How the poem may work....

[nkown]

And then to the poem....

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Mr. Fenn mentions mirrors on the first page of TTOTC, on Sante Fe website, in several SB's including the curious one in his bathroom, another SB pointing to the Motel sign, in TFTW he says the mirror is his enemy.

And then he plays with phonetics and words: No place for biddies could be 'no place for b's and d's' -- a mirror. Bessie and Me could be B, C, and I (for me). Me in the Middle -- I was in the middle and that was important.

Can you see Milldew in the mirror of the poem above? Is it possible to encode information in poem by making b,d,p,q and M,W, E, 3 as interchangeable? How about a letter like 'a' being a d ? What if you turn over 'a log' literally to get 'gol d'.

Now simply mirroring the poem is not enough as anyone who has done so quickly finds out. You can see milldew, maybe as a confirmation, but you have to not only ride the backwards bicycle but you must also "Be Skippy".

In TTOTC FF tells us that there is a "Cody" (cod-e).... that his brother made a wonderful machine while being 'skippy' (skip-pi). That his address is 1413 Main Street (pi backwards). That during the pie (pi) caper you need to 'reverse polarity'. That there are three Teas with Olga.... 3 t's.

So I built a program to first skip by Pi (3,1,4,1 repeating) and did what the poem said -- start where warm waters halt. That could be the end of that idea or sentence. It could be at letter 32 (as in 32F), etc. So then just run them all.... skip by pi forwards and backwards and you get something like this:

(images are uploaded to HoR -->  www.hintofriches.com/forum/the-hint-of-riches/170543-a-spot-with-over-38-named-links-on-a-map/page2)

That's starting in the 111 letter position and skipping by pi forward.... perhaps you can see Hand on Orb there (maybe the Hap Arnold statue?).... and "ring her"... and, well you can start to read the rest on your own.

But our work is still not done... which is why this is so hard. Because now, the letters can be mirrored. And once you realize that they can be mirrored you start to get some sentences and coherence.

I did not find the treasure... but I'm betting this is the method combined with pointers from the SB's.  

Thoughts?

[nkown]

I'm not sure why that link doesn't work but uploading images here is difficult.

www.hintofriches.com/forum/the-hint-of-riches/170543-a-spot-with-over-38-named-links-on-a-map/page2

if you copy paste that it should work fine... you'll see the point quickly.

[Apple]

Nkown, nice synopsis. I agree that TTOTC is likely an instruction manual on how to extract crucial hidden information from the poem through a systematic method. That this method is analogous to Skippy's washing machine helicopter is a brilliant idea.

It doesn't seem to be a popular idea. As a point of reference, Kit William's Masquerade was solved by the applying a systematic method to extract a hidden message from the text on the border of each painting. The Quest for the Golden Hare, a book about that hunt, discusses a cross section of incorrect solutions to that hunt--virtually all based on either metaphorical and/or more concrete "clues" pieced together from elements found in the paintings. They were often elaborate and imaginative but, in contrast to the correct systematic solution, were definitely not as unambiguous and elegant--borrowing Fenn's term, the correct solution allowed the solvers to move with confidence.

I agree with you, Nkown, that many of the scrapbooks serve to highlight the method as concealed in the instruction manual that is TTOTC. One of those, for example, is SB219 Good food times in SF.

Does this SB contain a blueprint on how to retrieve information from the poem? Perhaps there are two methods, one "kid contest" and one "more complex" "adult contest." If so, perhaps the "chili cook-out" represents the former and the "antique auto show" represents the latter. The former "contest" has 22 items and the latter has 20 items. Both of the methods are preceded by a group of three: "pastors" in the former and "ladies" in the latter.

Like the "twenty-two crock pots" "lined up in a row," perhaps aspects of the poem contain "a very closely guarded secret" and we need to "check each one." To reveal each "secret," perhaps we, like Fenn, need to "sprinkle" some sauce on it to make it "good, really good." The presence of a systematic method is suggested because although this "was a recipe for chaos" "it wasn't." At least the first method is related to the word "pass" and is cyclical in nature. Fenn "had to walk a short distance /past/ an antique car show," there were "3 /past/ors" "who walked there way through the crowd," Fenn couldn't let something "/pass/ without a comment," "the first pot" "had some thin white /past/a things in it," "the other 299 people" "/passed/ /past/ [sic] the crock line." The cyclical nature of the method is cued by Fenn walking "up and down checking out the other 21 crocks, knowing full well that I would end up back the [sic] #5 crock" and "as soon as one got low it was quickly filled again."

Perhaps this first method hints at a steganographic letter extraction method using a repeating pattern (Skippy). It suggests that there are multiple applications of this method. To apply this method, a starting point and a repeated pattern is required. Perhaps the paragraph about the "pastors" and/or "Zoro [sic]" provides a cue on how to arrive at these pieces of information.

"Two of the 3 pastors worked their way through" "to shake" Fenn's "hand." This concept of joining is explored in several of the contemporaneous scrapbooks, including 215, 220, 221, and 222. Joining/partnering is presumably a crucial part of the system.

Fenn names "one of them:" "John Standridge." This concept of names beginning with a "J" has been a recurring feature prominent in many of the contemporaneous scrapbooks (and elsewhere in the Fenn canon), including "Joseph Henry Sharp" of 207 and 216, "Joseph Cestmir Svoboda" of 210, "John Ehrlichman" of 213 and 214, "John Sirica" and "John Connally" of 214, "John Something" of 216, and "Joe Singer" of 220. Of note, like the "twenty-two crock pots," there are 22 punctuation marks in the Gold and More poem. As these marks, like those elsewhere in Fenn's writings, have a somewhat unconventional placement (as explicitly discussed in Scrapbooks 179 and 188), perhaps these are the way to parse the poem using this first method. Tentatively, the emphasis on "J" could refer to its lowercase "j" which resembles punctuation: a semicolon which contains a period and comma as well as a mirror image that resembles a question mark.

Moving on from the "chili cook-out," the second methods, or "adult contest," "was much more complex." This is preceded by a description of "3 ladies" in costume followed by a walk "through the antique auto show." As a metaphor for the treasure hunt and treasure, "the path to the door was almost blocked by the dessert trough." Summation is required in this "path" through use of the phrase "totally totaled." Of the cars described, there is an importance to Fenn's "dirty Jeep Grand Cherokee" because it is the one that "has always taken me there and brought me back again" as a "team."

The "3 ladies" wore "huge hats made of feathers, leaves, and something else." This is reminiscent of recurring images in many of the contemporaneous Scrapbooks, including the fairy dolls of 209, the leaves of 213, the doodles of 214, and the etchings of 216. Like the fairy doll clothing of Scrapbook 209 (spangly material, vegetation, and woolens) and the "leaves" of Scrapbook 213 (context, date, and name), the "huge hats" have three components. In the description of the "3 ladies," like in the description of the cars subsequently, color is a component: "dangerous looking red hair," "really short green hair," "silver thing," and "strikingly blue."

"The antique auto show" had "about 20" cars "being shown off." The descriptions of these are notable for containing many numbers and colors. Notably, reminiscent of the recurrent concept of joining discussed briefly above, while one car will not "go 500 miles an hour" "with me in it," Fenn states that he and his "Jeep Grand Cherokee" are a "team."

Of note, like the "about 20" cars "being shown off," there are 20 postmarks TTOTC. As these are alluded to in many of the contemporaneous scrapbooks, including 213, 214, and 216, perhaps they are used in this second method of extracting information from the poem. Within this scrapbook, several postmark-like descriptions are provided. The Scrapbook begins with a date "Saturday, October the 26th" and location "Christ Church in Santa Fe;" it ends with a location "USA" and a date "June of 2011."

Scrapbook 220 reinforces some of the ideas above. We begin learning that "one of the rules" was a "benevolent gesture:" in this scrapbook this is a "handshake," gifted "Indian Jewelry," and a brokered art deal with Fenn "in the middle." This obviously echos the "Jeep Cherokee" "team" of Scrapbook 219 and imagery of the more contemporaneous scrapbooks 215 and 221. One of the principal characters has a name that begins with a "J:" "Joe Singer." In the first "benevolent gesture," Fenn gifts "Indian Jewelry" to Joe's wife and her friend. Ann is comparable to the first method described above by virtue of the "#" of the piece she selected: "a $6,500 #8 spider web turquoise chunk necklace." Addie is comparable to the second method described above by virtue of the "totally totaled" allusion of her name; she selected " a bracelet-ring set that was worth about $4,800." Appropriately in the context of the metaphor, these gifts resulted in the purchase of artwork and an eventual museum donation in honor of Joe and Ann's son, similar to how the poem will lead to a memorial to Fenn.

Nkown, I think you're on to something. What do others think?

I, for one, am excited to eventually hear the story of the finder's solution and, hopefully, Fenn's ideal solution too.

[indigojones]

Hi Jeff, I sent my Pirate solution that produced 'Long John Silver' to Forrest on 24th October, and two days later this SB 219 came out, it is, as far a I know the only real-time scrapbook Forrest ever made. I had concluded that the silver bracelet was buried in the middle of the circle blaze I had arrived at using geometry on the Colorado map. I also sent him a 1956 comic cover pic of 'Long John Silver and the Pirates' which included Captain Kidd reference on its cover. The number 22 to me is always symbolic of the bracelet. In his scrapbook he mentions 'Zoro' whose nickname was 'The Pirate Hunter'. He relates to a woman with short green hair, which relates back to 'Zoro' He mentions a low Silver thing, describing a car but no make to it. Later he mentions a Blue 1956 model of a car. I believed this somehow alluded to my recent post to him, coming so quickly after my email to him. It sure made me think there was something in it. indigo