A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

FOR A GOOD TIME CALL (303) 499-7111: Every year, those in charge of the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt find new ways to perplex the nerds across the Midway in Hyde Park, and this year's list of objects and performances requested was no exception:

• To shave-a da face. To cut-a da hair. Require a grace. Require a flair! Provide one Demon Barber (with glistening friends) and one balloon, to vie for the quickest, closest (but not too close!) shave. Prove yourself worthy to shave-a da Pope!
• Remember when you were in elementary school and you had to make a model of a volcano out of papier-mache and baking soda? Well, do that again. Only really big. There is a limit on the number of points you can win, but there's no limit on how big your volcano can be.
• CJ Minard made a map, a very famous map. Douglas MacArthur organized a campaign, an infamous campaign. Please plot the United States' advance into and retreat from North Korea using Minard's form. You determine how you would like to illustrate the Chinese intervention.
• Get Obama's haircut at Obama's barbershop.
• The Blues Brothers set future Chicagoans up for a major disappointment: since moving here, I have never once seen enormous groups of strangers moved, as if part of a flash mob, to spontaneously burst into elaborately choreographed song-and-dance numbers in iconic locations. Fix that.
• Passed your OWLS? Breezed through your NEWTS? It's time you showed off your skills now that you're in college! Perform one or more of the following: Wingardium Leviosa, Relashio, Engorgio. If you really think you have what it takes to do them all, topping it off with a corporeal Patronus should be a piece of cake. [5 points per spell]
• ScavenFeast 2k8: the penultimate Top Chef challenge. At 7 PM on Saturday, present a mighty repast in eX Libris wherein Judges, team cooks, and some element of captaincy might break bread and satisfy their deepest hungers. Those hungers consisting, of course, of an: I. Appetizer: clearly illustrating utilization of the latest techniques in molecular gastronomy; II. Entree: featuring a Secret Theme Ingredient to be revealed at the Samurai Showdown; and III. Dessert: We all know Baked Alaska is delicious, but so few people are from Alaska it is difficult to ind true kinship with the dish. With that in mind, we would have you prepare Baked [Your Home State], in which you produce a baked dessert you believe best exemplifes your own state. For all dishes, be prepared to explain yourself and certainly bring enough to share.

New for 2008? A lot more of the competition on YouTube, as well as blogs by competitors and the Maroon's staff. Oh, and a single member per team had a pillowcase pulled over his/her head at 3:30 am on Thursday, driven to Midway Airport, and asked to find these objects in Las Vegas.