLUE - BERRY
BLUE - STREAK
DEEP - BLUE

MINUTE - RICE
RICE - PUDDING
WHITE - RICE

FOX - TROT
RED - FOX
FOX - HUNT

etc... Thoughts?

sounds good. lets finish them up.

[cthomer5000]

I'm not getting very far.
I can see:

BEAR - CUB
BLACK - BEAR
but don't really see a third...

YARD and DOOR can work with either 'front' or 'back', but in either case I don't see a third.

[cthomer5000]

SUPER MARKET
MARKET PLACE
STOCK MARKET

[cthomer5000]

my incomplete triads:

BENCH PRESS
PARK BENCH

BEAR CUB
BLACK BEAR

FRONT YARD
FRONT DOOR

[VPI97]

SPACE - RACE
ARMS - RACE
???

[gottimd]

Not sure how to play this game completely but for the triad of

BEAR - CUB
BLACK - BEAR

could the last one be

Bear-Arms?

[QuikSand]

Not much goes with HOP, except BELL.

How about:

BELL - HOP
CHURCH - BELL
DOOR - BELL


I suspect that once we make nine sets of three, we will be able to combine those nine words into three sets ot three, and then combine those three into one final word/theme/person.

[QuikSand]

FOX - TROT
FOX - HUNT
FOX - NEWS

[QuikSand]

WHITE - RICE
MINUTE - RICE
RICE - PUDDING

[cthomer5000]

duh.


BENCH PRESS
PARK BENCH
BENCH MARK

[Maple Leafs]

You guys are half-way there.
Originally posted by QuikSand
I suspect that once we make nine sets of three, we will be able to combine those nine words into three sets ot three, and then combine those three into one final word/theme/person. I'd caution against that assumption. Once you have your nine words, I'd suggest taking a few minutes to look them over and see if you notice anything before you start trying to regroup.

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by QuikSand
FOX - TROT
FOX - HUNT
FOX - NEWS

how about:

FOX - NEWS
FOX - TROT
RED - FOX

this opens up hunt to give us:

BEAR HUNT
BLACK BEAR
BEAR CUB

[QuikSand]

,,,sorry, didn't see those above.

[QuikSand]

good luck, but I can't stick around...

[VPI97]

ROSE - BUD
ROSE - GARDEN
RED - ROSE

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by cthomer5000
SUPER MARKET
MARKET PLACE
STOCK MARKET

re-thinking this, it might be:

SUPER MARKET
STOCK MARKET
BLACK MARKET

[VPI97]

SPACE - SHIP
SHIP - YARD
??

[VPI97]

dola -

For reference, here's what I've gleaned from the thread.

MAIL
SPACE
YARD
PLACE
CUB
ARMS

BLUE - BERRY
BLUE - STREAK
DEEP - BLUE

MINUTE - RICE
RICE - PUDDING
WHITE - RICE

FOX - TROT
FOX - NEWS
FOX - HUNT

SUPER - MARKET
BLACK - MARKET
STOCK - MARKET

BELL - HOP
CHURCH - BELL
DOOR - BELL

BENCH - PRESS
PARK - BENCH
BENCH - MARK

ROSE - BUD
ROSE - GARDEN
RED - ROSE

[Huckleberry]

Could junk work with mail, space, and yard?

[JeeberD]

Yard Work
Work Space
Work Place

[Butter]

I think a couple of these are wrong.

I would go:

BEAR CUB
BLACK BEAR
BEAR ARMS

and then

SUPER MARKET
STOCK MARKET
MARKET PLACE

[Butter]

Dola

Which would leave Mail, Space, and Yard, which might have the word "man" fit at the end of those.

But I don't know, I could be totally off.

[Maple Leafs]

Almost there...

[Maple Leafs]

This one seems to have landed with a thud. One bump for the holiday crowd, then I'll let it die.

For whatever it's worth, you've got the nine words from part one: FOX, RICE, BLUE, BEAR, BENCH, MARKET, ROSE, BELL and JUNK

[VPI97]

Originally posted by Maple Leafs
This one seems to have landed with a thud. Sorry, work got busy in the afternoon...that damn walmart.com!!

[Pumpy Tudors]

Well, I don't know the answer, but looking at the nine words, I can find these Major League Baseball MVP's in the list:

Nellie FOX
Jim RICE
Vida BLUE
Johnny BENCH
Pete ROSE
George BELL

Not sure what to do with BEAR, MARKET, or JUNK.

[Buccaneer]

I think you still need to take the 9 words and make 3 out of them for part 2. But I do like Pumpy's post, that was pretty good.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Oh, jeez, I think I got it. PM'ing Maple Leafs.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Pumpy Tudors
Oh, jeez, I think I got it. PM'ing Maple Leafs. We have a winner. Pumpy (may I call you Pumpy?) did indeed follow the correct steps, and wound up with the right answer.

Anyone else want to take a swing at it?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally posted by Maple Leafs
We have a winner. Pumpy (may I call you Pumpy?) did indeed follow the correct steps, and wound up with the right answer.


Yay! Pumpy is teh win!

[QuikSand]

I don't want to see a spoiler - haven't had a chance to look at this closely, and won't right now... bit I'm still interested.

If the baseball clue/discovery was a red herring, it was a great one, though.

[digamma]

Originally posted by Pumpy Tudors
Well, I don't know the answer, but looking at the nine words, I can find these Major League Baseball MVP's in the list:

Nellie FOX
Jim RICE
Vida BLUE
Johnny BENCH
Pete ROSE
George BELL

Not sure what to do with BEAR, MARKET, or JUNK.

Mr. Barry BONDS could fit with these three words, I guess.

[QuikSand]

Bumping... I love the baseball insights, but I can't seem to go any further with them. I haven't done any searching, but I'm pretty comfortable there aren't any top-tier baseball players named "Market." (Montgomery Ward notwithstanding) The "Bonds" clue is pretty good - but I don't knoe how to wrap it up, if it's connected.

Help, anyone?

[Maple Leafs]

Actually, there's really not much to add. The name I was looking for was indeed Barry Bonds.

The idea behind the puzzle was to start off breaking the 27 words into groups of threes, which I figured people would do fairly quickly since we've had puzzles like that before. Once you were down to nine, the major breakthrough was seeing that six of the nine* were names of baseball MVPs. I wondered if having both Rose and Bench in the list would make it too easy to see, but it seems like it was hidden enough to provide a challenge.

From there it was just a case of using the last three words to get to the name of another MVP, who happened to be the guy who's won the most.

I hid a few hints in the initial post. "There's one hint to start with right away" was true, if you look at the first word. I originally had it as "There's one hint to start with right off the bat" but thought that may be too obvious. Later I made reference to taking a swing at it. And the last three words were all home run terms, although that was probably too obscure.

* Six of nine... 2/3. Get it?

[QuikSand]

Ah... I guess I was looking for a more universal theory, rather than the different groupings of 6 and 3. (Though you admittedly hinted otherwise earlier in the thread)