First a little update: We’re now over 700 fans over on the Hunt’s Facebook page! Gamers are taking it upon themselves to trade answers through cryptic clues! Nice going Fans! Keep on using the page in new, and cool ways as the community grows.

More importantly, despite it being a slow week, what with the food orgy known as Thanksgiving and all, we still managed to get dozens of submissions with all the correct answers. And you all will be entered into the drawing to win this month’s Vado HD cam, courtesy of our sponsors. Likewise, anyone who submitted any answer at all is eligible for the free premium subscription on motionbox.com. In fact, just as I’m typing this, I see another set of answers coming in, some 24 hours later.

But enough chatter. On with the winners!

This month’s first-place winner is the team of Kris and Ryan Kelly, who edged out a couple others who nearly had all the answers correct. Great work Kris and Ryan! We’ll post all their work after the jump, but first a little bit about them:
My husband Ryan and I live Philadelphia with our 15 month old son, whose bedtime of 7:30 gives us just enough time to make it to the final day of HDYK! The whole HDYK process is a huge team effort between the both of us, especially on the final day when it seems like two computers are key. I’m the bigger puzzle nerd and regular reader of mental floss – I typically handle the crosswords/jumbles/codes etc. Ryan is good at internet research and has lots of the music knowledge that so often comes up. Those song mashups would be impossible for just me alone. When we have spare time aside from our toddler, we’re a game family – we have tons of board games around and a season pass on the Tivo to Jeopardy.

We’ve come close to winning a couple of times in the past, so this is so exciting for us to have won! I’d have fun just figuring everything out and finishing, but winning is great too! I really want to thank the other Facebook users – the clues the community gives out have been invaluable to us in the past. This was the first time that we had something that other people didn’t (song number 1), and it was great to be able to leave a clue and help out others.

We’ll be back for the next one. Thanks for a great hunt!

Final Answer

The new mental_floss store is located at 8051 Mayfield Rd, Chesterland OH

Day 1

Part 1: Crossword Puzzle

Across

1: MRED

5: HIP

8: CAP

11: LISA

12: OVA

13: ASS

14: BOLT

15: BELUSHI

17: ECO

19: ART

20: STASH

23: CUSACK

26: CAN

27: III

29: AWOL

30: ALAS

32: AGE

34: ALA

35: MCCAIN

37: HAYDN

39: OWN

40: ESC

41: KENNEDY

44: HISS

48: END

49: ROE

50: ONTO

51: YEA

52: TED

53: ONLY

Down

1: MLB

2: RIO

3: ESL

4: DATES

5: HOBO

6: IVE

7: PALAU

8: CASTAWAY

9: ASH

10: PSI

16: URSA

18: CHI

20: SCAM

21: TALC

22: ANACONDA

23: CIG

24: COLD

25: KLAN

28: IAN

31: SAWN

33: EHS

36: INERT

38: ACHOO

40: EYED

41: KEY

42: ENE

43: DOE

45: INN

46: STL

47: SOY

The shaded letters spell Mile High City, indicating John Denver.

In case it comes up, also mentioned in this puzzle were John Belushi, John Cusack, John McCain, and John Kennedy.

Entering Denver gets us to:

Part 2, Rebus:

The pictures are:

Row 1: Rather; Graph; Hen; Space; Home; Yuck

Row 2: Cow; King; Call; Back; Lips; Luke; Bee

Row 3: Boy; Auto; Fore; Hide; Mug; Sew

This gives us the 5 John Denver songs as follows:

1. Calypso – Call + Lips + Sew

2. Autograph – Auto + Graph

3. Back Home Again – Back + Home + Mug + Hen

4. Looking for Space – Luke + King + Fore + Space

5. I’d Rather be a Cowboy – Hide + Rather + Bee + Yuck + Cow + Boy

The shaded letters, STBNKEIEC can be unscrambled to get John Steinbeck

Day 2

Part 1, Cartoon Dogs:
Down the left side they are:
Pluto
Droopy Dog
Scooby Doo

Down the Right side:
Huckleberry Hound
Brian Griffin
Dino Flintstone
Underdog

Entering the first letters of the seven dogs, bddhpsu gets us to the next level

Part 2, text decoding:
232453 = Beagle
265543 = Collie
527743 = Lassie
627539 = Marley
766679 = Snoopy
233846836 = Beethoven
244482482 = Chihuahua
627623853 = Marmaduke
47328 3263 = Great Dane
8465372355 = Tinkerbell
746 846 846 = Rin Tin Tin
78. 2376273 = St. Bernard
437626 74374373 = German Shepherd
52272367 738743837 = Labrador Retriever

The pairs are:
Snoopy is a Beagle; Lassie is a Collie; Marley is a Labrador Retriever; Beethoven is a St Bernard; Marmaduke is a Great Dane; Tinkerbell is a Chuhuahua; and Rin Tin Tin is a German Shepherd.

Day 3

Part 1, baby name photo mashup:
The photos are:
1: Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell
2: Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson
3. Nicole Ritchie and Joel Madden
4. Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow
5. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
6. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rosdale
A. Apple
B. Sparrow
C. Sunday (Sundae)
D. Charlie
E. Bronx
F. Zuma

The pairs to advance us to the next level are:
1D2E3B4A5C6F

Part 2, song mashup:
1. Between the Bars by Elliott Smith

2. Baby Come Back by Player

3. Disco Inferno by The Trammps

4. Borderline by Madonna

5. Loser by Beck

6. …Baby One more Time by Britney Spears

7. Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers

8. Baby, You’re a Rich Man by the Beatles

9. Baby Love by the Supremes

Day 4

Part 1, Video mashup
1. Flight of the Conchords are from Wellington NZ

2. Blue Man Group comes from New York City

3. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra comes from Vienna Austria

4. Stomp comes from Brighton UK

Entering Wellington gets us to:
Part 2, Puzzle:
The first six musicians and their instruments are:
Kenny G Saxophone
Mischa Maisky Cello
Debbi Peterson Drums
Little Richard Piano
Louis Armstrong Trumpet
Lawrence Welk Accordion

The clue is: Name the lead guitarist for the Goo Goo Dolls: John Rzeznik

Day 5

Part1:
Latitude:
Degrees:
41 was the across number for John Kennedy who graduated from Harvard is 1940

Minutes:
31: Bronx was born to Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson on 11/20/08, 11+20 = 31

Seconds:
21: Scooby Doo made 21 appearances in a 1995 Archie Comics comic book series

Longitude:
Degrees:
Guitarist: 7+21+9+20+1+18+9+19+20 = 124
Doll: 4+15+12+12 = 43
124 – 43 = 81
Make that negative = -81
Minutes:
21: Same as lat sec:
Seconds:
21:Same as lat sec
Entering all that into the map gets us to Mayfield Road.

Part 2:
According to last week’s entry from Jason English, now located at 8051 Mayfield Rd Chesterland Oh is the mental floss retail store.
The final answer is:
The mental floss retail store

Thanks, this was another fun one! The rest of the days answers are below.

Kris and Ryan Kelly