The Clock Without a Face

Released: 2010-04-07  - Present

The Clock Without a Face is a treasure hunt for twelve emerald clock face numbers buried in twelve locations across the United States. Their locations are clued via pictures in the 2010 book The Clock Without a Face (Amazon) which details the thirteen floors of Ternky Tower and the thefts that have taken place on each floor.

Timeline

• 2010-03-01: Gus Twintig starts using Twitter.
• 2010-03-21: "The Emerald Khroniker Has Been Stolen" news entry.
• 2010-04-07: "The Time Is Soon" news entry.
• 2010-04-13: The Clock Without a Face book is released.
• 2010-04-14: "Questions Answered, Answers Questioned" news entry.
• 2010-04-20: "Recruitment Tour Underway" news entry.
• 2010-04-22: "The Sleuthing Virus May Make You Sick..." news entry.
• 2010-04-22: Most recent tweet from Gus Twintig.

Recruitment tour (spoken-only non-book clues at each)

More details at http://gustwintig.com/news/2010/4/20/recruitment-tour-underway.html.

• 2010-04-24: Los Angeles, CA.
• 2010-05-01: San Francisco, CA.
• 2010-05-04: Oakland, CA.
• 2010-05-13: San Jose, CA (catherwood).
• 2010-05-15: Corte Madera, CA.
• 2010-05-16: Berkeley, CA.
• 2010-05-20: Baltimore, MD.
• 2010-05-22: Philadelphia, PA (diszaster).
• 2010-05-23: New York, NY.
• 2010-05-25: New York, NY.
• 2010-05-26: New York, NY.
• 2010-05-27: New York, NY.
• 2010-06-01: Cambridge, MA.

Non-book clues

• 2010-04-13: McSweeneys newsletter: (And we'll give you one more enticement, a clue exclusive to this email, for your use alone—are you ready? Here it goes: Sometimes the answer is incorrect; sometimes incorrect is the answer. Now go! Hunt! Dig!
• 2010-04-24: From the Los Angeles book tour: "I think it was, "The clown knows..." I know "clown" is right."

The thirteen floors of Ternky Tower

Based on the ladies from the fifth floor, current speculation is that each floor's picture hints at a state, mile, and highway. Each floor also contains an item stolen from another floor's resident (per Roy Dodge's solution). Finally, readers have noticed that most of the floors contain a donut and an eye. To ease lookups, I'll use B, M, T, L, R for bottom, middle, top, left, and right.

13: Bevel Ternky, landlord

• GusTwintig.com caption (bathroom): "Something had been washed here"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: dripping water from the faucet.
• GusTwintig.com caption (pedestals): "No fingerprints could be detected on any surface"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: candle flame flickering, light twinks off display cases.
• GusTwintig.com caption (pedestals): "Any one of these could satisfy a lifetime of thievery"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: four-headed dragon tongues flick in and out.
• GusTwintig.com caption (the safe): "Only one thing was missing. Actually, twelve things."
  • GusTwintig.com animation: eye blinks.
• Donut: BR: On a pedestal between the table and sink.
  • The donut is in a circle of light, like it was an "art" sculpture.
• Eye: BL: Behind the safe, at the top of the wall building.
• TL: Smoking pipe artwork is The Treachery of Images by Magritte.
• TM: The bed and pillow appear to be wet.
• ML: Vacuum cleaner outside of a display case.
• ML: The toilet is Fountain by Duchamp.
• ML: Three keys on the table. "Ternky" == "turn key"?
• ML: Puppy sculpture is Jeff Koons' Ceramic Puppy Dog Vase.
• MR: The egg-like sculpture is probably the 1904 Kelch Chanticleer Egg.
• MR: There is a missing painting nearest the elevator's wall.
• BL: Andy Warhol made a Brillo box "art" sculpture.
  • The coloring of the letters and borders are wrong.
• BM: "1-1-8" appear on a scrap of paper sitting on the bottom table.
  • These are likely the safe's combination (per Roy Dodge, last page).

12: P.K. Quello, alchemist

• GusTwintig.com caption (laboratory): "Things were in the process of changing to other things"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: whirling blenders, smoke from the exhaust.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: BM: Disembodied eyes on the table.
• Stolen item (theirs): Six bars of lead (tenth floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ??: ??? (??? floor).
• Ternky calls P.K. Quello "Paul" at one point. References The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
• TL: The blackboard formula (diagram) appears to be C2H3O5N; the written formula is C3H305N.
  • The missing element, Carbon, has an atomic number of 6.
• TR: There is a chair on the wall with a spring in the seat.
• TR: Toilet flushes are turned into cake or lemonade?
• MM: Tea is turned into like-colored t-shirts.
  • Four [cups of] tea? Four t-[shirts]? Forty? 40?
• ML: The Periodic Table of the Elements has MI where AR should be.
  • This could indicate the state is Michigan or Arkansas.

11: Ida Mayfield, saver

• GusTwintig.com caption (clock corner): "Time seemed to be moving very slowly"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: "HI SCORE" flashing on the pinball machine.
  • TM: Note that the book's pinball machine has the word "FOT".
• Donut: BM: A giant mass of them piled into a corner.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): A zucchini bought in 1983 (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): MM: Burpy bear lunchbox (eighth floor); by donuts.
• Ida Mayfield Wood was a famous hoarder from the early 1900s.
• TM: Out-of-place items on bed: blue cup/mug, money, red apple, orange, red apple.
• TM: 770 on the upside-down arcade machine.
• TM: FOT on the pinball machine.
  • Translates to 6 15 20 which is zipcode for Canton, IL.
• ML: Out-of-place item: pineapple behind the televisions.
• MR: Out-of-place item: lightbulb on the toasters.
• MR: Out-of-place item: green folded item on newspapers.

10: General Klobberduck, hunter

• GusTwintig.com caption (hammock): "Rustling sounds emanating from underbrush"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: snake swimming in the bathtub.
  • He is abbreviated as "Gen. Klobberduck" on the website.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): His best hunting rifle (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ML: Six bars of lead (twelfth floor); by pool.
  • Five grey rectangles are visible with "Pb" (the chemical symbol) on them.
• TM: 3-legged stool, snake in the shape of an 8, 7-legged spider.
• TR: In the living room is a man's head mounted on a wall.
• ML, MR, BB: A lion, tiger, and bear have numbers 26, 25, and 24.
  • "Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!"; could be Kansas.

9: Munari Bakula, futureman

• GusTwintig.com caption (curved room): "The future appeared to be curvier"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: electrical arcs between two machines.
• Donut: BL: On the kitchen floor near the sliding doors.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): Anti-gravity boots/green galoshes (eighth floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ML: Twelve-headed self portrait statue (third floor); in laundry.
• "Munari" Bruno is a futurist and Scott "Bakula" starred in Quantum Leap.
• ML: Wire sticking out of the computer console forms an 8.
• MR: Blue dome has the numbers 1010100, which binaries to 84.
  • I-84 runs through the state of Idaho.
• MR: White wire behind the wall spells "one" in cursive, near the elevator.
• MR: "It is Forever" is written above the door near the elevator.
  • Motto on the Idaho State Seal translates to this from Esto Perpetua.

8: Amber & Jamie Kaulken, children

• GusTwintig.com caption (living room): "Smells were observed to be bad-smelling"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: flies over the garbage bags; cup with green liquid spills.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: MM: On red door by the Connect-4.
• Stolen item (theirs): Burpy Bear lunchbox (eleventh floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): MR: Anti-gravity boots/green galoshes (ninth floor); by elevator.
• "Kaulken" likely refers to Macaulay Culkin from the Home Alone movies.
• ML: The ladder in the bathroom could look like the letter A or E.
• BM: The Hopscotch board has two rocks in placements 5 and 9.

7: Jigsy Squonk, clownist

• GusTwintig.com caption (carnival games): "The fun here was not as fun as other fun I had previously funned"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: water gun filling a balloon; the balloon pops.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: TR: The bullseye for the water dunk tank.
• Stolen item (theirs): Lavender bubble-shoes (sixth floor).
• Stolen item (hidden):: ??: ??? (??? floor).
• TM: 91.1 on the television.
• TM: Balloons cover US map, except Illinois or Iowa.
• ML: 8 on the cereal box.
• ML: Two aces (1 and 1).
• ML: 56 on the ketchup bottle.
• ML: 30 minutes or less on the pizza box.
• MM: 7 on the 7-Up bottle.
• MM: 5 on the bumper car.
• BM: 25 on the cotton candy mix.
• The various numbers could point to Morgan City Beach in Southern Louisiana.

6: Bert D'Grnp, mime

• GusTwintig.com caption (bathroom): "Something was hiding inside that toilet"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: toilet bowl overflows onto the floor.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): Belgian antique unicycle (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): BL: Lavender bubble-shoes (seventh floor); under couch.
• TL: The walls of the checkerboard room have Roman numerals XLV (45) in black.
  • State Route 45 (SR 45) is a 96-mile stretch of highway in Ohio.
• TM: There are 76 black and white tiles in the checkerboard room.
  • State Route 76 (SR 76) is a 82-mile stretch of highway in Ohio.
• ML: The bathroom pictures might rebus to Ohio ("Oh", "Hi", "Oh") or "0-5-0".
• SR 45 and SR 76 "meet" at the North Jackson Cemetery in Ohio.
  • Like the various floors, the cemetery's satellite view has a noticeable eye.

5: Vera Mazel & Josie Grey, puzzlers

• GusTwintig.com caption (kitchen): "The ladies hadn't unpacked"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: book on the table changes pages.
• Donut: BL: Between boxes on the floor, to the left of the kitchen table.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): A Victrola (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden):: ??: ??? (??? floor).
• TR: The collection of boxes are a magic square equaling 21.
• BM: The book on the table is opened to the second floor.
• BM: The book holding up the table is The 39 Clues.

4: Sigfried Plumpjack, hamster-enthusiast

• GusTwintig.com caption (wheel room): "There were two of everything"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: hamster wheel turns.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): Montecore's metronome (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ??: ??? (??? floor).
• TM: There is a faint upside down 5 in the woodchips.
• MM: The largest room has an outline like New Hampshire; Vermont is evident too.
• MR: The temperature on the big thermometer appears to be 95.
  • I-95 is at the southern point of Route 7 in Vermont.
• BL, BR: A 7 could be seen as the kitchen cabinets, another for the bookshelf.
  • Route 7 is the highway that runs the length of Vermont.
• BM: The music notes, ignoring the missing fifth line, are DE. Delaware?

3: Rosa Tse-Levy, artist

• GusTwintig.com caption (plaster room): "Oops"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: vase falls out of the kiln and breaks apart.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ML: The first hanging photograph in the dark room.
• Stolen item (theirs): Twelve-headed self portrait statue (ninth floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ??: ??? (??? floor).
• TR: Near the kiln is a mirror that is reflecting the number 445.
• MR: An orange shelf near the kiln which looks like the number 6.
  • This could also be the kanji symbol for the number 5 (五).
• MR: There looks to be something missing from the pedestal next to the orange shelf.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: "Standard Station" by Edward Ruscha, 1966.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: "Cakes" by Wayne Thiebaud, 1963.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: "A Bigger Splash" by David Hockney, 1967.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: "Ocean Park No. 67" by Richard Diebenkorn, 1973.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: Bettmann Archive, "Out of the Park" (Mickey Mantle), 1956.
• BL: Artwork above her sink: Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney.
• BM: There are pictures of an eye, gaps between teeth, and an O.
  • "I", "Diastema", "O" == Idaho?
• BM: The freezer door of her refrigerator is open.

2: Krieger Manzarek, paranoiac

• GusTwintig.com caption (security rooms): "This was not fun"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: moving camera, flickering laser beams, boiling pan.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): Pink Pony toothbrush (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ??: ??? (??? floor).
• "Krieger" and "Manzarek" are the surnames of two members of the The Doors.
• TL: Times of 3:28, 1:80, 4:14, and 9:12 are shown.
• MR :The only floor where the floor number also appears outside the elevator.
• BR: The symbol on top of the x-ray machine is the logo of Horticulture Access Solutions.

1: Travis Pupkin, junior deducer

• GusTwintig.com caption (bathroom): "The tape was still running"
  • GusTwintig.com animation: reel-to-reel tape recorder spinning.
• Donut: ??: ???.
• Eye: ??: ???.
• Stolen item (theirs): Magnifying glass (??? floor).
• Stolen item (hidden): ??: ??? (??? floor).
• Robert De Niro played "Travis" Bickle (Taxi Driver) and Rupert "Pupkin" (The King of Comedy), both by Martin Scorsese.
• ML: The names below the pictures above the bed are Jeff, Matthews, and Elliott.
  • Thomas Jefferson, Dave Matthews, and Missy Elliott, all linked to Virginia.
  • Thomas Jefferson played the violin while composing the Declaration of Independence.
• MM: There are only 48 stars on the United States flag.
• MR: Framed newspaper: The New York Times, "Strike Over: Baseball Resumes Aug. 9".
• BM: 1% on the creamer carton near the coffeepot on the kitchen table.

External links

In-game websites and content

• Official website of Gus Twintig
• GusTwintig on Twitter
• gustwintig@gmail.com

Further resources

• HitContests forum threads
• Tweleve forum thread
• Unfiction forum thread
• The Clock Without a Face at Wikia
• Adam Rex, artist of the residents
• Scott Teplin, artist of the floors