A Puzzling Note - 11/30/18

Today I bring you from Pennsylvania:

A Puzzling Note

Tomorrow we'll ...

All in All ... - 11/29/18

Today's puzzle takes us to Ireland, and:

All in all it's just a...

Tomorrow we'll ...

If You Like to Talk to Tomatoes - 11/28/18

You'll enjoy today's Maryland puzzle:

If you Like to Talk to Tomatoes....

I'm on the lookout for holiday/winter themed puzzles.  If you've solved or written any fun ones that deserve a wider audience, please send them my way.  I've featured a whole bunch of them over the years, and it gets tougher finding more, but I know they're out there.  I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Special? - 11/27/18

The CO of today's California puzzle asks:

What's Special About These Numbers?

Tomorrow we'll ...

Poisoned Pen - 11/26/18

Today we head to Canada's Prince Edward Island for a puzzle by a CO who reads a lot of the same authors that I do.  But I doubt that any of them writes with a:

Poisoned "Pen"

Tomorrow we'll ...

Who knew? - 11/25/18

I saw this new puzzle and it made me laugh.  Just imagine, finding this in New Jersey:

It's the Holy G.Rail!

Tomorrow we'll ...

It Ain't Rocket Science - 11/24/18

If you're still recovering from a tryptophan-induced stupor, or you shopped 'til you dropped yesterday on Black Friday, today's California puzzle may be just the ticket:

It Ain't Rocket Science...or Is It??

Tomorrow we'll ...

GC4TECH - 11/23/18

I love coming CO's who make fun use of an interesting GC code they randomly receive by incorporating it into the theme of their cache, as in today's puzzle from Canada's Ontario province.  I am generally pretty good with technology, I think, but I was really flummoxed earlier this week.  I was pointing the remote control at the TV and pushing the "off" button and couldn't figure out why it wasn't responding.  Finally I realized that what I was pointing at the TV was actually my cordless phone. D'oh!  It's a good thing I don't have too many more things that are:

Remote Controlled

Tomorrow we'll be in California.

Thanksgiving Gluttony - 11/22/18

Today we head to Michigan and a puzzle in celebration of:

Thanksgiving Gluttony

Tomorrow we'll ...

GIFF - 11/21/18

Today we head to California for a puzzle about the recently held:

GIFF 2018

Tomorrow we'll ...

Sketchy Kind of Cache - 11/20/18

Have you ever been out caching and all of the sudden realize you're in an area that might be a little sketchy?  Today's puzzle will take you to California and a:

Sketchy Kind of Cache

Tomorrow we'll ...

Talking Turkey - 11/19/18

Today we travel to Australia for our puzzle.  I don't know what they're doing there this time of year, but this week in the U.S. we're all:

Talking Turkey

Tomorrow we'll ...

Asimov's Legacy - 11/18/18

Today's puzzle takes us to the United Kingdom.  As the CO says, "Get ready to channel your inner geek" as you explore:

🤖 🤖 Asimov’s Legacy

Tomorrow we'll ...

Snowflakes are Falling - 11/17/18

I'm not sure if I've ever had to be out shoveling snow before Thanksgiving.  The weather forecast was for 10 inches, and we got 9.5, so I'd say that was a pretty precise prediction.  Today's puzzle takes us to Massachusetts.  One thing I'll say for this weather ... there's no better time for puzzling than when:

The Snowflakes Are Falling

Tomorrow we'll ...

Vexing? - 11/16/18

Well, before the leaves have even all come down, we're getting smacked with winter here in upstate New York.  My commute yesterday morning was lake-effected and turned from 20 minutes to about 45.  Tonight we're supposed to get about 10 inches.  Yuck.  It makes me long for a warmer climate.  Phoenix sounds good.  My in-laws are headed there right now, so let's travel there ourselves for a puzzle that I hope you won't find too vexing:

jakob's Poor Attempt at Vexillology Part II

Tomorrow we'll ...

Franglais - 11/15/18

Today's puzzle from France (in a blend of  languages the CO called "Franglais") landed in my inbox recently.  Have some fun with:

GRENOUILLES ET BICYCLETTES

Tomorrow we'll ...

No Problemo - 11/14/18

Today we're back in Southern California.  Looking for a new puzzle, are you?:

NO PROBLEMO

Tomorrow we'll ...

Should've Gone For The Head - 11/13/18

Today's California puzzle suggests that we:

Should've Gone For The Head

Tomorrow, we'll hang around in southern California for another day.

KEYWORD - 11/12/18

Today's puzzle finds us in northern California, where you'll be looking for a:

KEYWORD

Tomorrow we'll be in southern California.

100 Years Later - 11/11/2018

It's Veterans Day, and I couldn't let the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I pass un-noticed, so today we travel to Michigan for a:

11/11/11 - Veterans Day Sudoku

Tomorrow we'll be in California.

Saturday Mornings

Today we have another post composed for us by guest puzzle-picker Ol'Fogie:

Saturday morning American broadcast TV was once animation's home field. Filling a cereal bowl with artificially colored sugar pebbles and staring at the tube was every kid's weekend plan. Not any more.

NBC ditched Saturday morning cartoons in 1992, CBS followed suit not long after, and ABC lost its animated weekend mornings in 2004. The CW, a lower-tier broadcast network, was the last holdout in a game that the Big 3 left long ago, but even it killed off Saturday cartoons in 2014.

Why? Cable, streaming, and the FCC. In the 1990s, the FCC began more strictly enforcing its rule requiring broadcast networks to provide a minimum of three hours of "educational" programming every week. Networks, afraid of messing with their prime-time slots, found it easiest to cram this required programming in the weekend morning slot. The actual educational content of this live-action programming is sometimes debatable, but it meets the letter of the law.

Fortunately, this Tennessee puzzle created by my geomate, yomegranate, invites us back to childhood on...

Saturday Mornings

Tomorrow we'll...

Music for Adventurers - 11/9/18

Teamajk is off on a quick adventure to Tennessee, so standing in for her today (and bringing you a puzzle that's also in the Volunteer State) is Ol'Fogie who writes:

My geomate, yomegranate, is a very talented music afficianado, and that comes in quite handy when I’m working on a puzzle involving such themes. But, when SHE is the CO of a tough puzzle opus I have to rely on my own limited knowledge and that usually doesn’t get me very far. Fortunately, I was able to get together with some other brainiacs that have been featured in this very blog (Elorabug and PokerLuck), and the three of us managed to work it out. Admittedly, however, it took us quite a few hours before we could successfully sing the find for...

My Song

Tomorrow we'll...

No Geocachers Were Harmed in the Making of this Puzzle - 11/8/18

This week's guest puzzle picker Ol'Fogie says:

Although I am the current CO of this cache, I can not take credit for its development. My good friend, Fugads, created this fun li’l puzzle. Sadly, he moved away, but his contributions to the mystery cache community in East Tennessee are still garnering blue ribbons for their innovation and uniqueness. So, let’s play a game of...

TVG Game Night: Monopoly

Tomorrow we'll...

We're (Still) All Crazy Here - 11/7/18

Brought to you by guest puzzle picker Ol'Fogie:

There is a series in Tennessee called WACH (We’re All Crazy Here!). It features many conundrums to expose the local community to the variety of puzzles in the caching world. PokerLuck started the series and then handed over the reins to Elorabug. I picked this one from the series at random, but you should certainly check them all out as each one is unique. The code for the first one is GC74G46, but let’s jump in the middle at..,.

WACH41 - We're All Crazy Here!

Tomorrow we'll be...

Family Crests - 11/6/18

Ol'Fogie is standing in for teamajk today, and he writes:

When I solved today’s Tennessee puzzle, it sent me down a Google rabbit hole exploring my own family history. There is apparently a ton of info on the interwebs for any surname you can think of, some of it conflicting. Thus, it makes me wonder how reliable any of the info is, especially when I found differing images for my family:

Coat of Arms

Tomorrow we'll ...

Why are we here? - 11/5/18

Lately I've had so much going on that I feel like I'm burning the candle at both ends, and holding a lighter up to the middle.  Fortunately, fellow puzzler Ol'Fogie has agreed to pinch hit for me for a few days so I can snag a little break.  Here's the first of his posts, for a puzzle cache in North Carolina:

Why Are You Reading This Blog?

What compels us to read this blog every morning? What drives us to stare at cache descriptions for hours? What urge do we need fulfilled by days of frustration trying to find elusive solutions? For me, it’s because...

I Love Puzzles #1

Tomorrow we'll be...

Insulting? - 11/4/18

Today's puzzle takes us to California.  I'm at a conference relating to a specific math course I'm teaching, and one of our exercises had us very quickly decrypting something based on some mathy rules.  You can bet I was all over that.  The decryption read, "Descartes said, 'I think not,' and disappeared."  I had to google the joke*, but I thought that was a pretty good punch line.  So, all in all I was pretty busy today and what I've got for you is pretty much:

An Insult to All Puzzle Caches

Tomorrow we'll ...

*There are a lot of different versions of the joke, but this is the one I found first: "Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender walks up to him and says, “Would you care for a drink?”Descartes replied, “I think not.” and disappeared.

Google Art - 11/3/18

Today's puzzle takes us to Canada's province of British Columbia.  I had to spend my birthday at a conference, but at least I was there with friends.  While we enjoyed a piece of cake together, I wanted to know the name of the cocktail* they had ordered me and pulled out my phone to do a google search based on the ingredients.  And I said, "Hey, look, the google doodle has little birthday candles."  At which point I realized it must know when my birthday is, and it had adjusted accordingly.  Spooky.  Everyone else checked their phones and they all had a different, Day of the Dead themed:

Google Art

Tomorrow we'll ...

*It turned out to be a "Bay Breeze."  Pinapple juice, cranberry juice, and vodka.  Yum.

Fifty - 11/2/18

Today we travel to Canada's province of Newfoundland and Labrador for a puzzle in recognition of my big day:

Fifty

Tomorrow we'll ...

Bingo! - 11/1/18

Today's puzzle takes us to California.  I was trying to figure out what to post for today's puzzle, and then:

Bingo!

Tomorrow we'll ...