2011 Microsoft Puzzle Hunt

[Scurra]

OXYGEN, SKI, FACE = MASK

(that frees up a space to put WATER CLOCK back.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Scurra]

And again

CLOCK - ALARM, GRANDFATHER, WATER
HAM - HOCK, BONE, SANDWICH
PACK- BATTERY, WOLF, BACK
TICKET - BUS, LOTTERY, PLANE
CAR - ACCIDENT, KEYS, RACE?
CAN - BEER, GARBAGE, OIL
MASK - FACE, OXYGEN, SKI
BOTTLE
DOG
LAUGH(ING)
PEN
SKY
SLIDE
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Suspence]

Reusing WATER seems wrong, but it fits so well with SKI, SLIDE and BOTTLE.

CAP - BOTTLE, PEN, SKY maybe
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Elethiomel]

Maybe BULL - PEN, DOG, RACE

Another unfinished thought: LAND - SLIDE, WATER, ??

[PuzzleScot]

BLUE - BOTTLE, SKY, PEN(?)
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[Suspence]

GAS
CAN - BEER, GARBAGE, OIL
MASK - FACE, OXYGEN, SKI
CAP - BOTTLE, PEN, SKY

RADIO
CLOCK - ALARM, GRANDFATHER, WATER
HAM - HOCK, BONE, SANDWICH
CAR - ACCIDENT, KEYS, RACE?

PACK - BATTERY, WOLF, BACK
TICKET - BUS, LOTTERY, PLANE
DOG
LAUGH(ING)
SLIDE

SHOW - SLIDE, DOG, ???

TRACK - LAUGH, DOG, RACE? - This would leave SLIDE for CAR (KEYS, ACCIDENT), which doesn't seem to work.
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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[PuzzleScot]

Could TRAIN be the last category, and STATION final answer?
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[Suspence]

That would make sense to me.

STATION

GAS
CAN - BEER, GARBAGE, OIL
MASK - FACE, OXYGEN, SKI
CAP - BOTTLE, PEN, SKY

RADIO
CLOCK - ALARM, GRANDFATHER, WATER
HAM - HOCK, BONE, SANDWICH
CAR - ACCIDENT, KEYS, RACE?

TRAIN
TICKET - BUS, LOTTERY, PLANE
TRACK - LAUGH, DOG?, RACE?, BACK?
PACK - BATTERY, WOLF, DOG?,BACK?

SLIDE - Haven't found the right place for this.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Zahariel]

STATION is correct. Good call on remembering the "train" theme of the hunt.

The Last Puzzle! As a final Christmas present, here is Walk This Way. It's been a pleasure seeing you all demolish the puzzles that gave us such a hard time.

[Suspence]

DO YOU KNOW THE ???????? PAINTING

Donut
O-face
waY
Oprah
clUb
booKs
moNey
blOnde
Women
Trays
hookaH
fEet
Art
Life
?
quiK
?
eGypt
goLd
dundeE
snaP
cigArette
nIle
saNd
teeTh
strIke
domiNo
rinGs
cruiSe
caDillac
metAl
takEout
Police
yEn
schoOl
kremliN

Not sure on some in the middle, and there must be some wrong at the end.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[PuzzleScot]

Summarised, with a few more suggestions...

DO YOU KNOW THE ...

gallery / Art / Museum /Fingerprint(!) (G/A/M/F) [this is actually the finger-print painting museum in Bali. source (last pic)]
life / game (L/G)
kanji (A)
Nesquik / milkshake /powder(Q/K/D)
market (E) [source]
Pyramid / Giza / Egypt (Y/I/G)
gold / ingot (L/G)
crocodile / dundee (D/E)

... PAINTING ...

liner /cruise.. (R/S)
cadillac (D)
floor / grill / walkway / metal/steel (O/L/K/A/E)
noodles / chinese / takeaway (D/N/E)
officers / police / simpsons / wiggum (O/P/S/W) - [source]
coin/yen (O/E/I) [japanese 5 yen coin [source]
school (O)
kremlin (N)

Still none the wiser though...
_________________
http://www.ukpuzzles.org/

[Scurra]

I'd like to offer a possible answer to this: THE TOMBS

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th answers pointed me the right way for this one (although oddly it was the Yen and the Kremlin which rang the first bell and made me look more closely.)
The words all come from the lyrics of Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles.

Thanks for letting us have a more leisurely attack on these puzzles - something I always feel regretful about with things like the MIT hunt is that the time pressure means that a lot of great puzzles get very badly treated at times.
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[PuzzleScot]

bravo!
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http://www.ukpuzzles.org/

[Suspence]

Nice work. Seems odd that the intended answer for the QUIK was C, as if the product name was QUICK.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Zahariel]

Scurra is correct, of course. Well done!

That's it for the standard puzzles in the hunt. Unfortunately I have no way to present the metas or the whistle stops, which is too bad because the metas at least were pretty good (the whistle stops were just some fun to help clear our heads). If Mike or Deanna provide me with a way to do this, I'll necro this thread, but until such a time, I'm glad you all had fun! See you next year, or whenever (the MS hunt isn't totally reliable), when we can do this again!

[Suspence]

Sad to see this hunt end after more than 3 months. Thanks to Zag and Zahariel for running this. Can't wait to do this again.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[LordKinbote]

[PuzzleScot]

[Jack_Ian]