Solution: Socio-logical Inquiry Into Commerce
Answer: WILD ORCHIDS

Written by Jonah Ostroff

Each puzzle in the Sociology department uses parts of the profiles of two fish. This puzzle uses the memes on Octopus’s Chumblr page, and the Flower Salesman section of Starfish’s ReeledIn page.

This is an Einstein-style logic puzzle. Starfish’s profile gives the setup: there are seven customers (including Stefanie) who bought seven types of flowers and live in seven houses on a street, each customer bought between 1 and 8 flowers, there were 35 total flowers sold, and somehow we’re supposed to index into both the customers and the flowers.

Octopus’s page has nine memes about these customers, which can be interpreted as clues:

Meme Interpretation
Anakin & Padmé The person who bought lavender and Glendora both bought the same prime number of flowers, and nobody else bought a prime number.
Assassination chain Someone bought more flowers than Lysander, who bought one more flower than the person who purchased larkspur, who bought one more flower than the woman in house #5.
The trolley problem The person who bought hyacinths bought more flowers than one person, and fewer flowers than the other five people.
“They’re the same picture” The person who bought marigolds lives in the house numbered one less than Gabriela’s house.
Gru’s plan Mordecai bought more flowers than his two neighbors combined, but didn’t buy geraniums.
Vince Mcmahon There’s a four-house chain of people who all bought even numbers of flowers, and the person who bought daffodils is at one end of that chain.
“I bet he’s thinking about” The person in house #1 is the only person who bought flowers beginning with the same letter as their name.
Drake yes/no Leonardo doesn’t live next to Herschel, but does live next to the person who bought wisteria.
Draw 25 or Herschel does not live next to the person who bought daffodils.

The first step is to figure out the numbers of flowers that were bought. The only way to choose 3 consecutive numbers and one larger number (see meme #2) without using two different primes (see meme #1) is with 4, 5, 6, and 8. That means 5 is the repeated prime, so five of the numbers are 4, 5, 5, 6, and 8. That leaves 7 flowers left, and the only way to split those into two non-primes is 1 and 6. So the numbers are 1, 4, 5, 5, 6, and 8.

The other major constraint is the length 4 chain of even numbers. This must include house #5 (which we now know purchased 4 hyacinths), so it can’t include house #1. So who can go in house #1, purchasing an odd number of flowers that start with the same letter as their name? It can’t be Stefanie (there’s no such flower), Mordecai (he has two neighbors), Gabriela (due to meme #4), Glendora (she bought 5 larkspurs), Herschel (hyacinths are at house #5), or Lysander (he bought 6 flowers). So Leonardo lives in house #1, and bought lavender.

Finally, where must the chain of four even-numbered flower purchasers be? Meme #2 now tells us that Glendora purchased 5 larkspurs, so the person in house #2 must have bought 1 flower or an even number of flowers. Mordecai is next to the person who bought 1 flower (see meme #5), so he's at one end of the chain. Mordecai can’t be in house #2 or house #5, so the chain of even numbers goes from house #3 to house #6.

The remaining logic just involves straightforward applications of the facts from the memes. The solution is in the table below. Since each name and flower is 8 letters long, it’s natural to index the flower purchases (which are also between 1 and 8) into them.

Order Name Flower type Flower # Index into name Index into flower
1 LEONARDO LAVENDER 5 A N
2 STEFANIE WISTERIA 1 S W
3 MORDECAI DAFFODIL 8 I L
4 LYSANDER MARIGOLD 6 D O
5 GABRIELA HYACINTH 4 R C
6 HERSCHEL GERANIUM 6 H I
7 GLENDORA LARKSPUR 5 D S

Reading these indexed letters in street order spells ANS WILD ORCHIDS.