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Al Hamilton Metapuzzle

by Michael Korn

The following characters belong to this witness group:

Character	Address	Puzzle answer
L. S. Barton	12 Gold Creek Dr., Elizabeth, CO 80107	HANDSFREE
Hal Cleveland	2312 Lisa Ln., West Orange, TX 77630	OUTFIT
E. Cooper	822 Agee Ave. NW, Camden, AR 71701	EIGHT
K. Edison	51 Porteous Terrace, Plainfield, CT 06374	CELESTIAL NAVIGATION
N. S. Fenwick	1408 Darwin Ave., Princeton, IN 47670	SPECTATOR
Al Hamilton	180 Albion St. Apt.3, Somerville, MA 02144	ALIAS
O. Kilmer	68 Chemin de Malledaille, Bayonne 64100, France	CIRCLE
H. Lombardi	3205 N. Paul Bunyan Expressway, Hackensack, MN 56452	VANQUISH
Ali Pitcher	114 Church St., Hoboken, GA 31542	ATKINS
M. E. Stockton	256 Orchard Rd., Newark, DE 19711	GRETA GARBO
T. A. Whitman	405 Maplewood Cir., Trenton, OH 45067	TALCS
G. Wilson	237 Beer Garden Gulch Rd., Atlantic City, WY 82520	ZEBRA

Each character shares a surname with one of the twelve rest stops on the New Jersey Turnpike. This grouping is hinted at by their addresses: each city shares its name with a city in New Jersey. Order the names according to their location on the Turnpike, keeping separate lists for northbound and southbound rest stops. (Note: the Lombardi rest stop is accessible to both northbound and southbound motorists.)

Both directions:

• H. Lombardi

Southbound: (stops listed from north to south)

• (H. Lombardi)
• Al Hamilton
• K. Edison
• Ali Pitcher
• M. E. Stockton
• T. A. Whitman
• L. S. Barton

Northbound: (stops listed from north to south)

• (H. Lombardi)
• Hal Cleveland
• O. Kilmer
• G. Wilson
• E. Cooper
• N. S. Fenwick

Notice that the first names/initials of the southbound stops spell "ALKALI METALS", while the northbound stops spell "HALOGENS". There are six alkali metals and six southbound rest stops; there are five halogens and five northbound rest stops. As such, each rest stop can be associated with an element as shown:

• Hamilton -- LITHIUM
• Edison -- SODIUM
• Pitcher -- POTASSIUM
• Stockton -- RUBIDIUM
• Whitman -- CESIUM
• Barton -- FRANCIUM

• Cleveland -- FLUORINE
• Kilmer -- CHLORINE
• Wilson -- BROMINE
• Cooper -- IODINE
• Fenwick -- ASTATINE

Although not technically an alkali metal or a halogen, there is only one element which could reasonably be placed atop each of these groups, and combined with Lombardi's first initial, we see that we should pair up Lombardi with HYDROGEN.

It turns out that each puzzle answer contains the chemical symbol for the corresponding element. Listing the southbound stops (alkali metals), followed by the northbound stops (halogens), we have

H. Lombardi      H     VANQUIS(H)
Al Hamilton      Li          A(LI)AS
K. Edison        Na  CELESTIAL(NA)VIGATION
Ali Pitcher      K          AT(K)INS
M. E. Stockton   Rb    GRETAGA(RB)O
T. A. Whitman    Cs        TAL(CS)
L. S. Barton     Fr      HANDS(FR)EE

H. Lombardi      H     VANQUIS(H)
Hal Cleveland    F         OUT(F)IT
O. Kilmer        Cl        CIR(CL)E
G. Wilson        Br         ZE(BR)A
E. Cooper        I           E(I)GHT
N. S. Fenwick    At      SPECT(AT)OR
                             ^

Reading the column of letters which immediately precede the symbols spells the phrase SALT AL'S STREET, which is the answer to the metapuzzle.

---

Having contacted Al Hamilton with this phrase, teams are sent the following email:

To: TEAM NAME
From: Al Hamilton
Re: Salt Al's street

My, but it's snowy, and driving on these New Jersey streets can be a nightmare! Us Jersey guys named Al tend to stick together and help each other out when the weather gets bad. We pay it forward, so to speak, but only to other Als. So you can salt the street of anyone in Jersey named Al. Just send photographic evidence that you've done this to me at al.hamilton0@gmail.com.

When teams submit such a photo, they receive a "thank you" email from Al, and the next dossier is made available to them.