Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

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      • I suspect a few Canadians on this site might dispute that claim

        • I suppose this time we don’t know if the list is exhaustive, so I don’t have to assume the heads of state of countries with flags no shown must have previously visited your kitchen.

  3. Flags of countries that were formed or destroyed because of the First World War?

  4. My other guess is that they are flags of countries that used to be part of Empires like the Ottoman Empire, British Empire, etc.

  5. Flags that were or are subject to political movements to replace them?

  6. I can’t find anything the flags themselves have in common, but it may be helpful to list out the countries they’re associated with. In order, starting from the top row, those countries are:

    Top:Vietnam, Greece, Montenegro
    Row2: France, Ivory Coast, Jordan
    Row3: Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan
    Row4: Luxembourg, Tuvalu, Burkina Faso
    Row5: Canada, Angola, Fiji
    Row6: Tajikistan, Algeria, Armenia

    • You’re actually on to something, Michael Cain, but “random collection of flags” is not what the judges are looking for. This is a very deliberate collection of flags, arranged in a particular order.

  8. Tuesday Hint: I used a particular page of the CIA World Factbook online to prepare the puzzle this week. But any recent atlas, including Google Earth, would do the trick too.

    • When you say “recent,” do you mean “any atlas after Montenegro became a sovereign nation” or “any atlas after South Sudan became a sovereign nation”?

        • I think I figured it out. It’s a puzzle more than a trivia question.

          Hanoi, Vietnam
          Athens, Greece
          Podgorica, Montenegro
          Paris, France
          Yamossoukro, Cote d’Ivoire

          Amman, Jordan
          Phnom Penh, Cambodia
          Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
          Islamabad, Pakistan
          Luxembourg, Luxembourg

          Funafuti, Tuvalu
          Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
          Ottawa, Canada
          Luanda, Angola
          Suva, Fiji

          Dushanbe, Tajikistan
          Algiers, Algeria
          Yerevan, Armenia

          ======
          HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY

          • The League’s trivia challenge, killing workplace productivity since 2011.

          • I actually figured out when I was getting dressed this morning that it had to be a coded statement of some sort, and most likely was a coded statement related to April Fools Day, quite likely Happy April Fools Day. I just didn’t have time to figure out the key to the code, and initially thought it was going to somehow be a cypher based on the alphabetic ordering of the countries. But Burt’s answer to my question ruled that out, which told me the key had to relate to a static feature of the selected countries. It didn’t take too long from there to start running through the capitals, most of which I have memorized. Since I knew more or less what I was looking for, the second I said the words “Hanoi, Athens, Podgorica,” I knew I had it.

          • Mark, you make me proud. Mike Schilling had better look out; he’s only two-thirds of a point ahead of you for the #2 all-time win record.

  9. If a site that holds noted ephebophile John Derbyshire in high esteem doesn’t like this site, that’s a point in the League’s favor.

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