Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:17 am
Fri Apr 16, 2004 12:24 am
GREAT find though. i think the chicago one is definatley a confirmer that this method works. i was wondering what all those numbers are for. i had thought that maybe they were lat/lon but i never could find enough to make it work. also, there has to be someway to mark each number set as N,S,E,W right?? maybe by where they’re found in the picture (i.e. split it up into 4 quads and label them accordingly) i guess it wouldnt be too hard to jsut permute them all, thats onle 4*3*2 = 24 combinations to check, so thats not too tough. but i also think that the lat/lon method wont work for every pic, as there are a few pics with no numbers big enough to be lat/lon in the US.
Fri Apr 23, 2004 10:36 am
Fri May 21, 2004 5:50 pm
Mon May 03, 2004 8:06 pm
Mon May 31, 2004 1:58 am
Mark
Sat Apr 17, 2004 12:21 am
loph, V3 is most DEFINITELY Boston MA with the last few lines making mention of Paul Revere’s last ride. Which P do you have it linked with? P10? I remember others posting they thought this was the Boston P because of the celtic cane. Other than that, I’m lost. I am still trying to locate that castle thingy in the misty background. Would love to hear some of your ideas on Boston. Dont worry, I wont steal your thunder, a trip from NM to MA is way out of the way, even if I was convinced. 😀 It seems logical that the casque may be buried in or around Copely Square…but where?
rob, I am still kind of leaning towards Ottawa for that P for now. See what you can dig up about Syracuse and I will do the same in Canada…okay eh. I too have noticed those numbers in P1 but everything else seems to fit San Francisco: chinatown, the caged rock in background (the rock Alcatraz) and the rocky mountains quite possibly being the Farallon Islands: http://www.sfgate.com/getoutside/1997/sep/
Sat Apr 17, 2004 9:05 pm
As you know, Dan and I are both close enough to San Francisco to check out a spot when you have one narrowed down. I’ll go back to the verses with SF in mind. I’ll remain the resident skeptic about seeing numbers everywhere in the images, but that’s just me.
Sat May 29, 2004 11:36 am
Intro-“A pair will lead you to the cask”
Postscript-“Yet fairy secrets come in twos”
Lat/Long?
And also–isn’t the symbol used to separate the 2 basically a “|”?
I cant believe i never saw this before. 😮
Sun Apr 18, 2004 7:18 am
Do you at least agree that P1 seems to point to SF?
I really think we are so close to locating some of these casques but just dont realize just how close. Has anyone tried to contact BP lately to see if he may release some hints or clues?
Oh well, back to banging my head on a brick wall…….
Sun May 16, 2004 5:18 am
No matter how much Hermann Park seems to be a bust, the fact that an image has numbers leading to Houston tells me to keep the faith. Perhaps the zoo has undergone so much remodeling that the physical clues have been erased.
(happy now, foxy?) 😉
Sun May 16, 2004 6:10 am
I am with you with Hermann Park. My 4 Corners theory has long since been packed away in the attic. H Park HAS to be correct. I am still a little leary with the orb/camel/rhino pillar P (hehe youve all heard that before 😀 ) but the V seems quite obvious.
I think we should keep our heads up and continue to try to solve this V for at least 1 more month. Then, if we keep coming up blank, we should ALL email B. Priess and say “We KNOW it is in the park but with all of the remodling and renovations, the clues just dont work.”
Sun May 16, 2004 6:23 am
after all, a treasure hunt without clues is pointless.
wilhouse
Sun May 30, 2004 6:07 am
Sun May 30, 2004 7:35 pm
wilhouse
Sun May 30, 2004 9:09 am
Unknown
Unknown:
Intro-“A pair will lead you to the cask”
Postscript-“Yet fairy secrets come in twos”
Lat/Long?
I cant believe i never saw this before. 😮
It could be lat/long but I believe those quotes are referring to the pair of a verse & a picture which hold the clues needed. I think it would be near impossible (or just darn lucky) to find a casque using just the V or the P.
Sun May 30, 2004 9:12 am
Sun May 30, 2004 9:28 am
Thu Apr 15, 2004 10:48 pm
Secondly, Where did you have in mind loph? I hope this may be another confirmer for your location and we can finally find casque #2.
& Thirdly…..let me begin by apologizing if this post rambles on and doesnt make sense. I will try my best to explain my idea.
……………………………………………………………………..
…
As stated numerous times, I had always believed P4 was leading to PA (keystone) and more precisley..Pittsburgh. I had found numerous confirmers in the P including: the upside bldg in the trees I felt was the Heinz Chapel outside of the Cathedral of Learning (which now seems to be the tower in Cleveland)…..a panther fountain/bowl at the entrance of the Cathedral of Learning (but has been matched better with a fountain in Clvlnd) & the ball w/ triangle which I thought referred to the Tri state area or 3 rivers. I had this P matched with V10 (the last line I thought meant Brunot Island)…The Cleveland folks seemed to always best me with matching items in the P so I turned to something that no one has been able to explain….the 2 dates: 1442 & 1881. After surfing page after page of nonrelated happenings on these dates…I thought to myself…”maybe these arent dates at all”. Drop the first halves and you have 42 & 81. Well, it just so happens that the lat/lon of Cleveland is 41*30 N (close to 42) 81*42W. I think the dates are a lat/lon reference to get us to Cleveland. Now…….moving on….
Let’s look at P5 since we KNOW this is in Chicago….or…41*52N 87*38W. It may be a stretch, but look at the top 2 portions of the windmill (which everyone was convinced said something but no one knew what). The outermost portion of the top left looks like 87 and the outermost portion of the top right looks like 41. Shall we explore more?…….
P7 – most everyone concurs this is New Orleans…or…..
29*57N 90*4W. Look at the dates on the clock “29” & “90”.
Wahoo, are we having fun yet? another logical P is P12 in NYC w/ Lady Liberty’s face….NYC or 40*45N 74*W. this one was a little difficult to find (& I have only found the 74). Turn page slightly to the left and look in the light part of the water below Lady Liberty…is it just me or is there a 74?
So, I think that each P has the lat/lon or one of the two hidden in the P that leads us to the correct city. I havent found all of them yet but here are the rest I think I have found.
P1 – because of the Chinese robe, thought to be San Francisco (chinatown) .. or .. 37*37N (almost 38) 122*22 W. The 1st 3 roman numerals down her left side of the robe are “122” and everyone commented about the way she seems to be pointing. Count the blue squares and you get “38”
P2 – ? seems to be a lot of numbers in the lions mane. Most visible are 80, 33 & 36 or 38. I am still under the impression this P leads us to New Mexico with the numerous confirmers I have found. Which V? who knows…thought it was the Houston V. Both 33* and 36* do cut through NM.
P3 ? hard to find any real numbers in this one.
P6 still seems logically to be Florida but cant find any numbers
P8 Houston? In the trees you can see both 95 & 96. Houston is 29*97N 95*35W. anyone see a 29?
P9 ? in the flower there appears to be what looks like a musical note or a 76 combined. Major cities along 76* include: Norfolk VA, Richmond VA, Washington DC, Baltimore MD, Harrisburg PA, Syracuse NY and extends up into Canada (where we know 1 casque is buried) into Ottawa, which happens to be Canada’s national Capital. I am leaning towards Ottawa with this P possibly linked with V5. That V states “Of granite walls” and the Old Ottawa City Hall is made entirely out of granite. This V is also the only one that mentions we need permission to dig it up.
P10 ?
P11 ? could this be Salt Lake City Utah? just a guess there. There appears to be an obvious 112* in the flower to the right of the fairy and SLC is 111*53W. Could the large scroll work on dress show an intertwined SLC? not sure on this. I always thought this went to St. Louis.
Well, there you have it in a rather big nutshell. It may just be a case of trying to make things fit when stuck on a location but I think there are far too many to be mere coincidence. Maybe it needs more looking into? I just hope that I will get a little of the credit when we start digging up casques left and right in the near future 8)
Let’s all solve this blasted hunt once and for all……….
Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:04 am
Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:13 pm
Atlanta – 33*65 84*41
Boston – 42*37 71*03
anyone?
Thu Apr 15, 2004 6:12 am
Let check a couple of more things and I will post my idea (whether right OR wrong) about the P’s before this weekend. Just wanted to give you all a heads up……
Thu Apr 15, 2004 9:15 pm
Thu Apr 22, 2004 10:18 pm
check your messages
Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:04 am
wilhouse.
Thu Apr 22, 2004 6:18 am
I quote:
“There’s a clear 95, perhaps 951 or 957. Maybe even a 5 as a fourth number. A stretch would be an 8 as a fifth number.
A z or n the tree at the top, with a 30 below it.”
Hermann park’s coordinates are 29*43N and 95*23W
29*43 is about 30, and there’s an N. There’s also the 95.
Further convincing me Pic 8 is Hermann Park. I just wish I had a better idea of where.
wilhouse
Thu May 06, 2004 3:43 pm
20 years ago, I had also thought of latitude and longitude, but the additional numbers in each picture threw me off. For example, in Image 4, how would one think to just discard the first two digits of “1442” and “1881”? I think we are at the stage now where we will slowly start to find all of the treasures. Hopefully each of us will have a shot at getting one. I revealed my Charleston find because I thought it was only fair, since you guys pointed me to Cleveland.
Let’s keep at it!
Thu May 06, 2004 5:11 am
Thu May 20, 2004 6:39 am
Unknown
Unknown:
Wilhouse,
Did Byron Preiss get back to you quickly or did he seem annoyed at having to answer questions?
Intrigued, I apologize, I missed your post. Here is my best answer:
BP is an enigma to me. He has to be incredibly busy. But once I emailed him on a Sunday afternoon, and he got back to me within about 15 minutes. Once I emailed him and it took him 2 days. He has always been polite, and never “annoyed” per se, but to be honest, sometimes his answers are so brief to be amusing. I sent him a long email with a place I thought the treasure could be and asked him if I should dig there and he simply responded “do not dig there”. I once sent him an email trying to verify that he was indeed the BP of Secret fame and he simply responded “it is me”.
I would say that he has responded to about 2/3 of my emails (ie., 4 out of 6 total). The two that he did not respond to were my lengthy one about the quest and how to collect the jewels, and my last one asking him what he meant in his cryptic response to my question about whether he had checked to see if the clues were still around for the Houston treasure.
I’m posting this lengthy response to give people some insight into this fellow.
wilhouse
Thu May 20, 2004 6:47 am
When I look in my email, both “I”s look identical – they look like “l”s. That’s why I could not tell the difference and the reason for my response above.
But when I cut and paste the quote out of my email into this board, this is what happens:
“after 22 Years all I can say is l
.”
It changes the first l to an I, and leaves the second one alone. A “1” looks like that, so he really did mean to say “l” and not “I”.
read into it as you will or wiII.
wilhouse
Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:04 am
Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:41 am
wilhouse
Tue May 18, 2004 8:10 pm
I emailed BP and have had a couple of email sessions with him. He’s not a very talkative type, by the way.
He will not tell us anything about clues. I asked him to confirm that the clues were still in existence in Houston, and here was his response (I quote):
“after 22 Years all I can say is l
.”
Ok, I have emailed him 3 times asking him what this means and I got nothing.
Now the good news. He does confirm that there is a treasure in Houston. That is all he will say. He won’t confirm which verse or picture corresponds to it (I pleaded with him to confirm or not whether there was a treasure in Houston so I could stop spending my weekends downtown.) Here is his quote:
“there is a treasure in houston. that’s all i can tell you
.”
Unfortunately, I am no closer to finding it than before.
wilhouse
Tue May 18, 2004 8:37 pm
Tue May 18, 2004 9:08 pm
Unknown
Unknown:
He will not tell us anything about clues. I asked him to confirm that the clues were still in existence in Houston, and here was his response (I quote):
“after 22 Years all I can say is l.”
Ok, I have emailed him 3 times asking him what this means and I got nothing.
Hello All!
Name’s Jason, reletively new to the hunt (thanks Cat) and trying to play catch-up. Some may remember me as AkiraGod from Merlin Mystery.
Enough catching up. I noticed this while reading today and wanted to point something out.
Maybe he’s given us the biggest confirmer of the lat..long. I’m sure it’s generally accepted that the lat./long. are hidden in the pictures. I read BP’s quote and wondered what the hell that last letter is. It could either be a 1, an L, or an I. In this and the other quote he uses all lower case. If that’s a direct quote, then BP deliberatly chose to use an upper case I (he didn’t use an upper case I in the other quote) here to differentiate it from the final character/letter. Which makes it an L. If that’s all he can say, couldn’t it be a big hint that the key is something to do with Ls? Latitudes and Longitudes?
Anyway, just a pointless observation. Mostly just wanted to make a post. I’m in Florida for two weeks but will be in PA for the summer than in NYC afterwards. Let me know if any other seekers are in those states.
Jason
[email protected]
AOL: Stageman97
Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:43 am
There’s been a lot of confusion over the past 10 years about what Byron Preiss wrote to Milhouse in 2004. The confusion is caused by the fact that the lower-case form of one letter looks a lot like the capital form of another letter when the text is viewed in a sans-serif font on a webpage. To try to clear up the confusion, I’ve copied the text from the Milhouse note and I’ve put it into Photoshop using one sans-serif font and one font that displays everything in capitals:
As you can see, the final letter in the Preiss quote is clearly a lower-case “L.” So all this talk about Ayn Rand and
Anthem
is totally a mess-up. Preiss was giving us a hint about the letter “L,” not the letter “I.”
I know that several of you figured out the mistake right away and focused on “L” as a hint about latitude and longitude, but there have clearly been plenty of other people (including me) who misread and misinterpreted the quote. Hopefully this clears things up!
(Tip of the hat to White Rabbit, who helped sort this out in an e-mail last night!)
Tue Oct 14, 2014 12:55 pm
well, interesting. I always just figured he accidentally hit send before he finished his email. He was a man of few words back then. I got several emails from him that were less than 10 words, including “it is me..happy searching!
.”
I put the period where he did, on the next line.
There’s some people who think the cask is not even in Houston. To that I say: “there is a treasure in houston. that’s all i can tell you
.”
and here is the line in question: “after 22 Years all I can say is l
.”
According to my webmail program (I used nameplanet at that time), the font is “monospace 12 pt”.
WIlhouse
Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:14 pm
wilhouse
It’s Wilhouse, definitely NOT Milhouse….
Apologies! I must have had the Simpsons on my mind. (At least I didn’t call you “Wiggum.”)
If Preiss included his characteristic ending of a carriage return and a period, wouldn’t that rule out the possibility of him accidentally hitting “send” button right after the “L”? I think he was giving a hint, but I have no idea what he was trying to say. The only “L” that I’ve seen in any of the pictures is the one below the flower (or bell or whatever it is) in Image 4.
Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:22 pm
Honestly not sure I’d read too much into it. I had several emails from him that were incomplete sentences or completely undecipherable. .
Tue Oct 14, 2014 2:39 pm
wilhouse
Also note that the L could have been a 1 as they were the same character.
wilhouse
Honestly not sure I’d read too much into it. I had several emails from him that were incomplete sentences or completely undecipherable. .
You’ve lost me there. A “one” and a lower-case “ell” and a capital “aye” might all look the same in certain monospace or sans-serif fonts, but they definitely AREN’T the same character. They are recorded using different keystrokes and they carry different computer information. That’s why I can copy the same text you pasted from the e-mail and see the letter “L” when I put it into a different font. Preiss clearly typed the letter “ell” on his keyboard and I think we should assume that he did so on purpose. I’ve heard of people misreading the “ell-aye-one” stroke when they see it, but I’ve never heard of someone typing “ell” as a way of typing “one.”
I agree. You’re probably right about the period being an email signature, so he may well have hit “send” before he finished the word. The whole note is close to meaningless. My main point in posting the clarification was to finally put a stake through the heart of the Ayn Rand – Anthem connection.
If I have spared one poor soul from having to read Ayn Rand, my work has not been in vain.
Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:07 pm
Oregonian
If I have spared one poor soul from having to read Ayn Rand, my work has not been in vain.
Unknown
Unknown:
On the ground there were long thin tracks of iron, but it was not iron; it felt smooth and cold as glass.
lol. I thought that was more about the “cold as glass” connection though?
Not that I intend to read it myself…
Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:17 pm
WhiteRabbit
I thought that was more about the “cold as glass” connection though?
AAUUGGHH! I tried to kill it and IT’S STILL ALIVE!
I’d forgotten all about the “cold as glass” connection. I was just remembering the other one about the use of “I.” (Apparently, the singular first person subjective pronoun was banned in the dystopian world of Rand’s novel.)
Wed May 19, 2004 11:55 pm
Wed May 19, 2004 3:29 pm
wilhouse
Wed May 19, 2004 6:05 am
Did Byron Preiss get back to you quickly or did he seem annoyed at having to answer questions?
Wed May 19, 2004 6:14 am
bwayjace, welcome. Yes, you are right, in every email I have from him he uses the small “i”. In this email, he purposedly used the capital I twice. Please note that in my email program, the capital I, which in this bulletin board looks like a vertical line with horizontal lines on top and botton, really looks like a lower case “L” or just a vertical line. So he used an upper case Y in year and an upper case “i” twice.
I emailed him one more time to try and get a response to what he meant, and he does not resond. As Egbert points out, we are on our own, which is fine.
At least I can still look in Houston and not feel like I am wasting my time.
wilhouse
Wed May 19, 2004 7:41 pm
In the 2 email responses I posted from him on another thread, he once again only used lower case letters and kept his response to a minimum.
——————————————————-
Some time ago I tried to track down the authors, illustrators and everyone involved in this book. In trying to track down Ted Mann, I received this response from a Mr. Colombo (not even sure why I found him…been too long)
“If by Ted Mann you mean retired York professor Ted Mann, his address is 21 Elizabeth St. S., Apt. 203, Richmond Hill, Ont. L4C 3V5. Phone 905-787-9885.
JR
John Robert Colombo
Colombo & Company
42 Dell Park Avenue, Toronto M6B 2T6, Canada
Phone 416-782-6853 Fax 416-782-0285
[email protected]
www.colombo.ca
“
I also tracked down John Jude Palencar by stating that I was interested in his work but chickened out when it came time to ask about The Secret. Here is his response:
“Just received a forwarded email from the kind folks at
the Columbus College of Art and Design . You can contact me at the
address or phone listed below . Thank you for your interest in my work .
Warmest regards – John Jude Palencar
John Jude Palencar
508 Floral Valley West
Howard , Ohio
43028
Ph # : 740.392.4271 ( We are on eastern standard time )”
the email address this response was from is :
[email protected]
i dont know how accurate this is because this was back in january of ’02
Wed May 19, 2004 8:19 pm
Sean Kelly apparently lives in Brooklyn, NY:
http://www.marksverylarge.com/people/kelly.html
Ted Mann, if I have the right person, is apparently dead:
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-10824/Ted_Mann/
Wed May 19, 2004 9:54 am
That said, has anybody been able to track down the authors?
Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:40 pm
I took the cold as glass line as meaning something metal, polished, possibly reflective, possibly something see-through, or something that looks all alone, the suggestion that one is cold without anything or anyone nearby.
Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:21 pm
erexere
or did he mean “I.” as in Roman numeral
But of course. “after 22 Years all I can say is L” -> “after 22 years all I can say is 50”, giving 72, or 1972, the date of the Atropos key.
Or more likely, he just clumsily hit “l” before pressing
Send
, turning his unhelpful “no reply” into a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:38 pm
Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:50 pm
Apologies to everyone.
wilhouse
Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:55 pm
What is indecipherable to one person may make sense to another.
Maybe start another thread on it?
Wed Oct 15, 2014 1:59 pm
I will look into my archives and see what’s there. That stuff is pretty hard to dig up now as it’s in an old type data base but I’ll investigate and see what I can find.
wilhouse
Wed Oct 15, 2014 2:41 pm
Oregonian
. I’ve heard of people misreading the “ell-aye-one” stroke when they see it, but I’ve never heard of someone typing “ell” as a way of typing “one.”
Obviously you learned keyboarding post typewriters. It was quite common while using a typewriter to substitute “ell” for the numeral 1.
In my typing class in high school we learned that was totally acceptable. as not moving your fingers off the home keys helped you maintain your speed and it was all about speed.
I suspect BP was of the age to have learned typing not keyboarding.
Anyway that being said I just read that email as saying, yes there is a casque in houston, All I can say is look.
Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:25 pm
Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:00 pm