To Do

Things to solve and do!

Page or theme	Things we know	To do
Poster	Messier, Messiaen and Messi are our characters; our themes are (at least): rainbows, angels, music, stars/comets/astronomy, messiahs, Advent.	Any mine/WW1 refs on the Poster? Did the Messerschmitt ever come in useful?! Need to update to add Messi as third character.
Page 1	See Music.	Messi's thought bubble is probably not fully solved.
Page 2	N/A (all on theme pages). See Mr Messy Trail.	N/A (all on theme pages).
Page 3	N/A (all on theme pages). See Blue Edged Cards.	N/A (all on theme pages).
Page 4	Solved: Ye Nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:	Decrypt the dominos. Use the Pope quote? Why are popes/messiah on a domino shape - just to show the two puzzles are linked?
Page 5		Why is the mine added to the map for the Battle of Messines? Do the themes for the square/oval/hex symbols relate to the postmarks on postcards?
Page 6	Solved: GEOGRAPHY from the grid/minesweeper; relates to Harington quote re. Messines/mines.	What else does GEOGRAPHY tell us? Does the grid of letters give us anything else - there are 63 alpha chars and a + sign. 9 used in GEOGRAPHY, maybe 54 left over? Why is the + sign positioned over nothing-much-really and why is the map underlay of Oosttaverne (rather than, say, where all the mines were mainly exploded!) Are those ponds under the + sign, or mine craters? See also Grey Dashed Lines.
Page 7	See Music. Solved: minesweeper. Solved: Great Comet	There were 9 mines in minesweeper; is that useful (apart from the same no. letters being in GEOGRAPHY!)? Timeline: there are ten distinct years, perhaps corresponding to 10 digits? Is all that we get from the timeline a message about the pub? Is 'palatable' useful, e.g. palaces, popes (I'm thinking of Avignon again!) Is all we get from the Great Comet pic a bit of info that Messier observed it in 1769?! See also Grey Dashed Lines.
Page 8	Solved: Arabic writing.	See Hexagonal Grid page. See also Grey Dashed Lines.
Page 9	N/A (all on theme pages). See Music.	N/A (all on theme pages).
Page 10	See Music. Solved: ADD SENDER TO STAMP, from bird code.	Catalogue d'oiseaux also says he related the birds to a specific French province; is that relevant? See Birds page.
Page 11	Semi-solved? AK-47. Semi-solved? Match of the Day.	Not sure we fully understand these yet. See Hexagonal Grid page.
Page 12		ATH scoreboard - what is the meaning of the five themes highlighted? A telescope could be used to birdspot as well as astronomy, so are those themes linked, do birds = comets/stars?
Thumbnail Map	Solved.	Nothing more.
Hexes	Solved: Happy Xmas Epic New Year Sortie Fixing Mess Luck And Love From Bruce Hindsight	Nearly all identified! Will need to go through at the end and tidy/fill in gaps.
Splodges		Finish mapping them - pretty sure these are key to the biggest unsolved part. The hexagons may also be splodges?
Blue Edged Cards	Solved: river map/treasure trail photos; coordinates for 12 Messier Objects.	The trail photos end with the 'ADD SENDER TO STAMP' card and the one (BE GERM) giving us Messier Objects - why? What do we do with the 12 Messier Objects?! Should we show the values for RA and NPD, i.e. the 'workings out'? And are they useful?
Postcards		Are the meanings of the postmark shapes the same as on Page 5? Need to finish identifying, and work out how to add sender to stamp. Also work out what Hello God messages mean.
Mr Messy Trail	Solved.	Not sure we need all the extra things it goes through but leave until end to tidy up.
Hexagonal Grid	Solved: positions, some connections with AK-47/Arabic, rainbows.	Not sure we have worked all this out yet. Agree with: perhaps a piece of music can be created by going around the grid? Should probably delete effort to match it up with UK :-) Leave for now.
Music	The notations each relate to a phrase from the Messiaen quote.	We haven't done anything with the phrases apart from spot connections to e.g. rainbows. Are they just indicating four themes for the Hunt (NB: do sword of fire = mines in that case?, plus comets, mess, rainbows)? One (23-letter) phrase (coulées de lave bleu-orange) is omitted - why? What could we do with it? Are these a key to another code? This book: [1] gives a far longer quote than that in most sources ('Mon secret désir m'a poussé vers ces épées de feu, ces brusques étoiles, ces coulées de lave bleu-orange, ces planètes de turquoise, ces violets, ces grenats d'arborescences chevelus, ces tournoisements de sons et de coleurs en fouillis d'arc-en-ciel.') ... why? Is it more useful/better/adds anything?
Birds	Solved: they give the key to solve the P10 code.	N/A
Grey Dashed Lines	Semi-solved. We know they indicate relationships.	P6-8 - why is GEOGRAPHY letter grid connected (via mine-or-key) to Jeanne Loriod? P7 - why is the Hercules/Iolaus postcard connected to Gina Torres (Nebula in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys), next to which is a small 'Match of the Day'-style TV?! P8 - why is the rainbow xylophone connected to the hexagonal grid? More than just indicating rainbows?
Chat	Done	Jo to go through and pull out facts not yet recorded on a page.
Misc	N/A	Parts of Chat that may yet be worth thinking about: Also, will the initials of the names in the 'to' and 'from' answers to the postcards yield another coded message? James Also just to note that Messiaen had synesthesia and linked colours to sounds, for a conversion tabe see media:MessiaenColourScale.pdf James E.g. mines are dangerous, don't set them off, go for the squares without mines... does the map on P6 relate to the map of Messing? Jo PS - I haven't see a Logica yellow 'L' logo this year, and it's almost always there (incl. painted on a tree or whatever to show where the treasure is). Maybe we do just go to Messing and walk the woods looking for a Logica logo?! Jo There is a book on Messiaen's birdsong references - possiby overkill, but whatever... which I can email round if required (can't upload it as not an allowable file format - .djvu) James I'm about to make a layer with all the brown splodges, as they are laid out in the thumbnail map - my guess is that they may map onto the Messier Object chart in some way... James There seems to be a difference between those images with shadows (like they are lying over the page) and those without (which look printed on the page). Jo On P10, there are some misc. bird images because that's the page with the bird code/puzzle, which uses birds from the stamps (and maybe also some new ones!) Can leave for now and tidy later; just noting to remind myself! Jo