[PUZZLE]Empty House?!: Wiggins Quote c.1860.

[giddeanx]

I am putting this here so it has a section dedicated to it. I am trying to summarize and theorize here so this post will change with the conversation.

Empty House?!: Wiggins Quote c.1860. 6 Broken Strings: Mute them.
This is Zipp's response to the pigeon note.

Code: Select all

Final check: Sketchy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58. A4 tuned 15 Hz flat: feedback expected. 

Notice both the question and response are comprised of two sentences. Each sentence is separated by colons.

Empty House?!:
Possibly the response to final check. Maybe it a sort of what about the empty house, or a what empty house.

Wiggins Quote c.1860.
Possibly the response to Skechy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58 (Color unclear: not sure).
Maddison suggested a musical quote since Tom has little to no quote attributed to him. The idea of Yankee Doodle being tossed around and proof of the insignificance of the "doodles". I believe that path has been thrown out. However Maddison did seem to think Yankee Doodle was significant. Since this is a musical quote, it would not quote the title but most likely the chorus.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

6 Broken Strings: Mute them.
Possibly the reponse to A4 tuned 15 Hz flat: Feedback expected.(4/25). No one is sure what it refers to a guitar, a piano, stings of text. Muting would be removing or ignoring whatever is broken.

[deagol]

Empty House?!: Wiggins Quote c.1860. 6 Broken Strings: Mute them.
This is Zipp's responce to the pigeon note.
Final check: Sketchy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58. A4 tuned 15 Hz flat: feedback expected.

It's all pretty vague, but this is what I'm sort of getting:

Empty House?!:
Possibly the response to final check. Maybe it a sort of what about the empty house, or a what empty house.

Final check on an empty house, no show, we've failed, let's pick this gig up and get out of here.

Wiggins Quote c.1860.
Possibly the response to Skechy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58 (Color unclear: not sure).

Not too sure about this one, but Maddy did seem to dismiss the sketchy doodles. Another idea might be due to "blind" Tom, which could mean a number of things: go blind don't look at the doodles; or look at them as if you were blind (look for braille code or invisible ink). Remember the key to the cipher on the other side was "blind."

6 Broken Strings: Mute them.
Possibly the reponse to A4 tuned 15 Hz flat: Feedback expected.(4/25). No one is sure what it refers to a guitar, a piano, stings of text. Muting would be removing or ignoring whatever is broken.

As the other answers, I would interpret this metaphorically. For example, "on 4/25 go mute, I'll have been tracked down and they'll be going after you" (broken strings=broken communications). "No more drops, mute the 'microphone,' mute the videos, go into hiding." Also, I think I remember another euphemism for muting a channel in the sound console is to "kill it." Maybe he was telling her they wanted to kill her (she was his microphone, and the sound came from the six strings from the guitar tab).

I don't know, hopefully we'll get some new info that clarifies all this.

[sparkybennett]

I am putting this here so it has a section dedicated to it. I am trying to summarize and theorize here so this post will change with the conversation.

Empty House?!: Wiggins Quote c.1860. 6 Broken Strings: Mute them.

Wiggins Quote c.1860.
Possibly the response to Skechy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58 (Color unclear: not sure).
Maddison suggested a musical quote since Tom has little to no quote attributed to him. The idea of Yankee Doodle being tossed around and proof of the insignificance of the "doodles". I believe that path has been thrown out. However Maddison did seem to think Yankee Doodle was significant. Since this is a musical quote, it would not quote the title but most likely the chorus.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

.

I wondered, is it a sure thing that this relates to Tom Wiggins?

I am asking because there was a Lt. J.C. Wiggins in the signal corp in the 1860's. He used couriers to send messages . I thought this was significant because Dr Seuss was part of the Signal Corps in WWII.
I haven't found a relevant quote r/t to Lt Wiggins, but I thought there were some interesting coincidences.

edited:Has any info been shared regarding if this message from Mr Zipp was composed after the decision was made to take out Maddy or before when the game could go either way?

[lg15panda]

I wondered, is it a sure thing that this relates to Tom Wiggins?

I am asking because there was a Lt. J.C. Wiggins in the signal corp in the 1860's. He used couriers to send messages . I thought this was significant because Dr Seuss was part of the Signal Corps in WWII.
I haven't found a relevant quote r/t to Lt Wiggins, but I thought there were some interesting coincidences.

The one convincing clue that the note relates to Blind Tom Wiggins was that the key for the cipher on the other side of this note was "blind." Other than that, other Wiggins references were neither confirmed nor denied by Maddy.

[sparkybennett]

The one convincing clue that the note relates to Blind Tom Wiggins was that the key for the cipher on the other side of this note was "blind." Other than that, other Wiggins references were neither confirmed nor denied by Maddy.

oh, thanks
that is convincing


did anyone consider Tom's quote at the end of his battle of Manassas composition?
"Retreat!" "Retreat!" "Retreat!" cried Tom, away flew the notes, and there was a general harum-scarum close."

(I have tried to read all the threads, but I was gone for a week and it's tough to catch up!!)

[giddeanx]

I just went down a false trail but the quote is more interesting. I found a Kate D. Wiggin. Well I thought she was Kate D Wiggins due to the mistake on this quotations site. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quote ... 05598.html The quote was "It does make a difference what you call things." Would Zipp make the mistake, probably not, so off I go again.

[trainer101]

I've stickied this thread since this appears to be an important piece of the puzzle and I'm afraid it's been overlooked by too many players.

While the drops may be the most exciting part of an ARG - it's important to solve each puzzle or we'll never know what really happened.

[PhiaMonster]

Wiggins Quote c.1860.
Possibly the response to Skechy timbre needs clarity: not SM57/58 (Color unclear: not sure).
Maddison suggested a musical quote since Tom has little to no quote attributed to him. The idea of Yankee Doodle being tossed around and proof of the insignificance of the "doodles". I believe that path has been thrown out. However Maddison did seem to think Yankee Doodle was significant. Since this is a musical quote, it would not quote the title but most likely the chorus.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the music and the step
And with the girls be handy.

I'm not sure if it's relevant but I found a Yankee Doodle Pigeon. Seemed to stick out but it might be useless. http://www.weirdspace.dk/HannaBarbera/Y ... Pigeon.htm

[TheeBerean]

I wondered, is it a sure thing that this relates to Tom Wiggins?

I am asking because there was a Lt. J.C. Wiggins in the signal corp in the 1860's. He used couriers to send messages . I thought this was significant because Dr Seuss was part of the Signal Corps in WWII.
I haven't found a relevant quote r/t to Lt Wiggins, but I thought there were some interesting coincidences.

That's really interesting... I don't remember hearing that before. This definitely deserves more investigation. Do you know more about the Signal Corp.? What did they do? Did Seuss work with pigeons too? "Blind Tom" may be the Wiggins mentioned in the note, but there could be a double meaning. Wasn't there also some connection with "Blind Tom" and a lincoln picture at the Boston drop.... maybe?

~tb

[sparkybennett]

That's really interesting... I don't remember hearing that before. This definitely deserves more investigation. Do you know more about the Signal Corp.? What did they do? Did Seuss work with pigeons too? "Blind Tom" may be the Wiggins mentioned in the note, but there could be a double meaning. Wasn't there also some connection with "Blind Tom" and a lincoln picture at the Boston drop.... maybe?

~tb

I think it may be a dead end.
But everything you may want to know about the signal corp is here: http://scard.buffnet.net/
Lt Wiggins is mentioned a few times, but he did not seem to do anything relevant/significant.
Dr Seuss made training videos for the signal corp, and as far as I know no pigeons were used.

[owldragon]

Hi, I've been lurking for a while now. I haven't actually had anything useful to say before this (and it seems a bit late to be getting involved now) but I was bored and the loose ends here were bugging me.

Perhaps the quote is about Wiggins? I did find one quote about Blind Tom by following a link from his Wikipedia page: http://www.twainquotes.com/archangels.html

The article says:

One of the earliest concert reviews published in the Baltimore Sun on June 27, 1860 announced to its readers that Tom was a phenomenon in the musical world--"thrusting all our conceptions of the science to the wall and informing us that there is a musical world of which we know nothing."

Of course, I have no idea what that might mean. I just figured I would toss out the possibility in case anybody else had any ideas.

[sparkybennett]

Hi, I've been lurking for a while now. I haven't actually had anything useful to say before this (and it seems a bit late to be getting involved now) but I was bored and the loose ends here were bugging me.

Perhaps the quote is about Wiggins? I did find one quote about Blind Tom by following a link from his Wikipedia page: http://www.twainquotes.com/archangels.html

The article says:

One of the earliest concert reviews published in the Baltimore Sun on June 27, 1860 announced to its readers that Tom was a phenomenon in the musical world--"thrusting all our conceptions of the science to the wall and informing us that there is a musical world of which we know nothing."

Of course, I have no idea what that might mean. I just figured I would toss out the possibility in case anybody else had any ideas.

I thought about those too, but nothing seemed to fit. I just don't know where we should be going with this. That quote could be Mr Zipp pointing us in the direction of the musical note clues. I definitely think Mr Zipp is/was a musician of some sort.

And it is never to late to get involved

[owldragon]

Okay, so I've been pondering another possibility for the "Empty House?!" part of the message. One of the first things that comes up in Google when searching for "empty house" is "The Adventure of the Empty House" by Arthur Conan Doyle. Circumstances and the punctuation are making me wonder if it is a suggestion...

The subject of "The Adventure of the Empty House" is Sherlock Holmes faking his own death to avoid his enemies.

It seems possible (though I don't know how likely) that this indicates what Mr. Zipp wanted/expected Maddison to do. Wiggins is even a character in the Sherlock Holmes novels, although I can't find any significant quotes or links to 1860 for him.

What do you think? Just wishful thinking? This interpretation doesn't seem to fit with the "fill the house"and "empty seats" clues, which makes me skeptical that it's a correct interpretation.

In any case, I figured I should point out that our knowledge of what happened afterwards might help us interpret the puzzles that are left. Maybe even help us figure out exactly what it was that did happen.

edit: to include why I think I'm probably wrong, at least in this particular theory

[deagol]

Wiggins (he has no first name in the stories) is a street urchin in London and head of the Baker Street Irregulars in some of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His first appearance is in "A Study in Scarlet" (1886).

Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst. He relates to Watson, "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." One such scheme is solved in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" which uses a series of stick figures, for example:

Is that our armless stickman, right there in the middle?

[janejane26]

Wiggins (he has no first name in the stories) is a street urchin in London and head of the Baker Street Irregulars in some of the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His first appearance is in "A Study in Scarlet" (1886).

Holmes is also a competent cryptanalyst. He relates to Watson, "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." One such scheme is solved in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" which uses a series of stick figures, for example:

Is that our armless stickman, right there in the middle?

If it helps, the stick man without arms in the picture above is a "B". Here is the translation of the entire phrase: AM HERE ABE SLANEY. (I have a book with all the Sherlock Holmes stories.) Though on the paper Maddy received, one leg had a foot and the other didn't, which would differ from the Sherlock Holmes figures since they all had feet.