The Matterhorn

Clue #2
Posted: Monday, Jan. 22, 2007

Boreas’ vast realm can overwhelm
Even diggers used to the long haul
So here’s advice to put your hunt on ice:
Look no farther than good old St. Paul

Well this analysis comes a little late (page updated after clue 3!) but it’s early, I’d been working for 12 hours, and I thought I’d get the site’s neat tag system functioning especially for this hunt before I start trying to think about what I should write. On the right column and at the bottom you’ll see “tags”. Tags are the newfangled way of indexing articles on the Internet, if you haven’t seen them yet, and apart from some of the features which I may tone down a bit, like the resized/colored text, it’s a really neat idea. Take this next lnk:

http://www.matthewanderson.com/tag/medallion-hunt-2007

You can bookmark the above link and any posts I make which I ‘tag’ appropriately will be listed when you visit it. However, http://www.matthewanderson.com/tag/medallion-hunt will catch all posts involving the medallion hunt (both links would show the same stuff until next year or other non-relevant medallion hunt information surfaces). Tagging improves with use (incentive to keep writing!) so over time it will provide an interesting index where simple ‘categories’ end up massively cluttered and difficult to search.

Enough of that mumbo jumbo. however. On with the hunt!

Boreas’ vast realm can overwhelm

The first reference to the infamous King Boreas, the arch-nemesis of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. His realm is cold. Uncomfortable cold. Too cold for sledding. The intense power of the carnival rallys the Vulcans, which represent the not-cold, and after much merriment, violent drinking, and running around in old costumes, they drive Boreas away in a giant pow-wow. Eventually, in 2 or 3 months, the cold leaves with him, which is fortunate for most local folk since by April we’re all going quite mad and would enjoy a nice nap out in a hammock. The End.

I’m always on the lookout for anagrams, acronyms, and other word/letter mechanics. Overwhelm is a decent target for such a thing. Noted. Additionally Boreas’ realm may hint at the location of winter carnival festivities, though that’s a stretch since Harriet Island is off limits for the hunt. If this were the case, however, that would include Cherokee Park but I wouldn’t think so myself.

plausible info: park

Even diggers used to the long haul

“Long haul” could suggest people who have been traditionally searching in borderline territory such as Battle Creek, bad territory such as the state fairgrounds, or off the map in Duluth should calm their nerves with the following bulletin.

Usefully, “long haul” could refer to the distance from parking facilities, the general violence of the terrain, and so on. If future information suggests I might try to permute stuff out of the term “long haul” and look for relevant ideas. That will have to wait until a few clues come out that I can cook together.

plausible info: orienteering

So here’s advice to put your hunt on ice:

Yow! The first bold statement of the hunt– “on ice“. This line is weighed heavily, perhaps the most important of all iterpreted information so far. The reason I say this is because there are many different ways to communicate “here’s some information,” perhaps more options than all other statements so far. When general declarations like this are made it’s important for me to think at length about what additional information it’s providing because more often than not it is directly connected to the hunt.

The obvious ideas in this line can reference the container, and the terrain, but I’m going to come right out and tell you with high confidence it’s likely not on a frozen body of water. It’s one of my key tricks, called The lowest common denominator, which I’ll write an entire article on within the week.

plausible info: container, terrain

Look no farther than good old St. Paul

Good old St. Paul! Finally, after a full day of the idea that it might be somewhere else, it’s been confirmed: St. Paul. Again... and probably for the rest of eternity due to the increasing publicity the city receives over the event. I doubt they’d release the laurels even in part to another community. This is perhaps the most fun St. Paul has the entire year! Good, clean, fun!

[crickets make noise here]

Wait, old St. Paul? :)

plausible info: region

In a format that I’ll hopefully keep on you can see what I personally boil the clues down to providing upon my cursory analysis. I may speak with finality but I assure you that if I were truly closed minded I’d never leave my first park. As the hunt matures I’ll follow up in commentary with additional pieces of candy for you to munch on.