Half-Mind Weblog

Citizen 69 and I just returned from scouting trail for the Feb 21st Pedalfiles bash.  We’re starting and ending at a favorite bash hangout, with a beer check at a pub we haven’t been to before (it has outdoor seating so we can keep an eye on our bikes, something hares should factor in when planning bash trails).  Also good: half the approximately 12-mile trail is on bike-friendly streets we haven’t bashed before.  Should be a lot of fun.  Now to figure out where to lay convincing bad trails and checkbacks.

I was nervous about riding this morning because for the past two days a nasty chest cough has been brewing.  I felt okay this morning, though, so off we went.  By the time Citizen 69 and I got to the planned beer check, full-fledged laryngitis had set in, and now I’m home sorting through leftover medications from previous colds and sore throats.  I have two weeks to recover.  There’s a PISS hash next Sunday (Valentine’s day), and thank G I’m not the hare because I know I’ll be in the thick of it then.  You know who I feel sorry for?  Anyone haring in Virginia this weekend!

On the magazine front, to veer wildly off subject, I’m no longer contributing to Asia-Pacific Harrier.  The publisher will probably poach event calendar information from this blog, but that’s okay because it’s public information in the first place and all I do is compile it.  But no articles, rants, interviews, etc.  I’ve been arguing with the guy about his business model — making money off advertising & subscriptions but sharing none of it with his contributors — but I kept thinking I’d be able to talk him around. Then last week I reneged on a promise to my wife and I realized that he’ll never change, so I’m done.  He’ll find other dupes to give him free content.  There, I feel better for getting that off my chest.

- Flying Booger drives a hard bargain.

Looks like we need some (rumor control, that is).  Got this today from an Indonesian hasher:

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:16:33 +0800
Subject: Fwd: Interhash OC step down
From: XXXXXXX
To: XXXXXXX

Check up the  Kuching interhash web site, Interhash Oc
Charlie was overthrown at Hornbill hash EGM on 1st Feb
2010. Interhash bank account must be Frozen if State
Goverment didnt involve.

Good Luck to all

Rumors about dissatisfaction with the InterHash organizing chairman abound, so I assume this was inevitable.  The bit about the bank account is worrisome, if true, which is why I’m passing this on.

The message hints that more news may be posted in the IH2010 website, but as of this morning, there’s nothing new there.

I’m sure thousands are registered for IH2010 and going no matter what, and that — as always — they will have a great time, but you can expect a lot of rumor and speculation over the next couple of weeks, and I suppose I’m not helping much by putting this out.  But hey, an informed hasher is a happy hasher, I always say.

Keep an eye on hash-l and the Hashspace forums for more information.

Note from Flying Booger: Minneapolis hasher Pooper Scooper sent this as a comment to a previous post, but I think it’s worth posting right out where everyone will see it (everyone who reads this blog, that is . . . all eight of you).  PS raises an interesting point, one that dovetails with some of my earlier musings about a popular hash motto.  Maybe we don’t “own” the phrases PS mentions, but maybe we should do something to head off someone else “owning” them . . . and then trying to charge us for using them.

Booger:

I remember a blog a while back regarding your establishment and nurturing of half-mind.com, and how you eventually turned its operation over to others committed to furthering the goals of the hash. You added that you spoke to a hasher who “hoped you made a lot of money” off the site before turning it over. You explained that that hasher was missing the point of all your work on half-mind.com, which was to further the enjoyment of hashing for all hashers with no expectation of cashing in on it.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. The New Orleans Times-Picayune is reporting that the National Football League is claiming to have trademarked the phrase “WHO DAT!” I remember hearing that phrase from New Orleans Saints fans as far back as the late ’80s and as far as I know, it had no origin with the NFL’s marketers. The NFL, ravenous in its desire for new revenue streams, hopes to to cash in on a phrase that grew out of the enthusiasm of the Saints’ legions of fans.

That got me thinking; as far as I know, the phrase “On-On” isn’t trademarked or copyrighted. Nor is “Hash House Harriers,” or “HHH.” We’ve read about cyber-squatters ransoming domain names to corporations and businesses for a quick profit. What’s to stop some shady character from attempting the same with the hash?

Pooper Scooper

Major Update’s been listening to hashers from near and distant points on the globe, and let me tell you, his ears are burning with new hash event announcements!

As always, the good major is passing the latest information along to you.  Red dress runs, green dress runs, weekend hashes and bashes, interhashes, prelewds and postlubes . . . they’re all here on the Half-Mind Calendar.

Hash road-trippers, to start planning your next trip, just click on the button labeled “Half-Mind Events,” study the calendar, and go forth into the wonderful world of hashing.

If, in your travels, you become aware of hash events that are not listed on the Half-Mind Calendar, please click on the button labeled “Submit Events” and let the major know about them.  On On!

Subtitle: Booger & Master Meat Finder Fall Down & Go Boom.

• Hare & co-hare: Flying Booger & Master Meat Finder
• Pack: Asshole in El Paso, Wankers Away & Hot Legs, Half Hash, Redheaded Woodpecker

Click on any photo to enlarge:

Card Check, Amado

Beer Check, Arivaca

On-Afters, Green Valley

Triples today: my third trail for Harriers H3MC; start at the Triple T Truck Stop in Tucson; end at the Triple Play Sports Pub in Green Valley. We made this one a poker run, but the cards were garbage. Fortunately, the mash (motorcycle hash) was anything but.

The thermometer read 32°F when I opened the garage door this morning, but I wanted to get to the Triple T and squeeze in a quick breakfast and cup of coffee before our scheduled 9:00am start, so I turned on the handgrip heaters and kept a sharp eye out for ice on the overpasses as I rode. The pack began drifting in a few minutes after I got there. Everyone was well chilled. But hey, the sun was up and it was only going to get warmer, so we bundled up again and headed for the bikes.

Master Meat Finder rode with me and was designated dealer. Every rider got a card at the Triple T parking lot, than another at each stop: a gas station in Green Valley, a restaurant parking lot in Amado, an old-time bar in Arivaca (which also served as a beer check), and the Triple Play back in Green Valley (circle & on-afters).

Trail was almost exactly 100 miles. The best parts of the trail were the beautiful weather, the 25-mile stretch of twisty road between Amado and Arivaca (which we liked so much we rode it twice), and, last but not least, the on-trail entertainment: MMF and I going down on our asses when I forgot to put the kickstand down during a roadside regroup. Bike and riders are okay but embarrassed. Sorry, no photos of that little incident!

Because of that, Harriers MCH3 has two new awards: the Hashshit and the Faceplant. I won the Hashshit, and MMF and I shared the Faceplant. It’ll probably be a while before MMF volunteers to ride on my back seat again!

Next Harriers MCH3 mash: Feb 28. Will it be even colder? Show up & find out!

When I first began publishing lists of hash events and contacts in 1993, I came into contact with the other hash publishers of the day: Tim “Magic” Hughes in Thailand (Harrier International), Spock and Stray Dog in the States (InterHashional News and Global Trash), and Sea Xplanation in Denmark (Hash Events on a List).

Of the various newsletters and magazines, the one that came to be closest to my heart (probably because it was closest to what I was doing myself with my Whole Hash Catalog) was InterHashional News, started in 1991 by a Florida hasher named Patchwork-Quilt, who was also the father of InterAmericas Hash, a major regional interhash that has met every other year since 1984.

It was my great pleasure to interview Patchwork-Quilt during InterAmericas Hash 2009 in Colorado.  Yes, he still attends every one, and you can meet him yourself at IAH 2011 in Savannah, Georgia.

Born Giles D.B. Paget-Wilkes in Bath, England, Patchwork-Quilt now lives in Tangerine, Florida, where he hashes with Mosquito County H3 and Florida Hill Country H3.  He’s been hashing for more than 30 years, and during that time has served the hash as GM, RA, and Beermaster.  In addition to founding InterAmericas Hash, Patchwork-Quilt also founded the Ben Hill H3 in Georgia, Panama City H3 in Panama, Mosquito County H3 in Florida, Algiers H3 in Algeria, Palm Beach Bikeo Psychos in Florida, and midwifed the founding of two other Central American kennels.

I asked Patchwork-Quilt about the basic hash traditions he grew up with.  His answers:

• Mixed kennels
• Live hare
• A-to-B trails
• Singing

On-On to the interview:

When & where was your first hash?

San Jose H3, Costa Rica.

How did you find the hash, or did the hash find you?

A wandering Englishman selling cheese turned up at my ranch one day in Belize, Central America and told me all about it over a beer so I visited the San Jose H3 and have been hashing ever since!

Did you have a hashing mentor? Who?

Bill “Bambi” Barbee of San Jose H3.

When & where was your first away hash?

Traveled all over Latin America for many years, hashed at every opportunity.

Where have you hashed?

Four continents so far!

Are there places you haven’t hashed but would like to?

Australia.

Do you have any favorite haring techniques?

Shiggy terrain.

What is the most dangerous trail you’ve done?

As the hare, laying trail with spray paint, ran into Manuel Noriega’s Presidential Guard in Panama City and had to explain in Spanish that I was not spraying “anti Noriega” graffiti, before the pack caught up with me!

What has been your most remarkable hashing experience?

Haring a “real” April Fools Hash: arranged with the hare of another hash in the same city to lay trail in the same area as me, using different coloured flour we met in the middle and switched flour bags AND complete packs without any of them knowing until they arrived at the “wrong” beer truck ! We switched everyone back at a joint “on after.”

Has hashing affected your personal or professional life (for good or ill)?

Have lost one wife and one business so far, partly due to my Hashing habit!

Do you tell everyone you meet about the hash, or only people you think might become good hashers?

Used to tell everyone, now I am a little more selective.

What do you think you’ve contributed to hashing?

The main Interhash in the Americas , which got hashers all networking back in ’84 long before everyone had a computer, now it is so easy!

Did you enjoy reading this Half-Mind Interview? Click here for more!

Two more from my recent weekend in El Paso (click for larger):

FB lost on trail

Hashers & gators

Another hash T-shirt quilt done, this one for our friend Upchuck from the Las Vegas H3 . . . Pick’n'Flick worked on it for a year, off and on during gaps between her work on Zippity Doo’s quilt and her many embroidery projects. Click on the images to enlarge:

Labels even? Damn.

Upchuck & Pick'n'Flick

Such talent I live with. Oy!