High Hunt.

As you may have guessed, I had a good vacation. So good that I didn't have time to write or record posts. The highlights were many, but I'm going to talk about the highlights of the 2005 MIT Mystery Hunt. Note that the site there doesn't include a link to this year's puzzles, which are at normalville.org. I don't feel like doing an in-depth write-up of puzzles or progress, just some of my favorite moments. These contain spoilers for Alma Mater, An Ax to Grind, Cocktail Party, 1-1=2, Special Art Exhibition, Express Yourself, Post Modern, Parallel Universe, and the Red Metapuzzle.

( Normal view. Normal view! NORMAL VIEW! NORMAL VIEW!!!!!!!! )

Hopefully, soon, I'll have some time to right about the not-so-high points, as well as address more abstract issues of puzzle construction. Till then, some recommendations. Keep in mind that I haven't gotten a real good look at all of the puzzles yet.

• This Puzzle Sucks—Recommended for fans of the Buffangelverse. It's not too hard, and I challenge you to solve it without references like I did. (I didn't solve this during the Hunt, otherwise I would have used references to save time. But at home, watching Lost, it's a fun diversion.)
  
• Post Modern—Recommended for people who haven't read the spoiler for it already.
  
• Cocktail Party—Recommended for people who haven't read the spoiler for it already.
  
• Track 12—Recommended for music fans.
  
• An Ax to Grind—Recommended for rock guitar fans.
  
• Spare the Rod—Recommended for people who were once teenage girls or anyone else in love with cute boys.
  
• 1-1=2—Recommended for fans of flats or for people who want to know what the hell I'm blathering on about when I talk about flats.
  
• Six of One—Recommended for fans of cryptic crosswords.
  
• Black to Play—Recommended for Go players.
  
• Telephone Pictionary—Recommended for fans of [SPOILER].
  
• Standard Unassuming Logic Puzzles—Recommended for fans of nonstandard assuming logic puzzles.

Finally, some things I'd like to see from Setec, or anyone else who can provide them:

• The pre-runaround puzzles.
  
• Scripts for various events (especially to the pre-runaround puzzles).
  
• More statistics.
  
• The recording of the Cocktail Party.
  
• A description of what was going on at the Department of Commerce Treasure Hunt.