Plan B Forum

Another additional aspect of the game -- a burden on the author of the riddle and the clues, not on the people trying to solve the riddle.

(Sorry that I didn't get everything across at first; it's been a long time since I last presented this game to people unfamiliar with it.)

Once a blank has been correctly filled in, the author of the riddle and the clues must explain how each numbered clue points to its corresponding numbered blank. Besides showing that the author did not just pull clues out of her or his ass, this also gives an indication of the particular author's way(s) of formulating clues.

"Silence" is a term for lack of flavor in a distilled spirit, which explains "Flavorlessness". "Tower of Silence" is a term for a tower upon which some Zoroastrians place dead bodies, which explains "Tower of the dead."

3. Once a Massachusetts sergeant?

Shriver...

Silence: the crux of the biscuit

MajGenl.Meade wrote:
1. Silence
2. Pope
3. Murphy

Bergen: the Brown of the Murphy.

Meade's guess made it much easier for me to figure out....

Silence: the seduction of the Sirens

Silence: the Sirens of (the) Kafka...sorry getting carried away

Gandhi

Silence; the highest virtue of the strong

See I don't get virtue from paramour let alone greatest virtue, too stupid to play this game I guess

So to recap where we are:

1. Flavorlessness, Tower of the Dead = Silence
2. Paramour, Pious eminence = ?
3. Past changes?, Once a Massachusetts sergeant? = ?

Okay, I'm trying to get the hang of this, but I confess that so far, I'm still stumped.

ETA: Are the answers each one word?

Sue U wrote:Are the answers each one word?

Yes, each blank is for one word. For more than one word, the proper format would be, e.g., (1) _____: the (2) _____ (3) _____. For that reason, even setting aside the clues, MajGenl.Meade latest guess is necessarily incorrect.

Also, in the interest of fairness, the maximum permissible number of blanks is three.

Rick wrote:See I don't get virtue from paramour let alone greatest virtue, too stupid to play this game I guess

On the contrary, you appear to grasp it clearly: Because virtue bears no evident relationship to paramour, virtue is not correct.

Silence: the (2) __________ of the (3) __________.

2. An old one is best.
3. Down, out, high and low.

(A tactical note: Because the winner is the one who fills in the last empty blank (which need not be blank (3)), if you think that you know one of the blanks, it might be advisable to keep it to yourself until the other blank is filled in. On the other hand, if you are wrong about the guess which you do not make public, you could set yourself on a completely wrong path.)

You're not actually helping, you know.

But I can't wait to see what comes next.

2) reflection

2. Friend

2. Love

Congrats to Guinevere for filling in blank (2).

Friend is a euphemism for a paramour. "Friend of God" is a term for someone "eminent for piety" (OED). The song "Old Friends" begins with the lines "Old Friends / Are the best friends".

3. Artist? (I'm thinking John singer)

Andrew D wrote: "Friend of God" is a term for someone "eminent for piety" (OED).

Bit of a stretch getting 'friend' from 'pious eminence' then... Actually, 'pious eminence', as written (not to mention 'eminent for piety'), would suggest a state of being rather than a noun.

Now if you'd written: "A person of pious eminence", (or "a person eminent for piety") it would make a lot more sense. However, even then the answer would be 'Friend of God' rather than 'Friend'.

Just nitpicking really...

An eminence can be "a person of high rank or attainments". Thus, a gray eminence is "a person who exercises power behind the scenes".

(3) Dead?