Alison Stace-Naughton
Won a copy of the new ZERO cocktail book by Alinea
by cracking the code to get into Sparvelous Moons
Alison and her husband
How did you hear about the game?
I heard about the Alinea puzzles through the 15th anniversary email sent out a few weeks ago. We have been doing the puzzles ever since and we adore them! With the stay-at-home orders and the fact that I am generally less busy now, I have had time to sit down and do the puzzles every few days.
How many of the puzzles have you solved?
So far, fingers crossed, we have solved every puzzle! There have been some tricky ones and I think Sparvelous Moons was, for me, the most difficult.
Walk me through your experience with solving the Sparvelous Moons puzzle.
Wow...where to begin. First, we noticed the title was a transposition of the first clue "There is a spoon. And it's marvelous." So that was our first hint. But, I am terrible at that transposition so my husband helped a lot. We figured out the crossword-like clues first and wrote them all down. After about 6 hours of rabbit holes and doing all the wrong things, we realized we needed to transpose each phrase from "Part, Tough" to "Pough Tart", which, subsequently, resulted in Puff Tart if you convert it to "culinary speak". Then, we did that same idea for all 25 clues. That took another 6 hours. After that, we slept for a bit. Woke up the next morning and highlighted each of the letters to spell out "Flip Fruit Then Flip Diamonds". We thought we were close but, surprise, we were so far away. We spent another few hours flipping words, backwards, forwards, upside-down, etc. Nothing worked. Finally, my husband re-read the clues and realized that there were talking about binary code. I'll be honest, at this point, I was pretty burnt out, but after making an Aperol Spritz and googling some binary basics, we "flipped the spoons". Then it all clicked, flipping fruit resulted in a binary string that spelled out "SPENT" and flipping diamonds resulted in a binary string that spelled out "BOOONS". From there it was easy - Bent Spoons. Hallelujah! It worked and I felt very accomplished so more Aperol Spritz drinks were consumed to celebrate. This was a tough puzzle. Lots of twists and unexpected turns.
What other kinds of puzzles or games do you play?
I play Jeopardy!, although I am not sure if that is considered a puzzle or not. For Christmas, my family makes "clip-art clues" as part of a tradition and you can't open your present until you guess the clue. Nothing like Sparvelous Moons though. An example: The present is a mini muffin tin so the clue would be a "clip art" picture of Minnie Mouse plus Ear Muffs plus the chemical symbol for tin "Sn", which literally (if you sound it out) spells out mini muff tin. So, once the family member guesses mini muffin tin then they can unwrap their gift and see if they are right. Let's just say Christmas at my house takes about 12 hours to open presents!
Of those spoon flavors, which would you prefer to eat?
Fancy Cherries! I have a sweet tooth and I love fancy dessert and cherries!
Have dined at Alinea or our other restaurants?
Yes, we have eaten at Alinea! We were visiting my parents who live in Madison, Wisconsin and I booked us a four-person table at Alinea last June when we were home. It was a magical experience; we saw Alinea on Chef's Table and became obsessed with eating there. Alinea lived up to my expectations and more! It was an amazing evening and I especially enjoyed the waitstaff! Everyone was extremely pleasant and inquisitive. The ambiance of Alinea was amplified by the mysterious clues and phrases spoken by the waitstaff. Alinea will always be one of my favorite places! I hope with the stay-at-home orders that everyone that made our night so memorable is staying safe, healthy, and sane now!
How do you spend your days?
I work some (not as much as pre-COVID), which has given me a great opportunity to explore other areas I am interested in - reading books, watching MasterClasses online, cooking great food (mostly trying to perfect French cooking and French sauces), drinking good wine (Burgundy whites and Georgian Mukuzani Reds), and talking on the phone a lot more. I know the pandemic is hard on everyone, but my attitude has shifted to spending more quality time (albeit virtually) with my dearest friends and family. I have spoken more to my closest friends and family now than in any time prior to this. So, that is a sliver lining for me - daily FaceTime calls and virtual Happy Hours have been my new favorite thing!
How are you keeping healthy and sane during quarantine?
My husband has been my rock throughout everything. The puzzles bring us closer together and we have found that we enjoy each other's company even if we are just doing nothing at home. I am so grateful to have him in my life although he did convince me to re-watch all of the Star Wars movies (one a day for several days) and that was maybe not the most enjoyable experience! It was a lot!
Anything else you want to add?
Wishing everyone at Mystery League and Alinea good health and that we may all get through this stronger (and smarter with the puzzles)!
Alison can be found on Instagram at @airlinewines
