Verse 9

[slappybuns]

i'm sorry, i was rushed last night.  BP was given pictures of the site where the cask was hidden.  All JJp had to do was paint half of any object in the pictures he was given, and then someone could use a mirror to see the other half.  this is a treasure book, with 12 different riddles.  i think using a mirror would be an easy way to hide objects in a painting used for a  treasure hunt.

you could put a mirror on the page, there is no trick to it

one reason i printed out a mirrored image was so i could post to you guys what i saw,  

it is just two folds -----------------------or 2 placements of the mirror on your page of the book

1. straight down from the flag-----------i looked at the left side instead of the right side of the fold
2. straight from the gem to the "reflected" island

i'm not saying do this for the other  images, i think they will be different.  but this image definitely is saying "reflection",  and what better way than with a mirror
i can't believe no one thinks this is possible or takes it serious.

using a mirror to find hidden objects in a painting is not a new thing, it's been done for centuries, look here under anamorphosis:
http://www.ehow.com/list_6819592_techni ... g-art.html

umm,   my folds could be wrong, someone might know of a better way to angle the mirror (or fold if you print out a mirrored image), i'm just saying i think this is the method for this image.  and i hope cobock will keep an eye out for these shapes while he is there  :)

and maybe you just to need to mirror once,  the reflected island (cask) to the gem-----the one i did with the cask at the top, then flipped to show at the bottom

right now, i don't even think it's the fountain,  because with the picture whiterabbit posted for me, with the cask up at the top, if you follow it down, it is inside one of the regular shaped tinajones urns, you can see parking lot or a path, the cars, gates, and the urn, i think it is showing both the parking lot and the entrance from magnolia.  wonder if he would have just put it down inside the urn? 
 

[WhiteRabbit]

...without any knowledge of where the casque was...

People keep saying this, but the only information I've come across about Palencar's involvement is this excerpt I recently quoted from one of the newspaper articles, and which indicates that he thought of at least one of the locations himself.

"Byron's kind of like a little mad genius," Palencar says. "He travelled the country picking places. Then he'd fed-ex me these dossiers with obscure photos and notes." Palencar came up with the idea of burying a casque in the Greek Cultural Garden. "We were kind of brainstorming places," Palencar remembers. "I told Byron, I think I have a good spot." He took Preiss out to the garden and then stood lookout while Preiss buried the casque.

Is there any evidence that Palencar didn't know where the casques were buried? The idea of creating a picture-based puzzle without the artist knowing the answer seems bizarre.

[shecrab]

According to other information I had about this hunt, Palencar was only able to suggest the Greek Cultural gardens because he is a resident of the area (or was.) He is from Fairview Park, Ohio, not far from the Gardens. The other casques were buried without any knowledge on his part.

And Slappy, as much as it sounds like it would work, it just wouldn't work to paint "half" of something and then expect people to use a mirror to find the other half. For one thing, the paintings done were larger than the book format. For another, they were done in mixed media: pastels, watercolors, pencil and paint. The way artists paint would not make it easy to plan for that sort of use of a mirror--not without digital involvement right off the bat (i.e., being able to "mirror" the result so one could see what it was that was needed to be painted.

I urge you again to look at the ones that were solved. This ought to be the benchmark for the search on the other images. I don't think such obscure methods are necessary. You must remember that it's been 30 years since these casques were buried! So much has changed--a tree can grow several dozen feet in that time, bushes die, hills appear and disappear, paving is done or removed--landmarks shift and change. Also remember that Preiss did not expect this hunt to EVER last this long. He expected the casques to be found rather quickly. That would preclude hiding them so well, or with such difficulty that one would need extra objects like mirrors to find them.

[WhiteRabbit]

The other casques were buried without any knowledge on his part.

I still don't know where this idea that JJP knew nothing about the locations came from, though I guess at the end of the day it probably makes no difference. Who knows what Byron asked him to include in the pictures, or in what way.

[fox]

I have to agree with shecrab.  Of course we may be wrong...that is always an option....but I think we are straying away from what worked because we have hit a brick wall  .  1. yes, bp had never imagined that this hunt would go on for so long. The Chicago casque was found in a matter of a couple months....long before Google Earth, the internet, mathematical computer programs counting every 3rd letter from every 16th word beginning with the letter t, etc.  It was found with an I, a V and possibly a little bit of library time.  2. JJP did not know where the casques were hidden.  He was given pics of what was nearby and he created the Images. 

I believe that we are so close to finding most of the rest of the casques...we just need that final piece to the puzzle. I believe we will find a casque in: Milwaukee, San Francisco, Boston, E Gardens, Houston, Charleston, in or around FOY, New Orleans, New York , and 1 somewhere in Canada. That list accounts for EVERY remaining casque out there.  Let's just put our heads together  and focus on the obvious.

[slappybuns]

geez you guys are tough! 

i really don't know how an artist would do it and then it still be recognizable when it is printed, especially before computers.  but i know there have always been riddles and reversed images in books since i can remember.

and guys, Mira Chimera is the only Spanish fair folk.  MIRROR Chimera.

p. 129  "She can ONLY be seen in a MIRROR"
            "may be as close as your vanity table"

okay.........that just gave me an idea..........maybe it is "YOU".............somewhere behind the letters of  "fountain of YOUth"
still, i'm gonna keep using a mirror because there are so many words that suggest it such as "command, instructs, tape, operating, perform any of these"               

[shecrab]

Fox, I agree. We've just gotten way off track here. Yes, we hit walls. In almost everything. I can't say I'm surprised at that--like I said, it's been 30 years. There is so much that is different now. And it's so easy to think that this hunt would be like other hunts out there--but you must remember that other hunts are based mostly on internet searches, finds, research, other puzzles available--this hunt wasn't. It was simple. Almost elementary, actually. Pictures and riddles. No trickery. Although yes, Slappy, it might have been possible to use mirrors, I don't think they were used; not if you're asking a renowned painter to make your images. He just wouldn't use something like that. His website shows a lot of his work--it's all very surreal, dreamy, symbolic--he is known for exactly that sort of thing. In fact, he might even have had the Chicago image already painted long before Preiss had the idea for the hunt--it's the only one of the Secret images that appears on his website as a standalone painting (it's called "Castle Hat".) And how much more likely is it that he simple incorporated the images he was sent on polaroids into his art work? HIGHLY LIKELY. If he had had a computer or Google, or satellite pics, or even a bunch of puzzle hunts instead of just the one--Masquerade--to pull from, then perhaps I would agree that mirrors might be a factor--but not in this instance. The only hunt out there that had ever captured the attention of the public was Masquerade, and it was a hunt like this one: riddled text, surreal paintings. So it's not that I don't think it was possible, I just don't think it was at all likely given when this was put together.

Also remember that the text of the book--the story of all those "fair folk" was done separately and is not affiliated with the buried treasures at all, no matter how much coincidental material you find.

[slappybuns]

he might not have wrote the part about the "fair folks"  but i'm sure he read them and probably added to them.  He might have even written the "spotter's tips".  
and in the "spotter's tips"  it  says "dedicated followers"

dedicated can mean  "address"

follower can mean "behind"

and the pic says "how do i look from behind?"

i know that could mean anything, behind the "fountain of youth sign"?  behind the fountain of youth itself (the spring house) ?  or behind the words "11 magnolia avenue"

or #10 magnolia, because when u put the cask together it makes a #10

[shecrab]

Fox said:

That list accounts for EVERY remaining casque out there.  Let's just put our heads together  and focus on the obvious.

I have tried. I posted several things about v. 2 and New Orleans lately. They have gotten absolutely not one single response. 

[erexere]

I like this verse as a pairing with image 12.

It has the word picket in it.

[WhiteRabbit]

Whiterabbit...perhaps a little more hard research on those things we've already ferreted out might be more helpful. There really is little doubt that the location suggested by image 2 is Charleston, or the one in Image 3 is Roanoke Island, 7 is New Orleans, 8 is Houston, 10 is Milwaukee, 12 New York. Very solid confirmers have been uncovered for these images and they match the type of solid confirmers in the two that were solved. In the Cleveland image, the big confirmer was the silhouette of the Terminal Tower. In Chicago's image, it was the water tower. In other images, there are definite pieces that point to definite locations - things that have already been found. The same can be said of some of the verses.

I think Shecrab has a point here. It would take something fairly convincing to lead things away from choices like NY / I12...

[erexere]

(1)  The first chapter = implies other chapters follow, George Pickett as chapter 1, his son who died at age 32 of Tuberculosis is the next chapter.
(2)  Written in water = Keats epitaph, who also died of Tuberculosis.
(3)  Near men = "close quarters" as 'near' and officers as men = Officers Quarters
(4)  With wind rose
(14)  Over the tall grass
(6)  And a green picket fence
(7)  At the base of a tall tree
(8)  You can still hear the honking
(9)  Shell, limestone, silver, salt = Cattle Point Light House
(10)  Stars move by day = flag and mast by the Officer's Quarters bldg..
(11)  Sails pass by night
(12)  Even in darkness
(13)  Like moonlight in teardrops
(5)  Behind bending branches
(15)  Years pass, rain falls.

When I swap line 5 with line 14 I get "SELBY" instead of SELOY.  The verse almost seems improved with "rose" preceding "over".  William SELBY Harney is responsible for sending George Pickett and his men to Washington in the first place.

[WhiteRabbit]

Quick recap: Seloy is the Indian village where Florida's Fountain of Youth was built. It has a sign which says: "The First Chapter". Image 6 resembles its statue of Ponce de Leon. It had geese and a green picket fence. It also has a "silver salt" cellar connected with Ponce de Leon, with a sign describing it as a "casque" - an unusual word that BP uses for the treasure boxes. The Fountain of Youth is mentioned in the introduction.

[shecrab]

There were so many confirmers for Florida's Fountain of Youth park that it was almost a shoo-in. The problem wasn't that it couldn't be pinpointed to that location, it was that no one could dig there because the owners were not enthusiastic about someone coming in and digging in their park.  I, for one, would be very hard-pressed to believe in any alternative location for this image and verse.

[WhiteRabbit]

Over the tall grass

Myrtle Ave...Myrtle grass...?



Also known as Sweet Flag.