Serge devised hints for the many that stumped me, and then I devised hints for the ones that I was able to solve by myself.
1. Liquor and tobacco products carrying the "Victory" brand.
HINT:A compulsory ritual is performed, consisting of a brief period of time spent engaging
in a certain emotion, in a group setting.
2. Narrator finds it odd that someone would refer to a Christmas tree using expletives.
HINT: Narrator also repeatedly wonders about the winter-time fate of a certain set of
winged creatures.
3. A parlor game that solvers of this puzzle might enjoy leads to a minor character
being denied tenure.
HINT: New York City, "neutral territory," provides the protagonists with a very
nice time, even though they may not have solved anything.
4. Does it really matter *who* prevents a bulldozer from completing its task?
HINT: Many math students have lost stupid points on exams from reading this book too many
times.
5. Title character realizes how lucky he is to be an albino.
HINT: Being an albino allows him to take full advantage of his scientific discovery.
6. Despite its late recipient's gentlemanliness, a burned letter signed by a repeated
initial is still partly legible.
HINT: The repeated initial is "L." The sender was an unwitting accomplice in the
recipient's death.
7. An elderly doorman blames himself for the end of human civilization as we know it,
since it resulted from him once letting in a certain captain to see his financier boss.
HINT: Continents are being dynamited by a race of amphibians, originally bred as slaves.
8. A supposedly-intelligent bird writes its name with the first two letters reversed.
HINT: Replace "intelligent" with "wise."
9. Narrator realizes that a shovel is more militarily useful than a bayonet.
HINT: "Militarily useful" = "useful in hand-to-hand combat." As in, it
doesn't get stuck inside someone's ribcage as easily as a bayonet does.
10. A bicycle is securely tied down, to make sure it can't escape.
HINT: Speaking of albinos: main character (incorrectly) speculates that the rider may have
been one.
11. A high-school teacher has trouble climbing against the current (so to speak).
HINT:Cute young female teacher, NYC public school, unhelpful principal.
12. Two men contemplate changing their given names (to the same one), to accommodate
their girlfriends' fantasies.
HINT: Unfavorable market conditions allegedly prevent the purchase of cucumbers.
13. Garbled Russian is used as teen slang.
HINT: Serge is not the garbled Russian referred to in this clue.
14. River-faring narrator's uncle is hopelessly incompetent at hanging pictures on
walls.
HINT: The book describes a pleasure trip taken by a company of four.
15. Story ends with major character, who had earlier obtained Swiss citizenship, coming
home to hang himself.
HINT: Another character finally shoots himself, after promising to do so throughout the
book.
16. Narrator fails to convince his interlocutor that half the salary at one-third the
cost of living is an improvement.
HINT: A weekly bulletin about a sovereign's activities consists mainly of ditto marks.
17. Title character has often seen an X without a Y; but a Y without an X?
HINT: Serge made fun of me for thinking this was Genetics by Gregor Mendel.
18. Popular web site named after herein-used term for "humanoid."
HINT: There is a search engine that will help you.
19. Painter visiting small town mocks female athlete, said town's chief claim to fame.
HINT: After reading a sci-fi story in the form of a letter from God, character decides
that all people except himself are actually machines.
20. Story starts with narrator and his valet arguing about some minor sartorial matter;
ends with narrator conceding. (Serge is indulging in lovable mischief here. Just name the
author)
HINT: There used to be a search engine that would help you.
21. The hawk from the island south of Sicily never actually appears in the story, to
the chagrin of many of the main characters.
HINT: The story is named after said Hawk.
22. The main character finally gets to make love to his friend, but she doesn't marry
him, evidentally preferring to commit suicide with her boyfriend.
HINT: Can a Pole, a Jew, and a Southerner find happiness? Well... no.
© Copyright S.E. 2001
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Doug Code 6/2001: bxi cmgrkp cnk om c wcn. lk sonpb pcup bi lk pkhime, "xqcb’p uifn pomk?" -hkryom qcbrk