Investigator’s Report (solution)

by Scott Handelman, Francis Heaney, Andrew Lin, and Emily Morgan

The eight new answers from critic puzzles can be paired with the clues for which they provide sensible solutions. Each clue hints at a way of converting a string to a number, which is confirmed by the reused answers. Apply this rule to the new answer and convert the result to letters in ASCII to obtain the answer, ALT F FOUR.

1. This best-selling book flew off the rack.

(Scrabble value.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX 65%

1. VELVET ELVIS 20%

2. VALLEY 12%

3. TERMINAL 10%

2. This word might appear in a letter to a valued friend.

(Convert letters to numbers via A=1 B=2 etc; sum.)

ESTEEMED 76%

4. EBOOK 48%

5. ADOBO 37%

6. RACED 31%

3. This food often fails to meet international standards.

(Each word is a Unicode character; take the last byte of the code point in decimal.)

HAMBURGER 84%

7. MERCURY 63%

8. COLON 58%

9. UNION 42%

4. This is part of a lengthy and miserable experience.

(Multiply the length by 5.)

I DREAMED A DREAM 70%

10. CLINTON 35%

11. CHERRY 30%

12. DEPOT 25%

5. Even the ancient Romans may have had to pay this burden.

(Extract Roman numerals and sum.)

LUXURY TAX 70%

13. BUSINESS TRAVELERS 56%

14. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 52%

15. OKAPI 1%

6. You might use the phrase “robbed blind” while talking about this.

(Write in Braille and count dots.)

BUTCH CASSIDY AND
THE SUNDANCE KID 79%

16. FORGET PARIS 34%

17. BATED BREATH 28%

18. YOKEL 15%

7. This man was born to run.

(Each answer is a person; take the last two digits of the year of birth.)

ADRIAN PETERSON 85%

19. TERRY GENE BOLLEA 53%

20. JOHN ADAMS 35%

21. JERRY WEXLER 17%

8. Even a two-bit company must follow these rules.

(Extract I and O and read binary number as if they were 1 and 0.)

ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION 82%

22. CAPITOL HILL 5%

23. FIRESTONE 2%

24. SLITS 1%