Don’t Listen to Watson

 

Now that I’ve encouraged you to accept what others have determined for level 1, I’m going to do the opposite for level 2 and beyond. Social media is crammed with thousands of wild theories regarding these puzzles, ninety-nine percent of which is based on faulty logic or nothing at all. Avoid these, all of them, until you’ve completed your own investigation and come to your own conclusions. Never start with what others think. That will bias you. Nor should you attempt your own theories until you’ve digested the entire puzzle. Make your own observations first, avoiding speculation. 

There’s a Sherlock Holmes short story where Holmes takes on a case knowing very little. He and Watson must first take a long train trip to observe the scene. Watson proposes that on the way they discuss some theories he’s come up with—but Holmes shuts him down. He says that he wants to observe the scene with “an unbiased mind,” much to the annoyance of Watson. You must resist the urge to speculate based on incomplete data. Data first, then theories. When you get stuck, check out what others have come up with, only then.

It absolutely drives me nuts when folks on social media strive endlessly to bias themselves. “There’s a visual confirmer in the image that can be seen from the dig site for all solved puzzles, so the other puzzles must be the same.” No, they don’t have to be the same! That’s like saying these three crimes involved blackmail, therefore all crimes must involve blackmail. No! Avoid baseless assumptions and do not bias yourself!

Over forty years, only three puzzles have been solved by three different groups. No one has ever solved two of these puzzles. Why not? If you can solve one, if you know how a puzzle works, why not solve two or three? My experience with these puzzles is that they are all different, unique, no formula, no lazy repetition of the same pattern. Techniques may be repeated, or not. Nothing is predictable. Nothing. To make it worse, there are types of challenges within these puzzles that have no name, not a cypher, not a riddle, not a rebus, not an acrostic, not an anagram, not any type of thing I could find described anywhere; challenges that are, as far as I know, unique in the world, completely original. Follow the clues of the individual puzzle only, wherever they may lead. 

I like to start with the image, looking for anything curious, any imperfections, anything that might be a clue. This is akin to turning all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces upright before starting. 

Here are a few questions that flow from Image 5:

• What is the meaning of the odd-looking number 89 beneath the bowman?

• Why are there so many weathervanes?

• Why are there so many hooks?

• Why is there magic pouring from the fairy’s bowl near the leprechaun’s ear?

• Why is so much stuff hanging from the ears?

• Why is the earring resembling a compass rose rotated slightly counterclockwise?

• What is the meaning of the oddly arranged bumps on the leprechaun’s cheek and nose?

The poem begins:

Where M and B are set in stone

Per Brian Zinn’s 2004 conversation with Byron Preiss, “M and B” refer to Mozart and Beethoven, which are engraved on the front of the Chicago Orchestra Hall at 220 S. Michigan Ave. These names are also consistent with the Japanese version hint for this line.