Rats. Sounds like I'm the only one left. Well, I'll celebrate with myself (*clink*).
Now that all answers are in, I'd also like to take a moment with this open mic and empty room to rank the worst puzzles. Not that this was a bad game - mostly a wealth of brain bending delight. But these...
Mild spoilers. But you want these spoilers.
1. A fool maid sits - o78
First of all, how is this an anagram? Scrambling an incomplete phrase made up of nonsense syllables? With an extra S thrown in, no less? It would be bad enough to scramble up only part of a word, then tell people to unscramble the part that is there and identify what is missing. Scrambling up 80% of solfege is... nonsense.
And you get "re" instead of "ra" even if you get that far. I don't know who figured that out.
After that, there are no less than 5 "daughters" I found on the internet, all from different sources, all with multiple spellings, and not a CBNC in sight.
Whoever solved that one... I raise my glass.
(As a side note, I had a heck of a time with the schoondoctor as well, trying to find the right combination of first, middle, maiden, and married names)
2. Canard / BQV - o79
This one's a little better since "Canard" is a reachable clue, and the puzzle is theoretically solvable with only that info.
But... what? Even with the answer in hand, no one has yet made a good explanation for what the BQV stands for. Bartlett Cove, suggesting small aircraft? Force in a magnetic field, suggesting physics? A relation of the Wrights named Bartlett?
Again, I raise my glass. Someone out there is a hero.
3. The turtle shells - o77
The main problem with this is that the turtle shells are a red herring. I learned a ton about the three shell scam on the sidewalks of New York City, about plastrons and red eared sliders... all for nothing. Now, if you search "turtle shell ocarina" you will find, in fact, ocarinas shaped like turtle shells. But starting from turtle shells, you'll never reach ocarinas.
The challenge with this is that you need specific domain knowledge, about four holed wind instruments, to have a chance at this. The puzzle offers nothing to get you there. And, when you start barking up that tree, there is no CBNC for English Pendant, Ocarina, English Fingering System, John Taylor (who designed the tablature)...
Anyway, a red herring, no guidance, and a very specific piece of background knowledge. Which is why it took three years.
4. Mother Trucker - o69
This one's only a little better than the Canard and the turtle shells, because the man is more recognizable (more common domain knowledge) and, with the answer in hand, you CAN actually go back to discover what the red herring "Mother Trucker" was meant to suggest.
But, searching for Mother Trucker with anything other than the answer in hand will lead you nowhere. And unless you recognize the man, the fact that he is sitting in something that looks like a prison cell, rather than a stage, will prevent you from identifying him.
This is one of those things, if you recognize the man, the puzzle is super easy. If you don't, there isn't enough there. Just a tragic puzzle.
5. Birth of the Bahamas - o35
The Bahamas were born in 1973. Period. Nothing happened there in 1965 (at least, not according to the internet). Alternatively, nothing happened in Mozambique in 1983. This is a head scratcher, no doubt.
This puzzle gets ranked better than the others since you can still vary the numerator or denominator one at a time until you advance.
6. Hercules - o50
I'll say, even knowing what the dice represent, I have trouble seeing it. Maybe a different color scheme would make it easier. I don't know. I get it. It seems fair, but I never would have figured this out - even now I can't connect the dice and what they represent with any consistency.
7. Magnitude 8.5 - o80
This one gets a bit of a pass since you can look up magnitude 8.5 earthquakes until you find the right one. But if I step back and assess the puzzle...
I'll state this clearly - you cannot make an anagram of random letters and expect people to figure it out. This is two first initials and a last name. You could take any last name, throw in two random letters, scramble it up, and no one would ever know what you meant to say.
There is saving grace in this puzzle, though. First of all, seeing dice and "perfect score" suggests dice games, and if you dutifully search through the dice games you would eventually see a name that matched the letters - reverse engineering the anagram.
And then, there are only so many 8.5 earthquakes to choose from.
8. Apron from hell - o31
This was fine as a puzzle. But you have to research the subject in depth to figure out the story and the detail that will advance the game.
I...didn't want to see that. I didn't want to hear about that. Seriously.
If anyone reads this, just type in Goulston St and move on.
===
That's my rogues' gallery. Everything else was difficult, but reasonable and doable. That leaves 90% of the game as genius, 10% as angst. For anyone out there reading this, hopefully this gets you past the immovable objects and onto the good stuff!
Thanks Van Buren boys, wherever you are.