Slide Show: Canlis Clue Review Part I!
Clue 1: Squash a Beetle in your hand.
Location: Behind the VW tire held by the troll statue underneath the Aurora Bridge in Fremont.
This was the opening clue. Pretty easy, but a good test run to see if anyone would show. Did they ever.
Photo courtesy Kelly Cline
Clue 2: It’s Time to open a restaurant. (Included a photo of vintage Time Mag from date of restaurant opening, December 11, 1950.)
Location: Menu was hidden in the stacks of the Central Library, in the Time Magazine archives.
KOMO did a short news piece on the contest, which includes a video clip of the brothers hiding the menu in the stacks.
Clue 3: Miss Myrtle…why didst thou shun me?
Location: At Gas Works Park, originally named Myrtle Edwards Park until she withdrew her name from it in 1972.
This clue was the first indication of red herrings to come. Menu seekers swarmed to the current Myrtle Edwards park, while the thorough researchers headed to Gas Works. The Canlis brothers and staff watched all from their telescope in the restaurant, delighted at the tiny folk running through the park. The menu was found in the kid’s play barn.
Clue 4: Six stars and a red bikini: when is the moon a mile away?
Location: The Blue Moon Tavern in Wallingford.
Under old liquor laws, taverns had to be one mile from campus, and the Blue Moon is exactly one mile from the University of Washington. The stars and bikini are on the tavern’s sign. The lucky winner posted on Facebook after he found it under an air vent, which led another menu hunter to offer to go with him when he redeemed his prize at Canlis. The winner’s girlfriend quickly chimed in, saying the dinner (and her boyfriend) were spoken for. Truly social media.
Clue 5: 605×138=62
Location: Space Needle, hidden in one of the columns.
An early morning clue: 605 feet is the height of the Space Needle, 138 feet is the width, and 62 is for 1962, the year of the World’s Fair.
Mark Canlis arrived at the needle early; he says the place was empty, until people started swarming out of the fog “like zombies.” The menu was stuck to one of the column bases at the foot of the needle.
Clue 6: I’m enjoying a cup of coffee with Howard Schultz at Starbucks. First person to find us and say hi wins the menu.
Location: Inside the East Olive Way Starbucks.
Lots of folks headed to the original Starbucks at Pike Place Market, some went to the one in the SODO headquarters. Winner Leo Shkovskii was the first to get to Olive Way—and he got his picture posted with Canlis and Schultz.
His own post reads: “What they don’t show in that photo is my knees shaking….”
Clue 7: C:/Burgers>
Location: Burgermaster in Bellevue
This is one of the Canlis brothers’ favorites clues. The commands in DOS are a reference to Microsoft, where DOS was invented. The original Microsoft building was across the street from Burgermaster. This clue also reminded the Canlises why they had to be at the site of at each menu: seconds after Mark hid the Burgermaster menu, a lady walked up and grabbed it unknowingly. He waved her off and waited for a frantic searcher to come find it, which happened soon after.
Clue 8: Is the cup half empty or half full? At 15,300 ft, a little water makes all the difference.
Location: At the Hiram Chittenden Locks.
This one had a great red herring. A Google search reveals that Mount Fairweather in Alaska is exactly 15,300 feet. Seattle has a Fairweather Park, to which menu seekers flocked. Tough luck: 15,300 is also the distance between Lake Union and the Locks. This is the only clue so far to require a hint. A second tweet from Canlis came out saying “A Little Water = Tenas Chuck”. That’s the original name of Lake Union in the Chinook language. The winner drove 40 minutes from Lynnwood on her lunch break, and drove home victorious.
Clue 9: T.U-Dub
Location: At the Fairmont Hotel in Downtown: the original location of UW when it was called Territorial University.
The winner here was rummaging around the bushes of the Fairmont, sure he was in the wrong spot as there was no one else around. He also kept checking on Twitter the whole time—he noticed that someone tweeted that they had found it, presumably to distract others.
“I decided to look one last time in the bushes before I gave up. All the while I was checking Twitter to see if anyone else had found it. I was still checking the bushes when someone said that they had found the menu. At that moment Brian ran out of the Fairmont and I knew that I was in the right spot, and that someone was just lying about finding the menu. I continued my third circuit of the bushes and finally found the menu, which had rolled under the light shining on the sign in the front. Victory was mine and Brian congratulated me.”
Clue 10: Where ash once swung, pine now rests.
Location: At Lowe’s on Rainier Ave, the historic site of Sick’s Stadium, home to the Seattle Rainiers, a defunct minor league baseball team founded in 1903.
So many almost-wons here. People were swarming out of cars trying to find this one. What really starts coming out at this stage of the contest, say the Canlis brothers, is the fun people are having. While competition is stiff, players say, it’s also friendly. For now.
