Puzzle #9: An Internet Puzzle Hunt (2022)

After the insanity that was Pizzle #8, this one was just some nice, easy, armchair puzzle solving. Well, apparently it wasn’t THAT easy, since only one person managed to solve it in the four weeks that it was active. Congrats go out to Darren Hagenson, the sole solver and winner of this here Truck Puzzles prize pack!

The puzzle presents us with an old analog television, bleating out the nightly news from the point of view of someone who sounds like they’re snoring away on the couch.

Suddenly, an alert quietly appears on the screen’s lower third: "A message is incoming. Please Stand By." This is our puzzle.

Strings of letters appear on the screen. There are nine strings of letters total, and they are of varying lengths:

What do these mean?

Well, one astute player, who as best as I can tell was NOT our winner, was able to figure out that the scores on the Jeopary players’ lecterns actually represents a phone number: (318) 370-5980.

The number is no longer active, but if called, players heard this:

Bruce Moseler is a character we've not yet met. Stick a pin in this guy for now.

When the phone number is texted, a hint is provided in the form of a video link: a bit from the classic cartoon Animaniacs, where the character Wakko is singing off all fifty states (and their capitals) in a rather clever bit.

One more hint provided is in the flag itself, waving weirdly as the national anthem plays us off the air. The stars on the flag represent the fifty states.

The strings of letters are state abbreviations:

If you were to take all these states, and color them in on a map… a letter forms.

Do this for all nine letters, and we get a whole word: ATHANASIA.

And that’s it… that’s Puzzle #9.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Everything has a purpose in these puzzle videos, and there may or may not be much more to this one than a simple one word answer. Solved? Yes. But… SOLVED?!? Oh my… not even close.

Stay on your toes, puzzle pals.