How Did You Know Derek Cashel?

We had a record number of players this month, and a record number of 100% correct submissions on Day 5! Nicely done, gamers. We're taking all your feedback into consideration for the next hunt, so thanks for being active on the FB page. Speaking of the Facebook page: We're now way over 1,000 fans and we even have our own unique URL: facebook.com/triviahunt. Head over there to find out if you're a random winner, as we'll be pulling those later today. Meantime, congrats to our first place winner, who got all the correct answers in first. Let's meet him now...

Wow. I'm thrilled to be this month's winner, and completely surprised. While I am a long-time reader of both the Mental Floss magazine and blog, this is my first time playing HDYK, so I guess I'll have to chalk it up to beginner's luck. I live in St. Louis, where I am what you would call a career student. After graduating from the University of Missouri "“ Kansas City in 2005, I have attended several different universities and studied everything from Psychology to Engineering to Archaeology in the hopes of figuring out exactly what I want to spend the rest of my life doing. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with friends and family, reading Pynchon and Vonnegut, and listening to/playing all different types of music. I also spend way too much time following my local St. Louis sports teams (Go Blues and Cards!) and English Premier League soccer. The photo is of myself and my sister Breanna, and was taken while in Minneapolis recently. Big thanks to David Israel and mental_floss for taking the time to create the HDYK quiz every month. I had a great time playing HDYK, and I can't wait for the next contest!

Final Answer Japan - E

Day 1 D1L1 1. A wall From "Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale", a phonetic French translation of the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme (A google search turned up the following website, which explained the phrase: http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Humpty:Dumpty.htm) 2. Gorey Each of the authors listed are pen names used by Edward Gorey except William Pene du Bois, who wrote Twenty One Balloons. (confirmed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gorey ) 3. Hijuelos Saul Bellow "Humboldt's Gift" won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1976 2 years later: James Alan McPherson won the award for "Elbow Room" (1978) 3 years later: John Kennedy Toole won for "A Confederacy of Dunces" (1981) 4 years later: Alison Lurie won for "Foreign Affairs" (1985) 5 years later: Oscar Hijuelos won for "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" (1990) (Confirmed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Fiction ) 4. Leonard Bernstein A google search led me to https://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11091 , which confirmed that Leonard Bernstein invented "Mental Jotto"

Day 2 D2L1 1. UHAYZITAM 109, 87, 65, 43, 21 "“ subtract 22 from each number to find the next number in the sequence 7, 4, 2, 9, 8 "“ first number is composed of 3 line segments, 2nd number is composed of 4 segments, 3rd number is composed of 5 line segments, etc. 50, 20, 10, 5, 1 "“ increasingly smaller US bill denominations 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 "“ 1^2, 2^2, 3^2, 4^2, 5^2 1, 8, 9, 17, 26 "“ each number is a sum of the previous two numbers (as in a Fibonacci sequence) 729, 243, 81, 27, 9 "“ 3^6, 3^5, 3^4, 3^3, 3^2 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 "“ Counting by fives 55555, 4444, 333, 22, 1 "“ number of digits in each number equals identity of each digit in number 29, 23, 19, 17, 13 "“ a series of decreasing prime numbers The standard A=1 cypher gives the letters: 21, 8, 1, 25, 26, 9, 20, 1, 13 = "UHAYZITAM" 2. 24 The letter-image combination are as follows: V-chip "“ the television censoring device E-mail I, robot "“ the Isaac Asimov novel N'Sync T-bone Ipod C-note "“ $100 bill U-boat "“ WWI / WWII German submarine A-bomb "“ atom bomb T-shirt R-rating Oh Henry "“ the candy bar (the photo is of King Henry VIII) The first letters of each word spell VEINTICUATRO, which is Spanish for the number 24. 3. 31, 45, 17 By subtracting and scrambling letters to correspond with the provided clues we get: 1. faster T safer F ears S are 2. homage H omega O game E mag 3. revise I verse R eves V see 4. artery R teary T year E ray 5. snotty T stony Y tons N sot 6. frosty Y forts F sort T ors 7. goalie O agile I gale E lag 8. craven N crave V race E car 9. encore E recon E corn N orc When arranged vertically, the letters removed from each word spell THIRTYONE, FORTYFIVE, and SEVENTEEN. 31 "“ 45 "“ 17.

Day 3 The films: a. Kill Bill Vol. 1 b. Watchmen c. The Matrix Revolutions d. On Her Majesty's Secret Service e. Snakes On A Plane f. The Bourne Supremacy (I recognized the images for A, B, C, and E. I did a google image search for the actors appearing in images D and F, which allowed to locate the identical image online and deduce the movie it came from.) The changes: a. A4 "“ The bench is missing a leg b. F2 "“ The layout of the framed newspaper is different c. H2 "“ A spectator's head has disappeared d. G3 "“ Sideburns are different lengths e. H5 "“ Watch/bracelet is a different color f. E4 "“ License plate number is different The numbers in all of the coordinates add up to 20. 2. Arranging the tiles gives: 1. TANG LUNG BRUCE LEE 2. ETHAN HUNT TOM CRUISE 3. JOHN MCCLANE BRUCE WILLIS 4. SAM WITWICKY SHIA LABEOUF 5. INDIANA JONES HARRISON FORD 6. OBI WAN KENOBI EWAN MCGREGOR 7. MAN WITH NO NAME CLINT EASTWOOD The only actor listed above who is no longer living is Bruce Lee, who died in 1973. (Confirmed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee ) 3. I have to admit, you really got me with the April Fools joke. In fact, I almost gave up before listening to the last audio clip. Good thing I didn't. Nice job.

Day 4 Things that you shake: A. Magic 8 Ball G. Fist H. Martini N. Etch A Sketch Things that blink: D. Eye F. Stars K. Turn Signal M. Traffic Light Things that have crust: C. Bread I. Earth J. Pie O. Pizza Words that can be preceded by the word "water": B. Polo E. Balloon L. Slide P. Closet

Day 5 1. Black 2. N. Independence Day by Richard Ford 3.PA 4.H 5. Bread, Earth, Pizza PACHINKO Japan E