Pirates of the Tyrrhenian (solution)

by Paul Jeray

The Roman pirates in this puzzle, although not especially like the referenced Gorden Gekko and Victor Posner, are the corporate raiding variety. They have given you a list of products to rob from the companies that make them.

Each company involved is in the S&P 500 and has a NYSE stock ticker symbol which is a Roman numeral. On the loot list, the company name has been represented by the ticker symbol, which was then translated to Arabic numerals. You are instructed to go to corporate headquarters and mark your travels on the map, which indicates to take the letter on the map for the state where each company is headquartered.

For instance, “250 shore excursions” is asking for “Carnival shore excursions”. You would need to go to Carnival Corp. headquarters in Miami, Florida. The letter for Florida is “S”. Here are the 11 companies and the approximate location of their headquarters:

  1. 250 shore excursions = Carnival Corp (CCL) shore excursions = Miami, FL = S
  2. 10 grade A seamless pipes = U.S. Steel (X) grade A seamless pipes = Pittsburgh, PA = T
  3. 1400 apple pies = McDonalds (MCD) apple pies = Oak Brook, IL = O
  4. 3000 window insulator kits = 3M (MMM) window insulator kits = St. Paul, MN = C
  5. 160 toilet bowl cleaners = Clorox (CLX) toilet bowl cleaners = Oakland, CA = K
  6. 901 diesel engines = Cummins, inc. (CMI) diesel engines = Columbus, IN = B
  7. 150 toothbrushes = Colgate/Palmolive (CL) toothbrushes = New York, NY = R
  8. 2001 cellphone patents = Motorola Mobility, Inc. (MMI) cellphone patents = Libertyville, IL = O
  9. 5 prepaid gift cards = Visa (V) prepaid gift cards = San Francisco, CA = K
  10. 500 renewable energy certificates = Dominion (D) renewable energy certificates = Richmond, VA = E
  11. 100 ATMs = Citigroup (C) ATMs = New York, NY = R

Reading the letters in order spells STOCKBROKER.

Sheila Sunshine
Sheila Sunshine