Date: 9 Feb 1982 1624-CST From: Clive Dawson Subject: More on St. Valentine's Day Massacre To: cube-lovers at MIT-MC Several people have inquired about this further, so I thought I'd go ahead and send more info to the group... Write to: St. Valentine's Day Massacre P.O. Box 53 La Canada, CA 91011 Since time is short, you may want to give them a call between noon and 3PM PST at (213)790-4937. Deadline for entering is Feb. 14. For $24, they will send you the Rand McNally Road Atlas, and a 50-page booklet with all of the rules, course instructions, questions, and answer sheet. Here's a sample of what it's like: 1. Begin the 1982 St. Valentine's Day Massacre at the interchange north of the Golden Gate Bridge (NC-19 on page 11), where you find two cars from which to choose your first Massacre conveyance: a 1960 Falcon and a 1930 L-29 cabriolet. Hmmm: Ford or Cord. Ponder the selection for something under a second, then hop in and head south on state highway. Q1. How many "San Gregorio"s do you see? a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 2. Left on 152 Q2. How many of these do you see? Bell Bells a) 0 d)3 Bell's Station b) 1 e)4 "Bells Station" c) 2 3. South onto 33. Q3. Do you see Devils Den? a) yes b) no 4. Left on 58 Q4. How many of these do you pass? Calloway Oak a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 5. South on 99 6. Southeast on Intersate 5 Q5. Which of these do you see first? a) Los Angeles b) Burbank c) Gorman - - - - - - - - By the time you start answering these questions, you will have read through the 6 pages of rules which spell out VERY PRECISELY just what it means to "see" something (be within 1/4 inch of it on the map), the difference between going ONTO a highway and ON a highway, and the difference between "Bell" and Bell. The course following rules can be very tricky, telling you when to try to stay on a given road, when you can turn, when you can switch maps, when to start and stop consideration of a given question, etc. Later in the course you will be given various puzzles (visit all 6 National Monuments in 4 Arizona counties by travelling only on U.S. and state highways with no U-turns, for example.) At one point you actually travel by balloon at 120,000 feet--this turns out to be about 1 inch above the paper for purposes of "see"! The instructions are filled with various tricks and traps which will take you miles off course if you're not careful. But they are also cleverly constructed to eventually get you back on the right track again so that you don't realize your mistakes. One of their favorite tricks is exemplified by Question 5 above: you're tempted to say Gorman since it is north of L.A., until you realize that you see Los Angeles COUNTY first! They give you plenty of help on the first leg so that you get an idea of what it's all about. You can stop after 4 legs and compete for the Class C trophies, or else go onto legs 5-7 to try for a Class B trophy as well as one for Class C. Legs 8 and 9 are for the Class A trophies, and are the hardest of all. I've entered a couple of similar contests put on by the same people (The Great Maltese Circumglobal Trophy Dash) and even though they're a little slow with scoring and sending results, I've found them to be very fair and reasonable. As soon as the contest deadline passes, they will send you an answer booklet with a complete explanation of the entire course and reasons for each answer. You then have the right to challenge their reasoning if you disagree with an answer. If they agree with your challenge, they will eliminate that question from the scoring. After the protest period ends, they do the final scoring, sending out a complete list of scores for all participants as well as trophies. The top 10% in each class all get something, which gets progressively fancier for the higher percentiles and classes. Depending on how careful you are, you can expect to spend anywhere between 30 and 100 hours if you complete the whole course. Personally I find the entry fee a little high, but considering the free road atlas and the number of hours of tortu...er, entertainment, I guess it's worth it! If you have any other questions, let me know. --Clive ------- -------