The Magpie Party

Thanks for coming to London to celebrate the Magpie’s 12th birthday with us. Darren Roberts walked away with the new trophy, the PotY potty, donated by Mash, for the amazing More Lines. Simon Melen was awarded the solver award for keeping up with Matthew Auger for the whole of 2014.

Lost Property: a dark blue chunky wool knit scarf was picked up at the end of the evening. If you think it is yours, please get in touch and we will try to get it back to you.

Party Puzzle [updated]: Gross Misconduct by Mr Magoo was handed out to everyone at the party. The prize for the fastest solver went to Ray Parry-Morris, and the Nina prize has now been collected. Congratulations to everyone who sent it in, and especially Philip Sant, whose e-mail reached us first. Here is the solution.

7 Responses to “The Magpie Party”

  1. Lee Fisher Says:

    I couldn’t make the party this time because of a coinciding Countdown event, but thanks for making the extra puzzle available.
    Solved it no probs, but then again I have access to a calculator here.
    I’m not surprised nobody’s got the Nina thing done – I don’t even know what that is.

  2. Alastair Cuthbertson Says:

    Calculator? Why?

    144 has 15 factors. I can only find nine in the grid.

  3. Alastair Cuthbertson Says:

    That should of course be 11 and not 9.

  4. AR & GM Reid Says:

    Thanks for the solution – now I finally understand what a Nina is! Gwen

  5. Lee Fisher Says:

    Alright. I’m calling uncle.
    What’s a Nina?

  6. John Nicholson Says:

    It is a hidden message. The term comes from Al Hirschfeld, an American caricaturist, who used to hide his daughter’s name “Nina” in his drawings.

  7. Mark Goodliffe Says:

    There’s a most elegant and fortuitous further puzzle/Nina. Which of the unused factors of 144 (let’s forget 1 and 144, Alastair) could be placed outside the grid, and where, to allow the total of the preamble sum to be traced?

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