Los Angeles, London, Baghdad, Mumbai, El Paso, Boston, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, ___________, Chicago, Boston, Rome.
Obviously from the repeat entries, the list is in a particular order for a particular reason.
So — what is the name of the missing city, ninth in this list of twelve cities?
Los Angeles?
Gotham?
Anaheim.
Minas Tirith?
Or Hobbiton
The bulk of the action took place in or near Minas Tirith so that’s the answer we were looking for.
With that being the answer y’all should be able to construct the rule on your own pretty easily. And figure out why I ended the list where I did.
Technically, Rome doesn’t belong. (I may not be any good at solving these things, but at least I can quibble.)
I have zero idea what the rule is.
The rule is ‘gur pvgl gung jnf gur cevznel frggvat bs gur Npnqrzl Njneq (GZ) Orfg Cvpgher jvaare sbe rnpu bs gur ynfg 12 lrnef’. (Gur yvfg fgbccvat whfg orsber Nzrevpna Ornhgl, orpnhfr vvep vg gbbx cynpr urer.)
[EDIT: rot13’d the rule and embedded the link – BL]
Frggvatf sbe Bfpne jvaaref sbe orfg cvpgher va gur gjragl-svefg praghel. (juvpu qbrf abg vapyhqr gur lrne gjb gubhfnaq, urapr zl dhvooyr.)
2000’f Orfg Cvpgher jnf Tynqvngbe, gur ynfg unys be zber bs juvpu jnf frg va Ebzr.
Oh sorry, I thought it was over.
The frequency of L.A. and the inclusion of Mumbai makes me want to find something related to movie making. But Baghdad kind of trips that up.
That’s especially true for the first and most recent (2011) entry.
One of the truths that emerged from the Linux development experience is “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” I might borrow from that to suggest that “All trivia is obvious if Randy is looking at it.”