  Mystery
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Serve the dinner backward, do anything - but for goodness sake, do something weird.
~Elsa Maxwell
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Miss Maxwell was a twentieth century socialite who introduced the treasure hunt and scavenger hunt as fun, party activities. A treasure hunt usually includes a series of clues, and/or a map that leads to a prized item or location. In a scavenger hunt, one usually is given a list of articles that must be found in order to win a prize.
Hunts can be mentally rewarding and are generally considered a good time. Today there are some popular annual community hunts, like the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt which has such oddball items in its lists like: procuring a 1996 Scavenger Hunt permanent tattoo, finding a Morman named Norman, and producing a flock of sheep.
The Great America Treasure Hunt is a more cerebral hunt. One has to unravel clues, codes, ciphers, and so forth over an eight day period traversing several states.
In college I started a semesterly scavenger hunt for a co-ed fraternity of which I was a member. It was an easy hunt that was basically a teambuilding exercise. I took principles of our organization and printed them on colored 8x11 papers. On the back of each paper I wrote a clue to the next principle. The papers were hidden across campus and the group was given an initial clue to find the first sheet. Small prizes were awarded at the end and teammates recounted how they figured out what to do for each step of the way.
Recently, I stumbled over Agatha Christie's "Manx Gold," a short story about people on a treasure hunt. While the background story was fictitious, the clues to treasure were not - the story was originally published in a magazine and was a vehicle for promoting tourism on the Isle of Man. There were true treasures buried and readers of the story who traveled to the Isle searched the area using Christie's clues. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the treasures were recovered. 
For me, there's nothing as fascinating as a good treasure hunt. I enjoy reading about them, producing them, and going on a hunt myself. When I think of treasure hunts, I think of old maps, the movie Goonies, and Susan Cooper's book, Over Sea, Under Stone.
I'd love to know:
Do you enjoy reading about treasure hunts? Would you like to go on one yourself? What do you think it is that makes them so mysterious? |
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Mystery: May 30, 2007 Issue [#1744]
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Interesting musing, Wistful! If you write about "cryonized eyeballs," do let me know, please.