I came up with the idea of hiding
Phil in a beer case during the exciting hunt in 2006,
when I looked up (I was sitting in the back, near the
pinball machine) and saw the cases in the loft. I was
originally going to use a case of Delirium, dividing the
name into two words, but when I went to the beer store I
found the innocuous white case with the word “Delirium”
stamped on it replaced with a colorful bright pink
elephant and blue case that could potentially catch
someone’s eye. So, I walked around the store and
arrived at either Blue Moon (two great four-letter words)
or Red Stripe. Blue and moon bounced around better and
fit great with beer, case, high and loft. I figured that
at best teams could find it with blue, case and high,
with moon ready in the wings. I also noticed that high
can be spelled with just the 4 key (I had been toying
with the time-to-spell words using cell phone messaging
for awhile), while moon needed only the 6 key (and fit in
well with the Full Moon Rallyes). The last piece was the
fact that you could switch the starting letters in blue
and case to get clue and base – both great sounding
words.
So, here’s how it unfolds:
At the Dark Horse you get the
Letters, Trivia and Out & About 1 sheets. Though it
took a prompt, if you held the Letters sheet upside-down
to a mirror, you saw “ASK ED KOOZIE PRIZE,” so
the first two teams to ask me won Koozies. The sheet was
not needed until you got to Tattooed Moms. Teams also
noticed that the Out & About 1 sheets had a diagonal
edge. As for the Trivia sheet, most teams noticed that
the correct answers spelled CORRECT ANSWERS (one word on
each side) and that there were fold lines that lined up
the letters (C and A, etc.). This would be needed later.
At Tattooed Moms, teams played
Whack-a-Mole, and the winning teams got Phil beads. They
also received Phind-a-Phil and Out & About 2 sheets.
Teams hopefully used Sharpies to find the nine hidden
Phils (somehow a tenth one got left in!), which with the
example gave you 10 dark circles. If you put the Letters
sheet in front of it, the ten circles identified “WORD
IS CLUE.” Also, if you noticed the letters around
the water wheel, they spelled “ASK ED 4 COINS,”
which I gave until I ran out. As for the Out & About
2, it was also diagonal on one side, which matched Out
& About 1.
At Doc Watson’s, teams played
Stomp-A-Spider for more beads. They also placed the two
Out & About’s together to get the message “INSIDE
PW 10TH PINE” – the PW being the logo for
Philadelphia Weekly. When they visited the box at 10th
and Pine Streets, they found the PHIL MOON BLAB inside,
and the first two teams to find it got Phil magnets. In
the Blab was an obtuse crossword puzzle that advised you
to “see Ed for assistance.” If you looked at
me, you saw that the shirt I was wearing had the words
“DIRTY, FRANKS, CASH and ONLY” which were the
answers to the puzzle. In the correct order, the
highlighted word was shot. The first team to buy me a
shot won a souvenir Phil shot glass. There was also a
number to call for a Date, which gave you a hint about
finding the coin prize clue. Teams also got a Woodchuck
Cider coaster (important later), and Out & About 3
and Text Message sheets. When the teams correctly solved
the text message puzzle, they called a phone number which
gave them a clue to the word “HIGH” – you
were told that the WORD IS associated with the number 4
(later identified as on the keypad).
Still with me?
At Dirty Franks, you had the
complete Out & About 3, which instructed you to use
the correct answers to find the correct answer. When
teams used the letter conversion (C = A or R, O = N,
etc.) they got “WORD IS BASE.” At the appointed
time, I texted that the starting point for the water
wheel was the “D” in “MADE,”
referring to the lettering around the coaster. One of the
spokes on the water wheel had an arrow on it. Lining up
the D with that arrow lined up the spokes to spell “DATE
LESS ONE.” This referred to the Date from the Blab,
so if you dialed the number minus one (so 2376, not 2377)
you got the secret message instructing you to go up the
street where the message “SWITCH B AND C” was
located. Switching those you got “BLUE,” “CASE,”
and “HIGH.” At least a few teams were following
this, so I never needed to introduce “MOON”
into the mix. After that I gave out the glasses, shirts
and extra beads to the wonderful participants. Simple,
eh!
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