From: Vincente Watkins <vewatkin@owu.edu>
                                                                 12/13/01
Subject: General Maze Info (clarifications for further
investigations)To: jmb184@frontiernet.net (John Bailey)

The following rooms are inescapable: 6, 11, 22, 24 ,38, 40, 43.  Room 24 is
of course the only "death" room, and all the other above rooms eventually
lead there.  Thus, any door that leads to any of the above rooms must be
the incorrect door.  However, as there is no (known) way to escape from
this loop of rooms, what clues could there possibly be therein to direct
one to the "correct" path?  However, if we assume that once one enters the
dead-end loop the desired destination is room 24, the following list
details the correct door to take from each room to take the shortest path
to the end:
room : door to room
6 : 40
11 : 24
22 : 38
24 :
38 : 40
40 : 11
43 : 38

The following rooms must be followed to room 41, and from there to room 1
(there is no way to reach the center from these rooms without returning to
the beginning, and the goal of the return trip is to find room 1): 3, 7, 9,
10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 25, 27, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 44.  Therefore,
it would seem that the correct door in each case would be the one that
leads most directly to room 41 (the gateway to 1).  The above rooms are
also in a loop, one being able to exit the loop only by returning to 1 or
entering the dead end rooms.  Here is a list of these rooms paired with the
door leading to the shortest path to room 1:
room : door to room
3 : 18
7 : 33
9 : 18
10 : 41
13 : 25
14 : 10
16 : 7
18 : 13
19 : 31
21 : 44
25 : 34
27 : 13
31 : 44
33 : 3
34 : 10
35 : 33
36 : 7
41 : 1
44 : 18

That is, effectively, the list of all the "correct" doors for the incorrect
doors, for either the trip to the center or the trip out.  This might cause
some consternation for people who thought they had "solved" rooms not
located on the shortest path.  Room 34, for instance, has more than a few
references to the word "eye", which most interpreted as a signal toward the
door marked "YES" (25).  However, the correct door from room 34 is 10
("MAYBE").  We can begin the interpret the room in different ways, but I
have not yet found any clues pointing to 10.  The couch and the potato
might go together (couch potato), and the "JIBE PINE COMPASS" sign could be
referring to the boat as easily as to a needle (jibe is a sailing term; the
boat may be made of pine; a compass is a standard navigational
instrument).  But none of these thoughts shed any light on the reasoning of
the room.

The following rooms are accessible if one goes to either room 20 or 26 from
room 1: 2, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 29, 30, 37, 39, 42, 45.  However,
they are clearly not all part of the shortest path, and the correct door
may change depending on whether is heading in or out.  Here is my list of
rooms matched with the shortest path to room 45:
room : door to room
1 : 26
2 : 29
4 : 29
5 : 30
8 : 29
12 : 2 or 8
15 : 30 or 37
17 : 45
20 : 5
26 : 30
29 : 17
30 : 42
37 : 42
39 : 12
42 : 4
45 :

Here is the list matched with the door to the shortest path to room 1:

2 : 12
4 : 15
5 : 20
8 : 12
12 : 39
15 : 37
17 : 33
20 : 1
26 : 1
29 : 2
30 : 5
37 : 20
39 : 4
42 : 37
45 : 23

The following doors are accessible only after reaching room 45: 23, 28,
32.  As one can only reach them on the return trip, we need only be
concerned with the shortest path from these rooms to room 1.  The list is:
room : door to room
23 : 8
28 : 23
32 : 28

The above listings should cover the "correct" answers for every room,
whether one be on the way in or on the way out.  The question to which we
now look is:  are these correct answers truly alluded to by the maze's
clues, and if so, how so?  Or, is there some other means for determining
the correct path besides finding the shortest path to one's goal?

VeW________