For this month’s bonus episode we bring you the audio from our recent live stream ‘Around The World In 80 Fails’ as we visit the eight major cities from Jules Verne’s novel and dispense ten facts for each as well as setting a treasure hunt for you to crack! The clues are below, followed by the answers and explanations if you want to have a go at it yourself with the prize being mere pride and smugness and not, as in Phileas Fogg’s case, £20,000. To solve them, use a mix of what we say in the podcast, some judicious internet research and a bit of Google Maps! Each clue’s answer is found in the city in which it is given in and each answer is a 1 or 2 digit number which help solve the final clue.

CLUES:

1 – LONDON: Inside a triangle between Fogg’s home, Doyle’s detective’s domicile, and the bronze memorial to Verne’s translation topper, find a circular quadrilateral and the blue plaque at the residence of a premier liberal.

2 – SUEZ: From the octagonal beacon, move towards Nemo’s sub’s nuclear namesake’s pole. Running east to west above the Friends-y café you’ll find a Fat Fucker’s revolutionary street. Add the digits.

3 – MUMBAI: Across the Back from the formerly cardboard arch lies a Babylonian Wonder. Walk its southern path to the stone shelter and find the blue Zone opposite. 

4 – KOLKATA: Just over halfway between the Bollywood Godfather’s place of worship and the Vidyasagar Setu, get out of this world then look just south for a holy seat and count the apostle’s supposed epistles.

5 – HONG KONG: Follow the aim of the midday munition just across the water to a stellar street. At its eastern-most end pick the eastern-most spot by a Melville-inspired coffeehouse where The cinematic Dragon stands and take the first digit of his age at time of death.

6 – YOKOHAMA: From the former foremost ferris, follow the road eastwards, over the bridge – then south of the pachyderm’s nose to an arena. Add the individual digits in the left or right corner of the scoreboard.

7 – SAN FRANCISCO: From where The Rock Islanders played, fly south-ish – but before Archimedes’ exclamation pause at the Vanessa Cardui, and visit the park with shades of Davy Crockett. Find the most storey-ed building on its western side, add the second and third digits and multiply by half the first digit.

8 – NEW YORK: From the island of Elizabeth Jane Cochran’s asylum, follow Paul and Art’s cantilever northwest to the fountain of her circumnavigatory sponsor. Its adjacent avenue is your final number.

FINAL CLUE: Translate these numbers. Your team name is the final clue and final answer.

Follow us on Twitter: @worstfoot @bazmcstay @benvandervelde 

Visit www.worstfootforwardpodcast.com for all previous episodes and you can donate to us on Patreon if you’d like to support the show during this whole pandemic thing… https://www.patreon.com/WorstFootForward

Worst Foot Forward is part of Podnose: www.podnose.com

ANSWERS:

1: 20
As mentioned in ’80 Fails’, Fogg lives at 7 Savile Row. Doyle’s Detective’s Domicile is 221b Baker Street (home of Arthurs Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes), and Barry also mentioned that Jules Verne is the second-most translated writer on Earth after Agatha Christie, who has a memorial in Leicester Square. If you draw a triangle between these 3 points, in the middle of this triangle is Cavendish Square – a rather circular square – where there is a blue plaque on Number 20 which is the home of Herbert Asquith, the former Liberal Prime Minister.

2: 5
Ben told us about the lighthouse in Port Said, which is octagonal. ‘Towards Nemo’s sub’s nuclear namesake’s pole’ requires a bit of Googling. Captain Nemo is a Jules Verne character whose submarine was called the Nautilus. There was a real-life nuclear submarine called the Nautilus which was the first to travel under the North Pole. Travelling north from the lighthouse in Port Said you come to a café called Central Perk (like the café in Friends) which is on an east-to-west street called 23rd July St. 23rd July was the date of the Egyptian coup in 1952 as part of Operation ‘Fat Fucker’, the CIA’s plan to eject King Farouk. Add 2 and 3 and you get 5!

3: 1
Ben mentioned that Mumbai’s ‘Gateway to India’ wasn’t ready when a royal visit took place in 1911 and so a cardboard replica stood in its place. Looking at Google Maps of Mumbai, the bay just to the west of where the Gateway stands is called Back Bay and on the other side of the bay from the Gateway is a park called Hanging Gardens (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World). If you go into street view and walk along the southern path of the park, in the southeastern corner is a stone shelter which has a blue sign reading Zone 1 across from it.

4: 13
Barry talked about Amitabh Bachchan, the famed Bollywood actor whose roles included the title figure of Sarkar in the Bollywood version of The Godfather. Barry also mentioned that Bachchan is worshipped in a temple in Kolkata (which is located in the All Bengal Amitabh Bachchan Fans’ Association building). The Vidyasagar Setu is the name of the Second Hooghly Bridge. Draw a line from the temple towards the bridge and just over halfway you come to a planetarium (“out of this world”) – south of which is St. Paul’s Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican diocese of Kolkata. St Paul the apostle is supposed to have written 13 epistles in the New Testament.

5:

3
Ben told us about the Noon Day Gun in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. The photos of it all show that it points straight out across the bay, just on the other side of which is Avenue Of Stars. At the eastern end of the avenue is a Starbucks – and any of you who recently heard of Coffee episode will know that Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ includes the character of Starbuck. The Dragon was film star Bruce Lee’s name and sure enough he has a statue standing just outside that Starbucks. He died aged 3, so take the 3 from his age.

6: 12
Barry talked about Cosmo Clock 21, at one point the world’s tallest Ferris wheel at 107m. Follow the road on Google maps east from there and it crosses a bridge by Elephant Nose Park. Look south from there and you find Yokohama Stadium. Into street view, you can look at the scoreboard where the bottom corners both show 10.29. Add the individual digits: 1+2+9 = 12!

7: 21
Ben talked about Al Capone’s time playing in an Alcatraz inmate band called the Rock Islanders. Quite a way south of there is an area called Eureka Valley – Archimedes famously shouted Eureka! in his bath. Before you get there you can find a series of buildings called The Painted Ladies – painted lady is a type of butterfly whose Latin name is Vanessa Cardui. Just beside these buildings on the map is Alama Park, and Davy Crockett famously died in the Battle of the Alamo. On the west side of the park – Scott Street – the tallest building is a white apartment block, number 625. 2+5 (the second and third digits) = 7, multiplied by 3 (half the first digit) = 21.

8: 5
Right at the start of the podcast, Barry mentioned the pioneering journalist Nellie Bly, whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran. She spent time undercover in an asylum on Blackwell Island – which has since been renamed Roosevelt Island, the very first stop on our NYC tour! Paul (Simon) and Art (Garfunkel) sang about the 59th Street Bridge, the other name of the Ed Koch Queensboro, a cantilever bridge running northwest off Roosevelt Island. Continue along 59th Street and you come to the southeastern corner of Central Park where the Pulitzer Fountain sits – Joseph Pulitzer sponsored Nellie Bly’s trip around the world. It is adjacent to 5th Avenue.

FINAL CLUE ANSWER: TEAM CLUE
This is a straightforward enough clue that you have a number-letter cipher – turn the 8 numbers into letters of the alphabet and you have your final answer: TEAM CLUE.

Join Worst Foot Forward on:

---

Click here to go back