2013

With the annual arrival of the Winter Carnival buttons, we get our first glimpse of the rules for the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt. Last year, we got a new twist on the clues. One hour prior to the official release time online, the clues were released in a scrambled form. Not that we really needed the unscrambled clue, given our penchant to attach meaning to every single word in every single clue, regardless of how meaningless it may be. This year, in what we can only presume is a response to last year's controversy, where a group of hunters teamed up after someone found the medallion, because the finder didn't have a registered button, and that group was later stripped of their titles, there's an interesting twist on the rules this year. As opposed to past years, where multiple winners (in the event of a group find) are recognized by the Pioneer Press, the Pioneer Press will recognize only one finder, and that one finder must have a properly registered Winter Carnival button. So, fellow Coolerheads, your buttons, whether you like it are not, are no longer for sale. If you want your share of the $5000 bonus for having a registered button, you better be on the lookout for our beloved piece of transparent lucite, because you won't get the 5 grand without it :).

While there's been some criticism of the rule on the Treasure Hunt Facebook Page, mostly about the implementation of the rule, and how tax consequences will be handled (since the burden will be on a sole finder, instead of distributed across the group), the reaction has been generally positive, just because it avoids the sort of ad hoc group forming solely for the purpose of enhancing the prize. What do you think?