Live Blogging at the Cenex Eagle Stop

Who says there's nothing sweet for young people to do in Farmington, MO on a Monday night? At 10 pm a crew of Farmington High's finest set out on a treasure hunt for five hidden copies of my novel Cooperative Village placed around the historic downtown district. I thought they would be challenged but these kids are so bright that I may have to amp up the difficulty level if we do it again. One of the boys guessed the first location before he even left the convenience store attached to the gas station where I connect to the internet! Can you? We'll see how long it takes them to get back.Feel free to play along!

Cake from my publication party in May 2007, made by Ron and Ira of Rainbo Cakes in the Essex Market, LES, NYC

Here are the clues the teenagers took with them:


LOCATION #1

Shaken and stirred

or so I've heard

In bags and trays

I sparkle and amaze

Plop me in a drink

Break me in the sink

Spirited, cubed, crushed, and cold

In heat and drought more prized than gold

My location's not a place for teens

Proscribed by law, not your scene

But I daresay future friends of Bill

Will find plenty here for thrill and swill

Seven is the sum of me

Fraternité, egalité, and...!

Where am I?

LOCATION #2

I'm ruined and wrecked

Detached, untrekked

I lead nowhere

Except the air

Up the down

In the center of town

Old architecture

Best be foot-sure

Ascending stones,

A pigeon throne?

No balustrade

Don't be afraid

Author of a declaration

Father to a mixed-raced nation

Where am I?

LOCATION #3

Ionic, gossip, or Doric

Neither doleful nor euphoric

Know me by my flagpole

Buy my wares by the roll-full

While the stuff I seal has no gender

It's a homophonic mind-bender

Missives, bills, ads galore

Part governmental, another part, store

A mix of M O and D C, both

The medium is the message, in fact and in troth

My nickname's initials--a consonant, a vowel

Partial embroidery for Edgar Allen's wash towel

My code is unbuttoned, unsnapped and unzipped

I'm closed July 4th (for the unschooled and unhip)

Where am I?

LOCATION #4

I have my pride

I lied

I'm with my mate

Such is fate

I guard a portal at a store

One that's priced-out for the poor

I like the movies, MGM

Tin Man and Toto, Aunty Em

Considered regal, it's probably best

If I don't appear in your family crest

I stay near a flowery bower

Lie supine hour after hour

Long and lean, carved from ebony stone

I'm décor for eternity, but not alone

Where am I?

LOCATION #5

In me are vertebrae and blades

On me goods, store bought, home made

I'm the wilderness in Australia

Hurray, olé, hallelujah!

I'm painted al fresco

C'mon, let's go!

I'm serious and bespectacled

Look closely and I'm freckled

Talk me offa the ledge

My persona's right on the edge

Guthrie, Dylan, Segovia

Nylon, steel, nickel--yah!

The love you take

is equal to the love you...

Where Am I?

This in from Steve Hull while we wait for the kids to get back:

They're back for some hints! They got 3 out of 5 in under an hour. These kids are so amazing! And here they are:

Gordon Chamberlain, Erin Roberts, Catherine Gracie Minnis, Sydney Rodgers and Christian Wooddell (and Baron Gogol in the background whose great-great grandfather was Russian literature heavyweight Nikolai Gogol!)

 

 

 

 

They're back out to retrieve the last two! Didn't take long at all. And now for the answers.

Atop the ice machine at 214 Liquor

Location #2

The weird staircase to nowhere at Jefferson and Second.

Location #3

Behind the columns at the Farmington Post Office

Location #4

Behind the lions at Botaniques

Location #5

Behind Music Makers

 

 

 Yay Gracie, Erin, Christian, Sydney and Gordon! Christian's off to Norway, but the rest of the crew will be back for more Farmingtonian hijinks very soon.