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Many of the solutions to the 1995 MIT Puzzle Hunt have been lost. Several groups have been able to solve most of them, but #23 Connecticut Suite remains elusive.

Here is a reproduction of the puzzle. The leadup is probably irrelevant, but I've included it anyways. All the puzzles that year were Clue-themed.

"Oriental Suite is down that corridor and the Vermont Bedroom is around the corner there, but this is Phillip's favorite by far. I rather like it myself," Peacock said with a glint in her eye.

"Oh really? What about it tickles your fancy?" Plum said, edging closer to her.

"The facilities are so lavish. The mood is so romantic. The air is charged with a certain fire. It tends to draw people together," Peacock said in a voice so sultry it could melt the coal buttons off a snowman. "Let me show you just what I mean."

"Oooh, baby," Plum exhaled as he and Peacock collapsed on the bed. The two of them were as tangled as a slinky in a dishwasher, and never even notice[sic] the puzzle taped to the nightstand.

  1. WALKER TRAVERSE HERRING LAZARUS
  2. WISDOM FOLLOWS KUBRICK STAMMER
  3. WALL MAXIM COURT PEARL
  4. FLOYD CROOKS EINSTEIN FIZZ LOW
  5. NORTH CREW FILLMORE DEMOS
  6. HUSSEIN DING CHRIST
  7. SHARON STONER BUTTERS TYSON STALKER
  8. BREWER CHAMPAGNE STRANGE RAN

The solution is

VIVACITY

but I don't know how it's derived.

The winning team solved it within the few days of the hunt, so the solution shouldn't be impossibly difficult.

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    $\begingroup$ Maybe this is worthy of the unsolved-mysteries tag. $\endgroup$
    – boboquack
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 6:17
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    $\begingroup$ The number of sentences and the the number of letters in the solution is the same-8. $\endgroup$
    – Mea Culpa Nay
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 11:13
  • $\begingroup$ @MeaCulpaNay: Yep! The appearance of "Floyd+Wall" and "Sharon+Stone(r)" is also suspicious. Many of the words are also part of a common two-word phrase (eg. "red herring", "Millard Fillmore", "wisdom teeth"), but replacing each word with its pair doesn't seem to do anything. $\endgroup$
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 16:35
  • $\begingroup$ Peacock is a male variety...so it should have been peahen, I suppose! ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Mea Culpa Nay
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 16:56
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    $\begingroup$ @MeaCulpaNay: Yes, but Mrs Peacock and Professor Plum are suspects in the game Clue or Cluedo. $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 16:58

1 Answer 1

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I might suggest, from the inclusion of Oriental, Connecticut and Vermont, that Monopoly will be involved somehow. Those are three of the properties in the light blue group on the US board.

Wiki article on Monopoly

How that ties to the words I'm not sure, but we might need one group of monopoly properties per sentence. Each group also seems to contain at least one last name of a person. Stanley Kubrick, Albert Einstein, Ariel Sharon?, Sadam Hussein, Mike Tyson? There might be others. The colors might be also hinted at in each set, tying each to a property.

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    $\begingroup$ Yep, that's been noticed before too! But simply noticing that does not provide a solution, so I think this would have been better as a comment... $\endgroup$
    – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
    Commented May 23, 2018 at 5:32
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps this should be a "Community Chest Wiki"? :) (I'm not sure whether this should be a comment or a partial answer, but the information is very useful for those not familiar with the US Monopoly board.) $\endgroup$
    – M Oehm
    Commented May 23, 2018 at 6:20
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    $\begingroup$ You say it’s been noticed before, but where? If this has been discussed elsewhere, can we have a link? No benefit to duplication of effort. $\endgroup$
    – jsm
    Commented May 23, 2018 at 12:14
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry about that. I thought it might get a little more visibility. Mentioning what's been tried or known would be very useful though. $\endgroup$
    – SKOG
    Commented May 24, 2018 at 6:54

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