Solution to Albumistanumerophobia

Answer: FEIGNED IGNORANCE
by Dahlia Schwartz, Jenny Gutbezahl, Phil Steindel and Susan Glass

The first set of 16 tables contains data for independent variables, and the second set contains data for dependent variables. Pairing one table from each set produces a common expression or song lyric. For example, pairing “Miles per hour” from the independent variables with “Nuclear by-products” from the dependent variables clues “Haste makes waste."

Once the variables are paired, sort them by the first year of the Independent variable (2000-2015) and compute the correlation. The absolute values of the correlations, rounded to two digits, all fall between 65 and 90, corresponding to ASCII codes of the letters A through Z. Converting to letters gives the solution.

Variable, phrases, correlations, and derived letters
First year	Independent Variable	Dependent Variable	Phrase clued	Actual Correlation	Rounded to 2 digits	Letter
2000	Unattached Potato Head mouths	Buoyancy of sea vessels	Loose lips sink ships	-0.7019539837	70	F
2001	Miles per hour	Nuclear by-products	Haste makes waste	0.6911633165	69	E
2002	Diurnal consumption of pomes	Medical professionals in the immediate area	An apple a day keeps the doctor away	-0.7292656055	73	I
2003	Extent and sinuosity of a path	Entrances	The long and winding road that leads to your door	0.7084534689	71	G
2004	Dairy-based beverages	Young males in this three-foot stretch	My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard	0.7764335148	78	N
2005	High-pitched noises coming from axle partners	Productions of 1970s musicals set in the 1950s	The squeaky wheel gets the grease	0.6911465564	69	E
2006	Kids' turkey templates	Laser shows	Many hands make light work	0.6796170994	68	D
2007	Chopped contestants	Unexpired cans of soup	Too many cooks spoil the broth	-0.7282143944	73	I
2008	Observations of kitchen equipment	Instances of the 6th plague	A watched pot never boils	-0.7101305673	71	G
2009	Rehearsals	Movies with Jamie Lee Curtis as an aerobics instructor	Practice makes perfect	0.7819573431	78	N
2010	Desire to have sex with me	Distance from my buddies	If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends	-0.789878835	79	O
2011	Plays of Paul McCartney's first solo single	Money exchanges at the US/Canadian border	Another day, another dollar	0.8183398188	82	R
2012	Affinity for Pennywise	Finger jewelry	If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it	0.653834218	65	A
2013	Groups of lions	Descent velocity	Pride goes before a fall	0.7822391047	78	N
2014	Q-Rating	Times judges are disobeyed in court	Familiarity breeds contempt	0.6712773859	67	C
2015	Non-recreational employment	Matteness of the finish of a pail fetcher	All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy	0.6926710848	69	E

Authors' Notes

This is a spiritual sequel to BAPHL 19’s Arrr-Squared (see www.baphl.org/19/pdfs/1-SABOTAGE-PIRATES-ACUTE.pdf), a puzzle we thought deserved a Hunt followup. Much to our surprise, it was possible to make datasets such that some of the correlations had only two significant digits (e.g., the correlation of [10, 20, 30, 40] and [50, 51, 64, and 57] is exactly 0.68), and the others could be brought arbitrarily close. However, this proved too amenable to brute-forcing, so we opted for a more approximate approach.