26th Kiwanis Hunt—Seeing Is Believing

There are many catchy phrases and idioms in the English language. They can be interesting, but also confusing at times, especially when there are several variations of a particular phrase meant for the same meaning/message. For example, we've all heard of "no pain, no gain." But another variation is "no risk, no gain."

"Seeing is believing" has been used in many, many ways to mean many, many things. It has been used in connection with something "magical" or "extraordinary", e.g. a magic trick or a seemingly impossible stunt/feat. Hence you must see it to believe it!

Q9) Seeing is believing, in such nightmarish times.

A9) WE LET OUR PRICE DO THE TALKING @ MY DREAM FURNITURE

A possible use of the phrase "seeing is believing", but certainly not exclusive. I suppose the furniture businessman was trying to boast that he's selling his goods at extremely low prices that it's hard to believe unless you actually see them. And it's in that sense that "we let our price do the talking."

Now, I have mentioned that the CoC for this hunt has conjured up some "loose" questions. This was one of them. And when it's "loose" there will be doubts, even when the hunters have actually found this signboard. Anything that might be hard to believe or abnormal or extraordinary in the slightest way may fit the phrase "seeing is believing".

However, perhaps the CoC can argue that he has directed the hunters to this particular board by including "in such nightmarish times", thus pointing to "MY DREAM". But "nightmarish times" doesn't necessarily refer to dreams only. It can also refer to something "traumatic", like an economic crisis. And when viewed from this angle, hunters may have to consider other signboards too. For example, a signboard containing "CONSULTANT IS FREE" can be hard to believe, because usually the "consultant" would surely charge a fee. So you've got to actually see it to believe that it's really for free.

Furthermore, the prudent hunter may decide against the MY DREAM FURNITURE board, because it doesn't agree with "nightmarish times" in the grammatical sense. This shouldn't be surprising though, because most of you who've been reading my comments on hunt questions would know that many CoCs are not grammatically accurate anyway.

Generally speaking, when there is "looseness" in the question, hunters may come up with alternative answers far different from that intended by the CoC. Just to give you an idea, consider this example from the same hunt:

Q5) Fifth first before second in the spectrum but is in reverse.

There are several ways to analyse this clue. One way is to look at it strictly from the cryptic point of view:

FIFTH first = F

second in the SPECTRUM = P

So F before P, but in reverse = PF

Therefore once the cryptic hunter finds PF on the signboard, he will take it without any hesitation because of course the solution fits perfectly. Such was the misfortune of the defending champion of the Kiwanis Hunt. For the CoC had intended the clue to be analysed literally, where "spectrum" is referring to the colours of the rainbow. The required answer: BLUE ORANGE, which was a challenge of the hunter's eyesight.