Clue 5

Sector L - Castro / Noe Valley

Message from Game Control

Author: Game Control (Jen van Stelle and Alexandra Dixon)

Game Control intended this clue to be relatively easy, given the somewhat tough clues the game opened with. Surprisingly (to us!), several teams had a harder time of it than expected. Can't be everything to everyone -- we just try our best.

Hints

Hint 1 was " 'AL' stands for "almanac".

Hint 2 was "The Sally Brunn building is a library."

Solution

The image in the background of the flyer is from the 1966 movie starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, directed by Francois Truffaut, and based on the classic Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451. The science fiction plot involves a futuristic society in which all books are burned by the thought police. An underground society springs up of people who are committed to preserving books; each memorizes a book and, before he dies, passes it along, word by word, to a younger person. The title refers to the fact that paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many teams tried the obvious first -- dialing the local number, (415) 617-7591. Teams also tried a Massachusetts number, (617) 759-1451. Apologies to the Massachusetts telephone subscriber who was the recipient of so many wrong numbers that afternoon; Game Control anticipated the (415) attempts, and intentionally chose a number that was disconnected; but somehow we didn't expect the (617) attempts -- though in retrospect it seems obvious enough! Hindsight is always 20/20 in this sort of game.

The number on the flyer is, in fact, a Dewey Decimal System library call number, and the Noe Valley branch of the San Francisco library is named after Sally Brunn. Coincidentally, the address of the library is 451 Jersey Street. Arriving there, teams found a (Game-Control owned) copy of Fahrenheit 451 on the shelf at call # 617.7591 AL 451 (though this is not the actual call number that one would ordinarily use to find the book), with envelopes containing the next clue inside the covers.