2002 Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt

In terms of what's definitely being given away, it's the usual. We get the basic intro that keeps people from digging up Powderhorn, Loring, and Theodore Wirth. It's a St. Paul thing, folks. The pacing and tone of the clue is different than in past years, which could indicate a new writer. As a stand-alone rhyme, it's actually quite good.

A knitted hat jumps to mind, but the official take on the clue is a description of the "hilly contours of the park." Lame.

One clever theory had us looking at "time and tide" as detergents, turning "time" into Era to match Tide. That's fun. But this was just a simple location clue, pointing out that the hiding spot was down from a popular sliding hill. The notion of "woods" in Merriam Park is laughable compared to a Como or Cherokee, but it was thrown in for good measure to rhyme with "goods." How 'bout hoods or neighborhoods? Or better yet, something with more rhyming options?

We thought baseball. From a foul tip to staying fair, it seemed to fit. Throw in Mark Michalski's fun fact that Willie Mays was known as the "Say Hey Kid" and there's plenty of diamond for our rough search. We also knew that our wandering eyes should probably be looking for radio towers as the most likely clue, as towers are in the air and radio is on the air. Turns out that the tower is all that was supposed to be given away here. Clue writers: give us more credit. We're an intelligent lot and we want to have fun with your clues. If history is any indication, someone is going to accidentally find it anyway, so why not amuse us noodle monkeys to keep us rabid year in and year out?

I give the clue writers credit for coming up with new ways to remind us that amusement areas for children are just about always present in parks. That clue pops up every year, bringing shovels around playground equipment, when this is often just a sight line clue. Also, it is assumed that you can "see" the medallion from both street and lot parking. The "park n rec" portion of this clue is helpful, too. Few St. Paul parks are also listed in maps as recreation centers (or playgrounds). You've got your Como, Langford, and Newell (parks) along with your North Dale, Hazel Park, and Oxford (rec centers). The Rand McNally map officially lists Merriam as a Park & Rec Area.

The "diamond in the rough" is the baseball clue we found on our own earlier. The clue writers should be forced to eat oak leaves for boasting that they "devised ways to make it tough." This was the last clue published when the medallion was found.

This clue has some meat to it and likely would've brought more snoopers to Merriam.

Even the clue writers knew this was silly. Weddings involve marriage from which we're supposed to get "marry 'em" for Merriam. Silly is alright, because silly is fun.

Following up clever-silly with the insanely random. All focus is on "x" but we're supposed to be looking at "mark" for St. Mark's Catholic Church, which is visible to the south.

This clue is one of the most impressive of 2002, as it doesn't insult the noggin'. It's a word play on "worth wads" to give us Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A nearby school is named after him. The use of "puck" to indicate a nearby hockey rink is a throwaway. Because nothing from the Pioneer Press explanations ever gave away the lid of a tortilla chip can liner (Pringles?), we'll call that our item clue. They're kind of puckish. But going back to Longfellow—now that's solid.



This is as good a place as any to share something from Robert J. Lenhardt, who after Clue 3 delivered this nugget to the webmaster's e-mail inbox: "'Time and tide' made me think of some quote; I found one from Macbeth ('time and tide stay for no man') but don't know how it would fit as to giving us a clue about the park or a street name. Someone else found a Longfellow quote that said something like man sitting around 'waiting for time and tide'. Anyway, if the clue writer got that from Longfellow, we find it impressive to have clue 3 give away such a small park.

"More wild" gives us Wilder Street and you get 13 from 9 + 4 (or Interstate 94). A reminder of sliding hills (for the third time in 11 clues?) is followed by a count-up of a long, wooden stairway at the park's entrance. Overall, this is the kind of clue that should get the masses scrambling. Nicely done. Too bad that this and the next wonderful clue were completely wasted.

It may be worth a riffle through the clues of yore, but it is believed that this is the first time dead squirrels have made an appearance in a treasure hunt clue. Fantastic stuff. If it had made it this far and the snow still hadn't dumped the field, Merriam would have been a giant mud pit befitting a tractor pull with second base serving as center sty for the big hogs to bump snouts in search of the magic blue truffle.