Status: Alive and kicking.
The Riddle (The Story of Edward Craig)
The First Question
Craig did his morning routine. Get breakfast, go back up to his room and lock the door. Then he would be there for about 6-7 hours, quietly answering his puzzle magazines, then spend 1-2 hours looking for more on the internet. A normal day, he thought.
But today, June 25, 2007, was no ordinary day. While skimming through the forums of his favorite puzzle-solving website, he comes across a weird riddle under the New Riddles topic. An unusually long 3-part-riddle that aroused his attention. Dropping everything he was doing, he started to think deeply and concentrated on the strange riddle posted by one named bdha_p17.
The father of his nation, the soldier and good
His killing name that destruction soon will hold
To the fiery demise off of the articles he wrote
From the leafy branches from the tree that doesn't grow
His goodness was tested, and he never intended
To made the disease with bad directive
From 7 in the evening where cars are made
His seat explodes as he dies in vain
With the thinker's victory, he made his own death
He ended up sitting on the gates of hell
He can see the flames, how his old lance fell
The war which he fought in killed his own men
Freemen came out and lived to play
The cards which the people made them make
The tyrant's power crushed at the wall
The bees react as on them fall the gold
After he died, his paradise fell
His people corrupted, his nation erupted
His fiery passion eroded and collapsed
Who is this man that I speak of?
He started reading it again and again. Frantic, and finding some difficulty, he calls a couple of "riddle-enthusiastic" friends over to help him.
"Yo Craig, what's the dish, why so frantic," said Dave Thomas, Craig's only jobless batchmate.
"Dude, have you seen this new 3-part-riddle posted on the forum?"
"Over 10 times, man."
Dave then starts discussing how he came across it, and how he has been working on it for almost a week. Then they start working together, like Microsoft's researchers hopelessly trying to figure out how they can make their software bug- and virus-free. They go at it for hours on end, and Dave, along with Matthew Evans, even slept at Craig's home just to focus on it. As the night passes by, they start to gather information frrom each other about their thoughts.
"What do you think, Dave?"
"I'm thinking... Multi-millionaire guy that dies in a car accident, hence the phrase 'seat explodes'. Maybe a tyrant, or some rich company owner."
"Maybe a guy named Rich, like that Rich Mullins guy. He died in vain because even of his divine efforts to fix the people through Christian songs, some Catholics still kill each other. He also died in a car accident in 1997."
"How about Edward Hanley, that former owner of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant sumthin-sumthin Union. There's a plus: he had a 'federal corruption board'."
"Good guesses, guys, but it just doesn't fit. Anyway, I'm gonna hit the sack, see ya in the mornin'."
"Yeah yeah."
Meanwhile, somewhere in the provinces of Eastern Russia, something massive is taking its first step.
But today, June 25, 2007, was no ordinary day. While skimming through the forums of his favorite puzzle-solving website, he comes across a weird riddle under the New Riddles topic. An unusually long 3-part-riddle that aroused his attention. Dropping everything he was doing, he started to think deeply and concentrated on the strange riddle posted by one named bdha_p17.
The father of his nation, the soldier and good
His killing name that destruction soon will hold
To the fiery demise off of the articles he wrote
From the leafy branches from the tree that doesn't grow
His goodness was tested, and he never intended
To made the disease with bad directive
From 7 in the evening where cars are made
His seat explodes as he dies in vain
With the thinker's victory, he made his own death
He ended up sitting on the gates of hell
He can see the flames, how his old lance fell
The war which he fought in killed his own men
Freemen came out and lived to play
The cards which the people made them make
The tyrant's power crushed at the wall
The bees react as on them fall the gold
After he died, his paradise fell
His people corrupted, his nation erupted
His fiery passion eroded and collapsed
Who is this man that I speak of?
He started reading it again and again. Frantic, and finding some difficulty, he calls a couple of "riddle-enthusiastic" friends over to help him.
"Yo Craig, what's the dish, why so frantic," said Dave Thomas, Craig's only jobless batchmate.
"Dude, have you seen this new 3-part-riddle posted on the forum?"
"Over 10 times, man."
Dave then starts discussing how he came across it, and how he has been working on it for almost a week. Then they start working together, like Microsoft's researchers hopelessly trying to figure out how they can make their software bug- and virus-free. They go at it for hours on end, and Dave, along with Matthew Evans, even slept at Craig's home just to focus on it. As the night passes by, they start to gather information frrom each other about their thoughts.
"What do you think, Dave?"
"I'm thinking... Multi-millionaire guy that dies in a car accident, hence the phrase 'seat explodes'. Maybe a tyrant, or some rich company owner."
"Maybe a guy named Rich, like that Rich Mullins guy. He died in vain because even of his divine efforts to fix the people through Christian songs, some Catholics still kill each other. He also died in a car accident in 1997."
"How about Edward Hanley, that former owner of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant sumthin-sumthin Union. There's a plus: he had a 'federal corruption board'."
"Good guesses, guys, but it just doesn't fit. Anyway, I'm gonna hit the sack, see ya in the mornin'."
"Yeah yeah."
Meanwhile, somewhere in the provinces of Eastern Russia, something massive is taking its first step.
♠ ♠ ♠
Try and guess who the riddle is pertaining to. Good luck, and post your answer on the comments. Hope you get it right. :)