CONCEPT
Also known as Trip to Chicago, Part 8.
We arrived at Ida Noyes and quickly located the other judges in the process of setting up in the West Lounge.
The judges set up.
Behold. A Joe.
An early glimpse at the 2006 judge T-shirt. Butt’s up.
Judge T-Shirts have been strong the last two years. 2004, for being a banner year in every other way, sported rischlongulous shirts that crumbled after two passes through the laundry. 2003 was solid with Gonk, but sadly (keeping with the “cut out the fat” theme) somewhat unmemorable. 2002 was sweet. In fact, 2002, 2005, and 2006 are my favorite years, T-shirtwise.
After setup was finished, there was nothing else to do but get crunk.
The calm before the storm:
The storm:
The judges pass the time until midnight with Goat Wrestling.
More photos of this epic struggle between Christian and Ian are visible here.
List release this year was relatively austere (a trend in effect since 2003, when one might argue we took all the fat cut out of the rest of scavhunt and packed it with thick obscenity into a list release that required teams to fetch a list, collaborate to pin down the real list which had been shredded and buried six feet deep at remote locations on the shoreline between Kenosha and Gary… only two teams found lists by circa 4 AM, and list release has never been the same since).
This year captains found themselves in the role of schoolchildren, given a course booklet with some vital information and a syllabus of library books with correspondant LoC call numbers.
Scrutinizing the Loot.
Most teams quickly realized that these books were located at the Reg. Each book, in fact, contained several pages of the List, and each team had a different syllabus, ruling out the possibility of sabotage. The other half of the Judges had been stationed at the Reg to spot for foul play, but happily, none occurred. I am happy to report that sabotage has been a virtual non-issue for several years running.
While there were several hiccups (the FIST in particular had some trouble with one of their entries) all teams must have found their lists because nobody showed up to “office hours” outside the library at 1 AM. We continued on to Jimmy’s and closed it out. From there we headed back to Courtney’s (henceforth referred to as Judge HQ).
I am happy to report that almost every last judge spent the duration of the Hunt nights at HQ… advanced slumber parties are half the point of judging in the first place. That first night we ate rice krispees and watched Soccer Dog, which, like Snakes on a Plane conveys pretty much all that’s needed with its title.
Well, okay, one might be persuaded to included the official slogan:
“There’s no rule that says a dog can’t play.”
The night also marked the beginning of my short and tempestuous love affair with Soul Calibur.
END OF POST.