ares's blog

It isn't often that I break character as the webmaster of this site, and my stolen persona of Joe Medallion and write as myself, but since there's a wide variety of opinions on the subject, and I'm not presuming to speak for the Cooler Crew, for this I am breaking character.

There's no doubt that this year's hunt was a quickie. Not the quickest hunt for sure, but going 5 clues leaves your head scratching as to where you went wrong and how the guy who found it got there so fast. Going five clues with Snail Lake, a park that's never been used before, leaves you scratching your head even more. The irony of the combination of finder and park isn't lost on me. In fact, I gave Steve a hard time about putting all that effort into writing the Treasure Hunter's Guide, covering most of the parks in Saint Paul, only to have all that work be for naught because his find was outside the city.

Now because the find was so fast, there's a lot of conspiracy theorists out there and that's to be expected but people, you don't have to be jerks in order to have theories. But jerks we have. And I've seen an awful lot of comments like "why do the same group of people keep finding the thing" and "I'm tired of seeing these guys' names in the paper about this". I'd like to know where people come up with that. This year was the first time Steve found it. I hope he writes the extended Ramsey County edition of the guide. I really do. I'll buy one. Maybe more. And when I do you can bet money that I'll have him sign them, just like my other copies are. Then there are Jake and Rob. Their names have shown up a time or two over the course of the hunt, and they are the names people have got to be talking about. I have to wonder if people said the same thing about the Longin family in 1959 and 1961. Maybe Peggy Fritzke and Iola Mossbrugger caught flack in 1972 after finding 1966's medallion. Let's not forget about Kirk Condie's finds in 1984 and 1992. Probably, but we'll never know about it because there was no internet back then.

Let's have a bit of a look at the three names that people are talking about now:

• Steve Worthman: Prior to the 2015 hunt, Steve appears in four stories that we have copies of here on the site. These were in 1998, 1999, 2005, and 2009. Why? Because like I said earlier he wrote the book on the parks in Saint Paul. He's done his homework. If anyone deserves to find this thing, its Steve. Finally, this year, he did.
• Rob Brass: Rob's name appears in a few more stories, and only in regard to his find in 2010, and the tip that led Jake to the medallion in 2007. There's a bit on him right before the 2008 hunt in a story about he and Jake trying to get a back to back in 2008.
• Jake Ingebrigtson: Jake's name appears more than the others here. That's not surprising. He's also one of the most vocal pushers that Ma Press has for the hunt. And he probably has most of this site committed to memory, and then some. Jake's life revolves around this hunt, so much so that he wouldn't accept a job that wouldn't allow him to participate. You'll find that quote somewhere in this here site.

The last time we heard any of these names connected with the hunt was with the non-find in 2012. Since people won't ever be convinced of anything, I'm not going to discuss the matter here. Contrary to popular belief their names aren't always mentioned in connection with the hunt. Believe it or not, the press has actually interviewed other people as well. Jay Kuehn has been searching for the entire time the hunt has been going on; she was interviewed by the PP this year. Jake's and Rob's names haven't even come up in the media since the 2012 hunt.

So where does the hate come from? Beats me, but its totally unnecessary. I imagine a lot of it stems from the pseudo-anonymity of the internet. One can post something and bask in the fact that unless they've made themselves known to the group of people to whom they are speaking, one is anonymous, except for in the server logs of the website in use.

But let me say this to the questioning masses out there. There are very few, if any, people out there that I can say deserve this more than these guys do. Not because of a sense of entitlement, but because they've worked their tails off for it. Jake has pretty much dedicated his whole life to the hunt. Rob almost has. Steve spent years researching the parks in Saint Paul, writing and updating his beloved treasure hunter's guide. To those who say that their presence in the hunt is detracting from the family aspect of the hunt, Jake and Rob are bringing their kids into the hunt as soon as they reasonably can, creating the next generation of treasure hunters, just as those of us with older kids have done before them.

Someone on one of the boards somewhere noted that Steve started looking this year the day before the hunt started, and wondered how you can do that. Its really easy. He got in his car and started driving to parks. Its called scouting. Professional sports teams aren't put on the spot making their picks on draft day; they go scouting. They're evaluating potential players for skills they're looking for and whether the player would be a good fit for a team. In the hunt,,scouting involves checking out park conditions; things like snow cover and recent changes are at the top of the list. Apart from the times it was found by a spontaneous hunter, I'd bet a lot of finders in the last couple of decades have spent a lot of time doing just that. And we know Steve's been "scouting" for nearly 20 years.

For a good deal of us, this treasure hunt is a passion. Look at this site. When it started out in 1998, it existed solely because of the Pioneer Press hunt. We've greatly expanded our scope since then. Today, in addition to clues for mock hunts, this site collects clues on at least 45 different local hunts around the Twin Cities and in greater Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. And people in this group have found several of them. Just look at the Hall of Fame: 28 finds. And all the information we can gather is right here. Available for free for anyone who wants to check it out. That information will always be freely available. What's not free is the discussion board site that the Cooler Crew uses. It's at a site called ableminds, a site which hosts many more discussion groups than just the Cooler Crew. They are the ones that charge a fee to post. As a group we have decided to allow access, even read-only access, only to those people who have chosen to support the site we post at, because page views aren't free. At some point in the near future we hope to have our discussion boards integrated into this site. At that point, I may set up a donation portal because I'll have to move the site into the cloud from my basement, but the content here will still be available gratis. How we'll handle the discussion boards is a question that will be answered at that time.

I don't know how may times I've said it in the past, nor do I know how many more times I'll say it in the future, but for a not insignificant number of people in the Cooler Crew, the treasure of friendship outweighs the treasure of the medallion. Maybe its easy for me to say that since I've never found the thing. But I know several people who have said that exact same thing or something similar.

The Pioneer Press this year ran an article on balancing camaraderie and competition during the hunt. Apart from the professor at the U and a former PP staff writer, the only people quoted in the article are Cooler Crew. I can only speculate that the reason for this is that no one else answered the open call for comments. When you read that article, you learn that while the Cooler Crew is all about the hunt, we're about a lot more than just the hunt. It should come as no surprise that if and when one of us finds the treasure, more of us are nearby when it happens. Why? Because coming full-circle, the greatest treasure a lot of us have found has been a good number of friendships that exist far longer than a mere 12 days a year. And because they exist for more than just 12 days a year, we're bound to be even tighter during those 12 days a year.

With that, I'm gonna go put my webmaster hat back on. Joe Medallion has a few features to add to the site before next year's hunt.

Every year, I try to make at least one improvement behind the scenes to the Cooler Crew site. Over this past year, we've added in as many of the small-town treasure hunts as we could get our hands on into the site. This has involved a lot of googling and other tracking down of articles from smaller newspapers, contact with the folks who run the various hunts, etc. As of right now, we have 633 distinct pieces of content on the site, dating back to some of the original writings of Greg Sax back in 1999, and including all of the hunts we know of that took place in 2013. I hope to keep that particular tradition up. I'm also in the process of trying to make the url names of each of the individual pages more consistent, something along the lines of content_type/source/year/name. 

On the back end of things, I'm tweaking the code that powers the treasure hunt section of the site. One of the more prominent things you'll notice is the addition of a Google Map to the hunt information section of the treasure hunt pages where we have GPS coordinates for the location of that particular treasure hunt. On that same note, I'm working to change the way the summary maps work on the site. As of right now, the summary map pages, e.g., the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt map are relatively static. Yes, they update based on hunts being added, but the underlying database structure isn't very conducive to maintenance, and all of the boundary data for cities, and hunt location data are sent to you, regardless of whether they're visible in the map you're looking at or not. I'm working to change that.

Finally, I'm actually working on a replacement for our forum. I think its kind of obvious that with Facebook, there are a lot of people who can't justify the $10 per year to maintain their membership at Able Minds. The last post in the Cooler Crew boards at the time I write this took place on September 25, nearly three months ago. A while ago, I started a conversation with many of you on Facebook just as a brainstorming place. I got a lot of good ideas from that. While I can guarantee that there won't be a forum hosted on coolercrew.com for the 2014 hunt, I'd really like to have something in place for the 2015 hunt. Don't be surprised if you see invites from me to test out a development site sometime over the summer. As for the history at Able Minds, well, you know we've got our boards from 1998-2005 archived here. I'm working to get the Ableminds content archived here too (as well as to keep it updated as people post). 

Oh and don't forget, with an account, you can create content here too. At the moment that's the only reason you need an account. As a result, accounts can now only be administratively created. When the forum comes online, you'll need an account for that as well. Until then, if you don't have an account, and would like one, follow the contact us link below and we'll set you up. We've done a major purge of "inactive" accounts, so if you had one before, or even thought you had one before, you might not now. Once the forum is back online, account creation will be re-enabled.

What a way to close out a milestone year for the Cooler Crew! Coincidence or not, after a slew of red herrings from the clue writer, we ended up digging back in the birthplace of the Crew -- well, the in-person birthplace of the Crew anyway -- Cherokee Heights Park. Of course things have changed since those early days. After two weeks out in the frozen tundra, we've decided to wimp out for the rehash, and nowdays have it indoors, typically in the shelter at Newell Park, and this year was no different.

Just as with the Predig, we met a lot of new friends, and welcomed back some old ones. After a years-long hiatus, KT returned and assumed co-MC responsibilities with Redbear. Those two just make a great comedic team when it comes to justifying which door prizes go to which winner. This year's door prizes were rounded out with plenty of PP swag, rightfully "acquired"  from the press conference and winner's party at Gabe's (and from the Vulcan Victory Dance the night before), along with the requisite clue-related prizes: a copy of Joel Barker's Paradigm book, plenty of Vinyl from the band "Head East" and Bing Crosby, and DVDs of the "movie" Mashed Rice, er, Archimedes, and crazy food items like Yellow Mashed Rice, Morton Salt, and Little Debbie Honey Buns.

Since, of course, this Crew knows how to eat, and no Rehash would be complete without a smorgasbord of yummy food, there was also a healthy dose of clue-related food, all of which was served at the aptly-named "Generally East Buffet". Red herring abounded, from actual picked herrign with red food color added, to Swedish-"herring" infused red Jell-O cups, "bluff"alo wings, Jumble-aya, "Barked Fences", and Me2's, Jake's, and BFG's "I'll eat my right nut" meatballs and "I'll drink my own pee" Lemon bars (you had to be on Facebook to understand where that came from). Let's not forget the absolutely beautiful cake Blackmamba decorated to look like the part of Cherokee Park the medallion was discovered in.

As has been customary, the finders joined us, a really sweet couple those two are, and were presented the annual Golden Pick award, and Cluey handed out the prizes to the winners of the Park Pick Pool, Redbear and the combination of Jake and Leelabell (whose prize was accepted on their behalf by Art Vandelay).

All in all, it was a great close to a decade and a half of the Cooler Crew, and a week and a half of hunting on the tundra. We're looking forward to an even better second fifteen years, and lots more weeks and a half worth of hunts. But if you really haven't got enough of a hunting fix, stay tuned for AW's mock hunt which will be starting just around the corner!

The 2013 Predig Gig was arguably one of the best we've had to date. With over 60 people in the group shot here, we probably had somewhere around 150 people come through the doors over the course of the evening. We had the entire banquet room at Joseph's Grill on Wabasha, plus as the room cleared out, we had a huge portion of the dining room. As always we welcomed back old friends and welcomed in new friends!

Joseph's provided their $15.00 pasta bar: all you can eat pasta, cooked up to order with whatever veggies, meat, pasta, and sauce you wanted. Great food for a great deal! The plate is sure a lot bigger than it looks when you're making your selections for sure. After people ate in the banquet room, the tables were rolled up and the lights dimmed as the room became a dance floor. For people preferring conversation, the dining room was available and coolerheads mingled back and forth between the two.

Mom provided the annual Cooler Crew button, while Lil'man's son provided the DJ services for the evening. Clue Master organized the two park pick pool boards, each worth $125. Thanks go to Allison Wonderland for organizing the whole event! Everyone is looking forward to reprising the location next year!

Follow the hunt on our 2013 treasure hunt page.

January 16, 2010 -- Obb's Bar, St. Paul, MN

Tonight marked the 12th annual Cooler Crew Pre-Dig Gig. Over the course of the evening, we figure some 125 people or more came through the room. There were lots of old faces, and plenty of new ones joining in the fun!

As in the past several years, Clue Master ran the park pick pool. This year the pool was a little different. Everyone involved selected the order that they would be picking, but rather than have a single board, Cluey put together a pair of picks. One entry got you one pick on one of the boards. There was a lot of interest outside St. Paul proper this year.

Mom and Dad had the annual Cooler Crew button, which can be seen in the Pre-Dig gig announcement. Having a Cooler Crew button gets you 1/2 off appetizers and $1 off bar drinks at Yarusso's during the hunt. If you don't have one, find Ares at the PP, Yarusso's or contact him on Ableminds (or this site, or Facebook) to get one.

Lil'Man hooked us up with all the music we could stand, all night long, from the DJ booth, while lilslim brought in the karaoke laptop and enabled folks to hook us up with all the music we couldn't stand scattered throughout the evening. Not surprisingly, the karaoke booth grew more popular as the night progressed, as people "worked up the courage" to sing. Wicked Nick and Cereal Killer provided us with a rendition of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler", and we were treated to a wonderful performance of the now viral "Pants on the Ground" from American Idol.

On a more personal note, we had a moment of silence honoring Zephy and all the other troops serving overseas, putting their lives on the line for us, as well as a moment of silence and a collection taken up for Mystical_muzik, after losing her husband Mark. We raised over $400 for the cause, and Jimmy from Obb's kicked in another $1,000!

All in all, a great way to kick off a great two-week tradition!

Coolerheads will prevail!!!

January 17, 2009
Obb's Sports Bar and Grill
Saint Paul

We've made it. Ten years ago, give or take a few days, we held the very first Cooler Crew Pre-Dig Gig at McGovern's. Tonight, we held the eleventh annual Pre-Dig Gig at Obb's. Over the course of the evening, somewhere between 150 and 200 people came through the doors.

Originally planned for Matty B's, the party was moved on the last minute to Obb's, who were more than accomodating. With the Pioneer Press publishing the first clue online and in the early Sunday edition of the newspaper, being downtown isn't really necessary anymore, since we all have the clue going in and don't need to go to the paper to get it.

As usual, Mom and Dad had the annual Cooler Crew buttons; there were plenty of them left over. If you didn't get one and still want one, contact me2. Lilman provided the evening's entertainment from his DJ booth, and there was even a little karaoke going on. For the last several years, Clue Master has orgainzed a park pick pool, and with a $155 total prize for the winner, this year was no exception.

One of the best parts of every pre-dig and every rehash bash, apart from catching up with old friends who we may not otherwise see during the year, is seeing all of the new faces in the crowd. Some of them are long-time lurkers on the boards coming for the first time to hang out. Others are folks who hear about the party and come on in. Despite where any of us comes from, or how we got here, we all share a passion for the hunt.

This year's pre-dig brought a special guest. Kat invited the Winter Carnival President and CEO, Beth Pinkney to the event. As it turns out, we've been relatively unknown to them, almost to the point of being a well-kept secret. Having been involved with getting access to the Carnival royal family in the past, and the difficulties associated with it, it was really good to see Carnival staff come out and mingle with the community that makes the Carnival the success that it is.

As many of you are aware, Clue Master is in the hospital, with surgery scheduled for Friday, 8/8/08 (hey, crazy eights. Gotta be a lucky day) to replace a heart valve.

For the $0.25 version of what's happened, last Wednesday he was in so much back pain he couldn't get out of bed. He went in to Woodwinds on Thursday where they did a full-body image set of him, and discovered something "fuzzy" in his bone marrow. Initially this was diagnosed as Leukemia, but the oncologist later corrected it saying that the rest of the symptoms weren't consistent with the GP's diagnosis; bone marrow tests would be required. After some more work, they determined he has a bacterial infection that's settled in his bone marrow, lungs, and heart.

The infection resulted from a previously undiagnosed prolapse heart valve, combined with dental work 6 months ago. The result is that the infection has eaten away at the valve to the point where he needs it replaced.

For updates, check out CM's family's web site. To send your well-wishes, check out the thread at AbleMinds. He's in there a lot from the hospital and responding to posts.