Solution to The Scrambler

by David Speyer

This puzzle is like an acrostic, except that the "quote" consists of further clues. Reading down the first letters of the answers spells "THE ANSWER IS BACCALAUREATES", as indeed it is. The answers and clues are:

People who met Columbus Taino
What it's all about Hokey Pokey
Swelling of the organs edema
She had much joy in death Anne Boleyn
Emergency number nine-one-one
The condition of having a rank equivalent to ``mate'' in the British navy     sublieutenancy
The author of "The Care of the Pig" Whiffle
A vector taken to a multiple of itself under a linear transformation eigenvector
Type of fabric rayon
Modern day Babylon Iraq
Gerry Adams' organization Sinn Fein
Circumcision feast bris milah
Botany Bay native Australian
You are here Cambridge
Ivy in Harlem Columbia
One in a quintillion atto
"If you like ukulele ______" lady
Before the flood antediluvian
Astronomical cub Ursa Minor
Freedonian president Rufus T. Firefly
Greenland founder Erik the Red
An angry insect (?) Acrostic
City in alabama Tuscaloosa
Animal with tusks elephant
Horse Feathers password swordfish

2006 MIT Mystery Hunt