No good deed goes unpunished and boy don’t I know that. Back in the salad days of 2003, I defended Winter Carnival treasure hunters who were banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out some of the worst clues ever written for the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt. I mean they were bad, lacy and literary and obtuse and full of pretense and, oh, never mind.
I went to bat for the great unwashed and what did it get me? It didn’t get me anything. It earned me the suspicion, based on what, I have no idea, that because I ripped the clues I must have been pre-emptively heading off any major civic unrest. Back in 2003, remember, there was a great stirring of the masses and for all I know the snowmobile-suited hunters might have marched downtown with lit torches.
“L’Etoile du Nord? L’Etoile du Nord?” they might have chanted.
There was a “coldest star” or “star of the north” reference that year but instead of referring to the North Star it referred to some froufrou French immersion school near Como Park. I thought they were going to burn down our building!
In any event, I hear the rumblings have already started this year that I will be up to something dastardly. It would be fun for me to continue denying this if there wasn’t such a devoted faction who cannot be persuaded otherwise.
I do not write the clues. If I wrote them they would make sense. I don’t know who does. Two of my principal candidates recently took a company buyout. Where that leaves the newspaper I do not know. I do know that we have a treasure hunt. It starts Jan. 21.
Now, I admit that I follow the Treasure Hunt. I read the clues and sometimes go to whatever park is getting excavated. And I have written about the Treasure Hunt for years. Maybe that’s it. The public went through a period where they grew so unaccustomed to anybody from the newspaper actually liking the Winter Carnival and cheering it on that maybe they glommed onto the first sap – me – who expressed an interest in the ancient tradition. I think we have seen the light. We’ve been covering it with a proper zest these past few years.
I recently came across a tape of a radio broadcast made in 1940 that featured Boreas Rex VI, Joe Shiely, addressing his constituents on the occasion of his ascension to the throne. It is truly an unbelievable thing to hear.
Let me take my amazements in order:
One, the coronation apparently was on the radio. Live.
Two, Shiely’s speech, urging the town to have fun and carry on and be festive and whatnot, was greeted with a roar, suggesting that thousands of people were present for this message.
Three, Shiely had competing reporters sticking microphones into his face after his remarks. One of the reporters insisted that Shiely speak as himself, that he drop the character for a moment and reflect on what it meant to him to be the king.
And, finally, Shiely himself sounded like a Shakespearean actor, deep and resonant, with that peculiar touch of English accent that seemed so often heard in movies made in the 1930s.
I realize we cannot go back to those days. We live in different times in a different city, not to mention that we happen to be going through a bit of rough sledding here with the weather, or the lack of weather.
I wonder how the clue writer will make do this year. I think those of us of a certain age always imagined this fellow driving around in a snowstorm at 2 a.m. in his 1959 Chevrolet Impala, looking for a snowdrift near a picnic table or a backstop in a city park and then trudging alone through the snow, a dark, cloaked figure, burying the loot.
And then he’d return to the paper, where he pounded out strong and sensible clues that made sense because they featured strong and sensible words, like “picnic” and “table” and “backstop.” Those were the days.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 2 to 5:30 p.m. weekdays on KSTP AM 1500.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.
