If you remember, last week I was off on a secret Thing. Let me reveal what it was:
The Game. This year it was No More Secrets.
I’ve always wanted to play, and a friend of mine has been doing it for years. This time the stars aligned correctly and I got to spend 36 hours in a van with three friends, solving puzzles, running around deserted campuses and swampy parks, and desperately trying to force our over-tired brains to focus and stay ahead of the competition…
I realize that this might not sound fun to all of you. I loved every geeky second of it.
I’ll post more pictures and details as they become available. Meanwhile, there are some “preclues” hidden at the above site, if such things interest youse. Feel free to take a guess at which team was mine….
Fanny Roborat
22 comments
Jim (OJNTNJ)
May 25, 2007 at 11:23 am
1I pretty sure Nyou doesn’t remember. He was pretty well in his cups all last week.
I however, have been on pins and needles waiting to hear what was up? I’m looking forward to the details and pictures…even if they involve panda drag.
Jim (OJNTNJ)
May 25, 2007 at 4:21 pm
2Very sneaky Adam. Waiting until I make fun of your typo before invoking the five hour rule.
Ill bet you excel at this “The Game.”
Murray
May 25, 2007 at 4:38 pm
3This is probably getting old, but I’m guessing it was A friend not I friend.
We do something like out here at Grouseland. Our Great American Bike Rally is a puzzle on a bike. My job is to get them lost and unable to answer the questions and their job is to beat me at my game.
cooper
May 25, 2007 at 5:23 pm
4Col. Mustard - in the Conservatory - with the AK-47. Solved in way less than 48 hours and with no discernible carbon footprint. So, okay, what do I win?
Adam Felber
May 25, 2007 at 5:47 pm
5Yeah, “a” and “you.” But for more of a challenge… go solve those pre-clues!
[the second is the most fun: http://www.no-more-secrets.org/details.html
As a hint - those icons at the top are the teams themselves, whose names can be found here: http://www.no-more-secrets.org/newestmembers.html]
cooper
May 25, 2007 at 7:04 pm
6Sorry, gillian. I know you generally keep us up to date on these things, but…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_ main.html?name=Toles&date=05242007
cooper
May 25, 2007 at 7:09 pm
7Oh, and this one, too.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_ main.html?name=Toles&date=05232007
Maximum Bob
May 25, 2007 at 10:08 pm
8Do you think Bush ever reads Toles? I always figured that he might accidentally mistake political cartoons for “Ziggy.”
B. Reynolds
May 26, 2007 at 4:31 am
9“Now you get to play The Game.” Deliverance - 1972. That’s got to be my best line ever!
SeattleDan
May 26, 2007 at 7:50 pm
10Sounds like you had loads of fun, Adam. However at my advanced age of senility and vertigo, I doubt I’ll be particpating in the Seattle Games:
Teams in recent games have been required to walk around the roof of the Space Needle, find a puzzle hidden in a live rat, and circulate a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide from local ecosystems while dressed in superhero outfits.-From the wikipedia article.
David
May 27, 2007 at 6:22 pm
11Hell, I’m still trying to find the final item on the list for a treasure hunt from the summer of ‘53. We took those searches seriously in the Goldenrod of my youth, that microcosmic center of the Occident. Dammit, I miss those people and that place. Don’t ask me how I got to this comment from Adam’s post. I have no friggin’ idea. But it was fun, so what the hell?
dee
May 28, 2007 at 6:58 am
12I had a friend who grew up in Chicago and in his youth he and his friends would have “scavenger hunts”. In the list of items there was always “one filtered cigarette.” By the time the hit all the houses on the block they had enough cigarettes to share among themselves in the alley, where they threw the rest of the stuff away.
dee
May 28, 2007 at 10:48 am
13Anyone in the NC area — WWDTM is coming to W-S on September 13! Of course, we don’t know who will be on the panel (but if SOMEONE doesn’t move heaven and earth to get here I will be sorely disappointed). cooper, you can come up and crash with the in-laws. And if cooper can’t make it maybe the rest of you can crash with his in-laws.
Tickets go on sale at www.wfdd.org on July 2 at 9AM. I missed the giveaway with a pledge on May 17 since I was travelling up to Michigan that day. I am soooooo excited!
siobhan
May 28, 2007 at 4:30 pm
14Cooper/#6: what he said.
cooper
May 28, 2007 at 6:30 pm
15dee, be there or be square. Thanks for the heads-up. The in-laws will put me up if I bring along a grandchild, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do. They’ve just about aged out of the “cute” stage by now (20 & 17 yrs. old) and don’t want to be seen with us, so maybe the wife will want to go. She liked the wwdtm in Charlotte; I think she knew nearly half the audience at the show.
I had a great weekend down at the coast. Beautiful Carolina spring weather, frolicking in the (still brisk) surf, lying like lizards in the sun. This is definitely prime time in the Southeast. “It’s Pat!”, you’re time will come in two months or so. Faith.
It's Pat!
May 29, 2007 at 3:52 am
16Oh no Cooper, you can have your beautiful Carolina spring weather. It’s all green and pretty here too. I met a Texan the other day who said it looks like our corn is on steroids, it’s growing so fast. None have hit a homerun to my knowledge however.
Dee, I remember doing the same thing at scavenger hunts - we would get a list, then go ask for whatever it was we really wanted - like smokes or cans of pop. We would gorge ourselves, then we would just tell the hunt organizer people we sucked at the hunt. The funny thing was how willing people were to give us stuff - we would tell them we were in a big hurry, and they would just start scrambling. Maybe they were thinking if they hurry, we would leave sooner.
The hummingbirds (only one type, the Ruby-Throated) were at the feeders within two hours of putting their chow out. Nice to have them back.
David
May 29, 2007 at 6:15 am
17You guys…. We were soooooo naive when I was young. We actually looked for the things on the list. Damn.
(nt) Pete
May 30, 2007 at 7:27 am
18Since no one else will speculate as to Adam’s team — I can only wish it was the pirate themed “Briny Deep” just for the chance to revisit sister Susie’s embarrassing childhood photo of Adam as the “purple pirate”…
Looks like it was more fun than a barrel of wombats.
David
May 30, 2007 at 4:21 pm
19Don’t forget swashbuckling, (nt) Pete. Mother Felber’s Little Adam had style to squander.
(nt) Pete
June 1, 2007 at 12:22 pm
20Ahh, finally I think I see… if indeed the second of the clues is the most fun — Adam was with “The Smoking Gnu”. Sadly, no gnu-themed embarrassing childhood photos have yet emerged.
(nt) Pete
June 1, 2007 at 2:15 pm
21Crap, crap, crap… not to the ultimate solution of the puzzle yet… still working…
David
June 1, 2007 at 6:40 pm
22I’m clueless about the puzzle, of course, but it’s kind of fun watching your quest unfold, (nt) Pete.