Welcome to the almost-twentieth Treasure Hunt. Please make yourself comfortable, wait for the
Hunt to start, and introduce yourself to new-found solving partners.
All puzzles in this year 1900 Hunt are guaranteed to be Y2K compliant. This means that you will
be able to solve them by the end of the year. However, some puzzles may have been composed
using software which was not Y2K compliant. Therefore, you may need to mentally slip centuries
to solve them.
Although most of the puzzles will lead you around the interior of Shari and Dave's house, some
will take you outdoors. In any event, the use of brute force to find clues, bypassing actual solving
of puzzles, remains forbidden.
As you solve the first couple of puzzles, the solving community will be split into teams (formerly
known as groups but still not competitive), identified by colors. Most solving will take place
within your team, but there are several puzzles involving inter-team communication of various
forms. Adopting a suggestion from Andy, the teams will be combined and rearranged at the
dinner break.
There are several first-time hunters here. Please be nice to them (as well as to the experienced
hunters, of course) and take part in making sure everyone has a good time.
The Hunt involves a take-out food order. When that arrives, you may wish to take a break and
have dinner. Many of you have brought food for dinner and Paul will help you get your dishes
organized. Yum!
Smoking is permitted only in designated areas; no areas have been so designated.
Most years, the phone call, delivery, stray cat, or other visitation from a non-Hunter would have led to the initial crossword puzzle. This year, you'll have to find the first puzzle based on a clue hidden within this introduction.