I spent the last four days solving cryptics and clues and subsequently my entire brain is mush.
The MIT Mystery Hunt is a much revered weekend of puzzle solving for the highest level nerds and since I live with three MIT alumni (kruft) and one of those roommates has spent the entire last year working to put the puzzle hunt together I dipped my toes into the tricky, tricky waters. I had a little experience since I worked at an escape room for over a year and was also fortunate to know a good number of my teammates so the experience was super fun simply from the solving side of things. The Hunt itself was beyond incredible – an MMO universe of the MIT campus was created and all puzzle hunters were able to make little avatars, walk around campus, interact with NPCs, unlock puzzles, fish, play with lobsters, take group photos, and more. Although I’ve barely visited the campus in real life I feel like I’m much much better acquainted with all the buildings, and I even got to visit MIThenge!
Surprising no one, my favorite puzzles were film and culture-based. One had me coming up with puns for famous films clued by dubbed dialogue (Oklahoma became Oklahama and sadly not, to my great disappointment, Porklahoma) and another replaced dialogue from famous scenes with descriptions of the meaning, as in, “Reference to topological superiority” clued to “It’s over, Anakin, I have the high ground.”
The great thing about the hunt in general was the wide variety of types of puzzles and knowledge necessary. Two friends spent about 5-8 hours over two days with an audio puzzle playing around with synths while I helped out with crosswords, trigrams, trivia, and interactive team activities. Another puzzle had a text adventure where fictional characters were in the wrong fictional universe and you had to go to each universe, pick up an item, and give it back to the original character. I spent about 16 hours puzzling on Friday after the 12 pm kickoff and woke up on Saturday morning to start all over again. It was great. All my attention and energy focused on one thing without the Big Team pressure of wanting to finish the hunt. (The total number of puzzles was 150+ and the total number of teams 250+. Plus whoever wins has to put together the Hunt for next year. We didn’t want to win.) Can’t recommend escaping down the rabbit hole enough.
Big Finish
Last week I spent most of my free time reading Siege & Storm and listening to Big Finish audios. I’m most of the way through the first season of Gallifrey and am finally trying my hand at Dalek Empire. I find Daleks extremely difficult to pay attention to on audio (and sometimes on screen) but so far the focus has been on the human side enough that I think I’ve been able to follow along well enough. Gallifrey is my second time around (through season 2, I think) but I pre-gamed it with Neverland and Zagreus so I actually feel like I know what’s going on now and what role Narvin has etc. etc. It’s still a little hard to keep track of everybody (especially the specific characteristics of Narvin and Braxiatel) because so many people sound alike but it is some really good stuff and it’s the first time I’ve really actually enjoyed K9 because I love the two Marks being snippy at each other.
Downstairs
I watched my first ever John Gilbert movie last week called Downstairs about a maid who gets seduced by an evil chauffeur right after she marries the very proper butler of a Duke’s house. There honestly isn’t a lot to recommend it, since I thought most of the acting was very stiff, except for Gilbert who is playing a cad so dark and manipulative he seems like an anti-hero before his time. The Duchess, played by Ogla Baclanova, also me off particularly well. Apparently Gilbert came up with the story idea himself and my guess is that he wanted a chance to introduce complexity into his character type and never really got the chance to before he died. The scenery is also particularly fun as we’re in Europe. Most of the actors have thick European accents. Yay for realism! It sort of felt like a Lubitsch comedy weighed down by odd pacing and weird character moments – it never quite works but watching Gilbert be thoroughly at ease in front of the camera and show off his thick, silky voice is quite a treat.