Amy (19)
Carrie (4)
Charlotte (10)
David (12)
Donnie (7)
Eric (12)
George (6)
George (6)
Jo (14)
John (7)
Kenny (16)
Leo (3)
Martha (9)
Meg (9)
Mikey (5)
Miranda (7)
Neil (8)
Nick (12)
Paul (8)
Peter (9)
Raymond (5)
Stan (8)
Stephen (10)
Winston (13)
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1 Answer
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2
It appears that
these names are famous quartets, each missing a person. (For instance, "Meg", "Jo", and "Amy" are three of the four main characters of Little Women; "George", "Paul", and "John" are three of the four Beatles.)
If we
look at the numbers of the people in each quartet, they form an arithmetic sequence. (Meg, Jo, and Amy are 9, 14, and 19, with a constant difference of 5; George, Paul, and John are 6, 7, and 8, with a constant difference of 1.)
Taking this data, the answer is extracted by
continuing each arithmetic sequence backwards. This always gives a number from 1 to the length of the missing name in each set; use this number as an index into the name.
Little Women: Amy (19), Jo (14), Meg (9), BETH (4) = H
The Beatles: Paul (8), John (7), George (6), RINGO (5) = O
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donnie (7), Mikey (5), Leo (3), RAPH (1) = R
Sex and the City: Charlotte (10), Miranda (7), Carrie (4), SAMANTHA (1) = S
Ghostbusters: Winston (13), Peter (9), Raymond (5), EGON (1) = E
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young: David (12), Stephen (10), Neil (8), GRAHAM (6) = M
South Park: Kenny (16), Eric (12), Stan (8), KYLE (4) = E
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf: Nick (12), Martha (9), George (6), HONEY (3) = N
The letters spell out HORSEMEN, another famous quartet.
(I haven't figured out whether there's an ordering mechanism yet... it seems like there should be, but the differences don't appear to give anything useful.)
