The Washington Post's 2011 Post Hunt

Fail.

That is the only word I can use to describe this year's Post Hunt.

I've participated in every Post Hunt since the first one in 2008. (I realize I didn't post a recap of last year's. My bad.) I've had a blast every year. The Endgame has always been exceedingly difficult to decipher. And the first five puzzles were very challenging but not impossible to figure out. My team always succeeded in solving at least four of the five puzzles (but never the whole shebang.)

But this year. This year.

As I have said before, the puzzles in past years were very challenging. But this year, IMHO, the Creators seemed to make it a point to force us puzzlers to think much farther outside any imaginable box to reach the answers. I seriously caution you, Creators, that this will dissuade the casual puzzler from participating in the future.

My team didn't stick around for the final clue. (Because, really, what was the point when we could see the answers in today's publication?) It's a shame, really. Apparently, one didn't really even need to solve the five puzzles to solve this year's Endgame, according to the comments. That, my faithful readers, is no bueno. (Though it definitely explains the overly large crowd of people sprinting past The Corner Bakery, where we were finishing up our lunch. That never happened in years past ... you'd see maybe three or six groups making a beeline like that.)

And what about those five clues in the magazine? What exactly did they have to do with the Hunt? From what I could see, they had absolutely nothing to do with it. I understand, and appreciate, red herrings with my puzzle events. I think they are a vital part of making puzzle events like The Post Hunt work. I just happen to think that there was a major imbalance in the "red herring to actual clue" ratio this year. And it all started with the magazine.

Hey, I'm not complaining ... much. I enjoy The Post Hunt. I enjoyed it again this year. But only because I got to spend the afternoon with some people I enjoy. I honestly think that the Creators dropped the ball and phoned it in this year. I certainly hope that they do a better job next year.

The Washington Post's 2009 Post Hunt

If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you will remember that I did The Post Hunt last year with a few friends. If not, you can read about it here.

Well, I did it again this year as well. Three of the original four members of Team Awesome were present. Member number four moved far, far away and so wasn't available. Instead, we incorporated four other people to join in our quest of solving this year's Post Hunt.

I'm not going to go into too many details. Anything about the Hunt, including answers, can be found on the official Post Hunt page. (Though it should be noted that one of our teammates is prominently featured on the video explanation for The Human Statues Puzzle.)

I wasn't really into the Hunt this year. Perhaps it was because of the size of our team. Perhaps it was because I felt disconnected from everything. Perhaps it was because of the overcast, clammy, cool day. Perhaps it was because of the boring-ness of the puzzles this year. For whatever reason, this year's Hunt didn't do it for me. But I still plan on Team Awesome (perhaps capped at five people) pursuing the fame and glory in solving next year's Hunt.

Oh, in case you're wondering, we didn't solve it again this year. And we got one of the clues wrong. So yeah. We'll do better next year, I hope.

Gird Your Loins And Don Your Thinking Caps

Any longtime reader of The District Diaries will remember my post from last year about The Post Hunt. Take a moment to read it, if you haven't already. I'll wait.

Back? Oh. Okay.

Ah, good. Welcome back.

Well, hallelujah and amen, boys and girls, it begins again!

The Hunt Returns!
Get ready for another wild, wacky afternoon of brainteasing puzzles in Washington, D.C.

When & Where
May 17, Noon-5 p.m., Rain or Shine
Starts at Freedom Plaza (14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW). Puzzles take place throughout downtown D.C.

So, where my peeps at? Are we up for tackling this again this year? Bring it on!

Yet Another Reason Why I Do Not Support Barack Obama

I understand that Charles Krauthammer is a right-wing pundit. This post in no way supports him or his positions, in general, because I generally don't. But, in my opinion, he is spot on in his Op-Ed column today about Senator Obama.

I have yet to know for what Senator Obama stands and for what he will fight ... other than his own hubris and his own rise to the highest office in the land.

A District Two-Fer

ONE:
In my continued mocking of my police chief's latest decision, the Metropolitan Police Department declares this weekend's neighborhood blockade a rounding success. But my favorite quote from the whole article is this:

"As cars came up, they made lefts and rights and went the other way," neighborhood activist Wilhelmina Lawson said. "I support them, and I understand what they're trying to do, but I think they're missing it by not sitting down and talking to the residents. We can help them much better if they talk to us."

But that's not all. My second favorite comes just paragraphs later:

Police in Baltimore, where there has been a 36 percent decrease in homicides and shootings this year, said they attribute that to targeting violent criminals and improving relationships with members of the community.

"You lock up the baddest of the bad in part by working with people in the neighborhood," Baltimore police spokesman Sterling Clifford said. "You look to people in the neighborhood to tell you who they are and where they are."

If B'more gets it, why can't we?

TWO:
How much did Harriette Walters syphon away before getting caught? $50 million? Not even close. Try closer to $185 million!

Following Harriette Walters's input, officials left her small unit out of the new software system, making it easier for her to escape detection as she allegedly produced fake checks that prosecutors say amounted to $50 million.

Directors in the scandal-plagued tax department now want to scrap the $135 million system rather than try to upgrade it to make it more secure. The chief financial officer's technology manager says the system, installed between 2000 and 2004, is too outdated and clumsy to be worth fixing.

This has been a rough couple of years for my poor city.

The Washington Post's 2008 Post Hunt

"Wait ... that's not the Geico Gecko!"

On a damp, cool afternoon, Washington D.C. experienced something new to the city ... The Post Hunt. This exercise in cerebral gymnastics was created by Dave Barry, Gene Weingarten and Tom Shroder. It is an off-shoot of The Herald Hunt, created by Dave Barry and Tom Shroder when they worked at The Miami Herald.

The turnout for this event was pretty impressive for a first year. I would estimate about 250 people showed, which comprised of locals from VA/DC/MD and visitors from FL who participated in past Herald Hunts. The object was simple ... solve clues to win the hunt.

The six games involved in solving the clues were not as simple.

Only six items were needed to compete in this free event - a copy of Sunday's Washington Post Magazine, a pencil, a piece of paper, a cell phone, your thinking cap, and a healthy sense of humor. If you didn't have a copy of the Post Magazine (because you're a cheap bastard), one was provided to you at the starting site. If you didn't have any of the other items ... well, you were SOL.

I was on a team comprising of myself, Peanut, Alpha Male, and Roommate Of Alpha Male. (Trust me, peeps, those nicknames are much less wordy and far easier to type than the ones they used to have.) Alpha Male and Roommate were fully prepared and had even tried to decipher some of the clues earlier in the morning (in lieu of sleeping, apparently). Peanut and I were not as prepared ... as I am both cheap and forgetful ... so we didn't get our Post Magazine until we arrived at the starting point.

I won't regale you with a play-by-play of the whole event. You can see the six games and their answers on the official website (and so understand the torture that we all went through yesterday). Instead, I'll cover some thoughts:

• Comics who have to follow a script for a hunt aren't as funny as you would expect. But children who ad lib are hilarious!
  
• The Washington Nationals Presidents rock!
  
• A male ruminant is fast.
  
• Reading comprehension is FUNdamental.
• Booing Dave, Tom, and Gene at any and every opportunity is a Herald Hunt tradition and is explicitly encouraged by Dave, Tom, and Gene.
• Coconut fortune cookies are very tasty.
  
• Dave Barry is as funny in person as he is in writing.
• I didn't think about getting Dave Barry's autograph until just now.
  
• Some people don't know the difference between a crossword puzzle and a scavenger hunt.
• I love Peanut and Alpha Male. And Roommate Of Alpha Male isn't too bad, either.
  
• Everyone loves Journey.
  
• The endgame was FAR too complicated and required thinking not only outside of the box but outside of reason.
  
• Which means that the players on the teams that actually solved all six games should be institutionalized.
  

All in all, I am very proud of my teammates. We solved the first five games fairly quickly and easily. Each person on our team provided extremely valuable input ... no one person dominated. Ours was truly a team effort. If we had understood how to think like the organizers better before the hunt, I think we would have placed in the top three. (Are we all in agreement here, teammates?) It was a fun five hours spent with people I wish I could spend time with together more often.

I do hope that the Post makes this an annual tradition. It's a great way to spend a day in the city. It's great exercise, both mental and physical. It's a great way to see parts of the city you may not otherwise see. It's a great excuse to spend time with friends. In short, The Post Hunt is just great!

The Dame and the Princess

To me, the story in this Washington Post article isn't that Julie Andrews was in the District today. Nor is it that Ms. Andrews read to a room full of people from a book she had written. It isn't even that she took the time to pose for pictures. No, to me, the story in this article is in the second and third paragraphs ...

But 9-year-old Graham Walker noticed only the voice, that clipped, hills-are-alive British accent that's pure Julie Andrews and that was reading to him and 11 other children yesterday at the District's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.

Graham knows that voice, too. He's such a Julie Andrews fan that, when he was 3, he dressed as Mary Poppins for Halloween, and he went as Maria to the singalong of "The Sound of Music."

*wipes tear from corner of right eye*

Oh, they start so young these days.

*wipes tear from corner of left eye*

Seriously, though, it struck me how pedestrian those two paragraphs were ... how natural they were to read ... as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Nevermind that this nine-year-old is a boy and that he's dressed at characters that Ms. Andrews has portrayed. What is important here is that this child idolized Ms. Andrews and he was able to meet her. I applaud the Post for depicting it as simply that.