I was somewhat disappointed that there weren’t more participants in this contest, but such is life. As it is now February throughout the world, it is time first to provide the solution to any who would like it and then to announce the winner of the contest.

As for the solution, participants were to begin by answering the eleven clues and then to arrange them in a pyramid (like Khufu’s of old) with the shortest response at the top and the longest at the bottom. As the answers are as follows:

- Kelvin's zero description…backwards ETULOSBA
- A day for pranks and lying APRIL FIRST
- "The Silver Bullet"…bottoms up! COORS
- Mbomou and Eule's child UBANGI
- Bond’s boss M
- He lives under the name "Mr. Sanders" POOH
- Bingham's lost city MACHU PICCHU
- Crichton's referent to my residence RISING SUN
- Demi's Jane or Hasbro’s Joe GI
- One of Bennie's band buddies JET
- Matthew's "Crash"…Track 2 TWO STEP

Then the pyramid would look like this:
M
GI
JET
POOH
COORS
UBANGI
TWOSTEP
ETULOSBA
RISINGSUN
APRILFIRST
MACHUPICCHU

After completing the pyramid, it then fell to the participants to
“Approach it from the right-hand side
And climb it to the sky.”

While climbing, they were to examine the “steps” to find the name of a sailor. This sailor’s name is “UTNAPISHTIM”, a “Noah” analogue from “The Epic of Gilgamesh”.

Upon finding this name, participants were required to do a little research into this epic and find in which tablet (for the epic is divided into tablets) his name is first mentioned. After examination, they would find him first mentioned in Tablet 9. Using this number, the participants were to code the name UTNAPISHTIM in their responses according to the directions given.

All five respondents eventually completed these steps and are, therefore, all eligible for the final prize. The first correct response was that of “peter”, so to him I’ll be sending 5 points. All others will get one point for being the next 4 correct responders. Also, I’ll be awarding “Simon M” with an additional point for his first (and my favorite) response…it may have been incorrect, but it was very well done.

As for the grand prize, I assigned the respondents the numbers one through five alphabetically according to their Bookmooch user names like so:

1. AlineM (Norway)
2. Andy Batangantang (Philippines)
3. dichroic (Finland)
4. peter (South Korea)
5. Simon M (Serbia)

I then shuffled some corresponding number cards and fanning the cards, I employed my son to draw one of them. He drew the number 1. My congratulations go out to AlineM and to all the participants…I hope you enjoyed the contest. Points will be distributed immediately after posting this message. To AlineM, I await your notification as to where you would like me to send the 25 charity points. Finally, I’d like to again thank Cara and Michelle for donating the bulk of the points (I hope you weren’t disappointed). Have a great day!

I, for one, love these! Thank you Rebel Sun - again!

Well, I didn't get a perfect pyramid. I didn't solve COORS (I knew it should be something to drink) and APRILFIRST (of course it was that day, but I didn't write it this way...tried "aprilfools" and even "allfoolsday", and then I had to put "vilcabamba" instead of "macchupicchu"...but it made no sense:)

When I finally knew that I should climb the pyramid edge (not inside of it, although starting from right), and even with the two words missing, the answer was clear. Luckily I had read the Epic of Gilgamesh (or at least some kiddie version of it:) years ago. I didn't remember much about the guy, but that absolutely rad name had stuck somewhere in my mind :P

And yes, I also thought it was the 11th tablet at first. By the way, "Uele" was spelled wrong. Was that intentional or not? (otherwise "Eule" is just fine, especially if it's from Germany:)

So, thanks again for the contest and congratulations to Simon, Peter (oh, you were so fast:), Andy and Aline!

Congratulations to everyone who solved the puzzle, especially the grand prize winner, AlineM. Let's all meet up again in the next puzzle contest...

I would like to thank Rebel Sun for yet again making a wonderful puzzle, Cara and Michelle for donating points, my cat for decorating my solution pyramid with muddy pawprints ;) and google - I couldn't have done it without you.

For me this was the hardest one yet, but I learned some new and interesting things along the way. I had never heard of Gilgamesh before. At first I thought I must have done something seriously wrong when I looked at what my pyramid said, but google rescued me. :)

So thanks again, Rebel Sun! You are indeed the puzzle master! And congrats to all who solved it. I'm starting to recognize some names...

My chosen charity is Books 4 Kids And Their Providers Project