Glossiphoniidae
TBH, this is one of the clues I cannot yet figure out. For instance, why could Preiss not have said that the lit clue was Paul Revere’s Ride? That wouldn’t have given the puzzle away. Neither would have hinting at Thucydides and Xenophon. Honestly, I’m not quite certain what this one means yet. That being said, I have no doubt the statement is true. Unfortunately, I just can’t figure it out without misleading myself. I happen to think it has something to do with Preiss not being able to give a hint to the actual location or it would give the puzzle away (or at least a HUGE portion of it).
*Edit – I realize I didn’t answer directly… Boston is a turnkey… If I told you about it, you would be able to solve a lot of puzzles. That’s as much as you will get from me on this.
Thucydidyes & Xenophon + “Eighteenth day / Twelfth hour” both seem like city confirmers the more I look into it, but mainly as a result of not being able to find any location in Boston to tie these to that makes sense with the puzzle and you can imagine burying something near.
Interestingly, as far as we know, both Chicago and Cleveland didn’t contain city confirmers in the verse – and in the Boston puzzle we might have 2 (revere + Walpole quote). How were searchers supposed to match those up? Feels like there are more consistent ways to match verse to city that we haven’t found yet.
My favourite way to interpret the first 4 lines has been “If Thucydides is North of Xenophon / Take five steps / In the area if his direction” -> “If Boston is / North of New York / Take five steps / The north area (north end)”.
18th day /12th hour might serve double duty as city confirmers & instructions at/to the dig site. Who knows really until we narrow it down to a park and area, which I tend to think we haven’t done (depending on your feelings on the charlesgate area being legit or not).
