Deep-Dish Scavenger Hunt

Hey, guess what I just watched. That's right (or wrong), The Incredibles. That's a pretty good film, and I just realized why. Brad Bird, the writer and director of the film, was the mastermind behind The Iron Giant. That was awesome when I first saw it.

"Goddamn, I'm evil."

In addition, I was fooling around with the concept of an enormous scavenger hunt that would take years to finish and require massive amounts of participants that could group up into teams, when I found out that it's already on. OMG YOU GUYS! The University of Chicago has been doing exactly this since 1987 (That's why I called it deep-dish. 'Cuz it's from Chicago. Delicious deep-dish). Every year, a list of items is compiled; items that boggle the average mind. Number 17 on the list is

Have a beer with:

1. A former candidate for civic office
2. A current candidate for city-wide office
3. A current candidate for state-wide office
4. A current candidate for national office
5. A current candidate for POTUS

In case you're wondering, a beer with Obama or McCain will net you 100 points. Other, slightly more mundane items include a zeusaphone (300 points), a prehensile tail on one team member by the end of the competition (17 points), being able to perform one of the following spells at the judging: Wingardium Leviosa, Relashio, Engorgio, and a corporeal Patronus (five points per spell). Then again you'll get a random item every once in a while, like "A slinky that slinks upstairs. And if you play a video of a slinky going downstairs backwards, I will pee on you." That gets you 25 big ones. Or maybe "Have a Nobel Prize winner or “Weird Al” Yankovic witness your organ donor registration." That's fifteen points (sixteen for Weird Al). Check out the full 2008 list here (PDF). Also, number four on the list.