Challenge posts will always contain spoilers.
Hello, fellow students. Just an early heads up, Stella had to come in and lead us through this challenge pretty much step-by-step. Shout-out to Stella V. and Angela Sanning (aka characters run by the game makers) for being so understanding and helping us through. Also, thank you so much to Travis Donoho and Michael Langone for getting the first solve and figuring out the proper path to the solution.
So here we go!
This man walked North up a street named for a famous set of keys and stopped at a thrift store run by a military force.Then he left the store, went to the nearest corner, and looked right to get his bearings and pin the spot where he was born, even though he is not a U.S. citizen.The man’s boss was quite the faker, but whose attention did he want?—–
EDIT: Students please note, this Challenge has turned out to be far more difficult than anticipated. I am providing a bit of guidance in the comments below. Feel free to use it if you wish. -S
Let’s break out these steps:
- This man walked North up a street named for a famous set of keys
- and stopped at a thrift store run by a military force.
- Then he left the store, went to the nearest corner,
- and looked right
- to get his bearings
- and pin the spot where he was born, even though he is not a U.S. citizen
- The man’s boss was quite the faker,
- but whose attention did he want?
Streets named for famous sets of keys. You can come up with several easily: Florida keys, Queen Elizabeth’s Keys, Enochian Keys, the keys of the kingdom. Let’s try pairing this with the thrift store run by a military force. That would be Salvation Army. So we’re looking for a Salvation Army on a street named after some famous keys. Florida Ave. in Tampa, FL has a Salvation Army, as does Steinway Ave. in Astoria, Queens. The Salvation Army International Headquarters is on Queen Victoria St. in London (and the nearest corner has “look right” written on the ground). There are a few other leads, as well, so you would be forgiven if you couldn’t decide.
At some point during the solve, Angela Sanning came in and told us she lived in Queens for a bit after going to college. Now Angela Sanning is pretty new to this whole Google+ comments/puzzle solving thing, so a lot of us didn’t take her seriously for a while. That was a mistake. At the end of the day, Angela Sanning is a character run by the Ancient Truth game makers, and she was pointing us to the Astoria location.
So if we Street View the Astoria location, let’s go to the nearest street corner: 34th and Steinway Ave. Now “look right.” What have we got? Well, we have a US Furniture store and a particularly misleading 50% off sign. This is where a lot of students dead-ended. Michael Langone and Travis Donoho worked out that you should travel right down 34th street to the next intersection. That intersection is 34th and 41st. Again, there is a logic jump here. Use 41N, 34E as latitude and longitude and “pin the spot” on Google Maps. You’ll end up in Turkey.
Now, we know that in the previous puzzle, the answer was the Cardiff Giant, a well-known hoax. We also know that “the man’s boss was quite the faker.” So, we’re probably looking for a large hoax, possibly involving Turkey. Google “famous hoaxes” and you’ll surely find the story of “The Mechanical Turk.” The Mechanical Turk was a machine built by Wolfgang von Kempelen to impress Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. If the Turk is the man, Wolfgang is his boss, and the attention he sought was that of Empress Maria Theresa.
stl.la/mariatheresa takes us to “Rodriguez” where we learn a little more about our friend Angela.