Pickett

This is either sheer madness or complete brilliance. It's a lot to read, and I've only briefly skimmed it because i don't know if I have that much time to dedicate to it, but I've definitely noticed a number things out of this that will start to relate each of the paragraphs and "poems" together as well as a number of random pieces of information. A few examples I found: It ends with an Irish Blessing (although it is missing the final piece: "May God hold you in the palm of His hand.") There is an entire section containing pieces of song lyrics (Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side, Leonard Cohen - The Future, Simon and Garfunkle - The sound of Silence, Schoolhouse Rock - Conjunction Junction, The Trashmen - Surfin Bird, Gorillaz - Empire Antz, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Runnin' Down the Dream, etc) There are repeated phrases or words that seem too coincidental across the paragraphs ("Four Seconds", "Military Bases", "Capital G God", etc) So, again, I'm not going to have time to spend digging into this, and i'm still not completely sure if it's actually worthwhile, but it definitely piques my interest and will be checking in on this one...

Mind telling us (or PMing me) the answer? as it has been 6 months with no correct answers and the participation seems to have dwindled...

Isn't my answer above correct?

I'll take a quick stab at it:

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Well then I've got nothing...closest I can think of that even relates to numbers is

curious as to how obscure these are or even the pronunciation allowed for these. Here are some examples of what I would consider "valid", but probably not what you're looking for:

Not sure what I was thinking when i wrote that...not even 5 vowels...I'll shut up now ;c)

not it, I know...but it was close

So bonanova's most recent puzzle, Another hat problem, reminds me of one of my favorite riddles that my dad always told me. It's very similar, but slightly different, and I don't think I've posted it before, so here it goes (he was a much better story teller than I, so pardon my narrative): A king put out a decree saying he will give his entire kingdom to the person who could solve all of his riddles, thereby proving to be the smartest person in the land. Obviously many showed up, but after all of the trials, only 3 people remained. The king told them to get some rest for tomorrow they would face their final challenge. Only one person would remain after it, the other two would be killed. That threat didn't dissuade them, and they all went to bed. When they woke up, they found themselves all in a room together. Any and all reflective surfaces were covered, and there were armed guards surrounding them. Before any of them could speak, the king told them their challenge: "While you were sleeping, we painted either a red dot or a blue dot on each of your foreheads. You are not allowed to speak or communicate with each other in any way shape or form. Anyone who does so will be killed immediately. Now, raise your hand if you see a blue dot on someone else's head." The three people looked at each other and all three raised their hands. "Good. Keep your hands raised. You may only lower your hand when you can tell me what color dot is on your own forehead. If you lower your hand and do not answer, you will be killed. if you answer incorrectly, you will be killed. If you answer correctly, you will gain all of my wealth, and the other two will be killed. Good luck." The three looked at each other...what seemed like hours went by with no one answering. You could see they were all straining themselves, trying to figure out how they could know what color dot they had. Their arms started getting tired... Finally, one of the men got a big smirk on his face. He did some final double checking of his logic and slowly lowered his hand. "The spot on my head is ... " Given that the man successfully answered the question, and it clearly wasn't a "guess", what color dot was on his head, and how did he know?

Good luck.

uhhh?