We are presented with a series of crayon drawings involving animals, presumably drawn by Matt and Emma during a game of Pictionary.
Upon closer inspection, one might notice that each drawing bears a resemblance to a common English idiom involving animals, such as BEE’S KNEES or THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK. However, each idiom is drawn with the wrong animal. The first step is to identify the idioms and animals. Helpfully, the animals are listed in alphabetical order. Another observation to note down is the quantity of each animal, which differs from picture to picture.
(Note there is exactly one image, a red herring, which is in fact a red herring and should be ignored.)
| Idiom | Drawn Animal | Idiom Animal | Number |
|---|---|---|---|
| THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK | ANT | CAMEL | 3 |
| THE LION’S SHARE | BAT | LION | 4 |
| HOLY COW | BEE | COW | 2 |
| BEE’S KNEES | CAMEL | BEE | 2 |
| LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG | CANARY | CAT | 2 |
| DON’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH | CAT | CHICKEN | 7 |
| KANGAROO COURT | CHICKEN | KANGAROO | 2 |
| FROG IN YOUR THROAT | COW | FROG | 1 |
| WILD GOOSE CHASE | DEER | GOOSE | 1 |
| A PAPER TIGER | ELEPHANT | TIGER | 3 |
| THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | FISH | ELEPHANT | 1 |
| CANARY IN A COAL MINE | FROG | CANARY | 1 |
| POOR AS A CHURCH MOUSE | GOOSE | MOUSE | 2 |
| RED HERRING | HERRING | HERRING | 1 |
| COLD TURKEY | KANGAROO | TURKEY | 3 |
| DEER IN HEADLIGHTS | LION | DEER | 1 |
| OPEN A CAN OF WORMS | MOUSE | WORM | 2 |
| BATS IN THE BELFRY | OYSTER | BAT | 2 |
| ANTS IN YOUR PANTS | TIGER | ANT | 1 |
| THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER | TURKEY | OYSTER | 2 |
| FISH OUT OF WATER | WORM | FISH | 3 |
Once most idioms and animals are identified, it should bee clear that each animal is used exactly once; in fact, with the idioms, they form a complete chain or cycle. By reordering based on this cycle and taking the quantities as indices into the correct animal for the idiom, one finds the clue phrase (modulo some wrap-around):
| Idiom | Drawn Animal | Idiom Animal | Number/Index | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A PAPER TIGER | ELEPHANT | TIGER | 3 | G |
| ANTS IN YOUR PANTS | TIGER | ANT | 1 | A |
| THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL’S BACK | ANT | CAMEL | 3 | M |
| BEE’S KNEES | CAMEL | BEE | 2 | E |
| HOLY COW | BEE | COW | 2 | O |
| FROG IN YOUR THROAT | COW | FROG | 1 | F |
| CANARY IN A COAL MINE | FROG | CANARY | 1 | C |
| LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG | CANARY | CAT | 2 | A |
| DON’T COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH | CAT | CHICKEN | 7 | N |
| KANGAROO COURT | CHICKEN | KANGAROO | 2 | A |
| COLD TURKEY | KANGAROO | TURKEY | 3 | R |
| THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER | TURKEY | OYSTER | 2 | Y |
| BATS IN THE BELFRY | OYSTER | BAT | 2 | A |
| THE LION’S SHARE | BAT | LION | 4 | N |
| DEER IN HEADLIGHTS | LION | DEER | 1 | D |
| WILD GOOSE CHASE | DEER | GOOSE | 1 | G |
| POOR AS A CHURCH MOUSE | GOOSE | MOUSE | 2 | O |
| OPEN A CAN OF WORMS | MOUSE | WORM | 2 | O |
| FISH OUT OF WATER | WORM | FISH | 3 | S |
| THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM | FISH | ELEPHANT | 1 | E |
GAME OF CANARY AND GOOSE is not quite right, however; yet again, it is an idiom containing two mismatched animals. Looking back at the pictures, one sees that canary substitutes for CAT and goose for MOUSE. This gives us the final answer, the idiom GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE.
We went through many iterations of the final clue phrase & answer, with different versions of the do-it-again step. Some examples:
We’re happy with the final answer that we settled on; although many people did first submit GAME OF CANARY AND GOOSE, most teams were able to figure out the do-it-again step and get to the final answer.
We got a large number of submissions of UNTITLED GOOSE GAME (over 50!), from teams who had gotten the intermediate clue phrase but hadn’t quite figured out the last step. This was entertaining, but we hope teams weren’t stuck here for too long - there’s no canary in that game!
Unfortunately, we did have a large number of teams who were stuck on the cycle step. In retrospect, because this was one of the first puzzles in the introductory round of the hunt, we should have added in an intermediate clue phrase to hint solvers towards the idea of chaining incorrect and correct answers.
PS: We hope you enjoyed the red herring!