Marlow's job last week took him on an exciting trip.
cryptology/marlow.challenge New
New entry, edited from material collected for the archive and not yet in a released version.
Problem
Marlow's job last week took him on an exciting trip. He was contacted by the FBI's Terre Haute branch office and was asked to follow the hated criminal Carmen Fresno. Marlow had no way to tail her, but as Providence would have it, his friend Pierre was out of town and left him his car. Marlow headed out on the trip, listening to a little rock music in the car, a brand new Dodge. City traffic was fine -- until Marlow reached the Hi-Lo store near the zoo. It was incredible! Buffalo were running around all over the place! Marlow turned the corner, but there was a huge assembly of parochial school students praying to their patron saint, St. Thomas Aquinas. Finally, Marlow saw the villain speaking on a mobile phone across the street. In her car was the object Marlow had to procure. Can you state the object? (three words, no punctuation please) [ Editor: "Marlow's Challenge" of 16 July 1995, as posted by Peter Chapman. ]
Show solution
[ Editor: the published answer was "Dark shiny vial"; Peter Chapman asked how the story gives it. ] > Actually, the story contains *ten* American cities I can see (Terre > Haute, Fresno, Providence, Pierre, Little Rock, Dodge City, Hilo, > Buffalo, St. Thomas, Mobile). There may be others. Still don't see > how that leads to "dark shiny vial" though. > > -- Jonathan S. Haas Terre Haute Indiana IN Fresno California CA Providence Rhode Island RI Pierre South Dakota SD Little Rock Arkansas AR Dodge City Kansas KS Hilo Hawaii HI Buffalo New York NY St. Thomas Virgin Islands VI Mobile Alabama AL = "in car is dark shiny vial" -- Teri Pettit <pettit@adobe.com>