Solution: Recognition on a First-Name Basis
Answer: ARRIVAL
Written by Jonah Ostroff
Each puzzle in the Sociology department uses parts of the profiles of two fish. This puzzle uses the “Skills” from Starfish’s ReeledIn page, and seven clips from Tuna’s Codify page.
Seven of the clips on Tuna’s page have one word bleeped out by a trumpet. The songs and the words are:
| Song | Artist | Word |
|---|---|---|
| Before You Walk Out of My Life | Monica | COMPARE |
| I Wanna Love You Forever | Jessica Simpson | FELT |
| In the Heat of the Night | Sandra | LEAVE |
| Let You Love Me | Rita Ora | TROUBLE |
| On and On | Erykah Badu | CYPHER |
| Real Love | Mary J Blige | MADE |
| What’s Love Got to Do With It | Tina Turner | PHYSICAL |
Some solvers may be able to guess what these singers have in common, but there’s also a clue on Starfish’s page: indexing the number of endorsements into each skill (in the given order) spells LOU BEGA.
The seven singers have the same names (modulo spelling) of the seven women in the chorus to Mambo No. 5. Furthermore, each of the skills corresponds to the lyrics associated with one of these women. Sorting by the order in the chorus we get:
| Name | Lyric | Skill | Endorsements | Word | Indexed Letter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monica | in my life | Vitality | 5 | COMPARE | A |
| Erica | by my side | Neighborliness | 6 | CYPHER | R |
| Rita | all I need | Sufficiency | 2 | TROUBLE | R |
| Tina | what I see | Vision | 5 | PHYSICAL | I |
| Sandra | in the sun | Brightness | 4 | LEAVE | V |
| Mary | all night long | Late shifts | 2 | MADE | A |
| Jessica | here I am | Presence | 3 | FELT | L |
Indexing the endorsement numbers into the trumpeted-out words spells the answer, ARRIVAL.
Author’s Notes
I had sort of hoped to pair this idea with an eight-letter answer so I could use “Bar Mitzvahs” as the eighth skill, but I think keeping it to just women’s names (instead of adding, like, U2) was better for the puzzle.