This Sunday the post is putting on an event that’s a transplant from my hometown, Miami. They can call it the “Post Hunt” if they want but they’re not putting anything past me. This is the TROPIC HUNT, baby, and all the borderline unhinged goofyness that this Dave Barry/Gene Weingarten/Tom Schroder creation always brings with it.

If you want some insight, Tom, Gene, and Dave did an online chat earlier in the week to talk about it, and here’s a snip.

Cube City: The instructions don’t say anything about tools, but answering one of the three video puzzles (almost) requires a calculator, and the final puzzle would benefit from a notepad if not a portable text editor. There’s no way anybody will be able to win without writing down and doodling/calculating/anagramming/whatever, so shouldn’t a well-equipped team bring a thermos full of vodka martinis?

Tom Shroder: No THAT is the kind of thinking that will go far in the Hunt. Keep up the good work.

If you want to read a little about the kookyness that past TROPIC HUNTs have involved and the kind of puzzles teams are faces with, an old cow-orker of mine is a little obsessed a fan and runs a website with a pretty comprehensive archive of past Tropic Hunt details.

My only concern is that this town may not be up to the level of controlled insanity that the Tropic Hunt involves, not to mention the long slog through crappy weather, dangerous streets, dilapidated city buildings and newspaper insanity. Sure, we have killer bus drivers, but the Hunt was invented in Miami during the 80s – you ducked hails of gunfire to solve puzzles then. You bunch of softies? You may not be able to take it. Witness the question asked by one of our locals who clearly wouldn’t have been up for an three hour event in Miami, where Gene’s answer would have been a given.

Arlington, Va.: Dude. What if it rains?

Gene Weingarten: You get wet.

See you at the Tropic Hunt.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs