The Post Hunt!
The third(?) annual Post Hunt took place this afternoon, and Jake and I trekked downtown to join the thousands of other folks ready to traipse their way through the Penn Quarter looking for cryptic clues. (Seriously, it's one of those events where you look around and realize...you're one of...
those people: the sort of people who enjoy a super-brainy scavenger hunt on a sweaty afternoon.) We named our team "The Debbies" in honor of our fallen teammate who just
had to accompany a play she composed and music-directed.
We had learned a couple of things from our venture last year: we sprayed ourselves down with sunscreen, bought big bottles of water, and packed umbrellas and sandwiches. (By the end of the thing last year, we were downright starving.) We scoured the
Washington Post Magazine on the Metro, knowing that somehow or other, one of the articles--if not more--were going to relate to a clue in the Hunt.
We got to the official meeting spot in time for the announcement of the map coordinates and spent the next three hours walking around looking for answers in statues, outside of buildings, peoples' outfits, and even one misguided bush. All in all, Jake and I tallied 3.5 out of 5 correct answers (we're accepting a .5 for an answer we
totally got but wrote off as way too easy) and had a fantastic time running around figuring things out.
After the jump, a play-by-play in pictures, complete with how we got the answers we got. (Besides just being geeks.)
12:00- Gene Weingarten gives the opening address. That's Dave Barry and Tom Shroder behind him. Squee.
12:05- We mark the coordinates on the map and start a-hunting!
12:06- We didn't get very far; the stage was re-set to give one of the clues. We were completely baffled. Hank Steuver was reading from Wikipedia articles (including one about "Kimberly Nicole 'Kim' Kardashian") while a woman did interpretive dance behind him. No clue. We moved on.
12:33- We solve our first clue! The map led us to an area where we were given "bar passes." We noticed a tiki bar on the map, so we went there. Staffers were there giving out pieces of paper that said we had to follow the dress code--how many shoes were we wearing? Jake realized that if you looked at your pass at the right angle, the bar code said "nineteen plus." Add nineteen to the number of shoes you're wearing (two, one would hope), and you got the answer: 21. Woo!
12:49- We solve our second clue! This comic strip was completely unintelligible. BUT! If you reorder the panels, and write down the correct order, you get a seven digit sequence. I realized it was a phone number, put a "202" in front, and dialed. I got a message, telling us to count something in a particular panel, which we did. Win! (Also, the strip was pretty clever.)
12:50- I get to eat a sandwich and people-watch. These people haven't solved the comic strip puzzle yet. We have.
1:15- Sandwiches eaten, we go on to the next puzzle: a group of mannequin feet. Jake did some quick calculations and counted 555 1/2. WHICH! I totally pointed out in the
Post Magazine earlier this morning. There was a page of artwork about how to keep cool near the Washington Monument, and at the top, it mentioned that the Monument is 555 1/2 feet tall. I figured that was way too specific to be a coincidence. So...
1:20- On to the Monument! (What a great excuse to sightsee.) Where we found...
1:25- The man with the pink umbrella! That same piece of art in the
Post Magazine had a few figures who were trying different things to keep cool in a DC summer. There was a man with a child on his shoulders, a few women in burkas, and a man in a Dodgers shirt with a pink umbrella, with a note "Ah, looks like this man has the answer." (Thanks to Debbie for reminding us earlier!) He
did have the answer: the back of his shirt had the number 74. Solved!
1:45- Okay, this is our .5. Sculptures on the Ellipse which Jake quickly realized spelled "five hundred," buried halfway into the ground. We figured 500 was
way too easy of an answer. But 250 (the half of the "five hundred" we could see) wasn't a potential answer. We couldn't figure out for the life of us what it could be. So, after fifteen minutes or so of debating, looking at the map, and trying to figure it out, we moved on. But I'm totally counting this as .5, dammit! So there.
2:05- Back to the stage and Hank Steuver. We figured the answer
had to do with the movements the "interpreter" was doing. Steuver kept pointing us toward the specific motion she did when he said "the solution is clear." Inspection proved that this had nothing to do with water (I thought that was a smart way to go for a couple of minutes there), but we realized that she was a referee and kept making the "touchdown" sign, so that had to have something to do with something. Jake thought it might be the number of times she did the "touchdown" sign, and so we got 12...But that wasn't a potential answer. We looked at the map, and lo and behold, there was a picture of a football! So, back to the ellipse we went, where we found...
2:30- Which had absolutely
nothing to do with anything. We stared at this thing for what felt like
ever. We tried to do everything we could with those damn numbers. We could
not figure it out. Because it had nothing to do with the answer! (But at least I'll never forget the name "John Saul," which must show up on crossword puzzles sometimes. Not in this Sunday's, though. I looked, thinking that might be the answer.) Dejected, we went for ice cream. Good Humor solves everything.
2:45- By the time we got back to the designated meeting point, it was pretty rainy. All you could see were umbrellas.
3:00- Weingarten announces the clue for the endgame, and Jake and I realize that since we can't see the stage (and don't have all 5 answers anyway), we have no shot in getting it. We are sad. But cute.
3:15- Tom thanks our sponsors, including Papa John. Apparently, inside the dancing pizza, there is a pretty lady. Sister Slice.
3:20- Dave tells us all the answers to the puzzles, eliciting many "boo"s. He is very funny. But we knew that.
3:30- Gene presents the check to the big winners, who were from DC! At this point, we didn't care that we didn't win; we were just glad the winners weren't from Miami.
So, that was it. Even through the wind, the heat, the humidity, and the rain, we had an awesome time. The Debbies already can't wait 'till next year!
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