Scav-end "Rememberies"

Though Scav Hunt is now over, its legacy remains (as see above). Now that certain periods of "the urge" (in the They'll Do It Every Time sense) have passed, I feel I can comment on the various ridicu-awesome things that I had the privilege to judge in the past few days. First: The Fourth Quadriennial Scav Hunt Light Tackle Lil' Wobbler Round-Up. Up at 5 AM on Friday, at the Point by 5:30, just in time for dawn to break. Only three competitors showed up: a team of two (Bruce and Nolan) from Snell-Hitchcock, and a guy (Tom) from Max Palevsky. The former had an actual rod and tackle, while the latter brought a stick with a nail hammered into it, a circa-1960s film reel entitled "The World of the Molecule" scavenged from Searle used as the reel, and a Red Stripe bottlecap as the lure. Because this set-up lacked any real casting mechanism, Tom had to just twirl the lure around, bolas-style, toss it into the water, and then manually troll it in. He did this for hours on end, which earned my deep and serious respect, especially when he ran out of bait (which was only a dead leech from the slomming item) and tried to use a broken vodka bottle to catch tadpoles in the water. Mad respect also to Bruce and Nolan for actually catching fish, including a nice big gizzard shad, and the random guy from F.I.S.T. who showed up not to compete, but just to watch fishing occur, because apparently the dude loves fish. I can sympathize. Altogether, this was easily one of my favorite events of the fourdays, especially because it was so different in tone from most of the Scav shenanigans--just a nice, quiet start to the day, sitting around with a few guys and chatting it up for a few hours.

Another relatively low-key event that I had a great time at: ScavenFeast 2007. There was a ton of incredibly delicious food to be had there, all of which was enjoyed. My personal fave raves would have to be the algae-Provençal bread and cranberry sand dollar cake from Broadview, the bacon-date skewers from F.I.S.T., the dark matter-based whisky cake from Snell-Hitchcock, and the spiced Swedish meatballs from BJ. As for individual items, the one that consistently gave me the most joy to judge would have to be the Simpsons clown bed (again, see above). I just never got tired of seeing that horrific harlequin given physical form and properly intoning, "If you should die before you waaaaaake...HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Even better was the fact that during the Saturday night HQ visits, I saw a number of these beds occupied by overtaxed Scavvies in need of a crash-spot, heedless of the menace posed by this clown, which will eat you. God, I love you guys.